Plot and Community with Daniel Nieh
By Lydia Rutherford
Writing is a solitary practice, but community fuels it. As Daniel Nieh, author of Take No Names and Beijing Payback, puts it: “The time I spend with fellow readers and writers helps me feel like the work I do alone in my office in my soft pants has meaning beyond the limits of my skull.”
Daniel Nieh knows that spending time and connecting with other writers is an essential part of the writing life. This coming Monday, February 9th, Nieh will join us at the Vancouver chapter of Willamette Writers to do just that! We will meet in community to connect while discussing plot, characters, and the decisions they make. You can join the workshop in-person at Three Creeks Community Library or register here to join us online. The meeting begins at 6:30, with coffee and cookies.
Community and connection
“Our community of writers is a wonderful force of connection and encouragement,” says Elizabeth Moss, co-chair of the Vancouver Chapter. “I love that our members support and celebrate each other, sharing tips and resources, providing feedback, and creating a network of inspiration.”
Part of building that connection and developing the craft of writing is learning from professionals in the field, like Daniel Nieh, whose experience is broad-ranging. Nieh is an author, international model, linguist and interpreter; he even worked at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His essays, short fiction and criticism have been featured in well-known publications like the New York TImes and Washington Post. He’s from Portland but has lived all over the world and brings incredible insight and experience to the table.
Curtis C. Chen, Vancouver’s second co-chair, is thrilled that Nieh is leading this Plot Writing Workshop. “Nieh will explore how to advance your narrative in ways that feel realistic and satisfying, and how to forge strong and resonant connections between character and plot.”
Plot and Character
If there is anyone who you want to listen to about plot and character decisions, it’s Nieh. His books are rich with both action and humor, balancing fast-paced plots with emotional turmoil. He is excellent at creating characters that are complicated; they make decisions like humans do, sometimes out of love, but also out of selfishness and greed.
As a sneak peak into what he’ll be teaching us about, Nieh answered the question: How do you write characters whose actions and choices are realistic and understandable to the reader?
“A character’s actions must spring from their three-dimensional humanity–not from a plot that the writer has worked out in advance,” he explains. “Characters can make bad decisions. Indeed, they must make bad decisions for the story to have emotional resonance. But those bad decisions only land if they are consistent with the character’s, um, character.”
The Power of Art
For Nieh, writing is more than just the words on the page. It is passion and art; it means something. But being a writer is not easy.
“The easiest part is believing in the power of art,” Nieh says. “The hardest part is believing in myself.”
In times like these, it is important to remember what art means to us, and what stories and writing can give us: inspiration, community and even hope. We look forward to diving into the craft with Nieh, and can’t wait to see you in Vancouver or online.
You can find out more about the upcoming meeting here.