Six Minute Story

"If you want to write, read a lot, then write a lot. Write all the time… and never, ever worry if..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:59:53 -0700

“If you want to write, read a lot, then write a lot. Write all the time… and never, ever worry if you’re bad. I’m bad every day. My first drafts are some rough road. You just have to not be afraid of sucking.”

- Maureen Johnson via Shelf Awareness

(from bookish)

"I’ve never met a white writer who ever gets asked questions like, ‘Well, don’t you feel bad about..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:02:26 -0700

“I’ve never met a white writer who ever gets asked questions like, ‘Well, don’t you feel bad about the way you represent white people?’ Guys I’m not representing Dominicans, I’m representing one crazy set of like, what, 11 people? There’s like, what, 12 people in this book? There’s 10 million Dominicans, yo. I just happen to come from a family of crazy people and I think you should be allowed to write about crazy people.”

- Junot Diaz. Everything he says is gold, always. (via paperbackgirl)

Public Radio Name Generator

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:57:25 -0700

Public Radio Name Generator:

babesofnpr:

Always wanted to be a host on public radio but don’t have a name with the punch of Doualy Xaykaothao, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, or Daniel Zwerdling? Not to Worry! Enter your name and we will suggest a new public radio-friendly version.

We LOVE this.

Sincerely, Phoebe Anan-Munoz

Susan Sontag in a bear suit. Via

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:02:13 -0700

Susan Sontag in a bear suit. Via

apoetreflects: “You must become aware of the richness in you...

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:00:05 -0700

apoetreflects:

“You must become aware of the richness in you and come to believe in it and know it is there, so that you can write [or create] opulently and with self-trust. If you once become aware of it and have faith in it, you will be all right.”

—Brenda Ueland

The Writer

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:02:09 -0700

In her room at the prow of the house

Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

Richard Wilbur, from The Mind-Reader (1976)

(via A Poet Reflects)

It's supposed to be hard

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:59:10 -0700

Jimmy Dugan: Shit, Dottie, if you want to go back to Oregon and make a hundred babies, great, I’m in no position to tell anyone how to live. But sneaking out like this, quitting, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. Baseball is what gets inside you. It’s what lights you up, you can’t deny that.

Dottie Hinson: It just got too hard.

Jimmy Dugan: It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.

(From “A League of Their Own”, reminded of this quote by this video on writing by Jackson Pearce)

“Ojibwemowin is also a language of emotions; shades of...

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:39:25 -0700

“Ojibwemowin is also a language of emotions; shades of feeling can be mixed like paints… Ozozamenimaa pertains to a misuse of one’s talents getting out of control. Ozozamichige implies you can still set things right. There are many more kinds of love than there are in English.”

Louise Erdrich on loving and learning Ojibwe, the language of her maternal grandfather.

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 10:57:03 -0700

"Very few people can write in a crowd. This is a very solitary occupation. I have known people more..."

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:01:05 -0700

“Very few people can write in a crowd. This is a very solitary occupation. I have known people more talented than me who never made it. And the primary reason was always that they couldn’t stand to be alone for several hours a day.”

- Tom Robbins

"Getting a Trust Fund: Seriously, this would be a good idea. Befriend somebody’s rich maiden aunt. Or..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:01:30 -0700

“Getting a Trust Fund: Seriously, this would be a good idea. Befriend somebody’s rich maiden aunt. Or marry rich. That would make your future as a writer a bit easier. The good news, for most of the rest of us, those who have chosen our families unwisely and foolishly married for love, is that most of the best writing in the world is produced by poor and desperate people, people who are, perhaps, like you.”

- Bonnie Jo Campbell, for more specific writing advice (and humor) we recommend the rest of her Pep Talk to the graduating MFA class from Pacific University

Photo

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:56:01 -0700

"I don’t really have any advice, other than to say it’s the most appallingly difficult thing I’ve..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:01:18 -0700

“I don’t really have any advice, other than to say it’s the most appallingly difficult thing I’ve ever tried to do and I wish I had a better idea of how to do it.”

- Douglas Adams, on writing

"How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:01:01 -0700

“How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone …”

- Vita Sackville-West

apoetreflects: “I’ve had it with these cheap sons of bitches...

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:06:30 -0700

apoetreflects:

“I’ve had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book.”

—Kenneth Rexroth

"Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:03:13 -0700

“Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.”

- Hemingway’s letter of advice to F. Scott Fitzgerald, a fine addition to other notable advice on writing. (via explore-blog)

Photo

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:59:45 -0700

"What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:01:05 -0700

“What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.”

- David Foster Wallace (via pavorst)

Keep trying that thing (via fuckyeahexistentialism, The Myth of...

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:58:04 -0700

Keep trying that thing (via fuckyeahexistentialism, The Myth of Sisyphus)

(Illustration by Grant Snider, via NYT)

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:28:00 -0700

(Illustration by Grant Snider, via NYT)