More quotes about writing (because it's too hot to think)

My brain can't put together more than a few words and hope to make any sense. It's 9:30, the fans are all going and the house is trying to cool down but it is still 85 degrees in the bedroom where I am supposed be slumbering, trying to get a few hours of sleep in before the 5 o'clock alarm starts to ring. It should be mandatory that if you live in the Silicon Valley, you have to have A/C. Alas, we don't.

Ugh. So I offer five more of my favorite writing quotes. Tomorrow, sitting in my air conditioned cubicle at work I will look forward to stronger brain firings.

For now:

"It's a reactive thing, like a Geiger counter; you click whenever you come close to whatever you were built to do." Stephen King

"One extends one's limits only by exceeding them." M. Scott Peck

"All writers are discontent. That's because they're aware of a potential and believe they're not reaching it." William Saroyan

"Surely all art is the result of having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no on can go any further." Rainer Maria Rilke

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Rudyard Kipling

Write on right now.
Susan

Use your doubt to fuel your work.

We are all harmed in one fashion or another, on various levels. Some of us admit our harm, talk about our pain, carry it around with us like a Siamese twin. Others bury it at varying levels of their "self" sometimes knowingly, willingly, and other times the pain is so strong that their mind blocks the very idea that the pain ever existed. Some harms are imagined but the pain they inflict is just as real. Just because a fear is irrational doesn't make it any less real. And then there are many people who have been harmed, admit it, work through it or find their own way to go around it, and move on with their life. But in each instance, in each person's lifetime, we have all been harmed and we have been shaped by that harm. You cannot be alive and be any different. How you choose to let that harm affect your life is entirely up to you.

I have been harmed by a lot of negative talk in my past. Now I try to twist the negatives into something positive.

A few of my favorites:

Quit wanting more out of life.
* * * When I ask for more out of life there is more life IN me
* * * There is much the world can teach me and I am an eager pupil.
* * * I can only move forward by making a move.

Why aren't you ever satisfied?
* * * I am constantly evolving into the person I want to be
* * * I am always learning and growing.

You're too emotional.
* * * My emotions are the tools of my trade and help me lead an authentic life.
* * * Sharing my emotions with the world helps me cultivate a unity with others that brings authenticity to my work.

I've met people who said they had no doubts and fears but I'm not sure that I believe them. As creatives I believe we NEED those doubts, that uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomach to push us outside our personal safe zone and into the realm of more possibilities with our creativity. One of my favorite quotes about this comes from the book Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland. They say, " Fears about yourself prevent you from doing your best work, while fears about your reception by others prevent you from doing your own work."

Use your doubt to fuel your work. It isn't easy. But it is powerful and honest and encourages growth.

Write on right now,
Susan

Thinking about characters

So it isn't really a writing day. The day job has been stressful as we just moved to a new building and we have had no AC for two days. Not fun. I was relaxing, reading Margaux with an X by Ron Koertge and when I got to the end, it was missing pages. Or rather the pages that were there were blank. The last 25 pages of the book or so. Two pages would print, the next two were empty, etc. Very frustrating. And I bought the book at Amazon so now I have to send it back to get a good one and it's just one of those things that is irksome, you know? Ditto the fact the new cafeteria at the new building has great food but we have to go outside and across the parking lot to the other building to get it and I am already worrying about winter and rain and contemplating what I will do on those days.

But I am thinking about the characters in VZ, reacquainting myself with them after a long absence and wondering, hoping, that they will do interesting things that make a good book. I think I've said it before, plot is a four-letter word to me.

"Plot springs from character. I've always believed that these people inside me these characters know who they are and what they're about and what happens, and they need me to help get it down on paper because they don't type." Anne Lamott

Write on, right now.
Susan

What stops you from doing this?

I talk a lot here about what gets in my way with my writing (me) but I wonder, what about you?

"There's one thing your writing must have to be any good at all. It must have you. Your soul, your self, your heart, your guts, your voice -- you must be on that page. In the end, you can't make the magic happen for your reader. You can only allow the miracle of 'being one with' to take place. So dare to be yourself. Dare to reveal yourself. Be honest, be open, be true...If you are, everything else will fall into place." Elizabeth Ayres

What keeps you from bringing yourself to the page? What gets in the way of you being able to write with emotional honestly? What stops you from being the writer you want to be?

