Insecurity

The man who jumped off cliffs, and flew.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.

You've got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.

You fail only if you stop writing. 

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

Thank you for the wild rumpus.

R.I.P. Maurice Sendak

Small thoughts from #Muse2012

"I try to write a little bit every day."

This past weekend I attended the Grub Street Muse and the Marketplace writing conference.  I was delighted to catch up with old Grubbie friends, visiting professionals (some I'd spent time with earlier this year, some I hadn't seen in two years), and of course I took in some wonderful sessions covering both the craft of writing and the strategies of publishing.  Keynote speaker Julia Alvarez shared the above cartoon with us, as well as this quote...

She said she starts each day's work with the Mayan weaver’s prayer. She explained that Mayan weavers begin the day with whatever is on hand, whatever thread, whatever dye, and they know that each material may need to be handled differently in order for it to shine best within the final fabric, so there is no set design, nothing pre-planned about the arrangement of the weave when they sit down to the loom each day.  And so, before they begin work, they pray:

“Grant me the intelligence and the patience to find the true pattern.”

I'll share more from the Muse over the next several days, and may you find the true pattern of your writing when you next sit down to work.

One of those days. Several of those days.

Invocation for Beginnings

Define yourself for yourself.

For shame.

Doonesbury, censored. Strips from this week (click to enlarge):

If your local paper won't publish it, find it here: http://www.doonesbury.com/

*Headdesk*

Dear Prestigious Literary Market,

I want to sincerely apologize for sending you the same story twice. Does it help that this version has been revised and polished? I highly doubt it. Do I need to explain the details of how my supposedly-meticulous submissions-tracking system failed me? Surely not.

All I can do to improve matters at this point is NOT email with an apology, thereby adding to your already overflowing inbox.

Thank you for understanding,

Embarrassed Author

Note to self...

Next time you make a commitment to read at least a book a week for a year, maybe you shouldn't read so many books at the same time. And maybe also read shorter books.

Shown:

• The Very Picture of You, by Isabel Wolff (fiction, for my library book club)
• Under the Dome, by Stephen King (fiction, on sale for A DOLLAR, that's like 0.1 cents per page)
• If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, by Robin Black (short stories, on loan from the Grub Street library)
• Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jethá (non-fiction)
• Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer On Writing, by Margaret Atwood (non-fiction)
• John Dies at the End, by David Wong (fiction)
• My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer (short stories)
• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers (self-help, and I'm only a little embarrassed to be reading it)

Not shown (reading on Kindle):

• Zone One, by Colson Whitehead (fiction)
• The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson (fiction)
• Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart (fiction)

So, what are you reading? I need more suggestions because obviously this just isn't enough.

Now I obsessively count the words.

These six-word memoirs found at Unmotherly Insights

I've talked about the six-word form before, focusing in particular on six-word plot summaries for novelists. (How's that for a quick elevator pitch?)

Then there's six-word blog post titles. Heh.

I've thought on previous occasions that my six-word memoir should be:

Married high-school boyfriend. Happily ever after.

(I'm thrilled to say that it still is.)

Now, I have two six-word stories on my fiction blog. And I'd be absolutely delighted if you shared a six-word memoir or fiction piece of your own (or a favorite of someone else's) in the comments of EITHER blog...

Fight your way through.

Poetry. Just because.

Hidden Rose by Emily J. Photography

Sometimes hidden from me

in daily custom and in trust,
so that I live by you unaware

as by the beating of my heart,

suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge

of the thicket, grace and light

where yesterday was only a shade,

and once more I am blessed, choosing

again what I chose before.

-- "The Wild Rose" by Wendell Berry

Younger than 5 years, more than 500 books

As a family, we may have a book problem.

Both my daughter and I have LibraryThing accounts. I've been updating mine lately with my recent reads and some old favorites, but it's not comprehensive... I don't have that kind of time, plus I can't always tell if a book is mine or my husband's (and I can't decide if that matters), plus we have probably a dozen (or more) banker's boxes of books in a storage unit that we try to rotate periodically through our house so I don't even know the full extent of what books we have, and there are overstuffed bookshelves and stacks of books like snowdrifts in every room of our house as it is.

For Serious Girl, though, I thought maybe I could keep track. I signed her up for a lifetime account shortly before her first birthday, and I figured I could input every book she's ever owned and read, and she'd be excited to see how many books that is when she gets older. Cool, right? And she doesn't have nearly as many books as my husband and I do, so it'll be easy to keep up.

I just finished a massive update of Serious Girl's LibraryThing last night. I haven't included all her books, because (like her parents) they are spread out all over the house, but I think I've gotten the majority of them, especially the ones that live in her room, the playroom, and the kitchen (but definitely not the ones in the office/study).

My daughter has over 500 books in the apartment right now. She doesn't turn 5 until April.

I think this might be awesome. But it also might be a sign that we're all going to die in a tremendous paperback avalanche when one of us knocks over the wrong book pile late one night. Or worse.

Maybe I should get my daughter one of those emergency help-line call-button necklaces now...

School's in.

As some of you may already know, I'm now an instructor at Grub Street, Boston's best literary gang. This winter I'm teaching a Teen Writing Camp section called "Generating New Writing" and there are SIX SPACES LEFT in the class! Tell all the Boston teens you know...

You can register for my class at the Grub Street website, and at the top of my blog you'll now see a "current writing courses" page that I will keep updated with course descriptions and appropriate links.

No apples needed. Just bring paper and pen.

Blackout.

Say NO to SOPA and PIPA.

See Cranial Soup for blackout code & FAQs on the SOPA & Protect IP laws.

http://sopastrike.com/#how-to-strike

http://protestsopa.org/