Donald Murray assures us that writing is a tool for personal reflection and insight. “The material for writing is in your head,” he says. “It will be recovered, relived, understood, and shared through writing.”¹

In his book Write to Learn, he continues:

One of the principal reasons that writers write is to relive life. (Donald Murray)²

I’ve heard variations on this. Anaïs Nin, for example, wrote:

We write to heighten our own awareness of life. We write to lure and enchant and console others. We write to serenade our lovers. We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.³

On this same point, Murray expands:

Writing is also rethinking. When we write a personal experience we re-experience it and have the opportunity to give it a shape and meaning that may not have been apparent the first time around.⁴

Patrice Gopo, too, mentions this “meaning-making on the page” in my 2018 interview with her. Through writing essays, she finds connections and makes sense of situations, scenes, and self.⁵

Expressive writing and writing as expression has transformed me, as well.

I write to serve, to inspire, to inform readers. But I also maintain a personal writing practice, to relive life—to taste life twice—and make meaning of it, memory by memory, line by line, word by word.

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Footnotes

1. Murray, Donald M. (1984). Write to learn. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (p.19).
2. Ibid.
3. “Anaïs Nin – We Write to Taste Life Twice.” Byron’s Muse, 24 June 2018, byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2018/06/24/anais-nin-we-write-to-taste-life-twice/.
4. Murray, Donald M. (1984). Write to learn. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (p.19).
5. Kroeker, Ann. “Patrice Gopo on Meaning Making on the Page and Studying the Craft.” Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach, 6 Nov. 2018, annkroeker.com/2018/11/06/ep-173-interview-patrice-gopo-meaning-making-on-the-page-and-studying-the-craft/.

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Writing gets our words into the world.

Writing helps us impact readers.

Writing conveys ideas.

But there’s something else about writing…Ruth Vaughn explains it well in her book Write to Discover Yourself:

I am convinced that writing creatively is a beautiful and rewarding experience for discovering one’s self. For writing is one of the most forceful ways of learning, perceiving, maturing, expanding. (Ruth Vaughn)¹

This.

This is why I became a writer.

This is why I coach writers.

While I delight in helping writers move toward their publishing goals, I love it most when, through writing, they sort through life and better understand themselves. Every new insight adds depth to their words. Every new truth enlivens their work. They are more thoughtful, more precise, more whole.

Writing has forcefully unlocked my emotions over the years and helped me sort out truth. I found Ruth’s book Write to Discover Yourself at the library while browsing the shelves as a teenager. I brought it home, hid in my room, and worked through each of the writing exercises, scratching out my heart in a spiral-bound notebook..

“Page after page,” I write in On Being a Writer, “the author encouraged me to continue being specific, to use concrete details and metaphor. I poured out stories from my little world.”²

Ruth’s book urged me to discover myself through journaling, through writing creatively. I explain: “Digging into yourself requires a depth of honest that is painful, the author said, but imperative. She quoted a professor who said a writer ‘is the person with his skin off.’ This is how I began to decipher my life. On the pages of a journal, I wrote with my skin off—bare, vulnerable.”³

Is this why you write? To learn, perceive, mature, expand? To decipher life and discover yourself?

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Footnotes

1. Write to Discover Yourself, by Ruth Vaughn, Doubleday, 1980, out of print (p. 2).
2. On Being a Writer, by Charity Singleton Craig & Ann Kroeker, T. S. Poetry Press, 2014 (p. 92)
3. Ibid.

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It’s tempting to comment on whatever is hot and trending—to hashtag our way to visibility.

It’s harder to spot what others miss…to care about it, to bear witness. It’s important to pay attention to what others pass by…to see it, capture it, describe it.

James Baldwin knew this, practiced this. He wrote:

“The importance of a writer is continuous…His importance, I think, is that he is here to describe things which other people are too busy to describe.” (James Baldwin)¹

In On Being a Writer, the book I wrote with Charity Singleton Craig, we included a chapter titled Notice.

I wrote, “These days, attention and curiosity work together in my writing life as I notice and wonder.”²

One of the assignments in that chapter pointed out:

Some of us need to train ourselves to see, to be attentive, to listen and sense hints of deeper meaning. Once we begin to notice the things that stand out for whatever reason (sometimes we don’t know why), we need to capture and record what we notice.³

We invited readers to notice and capture at least three things each day to train themselves to be more attentive. Later, in reviewing those notes, they can connect that which drew their attention to other, similar, sights, sounds, and smells—and describe it all in more detail.

Writers take those few extra beats to do what other people are too busy to do.

We describe, so others can see, hear, and smell it, too…and be changed.

