Motivation Monday

I’m getting myself back on the blogging train after a couple weeks of off-line activity (marathon, NESCBWI, life with a dog), so today feels like a great time to share this fantastic comic by Debbie Ridpath Ohi:

It’s really easy to focus on all the scary “what ifs” and “you can’ts” and so on, but for today, let’s focus on what we can do. And then do the same tomorrow.

(PS–Debbie regularly posts writing inspiration illustration, so make sure to check out the rest of her work.)

Friday Fifteen

Today feels like a good day to share a couple lines of poetry, in slightly more than fifteen words. From “Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

“What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?

The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.”

Read the whole poem here. Other poems I’ve been reading recently include “A Song on the End of the World” by Czeslaw Milosz and “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith.

Keep writing, keep fighting.

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! I’m especially psyched that it’s Friday because Monday is Patriot’s Day, aka Marathon Monday, and the Boston Marathon is my very favorite sports-related event. (Okay, pretty much the only sports event I care about.) Let’s get the weekend started with a little look at what I’ve been reading and writing in fifteen words or fewer.

ReadingBoxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Beautifully constructed look at a dark moment in Chinese history. Honest but hopeful.

Writing: “Do you think you could fight a coyote?” “What do I look like, a roadrunner?”
Things happen on a road trip.

The Furious Bird of the Calm Storm

What a beautiful animated interpretation of “The Me Bird” by Pablo Neruda:

I like that it’s a true inspiration piece, not a video with the poem appearing as text or read aloud. A great reminder, just before National Poetry Month, that poems can inspire all sorts of works of art.

(via NPR Fresh Air)

In the Artist’s Studio

As someone who writes YA, I’m fascinated by the picture book process. You’ve got barely a few hundred words to work with, and you need to have art that both connects to your narrative and takes the story to the next level. So I really dug this video by children’s book artist Oliver Jeffers about his process:

Oliver Jeffers Author Film 2013 from Oliver Jeffers on Vimeo.

I need to start hunting for my breakfast, too. Watch out, scones!

(via swissmiss)