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Karen Terrey (right), seated with Judy Holland (center) and Dana Arlien, offers writing workshops through Tangled Roots Writing in an effort to build Tahoe’s literary community. Photo by Nicole Dreon |
CommentsTangled Roots Writing
Helps us put our best words forward
By Lis Korb/Moonshine InkPublished: September 16, 2011
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DISTILL LIFE
How do you feel when you read a well-written story, poem, article, or blog post? Do you connect as much with the story as with the writer? Does it elevate an experience or mood to the forefront of your mind? Good writing is certainly an art in that it’s not just about providing information or doling out an opinion. It’s about sharing an experience, and a piece of yourself in the process.
“When we write, we’re translating and expressing an experience of the world around us — the same thing you convey when you’re painting,” says Karen Terrey, who in 2008 founded Tangled Roots Writing and doubled the workshops she offers this past year. “Just as a painting is not only about color but also brush stroke, texture, and medium, writing is much more than word choice.”
And this is how I found myself writing about fishing on a Monday night. I did it for you, loyal DiStill Life readers. I wanted to share with you the news of Tangled Roots workshops, and to dive deeper into the idea of writing as art. But actually, I found myself breaking my pattern of writing for work’s sake, of writing about something as quickly and efficiently as possible. And fishing started it all. Handed the random prompt by the workshop attendee to my left, I had 10 minutes to write, to explore the subject. I let my pen ramble from fishermen’s motivations, to bait and technique, to my personal childhood memories, to my brother’s recent deep sea fishing trip, to my sea sickness, to books I’ve read with fishing storylines, to rules and regulations and catch and release, which led me to write a short poem just before the allotted time was up. And there my creativity peaked.
Terrey then explained the exercise. “Writing on a topic can test your instincts, feelings, and thoughts about where you stand on an issue, and it also allows you to concentrate on a subject for longer,” she said, paraphrasing a passage from “The Norton Book of Personal Essays,” edited by Joseph Epstein. Write what you know, but also write what you don’t know, she told us.
“Ask questions; allow yourself to ponder. Explore what you’re wondering about with a fictional character. Capture an emotion through images in poetry. Make leaps without connections when writing a first draft. Be individual. When you write about any subject, the important thing is still you, the author.”
An adjunct professor at Sierra Nevada College and poetry editor for Quay, a literary arts journal, Terrey teaches composition and creative writing and was a 2009 recipient of the Sierra Arts Endowment Grant. Through Tangled Roots Writing she offers creative writing workshop series for adults and teens, focused workshops on specific topics, and one-on-one coaching for creative and business writing, as well as college application essay preparation.
With her gentle, calming presence and the homey workshop setting above downtown Truckee, taking one of Terrey’s classes is like attending a book club at a friend’s. It’s comfortable, casual, and welcoming, a primary aim of Tangled Roots Writing.
“My goal is that writing needs to be inclusive, unintimidating,” says Terrey. Attendees come from all professions to work on all genres. Terrey specifically caters each workshop’s content to translate to any form of writing, and is entirely fresh with her take on the craft, looking to newly published thoughts, established writers, and themes from other workshops she attends.
“The goal is that people leave with serious, new raw material and ideas, to start a new piece or further develop something they’re already working on,” she says.
Taysa Mohler, a 14-year-old sophomore at Truckee High School, says it’s being able to relate to Terrey and other workshop writers that keeps her coming back, as well as having a venue for creativity. “In school, it is all about structure and grammar and spelling and punctuation,” Mohler says. “At home, I just write what I am feeling. But in the workshop I really am learning new techniques and styles and getting things down that I wouldn’t have been able to create all by myself.”
Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative writer, you’ll benefit from learning to think like one. “Creative writing feeds other types of writing, makes it more powerful,” Terrey says. So whether the next thing you’re composing is an email, a website, a status update, a memo, a memoir, or a poem, Tangled Roots Writing can put you on track to crafting more expressive, engaging content.
~ Comment on this column below; read Lis’ fish poem on her blog, blanksmith.com.
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