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Footnotes

1. Popova, M. (2016, October 22). James Baldwin on Freedom and How We Imprison Ourselves. Retrieved December 18, 2020, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/05/09/james-baldwin-freedom/
2. Kroeker, Ann, and Charity Singleton Craig. On Being a Writer. T.S. Poetry Press, 2014. p. 49
3. Kroeker, Ann, and Charity Singleton Craig. On Being a Writer. T.S. Poetry Press, 2014. p. 53-54

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“The secret of good writing is telling the truth.”
— Gordon Lish

Source: Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press, which cites the source as a Dick Cavett television interview, Aug. 25, 1991.

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52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Gordon Lish: The secret of good writing appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Eudora Welty, in her book One Writer’s Beginnings, recalls the striking of clocks and a gyroscope her father “kept in a black buckram box, which he would set dancing for us on a string pulled tight” (Welty 3). She remembers a summer trip in her family’s “five-passenger Oakland touring car,” with her mother’s hat riding over the children’s heads in the back seat, suspended overhead in a pillowcase. “This was 1917 or 1918; a lady couldn’t expect to travel without a hat” (43).

It was a simpler, slower time and place. She describes her grandparents’ springhouse and the stern librarian, Mrs. Calloway. She shares the chorus to a favorite hymn, “Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else would help, Love lifted me!” It would send her leaping, she said (31).

She learned through her work as a storyteller, that “[w]riting a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer’s own life…. Connections slowly emerge” (90).

Welty begins to wonder if writing fiction allows her to see people as “greater mysteries” than she first thought:

Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists. The strands are all there: to the memory nothing is ever really lost. (90)

Her autobiography lacks the controversy and conflict we’ve come to expect from today’s memoirists. But her upbringing formed a foundation of listening and seeing that helped her unearth meaning from the smallest scenes of human experience.

She concludes the entire book satisfied to have lived boldly despite her quiet beginnings: “As you have seen,” she says, “I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within” (104).

Your own life may contain controversy and conflict that provides rich content for modern readers. Or, your life may be comprised of a simpler, subtler, more sheltered sequence of events.

Either way, the words come from you—from within.

Either way, take that word from Welty as a dare to write.

If life has been filled with strife, dare to write. If life seems small and sheltered, dare to write. Write nonfiction, write fiction. It’s a way to discover sequence in experience—to stumble upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer’s own life, as she says.

Write as big and bold as you can. Take the dare to write it all down. It’s a writer’s way of living on the edge, because all serious daring starts from within.

* * *

Source: Welty, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1984. Print. (Affiliate link: One Writer’s Beginnings)

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It’s easy to feel you don’t have enough talent to succeed as a writer. Words seem to flow effortlessly from that blogger you admire, while you stare at the screen for hours with only two sentences to show for it.

You second-guess everything: your ideas, your drafts, yourself. On overcast days, when rain smacks the windows and the gloom settles in, you conclude you simply aren’t gifted at writing. You shut your notebook and decide to just leave it to the experts.

My friend, take heart. To succeed, you need more than talent anyway—you must persevere. I’ve seen many talented writers unable to push through Resistance, fear, and self-doubt.

But you? You can do it. You can press through to do the work. You can tap into grit and learn to increase it.

As I’ve said in my post about my five writing strengths, I may not have been born with the greatest writing talent, but I’ve stuck with it. I work to improve and learn from mistakes, forging ahead a little smarter, wiser, and more skillful.

Louise DeSalvo, in her book The Art of Slow Writing, has observed some of the same strengths in writers she’s coached or taught:

In working with writers, I’ve learned it’s not talent that gets books written, it’s hard, slow, steady work. But it’s not only hard work—almost every student I’ve taught works hard. It’s learning to understand that the process of writing isn’t linear but filled with peaks and valleys; that sometimes we don’t know what we’re doing but we need to work anyway; that we must stay...we must have tenacity when we feel like walking away from a project. (115, The Art of Slow Writing)

When you feel like snapping shut your laptop and walking away, stay put. When you aren’t sure where you’re going or what you’re doing, work anyway.

You can forge ahead through the unfamiliar, unknown tasks and processes and emerge smarter, wiser, and more skillful. Be tenacious. Stick with it. Do the hard, slow steady work of writing. And never, never, never give up.

Resources:

• Writers: Never, Never, Never Give Up
• One Thing Every Writer Needs to Succeed (podcast ep 21)
• How Writers Increase Grit (podcast ep 22)
• Resistance and Self-Loathing (from Steven Pressfield)
• The Art of Slow Writing, by Louise DeSalvo (affiliate link)

Source: DeSalvo, Louise. The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014. Print. [p. 115]

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___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post It’s Not Talent That Gets Books Written appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

So much of my growth as a writer has happened in the context of community. For years I tried to figure things out on my own, attending writing conferences and reading books to learn about the publishing world. This was during the 1990s, in the earliest days of the Internet, when websites were static pages and “You’ve Got Mail” was music to our ears.

