PORTLAND WRITING: WHAT TO SAY AFTER IT’S ALL BEEN SAID

Portland writing classes made it seem like everyone in town was a writer.

Publish a book and that’s good enough to fill a teacher’s role? Yes it is.

Word of mouth got around, a friend offers space, and people pay to show up and listen.

And learn.

But what do you learn?

A writer woman, thin with short dark hair, talked about her education.

“I took classes at the Iowa Writers Workshop and graduated with a Masters, but that wasn’t the end of my journey, just the start.

“Or the most important part of my education. Erhard Seminar Training was.

“My day starts with exercise, writing exercise. I live in a houseboat and walk along the docks and notice the animals early in the morning. Then I go back inside and make up stories about them before I start my ‘serious writing.’

She spoke inside a cozy NW Portland living room. A small group sat on soft, cat hair free, couches and chairs. They checked Iowa off their writer list, penciling in Est.

“I started the submission process with my dock stories just for fun, and my serious writing. One light and whimsical, the other crafted and infused with insights to change the world one sentence at a time.

“And my dock stories got accepted with requests for more.

“Any questions?”

Found Portland Writing

Look at local book companies?

Writing Tips Oasis asked the same question and came up with a great list.

Look for Portland bookstores?

Travel Portland says go beyond Powell’s.

Or read Portland one single story block at a time from NW 20th and Lovejoy to South Portland, from red brick to steel and glass.

It’s a walking story of urban contrast between saving worthy buildings, a small piece of the world with enough roots to help people care, to saving lives in medical towers 1 and 2 on the south Willamette river front.

It’s a decades long walk from a sunny spring day on Lovejoy to the glowing hallways of the 9th floor.

2

The Portland story is the Oregon story. The rest of Oregon don’t all agree.

Eastern Oregon hates Portland so much they’d rather succeed to Idaho. Southern Oregon wants to be Northern California.

Where do you draw the lines. Eugene at the south and Hood River in the east.

Go abroad and mention Portland to regular people in the street. They don’t know where Portland is, but they know Seattle.

“Portland is near Seattle. Portland, Oregon.”

“Yes, Seattle.”

Or get a better idea for borders by attending a Sunday service in a falling down little church in Rhododendron.

“The sin of man, the black hole of our soul, is down this road in Portland Oregon, a place so vile the river runs with poison and the air thick with evil, lies, and deceit against the Lord our God Jesus Christ in Heaven’s name let us pray for the Portland souls burning in hell, and those in this congregation who will burn in hell if they don’t change their ways.”

(I was there with my fiancé looking for a licensed professional for our wedding ceremony.)

“He doesn’t seem like a good fit.”

“Why is he staring at us?”

But what do you learn?

Is the term ‘micro essay’ new?

Put it on the shelf next to ‘short-short fiction.’

Leave it there while you write something until you’re done with it.

Hint: Don’t make it too long. Take five minutes, but first run this checklist:

Avoid world-building on a five minute exercise.

Consider something normal like the chair in your room.

The chair is near the window that broke in a storm and the landlord wouldn’t fix it so you taped black plastic over it that also blew out so you nailed it to the window moulding and strung twine over it and the whole thing flexed like a huge black lung.

That chair.

Since it’s timed, get an idea of where to start. And since it’s short, start fast.

If you follow a three act structure of 1 – normal life, 2 – big event, 3 – normal life after big event, start late in the first part and hit the event hard.

Try using a covid time-line:

You’re walking out of a door holding a sign for covid boosters. There’s a band aide on your arm.

That night you’re sharing slobbery joints outside a concert hall because “I’m vaccinated.”

Lots of coughing. From weed?

You get a break-through case of covid but feel fine. Then you don’t.

You can’t breath and the next thing you know three people are shoving an intubation hose down your neck and all you’re thinking about is how bright the lights are.

2

Do a Portland writing about the Jan. 6 Insurrection for five minutes.

Ready, go.