The Writer’s Desk features the desks and writing practices of Gemini Ink faculty, visiting authors, teaching artists, volunteers, students, interns, staff, partners and more. Receive new posts in your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter at bit.ly/geminiinknewsletter.
Join Alex Temblador on Tuesdays, May 6 & 13, 2025, 6:30-8:30pm CST, via Zoom, for her workshop: Writing An Identity Not Your Own. This course is open to writers of all genres and skill level, 18+ and will will discuss one of the most contentious topics in creative writing: crafting a character whose identity is not your own. We will examine bias and how it might influence the text through stereotypes, harmful storyline tropes, character descriptions, dialogue, and more.
Hi Alex! We’re so excited for your class, “Writing An Identity Not Your Own.” Could you describe your first writing desk. How is it different (or not) from your current writing
desk?
My dad gathered some rustic fence planks and cobbled them together and I placed it on top of two IKEA desk legs – resulting in my first writing desk. It was very “rustic” to say the least, and there were these big gaps between the planks, so I had to make sure that my pens and cell phone didn’t fall through. I had that desk for five years.
Now, I have a large wooden desk that looks antique but it isn’t. When a local restaurant was renovating a building, they found this desk in their space. My parents and I went and picked it up and after cleaning it thoroughly, it now sits in my studio. Although the desk looks great and suits my needs perfectly well, half the time, I’ll work at my dining room table, the couch, or front porch. It’s hard for me to work in one spot.
Do you have any habits or routines that you follow before writing?
When I’m in the throes of writing a new book, I tend to wake up, walk to my laptop, and immediately start writing. I find that in this half-awake state, I’m able to dive into my work without resistance.
How important is it to you to have stability in your writing routine?
Stability can be an obstacle to my writing output. I don’t work on creative projects every day or sometimes for a whole year. (To be fair, I’m also a freelance journalist, so I’m usually writing at least 5 days a week, but I’m just going to refer to creative writing stability in regard to this question.) If I have an expectation that I have to creatively write every day, I’m going to fail at that expectation. That can lead to negative feelings, which will harm my writing process in more ways than one. Instead, I give myself grace to take days, weeks, or months-long breaks if necessary. Sometimes, I need that time to do more research or simply rest my mind so it can work out the storyline or narrative.
When I’m in the writing zone, I also limit my creative writing output expectation to only 20 minutes a day. If I want to write more, I can, and if I don’t, there’s no harm. I tend to write quickly and for more than 20 minutes with this trick. It’s served me well over the years.
What’s a book or movie that you can watch over and over again and not get tired of?
At least once a year, I read The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana. It’s a very short novel that I can finish in a few hours, but I tend to read it as slowly as possible, because it’s the most enchanting book I’ve ever read. The storyline is weird and odd and confusing. To this day, I am still unsure if I understand what has happened in the novel or not. Cristina Rivera Garza is a genius in the structure department and uses such illustrious language and imagery that I’m utterly entranced. Even better – the language is so condensed and not excessive or flowery, while also being beautiful and captivating. I don’t know how she did it, but The Taiga Syndrome is art and maybe if I read it enough times, some of its magic will rub off on me.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
In my rough drafts, I tend to use “And,” “But,” or “So,” a lot as the first word of my sentences. Part of me likes that stylistic choice because it’s how we actually speak, but I try to balance it out in the editing process. “Just,” “typically,” and “usually,” are other filler words that I find myself deleting. When I’m working on a first-person piece, more times than not, I’ll find myself deleting “I believe” or “I try” or “I want” from the text because such phrases are unnecessary. For example, instead of writing “I believe there is something wrong here,” the sentence would be stronger and create more tension if I wrote, “There is something wrong here.”
What are some misconceptions about being a writer that you can discredit?
The most important misconception about being a writer that I can discredit is the idea that writers don’t make money. I’ve been a full-time freelance writer since 2015. Granted, I didn’t publish my first novel until 2018, but I’ve made an entire career out of writing. Becoming a traditionally published author added to my income. Now, I get paid for speaking gigs at publishing houses, schools, libraries, writing groups, and festivals. My author career has led me to teach creative writing seminars and classes with various organizations which result in payment. I’ve even been paid to read manuscripts for potential publication and provide feedback. All of that to say that I live well and abundantly as a writer and because of my writing career, I’ve traveled (often for free) around the world and bought a house and a new car, all the while building a lifestyle that suits my needs.
Does good writing result from best practices, magic, or a bit of both?
Good writing can be taught and is a result of a lot of reading and practice. I remember when my second novel was published, my father said to me, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but this novel is far better written than your first novel.” It was true. My writing had considerably improved in the 10 years since I wrote the first draft of my first novel, and even more so in the four years between the publications of my first two books. This was due in part because I had been writing at least 5-7 days a week since 2015 as a freelance journalist and a novelist.
While good writing can be achieved through practice, magic can sometimes play a role in producing a great piece. There are times when I’m working on a project and the words come so freely and without thought that it feels like I’m not the one writing, that there is some magical, spiritual, or otherworldly element at play and I’m the vessel. Is that not writing magic?
If people want to learn more about your work, where should they go?
You can find more about me and my work on social media at @Alex_Temblador or on my websites, AlexTemblador.com.
Alex Temblador is the Mixed Latine award-winning author of Writing An Identity Not Your Own, Half Outlaw, and Secrets of the Casa Rosada. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a contributor to Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology. Her work has also appeared in PALABRITAS, D Magazine, and Colorado Review. Alex has taught creative writing seminars, workshops, and classes with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, WritingWorkshops.com, the Writer’s League of Texas, and more, as well as spoken about diversity in the literary world with Macmillan Publishers, Texas Library Association, Abydos Learning Conference, and at many other festivals, conferences, and universities. Alex lives in Dallas, Texas, where she runs a literary panel series called LitTalk and is the Executive Director of Write Here DFW.
