October 26, 2015

When a writer holds your hand across time

I got downright spooked yesterday when I read a passage in Thomas Harris's Red Dragon that is so close to what I wrote earlier in the day that it set my teeth on edge. I got scared to death. I found my own thoughts in another book, and a book of such caliber. I got validated. If Thomas Harris wrote it like that, it means I have a chance. It means I'm on the right track.

Here are the two passages for you to compare (mine of course is very wordy and still needs a lot of work, as it's only the second draft, but the gist of the scene is there).

September 17, 2015

Writing after depression

by Ksenia Anske

Mike Verbickas asked: "I wanted to reach out to you considering the hell of a year I have had thus far. I was hospitalized for depression a few months back, real mind altering stuff. I haven't been able to write since. I am still experiencing considerable problems writing. I don't have any ideas currently and need help with creative stimulation. Do you have any thoughts/suggestions? Can you describe your creative process? How do take an idea or two and flesh them out into a first draft? How many hours a week do you roughly spend writing? How long did it take you to get adjusted to such a schedule?"

That's a ton of questions, Mike, so I'll tackle them one by one. I'll do my best to give you all I have learned over the last 3 years that I've been writing and you tell me if it was helpful or if you have any more questions, okay?

September 11, 2015

My inspiration comes from my weirdness

by Ksenia Anske

Francesco Bosland asked:

"Curiosity kills the cat... Seriously... Foremost your postings here and on Ello are a true inspiration for me! I am a writer as well although I have not published anything yet. Just waiting what's the right moment for me... So what I am curious about? About inspiration. Where do you get it from? Books and your own life experiences I presume?"

My inspiration comes from my weirdness.

And my weirdness comes from a dark place, from a place where I think I'm not good enough and where I think I'm mediocre and where I think I wish I wrote better, I wish I was spectacular, I wish I could master English like it was my native language. I wish, I wish, I wish. And it's this wish and this frustration with myself and this incessant drive to get better is what's pushing me forward.

This is my inspiration, this and the odd peculiar weirdness that is so odd and so peculiar that I think it doesn't deserve to be told because it's so different from everything that's out there.

September 7, 2015

The moment I decided to become a writer

by Ksenia Anske

Quite often in interviews I get asked about the moment I decided to become a writer and I always get stumped because I can't remember a precise moment when it hit me out of the sky: I WANT TO BECOME A WRITER. And then it did hit me. Not out of sky, but out of my brain. I guess it's been sitting there all along and decided to show up suddenly. So I'll use this post in the future to refer people to when they ask me this question.

And that moment was...while sitting in the movie theater at SIFF 2005 after having just watched the movie Parsley Days. But I'm jumping ahead. Let me give you a rundown off all moments that could be it and weren't it and instead were lost opportunities but that in the end contributed to the moment when it finally happened.

March 21, 2015

Amtrak Residency, Day 6

by Ksenia Anske

"Always look on the bright side of life." Ta-dam. Ta-dam, ta-dam, ta-dam. This Monty Python song percolates around in my head because it's been over 5 hours that we've been standing in Fort Worth, Texas, waiting to be rerouted. Ahead of us a train carrying methanol (nasty stuff) has derailed. 12 cars overturned. Chemicals spilled everywhere. 10 houses evacuated. Don't worry, nobody was injured!