Tag creative writing

Rumi and the art of wandering

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment

A friend once told me that when he hears the word rumination, he thinks of pigs.

Not in a bad way, more in the way pigs root for truffles. He imagined them with their snouts to the earth, urgent but patient, plodding yet focused. That image totally redefined the word for me.

Before then, I had thought of rumination as something still. Heavy. Almost stagnant. But my friend’s truffle-hunting pig reframed it: rumination as animation. A kind of messy pursuit. A movement that’s spiraling, not stuck.

Later, when my partner gifted me a plush pig, I named him Rumi, short for rumination. That it’s also a poet’s name felt like an additional win.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot as I prepare to teach a one-day class this Sunday called Rumination as Route: Crafting Non-linear Personal Narratives. It’s a space for writers who don’t always think in straight lines, and who maybe circle a memory again and again, trying to make sense of it.

In this class, we’ll explore different ways of ruminating, of putting intention behind our focus while letting in a little of that truffle-hunting scramble. There’s value in the digression, the double-back, the way our stories don’t go from A to B but somewhere wilder and more true.

If that sounds like your writing brain too, I hope you’ll join us.

[Here’s a short video related to this post, btw.]

Rumination as Route: Crafting Non-Linear Personal Narratives

Date & Time: Sunday June 1, 2025 @3-5pm EST
Where: Online (Zoom)
Cost: $60
Register here: https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/rumination-as-route/

Hope to see you there!

= José =

nonlinearity & upcoming virtual craft class

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment

Life after Ruin & Want has been nonlinear.

After publishing a fragmented memoir rooted in trauma, I spiraled into burnout. For a while, I didn’t think I’d write again. I found myself saying: I wrote the book, now to understand the life behind it.

That’s been the work: retracing my steps. Not to tidy the past, but to name and acknowledge what led me there in the first place. What came through intuition, what emerged by accident, what remained unspeakable until I let form and rhythm carry it–all of it, retraced one day and word at a time.

This process (part excavation, part self-return) has shaped my upcoming online class:

Rumination as Route: Crafting Non-Linear Personal Narratives

A 2-hour generative workshop on writing the way your mind actually moves.

This is a space for writers who want to:

  • Break free from rigid storytelling forms
  • Let thought rhythms shape structure
  • Explore fragmentation, return, and intuitive connection

We’ll read short, resonant examples. We’ll talk about what stays with us. And we’ll write—not toward a neat ending, but into the pulse of memory, image, and voice. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You don’t need a clear timeline or a clean story. Just bring your curiosity and a willingness to follow your writing wherever it wants to go.

Date & Time: Sunday June 1, 2025 @3-5pm EST
Where: Online (Zoom)
Cost: $60
Register here: https://thenotebookscollective.com/event/rumination-as-route/

If you’re looking for a space to explore, not explain, come join us.

Hope to see you there!

= José =