HEIDI REBECCA CELESTE KRAAY
  • Home
  • About
  • Work
  • Notes
  • Contact
  • Hire Me

 Notes: A Little Blog Page

Drop In Writing Workshop January 2019

1/12/2019

0 Comments

 

What Fuels You?

PicturePhoto by Juan Fernandez on Unsplash








 
​Happy New Year! At Tuesday's Drop In Writing Workshop, we wrote poems, short stories and essays based on the word “fuel” that we could revise and submit to The Cabin's Writers in the Attic anthology.

Every year, Writers in the Attic is an opportunity for Idaho writers to get their work published, inspired by a theme word. This year, the word is "fuel". Learn more about Writers in the Attic (including submission guidelines) HERE. 
 
First, we wrote in list form, coming up with ideas:
What is everything you think of when you hear the word “fuel”?
List all the words, ideas, images, memories, dreams, characters, stories...
Anything you can think of.
What does “fuel” mean to you? What fuels you? What do you fuel? What is fuel?
Ten ten minutes and get out all the possibilities, warming up your creative brain.
 
Next, we brainstormed as a group.
Let’s share some of the ideas you came up with.
I’ll write them on the board.
When I say “fuel” what comes to mind?
Share ideas you came up with, but you can also build on those, add to them.
Get inspired by the room’s ideas and build some more.
Note – whatever you share is fair game to steal, generously*.
But don’t worry – your interpretation of your idea will still be wholly yours, unique.

*As in -- all artists are thieves, but we take several ideas from many heroes,
put them in the blender as core ingredients and add in our own ideas, 
rather than lifting whole ideas from another artist. 

We came up with a lot of great word/idea associations with fuel as a group, like:

brain chemicals
the open road
molecules
desperation
stress
blood
serotonin
dopamine
rock bottom
phosphogen
acrid
magic
combustible
stinky
dusty

(to name a few)
I like how some don't make literal or cognitive sense to me right away.

Picture
Photo by Matt Hearne on Unsplash
​
Now, how do we turn these ideas into something bigger?
Let’s look at other writers’ use of the word “fuel”.
We’ll stick with poetry, because it’s easier to get variety with short poems.
But you can write a short story, persona essay or something else.
  
Third Poem for the Catastrophe
BY JOYELLE MCSWEENEY
O
melting rainbow that embrace this roof
O
persistent covenant
hangs around
giving us nothing, leaves its muck in the water
expects us to be knocked out by its fine colors
weren’t you nothing too, weren’t you
sea bottom
crunched down into fuel
and when that eggshell roof busts through
mama’s gonna buy you
a rainbow ride for free
an illumination, an inflammation
hyperion flame headdress
dream pins in the fuel
balloons of Koolaid burst down to cool
the sticky baby’s head
plus a credit card a glock a new bible
a princess dress
a mermaid princess dress
so you’ll be twice submerged
or an erased Indian princess
pajama set now go to sleep

Allegiances
BY EMILY BERRY
In the nighttime house I don’t know where you are
My allegiances could change
How can I stop my allegiances from changing?
Morning is a gown put on at midnight, but no one’s coming
I don’t know what your secrets are
You say you have no secrets but I can feel them,
they’re bumps under the blanket
You do not let me in
This mood kept me up all night, like stars in my face,
like the burning fuel of dead stars burning right through my face
So now I have my own secrets
This voyage at nighttime, these burning holes
I can’t take you with me — 
I don’t know who you are
You say it’s me, but I’m dreaming,
I can’t recognize anything except someone else’s song,
which sounds like a kind of siren,
it’s calling me, it puts a light on
Give me three reasons
Oh, you think I test you?
You think I work you too hard?
You think it’s too much to make you master the task
on your blue-black knees at 3 am?

Body Builder
BY CATHY PARK HONG
I can no longer blush. Half-face towards the starchy scape.
Birds limn the spindle trees, their Listerine-hued eyes dart
as they trill mechanical dirges tabulating not again, not
again /  I can no longer blush. The flat arctic sky
boundlessly jogs to another hemisphere / She grows!
Or her pectoral grows or all her pectorals grow / A drop of body
oil the size of a water balloon splooshes down on a man as a graceless
anointing, atomizing into tears / How delicate the sounds are from
her height! Glottal roses wink out of their throats: their voices
tine/ Now I am blushing / Swamp moss draped over the arcades / Oh
she’ll topple. She’s making for the welkin / swamps massage
the plywood foundations of our houses / And speaking of / she shoots
up not like a beanstalk but a city erected quick-time / and speaking
of, I blush blood / Roiling up past 200 ft, dizzy from all that phosphagen / I
be damned where she gits all that nylon, the size of wedding tents!/ She
flexes for her audience / Naugahide. Fuel injection. A sawed-off
shotgun will do you nothing just the rat-a-tat-tat / Rabelaisian
bullhonkies hunker and tinker tents around her / Roiling,
flexing / are louts without a law to bless them / a shadow
overcast / a footstep is a swamp in which gators pop up like whack-
a-mole carnival games / what are they saying? do they marvel?/ I am
hemorrhaging flames! / she aims with her thumb.

