Recommended Reading

Reflections and Readings from My Bradbury Trio Program

Lately, when I have been writing I combine two or more elements to get to a draft of a piece. My writing since my mid-June has been reflective and more like journaling rather than crafting drafts of fiction pieces.

I was listening to an interview with Selah Sterstrom and it occurred to me that it might be that is how I need to write right now, and that is ok. I have told my writing students over and over, “There is no wasted writing.” It is a premise I believe, but sometimes forget when it applies to my own words.

Sometimes I put constraints on myself and they help me to flourish and other times it frustrates me.

I have tried to get back into running over the last 1.5 years and have had several failed attempts. I tried all the things that I used to do - 10 years ago when I competitively ran and did quite well. I ran Boston and won races and did a 50 miler. There were times before when I took a break and could go out and run 5 miles no problem. This time was different. I kept trying to punish myself with the running about what I “should “ be doing and it wasn’t working.

I was scrolling through IG reels a runner said, “Start with 5 minutes running. Add one minute at a time to increase the length.” It was still measurable, and doable for me. I am up to a steady run now and am HAPPY about it. I am enjoying what it feels like in my body to run.

This “Start with 5 minutes” approach can work for other things: writing, reading, etc.

Today I had a prompt that I was to write the story in dialogue. I did it, but didn’t like the result. I pulled from a class I have taken previously and wrote out the exposition or telling part of the story. Then I weaved those two pieces together. I still wasn’t happy with the draft. Then I thought about Lidia Yuknavich and found a fairy tale to braid into it. (Have you read her essay WOVEN? It is amazing!) I took the constraints and added one more thing at a time to come out with a draft I can do something with!

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The Bradbury Trio [reading a poem, an essay, and a story every day] fuels my writing. (I am teaching a course about the Trio starting in August.)

This trio structure works for me because I am inspired to write after I read.

I hope the reading you do today leads you to writing that could have not been created any other way.

Here are some of the texts that made an impact on me.

Poem: Sceaux the Day They Turn Off the Fountain,” Susan Fox, Paris Review

This poem inspired some of the exposition for the draft I worked on today. I love this line, “We picnic illegally with our forbidden charcuterie/Behind a hedge”.

The word picnic came up several times in my reading today and became part of the draft.

Story: “Cello”, Andrew Porter

Andrew’s collection is called “The Disappeared” and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The stories are quiet and powerful. This one is no exception.

Essay: VOICES ON ADDICTION: ANCHOR POINT , The Rumpus

This essay is interesting to me because it compares a fire school acronym to addiction.

A little more about me: Tammy L. Evans is a writer, teacher, and coach living in a tiny house on a peninsula with her husband and adventure cat. Her location device is her loud laugh. She is currently working on a short story collection. Her poetry has been published in The Storyteller, FoxGlove Journal, Story Hall, Blue Insights, The Partnered Pen, and others. Her fiction has been published in Gone Lawn, Cabinets of Heed, Spelk, Five on the Fifth, Clover and White, Fiction Berlin Kitchen, and others.