And what would you write if you knew you could not fail?

Write on, right now.
Susan

Barriers to our writing

Lately in some of my writing circles there have been conversations about barriers to our ability to write and publish. Mothers with young children struggle to find the time between child-raising duties. People who work full-time squeeze writing into the pockets of their time. Editors send rejections for stories we were sure they would buy. These things get in the way of writing but I don't think they are the real barriers to our writing. I think the real barrier is us.

I know it is hard for some people in the face of many rejections to keep on writing. I have books that have sold after 27 rejections. I have lots more waiting to be rejected before they find their perfect home. Heck, no matter how many books or stories or articles you publish being rejected will always hurt. And no matter how many times you tell yourself, or someone tells you, not to take it personally, sometimes you will. That's because writing is a heart job. We pour ourselves into what we write and we want the validation of being published to tell us it is worthwhile.

Go ahead and quit if you think you can. If you can't, then accept the fact that there will be good writing days and bad writing days. There will be days when you have time to write and don't and days where you manage to write in-between chores and dayjobs and cooking dinner. There will be rejections and acceptances. It's good to remember the pleasure in the process of writing but sometimes it's a hard process and the pleasure fades. That's why you have a critique group. That's why you have a writing buddy that you can call or write to on your down days who reminds you that you write because you can't NOT write.

For me, editors are NOT the barrier. They have been savvy folks who, yes, are looking to fill a niche perhaps but have helped me see things about my work that I was too close to be able to see for myself.

If there's a barrier in writing it's me.

Being afraid to write what I want to write because it might not be marketable, might have a small audience, might not be understood, might make me an enemy, might tick off my mom. Substitute your own excuse of the week.

Being afraid to take chances with my writing that will stretch me and help me grow.

Being afraid to be the writer I am capable of being because what if I fail, what if I succeed, what if someone doesn't like who I become, what if "I" don't like who I become?

Being afraid I'm not good enough to tell the story I want to tell because I don't have the skillset, because I don't know where to find the information, because someone told me it was a dumb idea.

Just plain being afraid is the only barrier to me. The rest is scenery along the way.

Writing defines me. Publishing pays me. It takes wisdom to know the difference.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Play and childhood memories

It's been a play day of sorts for me with a bonus day off from work because we are moving to another building. I've been letting myself goof off, though I did finally answer all the interview questions and get that sent off.

Play isn't something that comes easy to me. It never did as a child (I was always told I was too serious) and it comes even less easily as an adult. A few years ago I wrote an article about how to think like a child. It helped me get in touch with some of my childhood memories so that I could access that child for a writing project. The article also spawned a THINK LIKE A CHILD workshop and a book which only goes to prove that you can reuse your own stuff again and again.

All writing is autobiographical. Like it or not, it reveals who we are and brings with it our own personal attitudes, perceptions and misconceptions about life. It is an organic process of constantly composting our pain, our joy, our past, and our present until we yield the necessary fertile, self-nurturing soil, and are finally able to write the stories that only we can tell.

In celebration of childhood memories here are few other fun links that cover multiple generations. Nostaliga Central And this great collection. Over at Time Machine Toys you can even BUY some of your old favorites.

This next part is Haemi's fault (VBG) because she posted a quiz on her blog and I answered it so when I saw this new game a few hours later. I was already preprogrammed to want to play. (okay...so this might have been a teeny tiny bit of procrastination about the interview, but not much.)

Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. Forward Motion
2. Okay Seriously
3. life as an urban princess
4. the stories of a girl
5. Write on Right Now!

Next: select new friends to add to the pollen count.
(Obviously no one is obligated to participate).

Haemi
Debbi
Kim

Then add your memories.

