Note to self

You are about to write a 3,000-word short story, the second short story requirement in your fiction workshop class. Now, just a reminder that it hasn't been long since you've started doing this. Your first creative writing class, apart from the one you took in college when you didn't yet know that you wanted to...

I don’t want to write anymore

For the first time in many years, since I found out I have a knack for words and forming sentences and arranging them into paragraphs, I have this undesire for writing. It seems like all the motivation has seeped out of me, all the inspiration has run dry, all the soaring feelings I used to...

Into the Unfamiliar

So I have two classes this trimester. Poetry Writing Techniques and Fiction Writing Techniques. It has only been a week since I started but it feels like a month or more. I'm drowning in required readings; it's the critical essays that slow me down because I lack the basics in literature and literary theory. And...

Today was the start

It still feels surreal. Today was my first day in grad school. I am finally taking an MFA in creative writing. Ten years after I first sensed that inkling that I want to write, after discovering Ann Voskamp and her distinct voice, a voice that invites you to speak as well and converse with her,...

Today was a good day (오늘은 좋은 날이었어요)

I woke up at 8 and saw that Jehoon posted on his IG story 10 hours ago. What a way to start the day! I took my time dilly-dallying in bed before getting up after about 30 minutes, so I wasn't half awake anymore when I went out to face the day. Ordered breakfast and...

Permission to Create

This year I'm giving myself permission to create. To start. To try. To do. To just get the words down before they get burned by doubt and turned into ashes and smoke. And, if need be, use the ashes to paint a scene, use the burnt scent and lingering heat to help the senses remember...

Scarlet Cardigan

photo by engin akyurt (unsplash) keep me warm 'cause the rain  in my head   won’t let up-- happiness when it rains is a joy that brings with it things  i’d rather not speak of.  i’m talking in fragments  again like i haven’t for a lifetime. this coming home to myself, like arriving  to an empty...

Artist Child

Sorry, child. I'm still hiding. Hiding behind dramas and language learning and novels and social media and endless other excuses. I know I've promised to listen. To just listen and write. But after that initial panic of still not facing what I set out to do, I ran away again. Sorry, I thought I was...

difficult season

photo by Alexandra Fuller to you who find Christmastime difficult, i'm praying for you. for us. for some reason, whether known or unknown, some of us find this season difficult. we feel alone whether in a room full of our loved ones or in solitude in our hiding places. yes, even those who know true...

Last Scene

rain pouring rain someone walking someone noticing running, riding rescue? pity? care? rain pouring rain a bench someone sitting drenched a message never read ignored? what exactly was i waiting for? answers? numbness? rescue? you? maybe but you chose not to. rain pouring rain