Getting to read two of the others’ works was even better than the same process we went through with Bridge 1.

After reading the profiles from the New Yorker, I believe I had been unconsciously stuck with the structure of them – using the quotes just like them, and arranging events in the order that they did. What was interesting was that Cruz and Tolu’s writings were somewhat different from them. Cruz’s was rather in a format of bibliography that had less personal information, and Tolu’s was more like a story. It made me want to try a new format in my work too.

What I liked the most from reading two of them was the time setting of Cruz’s writing. Cruz’s character was set in the 19th century, which was a thing that I hadn’t imagined to try in my work. When I revise my work I would like to move the time setting to 20th century so that I can elaborate more on my character’s life in her older age. Before reading Cruz’s writing I was stuck with the years that I had went through – from 1997 to 2016.

I find reading and talking with others and workshopping with them extremely helpful. It develops my work a lot.