Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouellette

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Essay in 12 Steps

The Bruising And The Mending
A gorgeous first Live Salon + the strange beauty of Halloween + a thing recently created with my "famous" 15-minute timer method + an exquisite corpse…
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Jeannine Ouellette
21
The Importance of "Teeth" in the Art of Revision
Essay in 12 Steps | TWELVE | "There is something wonderful in watching a figure emerge...that seems to have a plan, which seems to be: to lead you to…
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Jeannine Ouellette
29
On Purpose and Zero-Waste Writing—Or, How to Finally Finish A Thing
Essay in 12 Steps | ELEVEN | "You have to finish things—that's what you learn from, you learn by finishing things." ~Neil Gaimon
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Jeannine Ouellette
17
Sing Three Short Songs
Essay in 12 Steps | TEN | Remember that the essay is just an artifact; it's the process of writing the essay that is alive, that is a living thing, that…
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Jeannine Ouellette
29
Before I was falling, I was flying
Essay in 12 Steps | NINE | There is a pain so utter that it swallows substance up. Then covers the abyss with trance— So memory can step…
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Jeannine Ouellette
45
POV, Wingless Bodies, and Uninvited Guests
Essay in 12 Steps | EIGHT | This is the message. We are at the top of the river. Who are you? Please put us back in the water. We are floating to the…
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Jeannine Ouellette
27
Carved By Water
Essay in 12 Steps | SEVEN | All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering ... the…
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Jeannine Ouellette
37
The Uncommon Light of Memory (Pause, Reprieve, Exhale)
Essay in 12 Steps | SIX | the attentive writer... will find that there is, rippling on the edges of a daydream, the unfolding of the perfect solution…
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Jeannine Ouellette
65
Pulling Threads, Making Clay
Essay in 12 Steps | FIVE | The job of the ... writer is to say, Here I am world, and here is the world, and out of this oxymoronic writing, we are here…
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Jeannine Ouellette
33
Tension and Shape: How Incongruous Things Press Against Each Other to Make Meaning
Essay in 12 Steps | FOUR | "Rest your finger there for a moment. Feel the bone your blade will follow. Make a wish, if you must, and then slice from…
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Jeannine Ouellette
109
The Magic of Radical Failure
Essay in 12 Steps | THREE | An unconventional exercise guaranteed to produce startling original writing + Annie Ernaux's flat writing + what creative…
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Jeannine Ouellette
91
Looking For The Answer Inside Your Question
Essay in 12 Steps | TWO | "Without a question we are forever shut out of the inner life of one another." ~Paul Matthews
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Jeannine Ouellette
128
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