After reading these poems aloud, we talked about how they use the word fuel 
And how we might use these poets tactics in what we write.
How many ways do these poets use the word fuel? 
​
A nd also...
What is surprising or interesting about each?
What are the tools, pairings, images, structure they use?
What would you want to steal, generously?
What would you want to do differently?
Picture
Photo by Sara Farshchi on Unsplash

Next, we wrote:
A story, essay, poem, or multiple poems using the word “fuel”

Use your ideas from your first listing. Expand on them.
Add in other ideas, images, from the group brainstorm, and other resources.
Use images and inspiration from the poems,
even if you’re writing fiction/nonfiction.
You can title something using “fuel” and then the body springs from there.
You can use the word in the text as a metaphor, an image, dialogue.
The whole piece could be about fuel. You decide. Write, walk away, come back to it.
After you write a draft, come back and revise it.

We wrote for 25 minutes. 
You can write for as long as you like. 

Do this with a friend, share your work and offer feedback!
Invite others to share what resonates about each share.
And one thing the writer could work on before submitting.
How did that go?

Submission deadline for Idaho Poets is February 4 at noon.

Happy writing and good luck! 
0 Comments

Refresh, Renew, Reflect

1/4/2019

2 Comments

 
Happy New Beginnings, everyone! Here are some of my highlights from last year. I'm very glad to be in 2019, but there were some sweet moments to look back on from 2018, for sure, some that I'd forgotten.

Highlights:
  • Workshopped How to Hide Your Monster in Creede, Colorado, followed by two readings through HBMG Foundation and National Winter Playwrights Retreat
  • My play New Eden was a semi-finalist at Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Center
  • Wrote Slap! A Beaver Tale as a Bown Crossing Library Writer in Residence 
  • Got a staged reading for Slap! at Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT)
  • Mission At Tenth, Volume 7 published (co-editor)
  • Spent a week in Pendleton, Oregon in an artist retreat with my dearest love
  • Saw Hamilton in Portland, OR, thanks to Jason McGrath and Nicole Laeger 
  • Received a grant from Alexa Rose Foundation, giving me paid sabbatical time to write my next full-length play in 2019 (yay this summer!)
  • My poem "there is no control" was published by 208 Fringe
  • Co-wrote, co-devised and performed in small matters: a big project about little things, Migration Theory's second full production 
  • Got lovely new head shots from the multitalented Sarah A Gardner
  • Visited gorgeous British Columbia -- Victoria, Vancouver and Hope -- with my favorite person. We finally used our passports, both of us for the first time!
  • Started three fantastic one-on-one writing mentorships with brilliant young and emerging writers
  • Taught Dramaturgy and Contemporary Theatre History classes at Boise State University, five courses altogether including Introduction to Theatre
  • My poem "warm/cool wet" was published by Before/After Godwink
  • My poem "Water Obsession" was displayed at Surel's Place 
  • My play CloudMelt was a top finalist for Women Playwrights' Initiative
  • Got a reading for my new play The Way Up at Opal Theatre Company's 10 Minute Play Festival
  • Read favorite selections from Migration Theory productions with Tracy Sunderland and Sarah Gardner at Campfire Stories Reading Series
  • Helped Ballet Idaho develop their new pre-show discussion program
  • Got the third play of my TYA trilogy commissioned for BCT'S Children's Reading Series in 2019
  • Made my first headstand in a yoga class.
  • Finished a draft of my first feature-length screenplay, The Hungry Ones
  • Got a reading of The Hungry Ones  through HomeGrown Theatre
  • Made plans for my third year at National Winter Playwrights Retreat in 2019
  • Made 121 submissions (mostly plays, a few poems and one essay) -- 21 plays above my goal of 100!
  • Spent sweet holiday time with family in Donnelly, Idaho, writing my latest play for young audiences, Polar Opposites: An Impossible Tale
  • Finished my first draft of Polar Opposites

Here are my three big goals for 2019 and 2020:

3 Big Goals for the Next Two Years:
  • Travel overseas with my favorite person 
  • Get to a Natalie Goldberg True Secret Writing Workshop
  • Send 200 submissions in 2019, 250 in 2020

2019 is my year of compassion, generosity and gratitude toward myself and others.
Picture
Happy New Year from a friendly neighborhood Sasquatch near Hope, British Columbia.
Picture
And from me! Photo Credit: Sarah Ann Gardner
2 Comments
    Like what I'm posting? You can leave me a tip!
    $1, $10, $100, whatevs :)
    Donate

    Heidi Kraay

    Process notes on a work in progress (me). This mostly contains raw rough content pulled out of practice notebooks. Occasional posts also invite you into the way I work, with intermittent notes on the hows and whys on the whats I make. Less often you may also find prompts and processes I've brought to workshops, as well as surveys that help me gather material for projects. Similar earlier posts from years ago can be found on:

    ​50 Shades of Kraay

    Thanks for reading!​

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All
    Process Notes
    Raw/Rough/'Ritings
    Surveys
    Workshops

    RSS Feed

Sign up for my mailing list for (mostly) quarterly updates:
Connect with me:
Copyright Heidi Kraay © 2010-2022
  • Home
  • About
  • Work
  • Notes
  • Contact
  • Hire Me