As a late-teen I took the term "creative writing" as a command to use many adjectives and flowery turns of phrase. I wrote my inexperienced, turbulent emotional landscape. It was silly. Climbing changed that. Direct experience changed me. And a good mentor taught that, "writing must do shit."

I overreacted to his guidance and tried to make every essay the equivalent of a two-minute punk song. Turning everything into a verb cost me many memories. I lost details and sometimes entire experiences by editing them down to their essence, constantly distilling and searching for “the active voice”.

I am a different writer now. Four books deep. Practiced. Experienced. Translated. Effective. I still write short. I don't write to inform. I write to make a reader pause, separate from the words, to think and feel and maybe, remember. I want my words to make you do something.

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