Five things I miss from my childhood:

1. Buying Esikmo Pies from the vending machine at Meadow Homes swimming pool.
2. Playing with the tar in the sidewalk.
3. My grandfather and the way he shared his Spam sandwiches with me.
4. Grandma's single layer yellow cake smothered in butter coming fresh out of the oven just as we finished dinner.
5. Mud

Write on, right now.
Susan

Character driven vs plot driven

I've been talking with a friend as she begins the difficult process of revising her first novel. I'm a character driven writer. So is she. She is struggling with getting enough action into the chapters to keep the reader turning pages. I've been working only in picture books for so long, except for the verse novel, that I had forgotten (almost) how hard novels were in that regard.

I always start with a character. That's why I want to write the story, to find out what happens to that person. I usually have an opening sentence, often dialog, that begins my journey. I ALWAYS have a title. I simply can't even think to write, not even an article, without a title. And then I start to following the character around and see what he does. Except in my stories my characters think more than they do (a lot like me) so I have to force myself to confront that four letter word, PLOT. Egads, the word itself is enough to give character driven authors a huge case of writer's block.

I'm going to be thinking about all of this a lot in the future as I am pretty sure my next project will be the YA is that is done, but not done. Meaning I have a complete book (and have had about 15 versions of it over as many years) but I am now ready to actually revise it into a living, breathing book that I am can send to my agent. And the idea excites me as much as it scares me.

So what I've decided is that I am not going to think about the "P" word at all. I love my character and I want to give him the best possible book in which to share his story. Instead I am going to concentrate on scenes and conflict. I am going to deconstruct the current version, scene by scene, chapter by chapter, so I can see the first layer of holes. I know this story, VZ, has a braid of 1 internal conflict and 2 external conflicts. They have to balance throughout the story or the braid won't hold. I'm pretty sure that when I start to color code the story I will find that I am heavy on internal conflict, okay on one external conflict, and way light on the other external conflict.

What am I going to do then? I will start with index cards, all one color, and put a sentence about every single scene in the book on its own card. I'll put a code in the upper corner or maybe a small colored sticker that says either IC, EC1, EC2 for internal and external conflicts.

Then I will take a new color of cards and start jotting down as many possible scene ideas as I can that will show one of those pieces of conflict (one scene per card). I'm not going to judge the validity of the scenes at that time, but just generate the ideas. I'll label them as well regarding conflicts. I'll probably lay the whole book out on the floor so I can try to feed in the ideas for new scenes throughout the book and look for more holes that need feeding.

And then I'll write. A lot. Wish me luck.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Quotes about writing

So it's being a rough night around here in my non-writing life so I thought I'd share some writing quotes.

"Few children learn to read books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word; someone has to show them the way." Orville Prescott

"Don't wait. Writers are the only artists I know who expect to get somewhere by waiting. Everyone knows you have to dance to be a dancer, you have to sing to be a singer, you have to act to be an actor, but far too many people believe that you don't have to write to be a writer. So instead of writing, they wait. Isaac Asminov said it beautifully in just six words "It's the writing that teaches you." Writing is what teaches you. Writing is what leads to inspiration. Writing is what generates ideas. Nothing else-and nothing less." Daniel Quinn, The Story of B

"Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style." Kurt Vonnegut

"I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen." Ernest Hemingway

"If you know some artists or writers, ask them about blank white paper. It is frightening. It scares you because it looks so white with expectation. White to signify hope. White to signify, 'Who do you think you are? Ha!' And white to signify the prizes you're going to win as a result of the drawing or story you put down on the blank white sheet of paper. And sooner or later, when you can’t think of any more errands, when you've gone to the bathroom one time too many, when you've lost your favorite pencil but you didn't do a good job and found it before you were ready and it's between your fingers twitching with anticipation, you touch it to the blank sheet of clean white paper. And it's over. The paper is ruined. The line you drew stinks. The prize goes to someone else. Who deserves it." Jules Feiffer

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." Anna Quindlen

Write on, right now.
Susan

How important is catalog copy?

I'm frustrated. I just got the catalog featuring my new picture book Oliver's Must-Do List. I find the page, nice large photograph of the cover. Nice picture of me. Nice picture of the illustrator. But the copy...oh no. I'm worried about it. Way back when I was going over the copy edits I expressed concern about the flap copy. They suggested I write it how I wanted it to be so I did and, thankfully, that's what they used. But the catalog has the original flap copy that is dry and gives away half of the book. (sigh) If the buyers depend on catalog copy to buy the book I am really worried.

