Month: January 2019

Writing Fiction: My First Novel

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I am writing my first fiction novel, a Supernatural Thriller! I want to chronicle the writing of my book so I have a reference point in the future. This will be the place on my blog (Fiction: Writing My First Novel) where I’ll be posting updates on my progress, discussing elements of fiction, and any issues I have. I will be blogging my journey of writing in case other new fiction writers are looking for relatable content.

The Story Thus Far and NaNoWriMo

In 2014, I scribbled out a few pages of a story, an image stuck in my head of a man on the run puking up blood. But I hit a wall, and the pages were eventually forgotten. Four years later, in the Fall of 2018, I recalled the story, the image of the man popping into my head one day out of the blue. Since then, I have become obsessed with writing my novel.

✨Check out my Pinterest board for my novel HERE ✨

NaNoWriMo 2018: Writing My Novel and What’s Next

For the National Novel Writing Month of November 2018, I spent the entire month writing the first draft. Barely over 50,000 words in three parts with countless chapters, it revealed itself as a Supernatural Thriller, no big surprise there. Now, in 2019, I am working on the second draft, which is a long and grueling process.

From now on, I will be chronicling my work, including my progress and the reading materials I am using (such as Self-Editing for Fiction Writers). I hope to create a dialogue about writing fiction novels that can help other writers while keeping an archive of my journey for future use and reflection.

Are you writing a novel? Let’s connect! I’d love to hear about your experience, process, and recommended reading materials.

Liked this post? Hit that LIKE button and leave a comment below! I appreciate your words ?

 

 

Becoming Nightmare (poem #360)

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Forget the sun, the eyes roll back

into a dream, full of wispy clouds

and screams. A darkness gathering

blue skies turn grey, becoming

nightmare.

 

Thank you for reading!

-Alina

 

Please follow or subscribe to read more poems.

Want more? Check out my Patreon

Alina on Instagram

 

Sun Pulls Me Up [poem #359] and A Writer’s Life Update

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Sun pulls me up

from a deep dark slumber

mixing dreams and memories

together. I am beginning to forget

which is which and who I am.

 

Writer’s Life Update:

This has been my first post in over a week. I’ve been M.I.A. because I’m currently working on draft two of my supernatural thriller. It’s my first novel and kind of a pain but I am sticking with it. Thanks for sticking with me and my poems!

What I’m listening to:

What I’m reading:

34607044

Devotion by Patti Smith

 

Follow me on Instagram

Want more? Check out my Patreon

 

Thank you for reading!

-Alina

Poetic Forms: Found Poetry

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Last month, I discovered Found Poetry, I guess I could say, I found Found Poetry. It’s always been there and I have seen it before but for the first time in December, I started creating some Found Poetry myself.

It really happened by accident, I was reading a newspaper at work and found a few peculiar words and phrases in an article that I thought was truly poetic, something was there, and it was mysterious and beautiful. I underlined the words and then began inking in everything else around them until I had just the words and finally a poem.

IMG_20181224_000620_918
One of my Found Poems, I am really bad at taking photos

What is Found Poetry?

Found Poetry is a poetic form where words, texts and sentences are sought out or found in everyday spaces and extracted. Used and practically collaged into a new format to create a poem.

For example, for me my Found Poetry has been coming from newspapers. So I’ve been taking local newspapers and highlighting, circling, underlining words and sentences that stand out to me. Then I try to shape the words into one final poem.

I have been pretty bold because I take one article or section of the paper and try to group the words and sentences together on the same page, not cutting out and or gluing the words on a new page. I’ve been trying to mold poems out of what I find in the paper by blacking out everything else. It’s hard to do this but I realized that creating Found Poetry this way pushed me and my skills as a writer

poets.org has a great definition and example of Found Poetry

It is a fun poetic form to try, and I mainly use it now as an exercise to get me in the groove of writing poetry.

After I had a small pile of these Found newspaper Poems I decided to start putting them together in one book. So now I have a few pages filled in a blank notebook full of my found poetry. Some are good but most of them are ok.

You can see on my instagram story highlight my Found Poems, and my Found Poetry Book that I am making.

Alina on Instagram

I want to keep working with Found Poetry and maybe even dabble in creating poems on canvas by using paint and words to create large poems, art on two levels.

This is a fun poetic form and I recommend it to any poets, writers, artists, really anyone who wants to explore so try it today!

