Episode 356: Doodling for Writers – Interview with Rebecca Fish Ewan

by Gabriela Pereira
published in Podcast

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Fish Ewan.

Poet and cartoonist, Rebecca’s passion is mingling text with visual art, primarily in ink and watercolor, to tell stories of place and memory. Her hybrid-form work has appeared in After the Art, Brevity, Crab Fat, Survivor Zine, Hip Mama, Mutha, TNB, Punctuate & Under the Gum Tree. Her illustrations and essay, “The Deepest Place on Earth,” were published in the Literary Kitchen anthology, Places Like Home. She was also a long-time DIY MFA columnist, writing about books with words and pictures, and she continues as part of our extended team as a contributor at large.

Rebecca has an MFA in creative writing from ASU, where she has been a landscape design professor for 25+ years. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and lives with her family in Arizona. Her book-length work includes A Land Between, By the Forces of Gravity, Water Marks, and her new book, Doodling for Writers, which released October 2020.

In this episode Rebecca and I discuss:

  • How writers can get out of their own way and reclaim their love of drawing.
  • Why writers need to embrace searching as a part of the writing process.
  • The importance of finding tools you love (and she shares her favorites!).

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Rebecca Fish Ewan

Poet/cartoonist, Rebecca Fish Ewan’s passion is mingling text with visual art, primarily in ink and watercolor, to tell stories of place and memory. Her hybrid-form work has appeared in After the Art, Brevity, Crab Fat, Survivor Zine, Hip Mama, Mutha, TNB, Punctuate & Under the Gum Tree. Her illustrations and essay, “The Deepest Place on Earth,” were published in the Literary Kitchen anthology, Places Like Home. Rebecca has an MFA in creative writing from ASU, where she has been a landscape design professor for 25+ years. Rebecca grew up in Berkeley, California, and lives with her family in Arizona. Books/chapbook: A Land Between, By the Forces of Gravity, Water Marks, and her new book, Doodling for Writers, which released October 2020.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Doodling for Writers

Drawing and doodling in the margins, on napkins, anywhere can contribute to your writing process and fuel your creativity.

In Doodling for Writers, memoirist and cartoonist Rebecca Fish Ewan combines her wit and wisdom with practical, engaging prompts and activities to illustrate how simple sketching can get you over hurdles, bring back memories, and even provide a roadmap for where your story needs to go.

Full of encouragement and anecdotes, Fish Ewan’s cartoon-self accompanied by a few sidekicks will guide you through the basics of drawing and then show you how to apply it to your writing process through character sketches, place maps, and more.

In the author-illustrator’s words, ”This book is not about getting writers to abandon their craft so they can become artists. For one, writing is an art form, so they’re already artists. For two, this book is about letting drawing enrich their writing life, not replace it.”

Pick up this book, pick up a pencil and erase the notion that you can’t draw.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 356

(Right-click to download.)

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

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