I don't want to be grumpy about this but I can't help it.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Do you feel safe enough to write the truth?

I am rereading The Writer as an Artist an old book by Pat Schneider which she has revised is now available as Writing Alone and With Others. I tend to reread this whenever I'm about to start on a new project because Schneider knows what writers are afraid of and says it's okay and encourages us to write anyone. She gave me current mantra.

"You can write as powerfully as you talk. If you are safe enough."

I love that. It rings quite true for me. For years my writing was okay but not really going places and I know it was because I wasn't digging deep enough to write about the stuff that scares me. I couldn't because I didn't feel safe. It's only now, in a wonderful marriage with the best supportive partner I could hope for that I feel safe enough to visit the dark corners of my mind and write what is real, what hurts. Schneider says that if you can talk, any sense you have of not being able to write is a learned disability, scar tissue that "is a result of accumulated unhelpful responses to your writing."

She also says that, "For the writer, fear arises in exact proportion to the treasure that lies beneath the dragon's feet."

So we need to write toward that fear, past, through, over, kicking and screaming if need be but we need to face the fear, claim it, make it ours so it will reveal the treasure that is our writing, the stories we were meant to tell.

The last novel I finished was my most real yet. The raw kind of real that still makes my stomach lurch when I reread certain scenes and still makes me cry at the end. Now I'm gearing up to do it again. I'm glad I feel safe enough to try and write my truth.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Sometimes you need to know when NOT to write

Rest is good. It has been so long that I felt rested that I almost didn't recognize the feeling. Whenever I finish a big project and the adrenalin fades, I go into a minor panic about the next project (which is still unidentified) and sometimes I just crash because it is finally safe to do so. But what I don't do enough of is to just sit still. Play with the dog. Watch the birds in the yard. Take naps. But I'm trying and I'm learning and I'm liking it. A lot. I no longer fear, as I did when I was younger (gawd, I don't know if I like the sound of that) that I won't be able to write again. I will. And it will be better than the last time but not as good as what comes after. I need to not only fill up the well but simply "be" without a deadline hanging over me. It isn't like I am thinking about taking 6 months off but I push myself so hard that taking a couple of weeks off feels like I am giving up writing all together.

But like I said, I am learning. And now is a time not to write but to rest, to read, to play. The words are there but the characters, thankfully, are whispering among themselves for a time. Life is good.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Why we write

There are days (okay weeks and maybe even months) when all I seem able to do is wallow around in the "if only" ocean, usually after a rejection to a book that I felt was a personal best at that time and was unable to find an editor who loved it enough to champion its cause. And so I wallow for a while and wonder why I bother. And sometimes I try to quit, to think about a life without writing, and the pain I get in my gut at such thought feels worse than I imagine any heart attack would feel. I think I've finally reached the point where I just accept that writing isn't just what I do, it's who I am. The good and the bad is all mixed up and I can't quit even when the market is constantly shrinking and the readers seem unable to find us and when even great editors are choosing to spend their money on advances to celebrity authors instead of on the rest of us.

Sometimes I write to learn about myself and how I feel about things. Sometimes I write in order to hide from who I am, who I think I am, or who I am afraid of becoming. But mostly I write because writing defines me. When I'm not writing, when I'm not in the midst of a project of some kind or another, I don't feel like I really exist. I can walk through the dayjob and do all the right things but it doesn't define me. It's just a job. But when the words race out my fingers and across the screen it's like flipping the switch on Frankenstein's monster and I'm alive.

Now I am trying to be more focused on building a career but I have to admit that it's hard because I love doing it all. (Okay, not so much loving the school visits but I love to speak.) I love writing articles and picture book and novels. I love dreaming up ways to publicize myself and my books. Right now is the most writerly time I can remember thus far in my career. Two books coming out in the next 18 months. Working on revisions for another book. Writing a NF book with a friend. And interest on my photography book about reading. I am immersed in writing activities right now in a way I've never experienced before. And I'm loving it. And feeling more alive and more aligned in my life than I have for quite some time. Now I know I'll have to go down the other side of euphoria hill pretty soon but I'm hoping the high of late will carry me for a while.