Liked this post? Try these:

How to Memorize a Poem in 4 Easy Steps
https://www.alinahappyhansenwriter.com/2018/08/01/poetic-forms-sestina/
Poetic Forms: Villanelle

What’s going on? Jan. 9th, 2019 (The Holidays, Patti Smith and Self-Editing)

Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

(Originally published on Patreon on Jan. 9th, 2019)

The holiday season is officially over and I finally feel like my daily life is back on track. Since the second week of December I was working 10-12 hour shifts at least two to three times a week plus a couple normal shifts, my family came into town, and then there was the need to shop for Christmas presents which I put off until only a few days before Christmas…as usual.
On the Christmas week, me and my partner had the same four days off. Christmas Eve and Christmas day we took turns going to each other’s families for dinner then spent the 26th together and finally had Thursday to ourselves, a day for both of us to get back on track. Getting back on track definitely did not happen for me. I ended up going to Park City to spend the night at a relatives house and didn’t get home until Friday afternoon. And the start of my workweek was that same day only a few hours later.
In summary, I don’t feel like I really had a day off on Christmas week, and then I worked all weekend. Worked a morning shift on New Year’s Eve, then worked 11 hours on New Year’s Day. Just one thing after another, got a flat tire my first day off since Christmas, then my family came back into town to say hi for New Years. Started my work week again, then on Monday my battery was dead and I had to take a lyft to work.
Finally, here I am, Wednesday, January 9th, my first real day to myself, my first real day off.
I have a million groceries to buy. I’m down to a roll of toilet paper, a cheap razor found in the bathroom closet and eating chili out of a can unless I want to eat Captain Crunch. I’m not necessarily looking forward to all the shopping I have to do but I am relieved, it feels like forever since I could wake up and know I have an entire day to get my daily life squared away.
Today’s to-do list:
Grocery Shopping
-bread
-soup
-almond milk
-razors
-toilet paper
-snacks
-tea
Laundry – might need to go to a laundromat today, washer isn’t working and dryer is questionable
Go to craft store buy yarn (I’ve been crocheting a blanket the last few months, its huge)
buy detail (fine) paintbrushes, I’m working on a plaque (acrylic paint)
Write (1-3,000 words today)
Work on Blog (set up posts for the next week, talk about where I’ve been)
Post on Patreon (this is it)
Between my shifts, coming home late at night and relaxing before I go to bed, I’ve been reading reading reading. For Christmas I got some pretty amazing books, all the books I suggested or asked for and it’s always great to get what I really wanted.
One of the books I got for Christmas is M Train by Patti Smith. Right now I only have about 50 pages left, it is approximately 300 pages long. It was a slow start and for a moment I was unsure about this Smith book but I am a huge Smith fan, I love her writing, her music, her work, everything, she is one of my biggest role models, so I stuck with M Train and finally got into the groove about 100 pages in.
24728470
Now I’m almost done with it and I am already feeling a little sad it’ll be over soon. What I am noticing in M Train, is that Smith is weaving together many different aspects of her life such as dealing with the loss of Fred (her deceased husband), her dreams (her descriptions of her dreams are poetry, absolutely beautiful), and her travels where ever they lead her (tracing the lives of artists and writers or work).
It is an exploratory journey, reading Smith and there are so many subjects that she talks about that resonate with my ideas and my own experiences. So reading her work is both comforting as well as inspiring for me as a writer to push myself, my writing, and at the same time really be aware, live life and be present with each experience as an individual and as an artist.
180467
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
This book is amazing, I am already half-way finished with it and it is the perfect companion in helping me with my first completed rough draft of my book. The advice is amazing and it also includes useful tips, questions, and exercises to help writer’s practice what they’re learning.
Self-Editing talks about dialogue, beats, narration, show and tell, point of view, interior monologue and much much more. It’s written in a very comfortable and clear voice that makes it incredibly easy to read and I’d have to say it is the best book I’ve read thus far on editing/writing fiction. 
I am reading other books right now, about 12 to be honest, but these two are the ones I’ve been focusing on the most recently. I feel like there is a lot that I can gain from giving so much of my time and attention to picking apart M Train while at the same time absorbing everything Self-Editing has to say.
These two books, I know will be pivotal to this month and my writing. For the month of January I plan on finishing my second draft of my book and chiseling out a rough outline of chapters, parts and plots so that I can get started on my third draft which should be (I hope) close to a place where I can start giving sample chapters to people to read (an idea I am playing with, it could be a bad idea).
I look forward to the rest of January and I know that this year will be amazing. I have a load of fantastic books to finish reading, tons of plans for my writing, and a good amount of content that I can start working on to submit to literary magazines in hopes of publication.
Thank you for reading, please feel free to comment or message me.
-Alina