Social Movements research...

I'm working on ideas and scenes for a new writing project. I'm thinking about a series of short stories set in the sixties and seventies - a look at the counterculture that emerged for a brief fifteen years. I love researching this time period - many social movements arose during this era. How did these various social movements affect the longer struggle for social change? What survives today from these youth centered movements? Can social movements really produce permanent change in social culture? Just some of the things I contemplate...

Memories...

I'm writing scenes about life in the sixties and seventies. Lot's of memories fill my head. I'm amazed at how much detail of long ago experiences become vivid as I write and think about this time in my life. Old friends appear in exquisite detail, music beats time in my heart, sights and sounds from the past become incorporated in my writing.

See new writing on Dubious Grief and Writing Riffs pages.

Stream of consciousness...

Writing riffs as a technique for starting the new novel - this idea just came to me this past week. I decided to give it a try. I wrote a scene - approximately 1,000 words - and a stream of consciousness backstory. I'm interested in reading more of what Jack Keroac wrote using a stream of consciousness method. I think using the writing riff technique will help me find and clarify my voice.

New posts on Dubious Grief and Writing Riffs pages.

Research - social movements

This week I started research for a new novel I'm contemplating. As a Sociologist I'm interested in how social movements in the U.S. during the "counter culture" era have effected contemporary culture. Lots of fun ideas for a novel emerge within the converging movements for equality, peace, and environmental change. This era (1960-1985) had an everlasting impact on my life but the question I explore in the novel concerns whether cultural change has endured. So much fun to begin a new writing project.

Summer writing...

I write daily - with the freedom to write anything. Some days I write pieces of essays for my Dubious Grief project. Other days I write a scene or two for my novel. For the past week I write ideas for a new novel - thinking about ways to integrate several themes into a coherent plot. This is exciting and creative writing - no "have too..." writing, just letting my muse take me wherever my mind roams.

New material on writing riffs and dubious grief pages.