I'm sorry for all who doubt that it is worth the time and pain we invest in telling our stories. All I know for sure is that as a lonely, only, and misunderstood child books were the only place I felt safe enough to be myself. They taught me about other possibilities in life outside of what I was living and gave me dreams to work to make come true.

Books have saved me until I was strong enough to save myself.

And to every writer who has ever written something that I have read, I say thank you.

Write on, right now.
Susan

One of those days when I want a "do over"

There are days you just can't or don't want to put into words. Today is one of those days. I feel old, dumb, unmotivated, not very creative, grumpy, not a very nice person, disorganized, and nothing like the writer I want to be. And it's one of those days that you just can't point to one thing and say, there, that's what did it. Instead it was the piling up of all sorts of things that just makes the kind of day you want to forget.

On top of it all, I had blogging nightmares last night. How frigging insane is that? Even for me that is out there. I think it's because I was blog surfing last night and read someone's blog about how someone had told them they weren't blogging right. And immediately my insecurities jumped up full force and screamed at me, "See, I TOLD you there were rules and you're probably not doing it right either." And I wondered why it is that just doing something my way is never good enough for me, no matter what it is? What is it that other people have that allow them to be themselves and be happy with the person that turns out to be? How come other people can play and I simply haven't a clue as to how?

Why is just being me never good enough for me? Or maybe the real question is why am I afraid to be who I am?

Write on, right now.
Susan

You do it because it matters

I still don't have a commitment to what I am going to write next but at least I am thinking more about writing than I am worrying about the layout of a webpage.

A HUGE thank you to Cynthia Lord author of RULES (coming from Scholastic Press, Spring 2006) for syndicating me on her Live Journal. She heard me begging for answers about how to do it on Debbi's Live Journal. It all only goes to show, once again, what I have always known - children's book people are the very best.

Then I reconnected with Haemi Balgassi which just gave me one of those great warm, fuzzy feelings that you just can't get enough of and then she blogged such nice words about my new site. [happy sigh for my wonderful day.]

But back to thinking about writing. A book is rarely finished the first time we think it is. When I first started writing I know that I sent my work out long before it was ready. I didn't have a critique group at the time, I had only taken a couple of classes, and off it went. By the time it came back to me several months later I had taken more classes and suddenly realized how little I knew about the structure of the book I was trying to write. It's frustrating to have to redo something you think is done.

Part of it is learning the craft. And you learn the craft yes by reading, yes by taking classes, but mostly by writing. And writing and writing. It's tough. It's a commitment you have to make. The most successful writers are not always the most talented ones, or even the ones with the most unique ideas. The most successful writers are the ones that write, and continue to write, even in the face of the rejections and the staggering odds of success.

Write every day. Even if it is only a sentence, an idea, a few lines. You need to do this. Sports teams have to practice every day to maintain their stamina and ability. Writing is no different. Truly it isn't. I can tell when I haven't been writing enough. I stumble for the write word. I start doubting what I put down on the page. Writing begets writing.

I read an article about a teacher who asked people why they were in his writing class. Why did they want to write? There was only one correct answer...and that's because you can't help yourself. Because you are not complete, not being true to yourself unless you are writing. Because you need to write as much as you need to eat and to breathe. It sounds funky, but it's true. That's the dedication that it takes to be in this business, and it is a business.

I am not a nice person when I am not writing. My husband knows this. My mother knows this. My friends know this. My children knew this and when they were little and they used to ask me to go to my room and write because I wasn't any fun. Being a writer is a lifestyle choice for many of us. That's how we switch gears....because we have to. I work full time and yet, somehow, I find pockets of time to write. Because I have to.

I write in my head when I walk the dog. I take notes every morning in the half hour it takes me to go through the metering lights to get on the freeway. I send emails from work to home when I have ideas. I don't take lunch in the cafeteria where I will be tempted to visit with people. Instead I bring my lunch and use lunchtime to write or edit. I rarely clean house. I'd rather write.

