Tag: quotes

Quote of the Day

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“I would say to get the character in your mind. Once he is in your mind, and he is right, and he’s true, then he does the work himself. All you need to do then is to trot along behind him and put down what he does and what he says…You’ve got to believe in him. You’ve got to—to feel that—that what—that he is—is alive, and then, of course, you will have to do a certain amount of—of picking and choosing among the possibilities of his action, so that his actions fit the character which you believe in…But the character’s got to be true by your conception and by your experience, and that would include, as we’ve just said, what you’ve read, what you’ve imagined, what you’ve heard, all that going to giving you the gauge to measure this imaginary character by, and once he comes alive and true to you, and—and he’s important and moving, then it’s not too much trouble to put him down.”–William Faulkner

As always, Faulkner finds the perfect words to describe the creation process. So often I feel like I just need to see in my mind what a character is doing. I can’t force it; I just have to let them walk around so I can “put down” what they say and do.

Check out more of Faulkner’s thoughts on writing here (wahoowa!) and check out more quotes on writing here.

Quote of the Day

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“Writing is a job, a talent, but it’s also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.”
― Ann Patchett, Truth and Beauty

This perfectly describes the writing process for me. Yes, it’s a job and can be hard and not everyone has that skill, but it’s also the way I process the world and how I go about my daily life. It makes me think “Oh, I bet this WIP character goes to Catholic school,” or “This is exactly how this WIP character first realized she loved X.” I love spending time in these worlds and with these people who don’t actually exist.

Quote of the Day

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Daniel Tiger. Photo by Greg Dunlap from Stockholm, Sweden
via Wikicommons

“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”–Fred Rogers

It’s been a tough month for a lot of wonderful people I know, so I wanted to share this fantastic quote by one of the all-time best people. No matter what you’re going through right now, remember that you matter to so many other people.

More about Mister Rogers here.

This Year’s Words

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It’s not a poem about New Year’s, but T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding” is about chance and transformation and the old and new. These lines feel particularly appropriate for New Year’s Day:

(image: Powell’s)

The new year is a natural time to start thinking about change and possibility and transformation. With The Chance You Won’t Return coming out in April, 2014 is primed to be a year of big changes. So excited to share them all with you and my fellow ’14 debut authors!

And in case you need to see my enthusiasm for 2014 in gif form (of course you do), head over to OneFour KidLit.

Composers and Writers

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People closest to me know that a) I’m not musical, and b) I really wish I were musical. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take inspiration from famous composers! Here’s a collection of great quotes from composers about making art. A few of my favorites:

“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist.”–Robert Schumann

I love this idea and this image. I feel this connects especially well to YA, which is so often about first encounters with despair and grief and pain, but ultimately also hope and love.

“The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.”–Benjamin Britten

Okay, everyone’s process and schedule is different. Some people work late into the night, and others get up super early in the morning to get work done. But a) I love sleep, and b) for me, lots of writing happens when I make myself sit down and work, not when inspiration suddenly strikes. The “feverish writing all night” image is kind of romantic, but I think it neglects the work that writers put in day-to-day.

“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.”–Johannes Brahms

In a similar vein, I love this focus on craftsmanship. You can have the best idea in the world, but it takes work and craft and thought to bring it to life on the page.

Click through for more composer quotes.

(image: crazybobbles)

Loving Writing When It’s Hard

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The last few weeks have been stressful and busy, and the next few weeks are going to be much the same. Which means I feel like:

Even things I enjoy, like writing, feel like a chore:

I recently came across this quote from Susan Orlean on writing, which seems particularly helpful when I’m stressed and when the writing is hard:

“You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.”

It’s easy to love writing when the words are flowing and you have the time to focus on your craft. But sometimes you have to remind yourself that you love it and that it’s worth it, even if you only get a few words down at a time.

So if you’re having a rough time and feel like the words aren’t flowing, try to remind yourself that you love writing, even when it’s hard and you feel like you can’t get anything on paper. Loving writing when it’s hard is when you’re at your most writerly.

Quote of the Day

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“Storytelling makes us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving. Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically. It is we humans who either help bring about, or hinder the coming of the kingdom. We look around us, and it is a complex world, full of incomprehensible greed…irrationality, brutality, war, terrorism–but also self-sacrifice, honor, dignity–and in all of this we look for, and usually find, pattern, structure, meaning. Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”–Madeleine L’Engle

From Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life. This idea of writing as a way of expressing hope for humanity and finding meaning in the chaos reminds me of Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Quote of the Day

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“Life is a luminous halo, a semitransparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed  spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may convey?”–Virginia Woolf

(image: Wikimedia Commons)

Jazz Up Your Quotes

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A couple of fun blogs that take on literary quote matching. I’m feeling the synesthesia!

I’ve mentioned before that I like to create playlists for my various literary projects. But I’ve never tried matching songs to previously created works from the literary canon. Enter literary jukebox, which pairs famous quotes with thematically similar songs.

And this tumblr might leave you craving a sugary treat, but I think Dough Country for Old Men, which pairs pictures of donuts with literary quotes, is pretty fun. The title puns alone get my approval. My own attempt at donut quotes:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.–William Shakespeare

(via Bon Appetit)(image: OSU Special Collections & Archives : Commons)