You do what you have to, because it matters to you. That's just the way it is. And writing matters to me.

Write on, right now.
Susan

The waiting part of the business

It's tough, this waiting things out in the writing business. I write something. I revise it once, twice, maybe three times. I send it to my wonderful critique group and wait for a response. While I'm waiting I find more things I need to revise. Get comments back from group and I revise again. Send it back to group for more feedback. Revise YET again. Then I sit on it for a week even though I am DYING to send it to my agent right away. And don't you know that after a week, when I take another look, there's more revising to do. Finally send it to my agent and wait for her response. Guess what? MORE REVISING to be done. Big surprise. Finally it goes out to publishers and the real waiting begins. Sigh.

It wouldn't be so bad if I was deep into another project but I'm not yet. And my body is exhausted from the big push of the last few months so I know I need to take a couple of weeks to relax and revive myself. But I get grumpy when I'm not writing. I give it three days and my husband will be begging me to go back to work.

Write on, right now,
Susan

What to write next?

Wow - I haven't been in this mode for a long time. After 4 months of working day and night (between the day job and sleep) on the new website (you haven't checked it out yet, how come?), then last night staying up way past my bedtime (I hate those 5 am alarms) to finish my latest article for the Children's Writer Newsletter and now I'm done and have to figure out what writing project to pick up next. Okay, so the house is a mess, the garden needs attention and there are 2 weeks worth of laundry waiting to be done but for the rest of this week I don't care. I am going to go home from work and vegetate, play with my dog, read (yes!) and try to figure out my next book. Is it the jazz book? A MG novel that only has a couple of chapters, 2 characters, and a lot of research books still to be read? Is it the flying book? A YA novel that I have been writing and rewriting for over 15 years. (sad, huh?) Is it another verse novel about my time working with at-risk kids?

Yikes! I don't know. All I know is that my agent doesn't want me to work on picture books right now so of course, that's all I can think about.

Write on, right now.
Susan

Not enough time to write

I suppose I should resign myself to the fact that I will never be caught up in life but it's hard. My head is always bursting with ideas I want to write about, promotional projects I want to try, books I want to read, but there's that darn 24-hour-day to live with and that means something has to give. Sometimes it's sleep, like lately, when I have been trying to go live with the site but often it is a project I really and truly wanted to work on. I guess I need to accept the fact that I will never be able to tell all the stories I want to tell. I could fool myself and say it if I were more organized, if I were home fulltime, if I - fill in the blanks - but in my heart I know that none of that really matters. Thinking about all that depresses me which makes me procrastinate about a bunch of more projects which weighs me down even more.

So I am going back to the goal I have used on and off for a while. I will try to do at least one thing every day to further my writing career. Hopefully more than that but if I can do just one, I'll know I'm taking steps in the right direction. I'd like to say that I will focus more on the journey but knowing myself as I do I imagine that will be tough. But still, one step at a time.

What does that mean for this week? Finishing an article that is due, going through the past 4 months of emails and finding the important ones I missed (and answering them) , working on some publicity for the new picture book, and maybe most importantly, figuring out what the heck it is I want to write next.

Write on, right now.
Susan

New website is finally complete

Okay, 95% complete, but it is just about there and uploaded and ready for viewin at www.susantaylorbrown.com

For the few folks that have been kind enough to read my blog, and comment, I'm sorry for going silent. The website revamping simply had to come to an end. I started it, with the help of my terrific site designer, on 2/15. It is now 6/11. I, silly blonde California girl, thought we would have it done in a month. Ha! Well we could have if I had kept it small but I had big plans and decided to go for it all. The teaching guide database gave us the most trouble but even that is cooperating now.

I have learned that the older I get, the less I can multi-task. I stopped everything while working on this site and now I have to go around and find the pieces of myself that I have left all around. Learn to balance you say? Yeah right. That's not going to happen. But that's okay.

Now it is back to writing and working on publicity for the new picture book and I should probably schedule a day or two to clean house. Hmmm....or I could just go read a book.

Write on, right now.
Susan