After years of slogging away on my own, my writing started to flourish when I found people online who, like me, were trying to figure out the writing life. Blogging gained traction and we recommended writers on our blogrolls or we’d click through to visit people via link parties and blog hops. Whether we could voice it at the time or not, I suspect we all sought some level of support and connection and found ourselves delighted to discover it right at our fingertips.

We published stories, reflections, and personal essays,  and we took time to read each other’s work. We slipped into comment boxes to respond to someone’s words. We would find inspiration to write on a similar theme and point back to the original source so readers could find more writers and dig even deeper into a topic.

We promoted each other, shared resources, celebrated successes, and commiserated when needed. We consistently helped and applauded each other. In so doing, I suspect many of us began to view ourselves and our own work as a writer with more joy and excitement, living out what Louise DeSalvo expressed so well in her book The Art of Slow Writing:

I believe that our own work will flourish if we find the support we need, but also if we consistently help other writers throughout our writing lives. And not only because we can then count on a coterie of people to give us help when we need it, but also because if we’re not generous to others, we can’t possibly be generous to ourselves. (p. 110)

The Internet looks a bit different than it did when I was mingling with fellow bloggers in our online spaces. Blogging communities exist, but they seem a bit different than in those early days. Collaborative blogs offer a way to connect, as do Facebook groups and organizations that encourage and nurture rich discussion in their comment threads. We can still find each other. We can still encourage one another. We can still commiserate, celebrate, and connect. We can be generous in countless ways.

Join someone’s book launch team or a Facebook group for writers. Find a collaborative blog and regularly visit to read, encourage, and support the writers in that space. Share the link to an essay contest with the people in your writing group. Recommend a writer to an editor or agent.

However we go about it, this principle seems like the best way to approach our writing lives: help other writers in any way we can. When we do what we can to encourage and support others, as DeSalvo says, we’ll likely find the support we’re hoping for as well.

Source: DeSalvo, Louise. The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014. Print. [p. 110]

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes
_________________________________

Is your writing life all it can be?

Let this book act as your personal coach, to explore the writing life you already have and the writing life you wish for, and close the gap between the two.

“A genial marriage of practice and theory. For writers new and seasoned. This book is a winner.”

—Phil Gulley, author of Front Porch Tales

The post Our Work Will Flourish When We Consistently Help Others appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

I recommend to all storytellers a watchful attitude and a thoughtful, careful choice of adjectives and adverbs, because the bakery shop of English is rich beyond belief, and narrative prose, particularly if it’s going a long distance, needs more muscle than fat. (45)

Write freely in draft mode. Get the story out without fretting over how many adjectives you grabbed to describe your fifth-grade teacher or how many adverbs you tacked onto verbs used to show characters fighting for life in a dystopian city you’ve used as the setting of your next short story. Type up scenes without worrying about style or “jazziness.” Write without fear of editors or grammar nazis. Get the words down while the story pounds through your mind, before the pulsing energy subsides.

But when you’ve captured that first draft and you’re moving into revision mode, take Strunk & White’s classic advice to “omit needless words.” You don’t want to weigh down your final draft. Revise so your next iteration is lean. If you resist Hemingway-lean, at least avoid producing stories slathered with icing and covered in sprinkles.

Let nouns and verbs do the heavy lifting, instead, as writing teachers like to say. To minimize the need for clarifying adjectives, use specific nouns like Tesla instead of car, and terrier instead of dog. Turn to strong, active verbs like punch, fling, and waltz, which may not need an adverb to clarify the mood of a character or the tone of a scene.

No one is ordering us to leave out all adverbs or cut all adjectives. Only to keep a “watchful attitude” as we choose from all possible words to convey our ideas and tell our stories.

“I recommend to all storytellers a watchful attitude and a thoughtful, careful choice of adjectives and adverbs, because the bakery shop of English is rich beyond belief, and narrative prose, particularly if it’s going a long distance, needs more muscle than fat.”

–Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering the Craft (45)

Many memorable Ursula Le Guin quotes can be found in Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story). 

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Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post On the careful choice of adjectives and adverbs appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2017/01/06/careful-use-adjectives-adverbs/feed/ 0 https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/23/longfellow-heard-bells-christmas-day/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/23/longfellow-heard-bells-christmas-day/#respond Fri, 23 Dec 2016 13:00:00 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23639   I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men! –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Source: “Christmas Bells,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

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I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Source: “Christmas Bells,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

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]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/23/longfellow-heard-bells-christmas-day/feed/ 0 https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/16/want-to-shine-on-paper-write-your-clearest-truest-words/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/16/want-to-shine-on-paper-write-your-clearest-truest-words/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2016 17:13:00 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23657 Few people will author a bestseller, speak at conferences, or accept a Pulitzer Prize. Most of us will work steadily over the years, faithfully putting down word after word as best we can. We’ll try to stay focused and motivated. We’ll chew our fingernails, suck down countless cups of coffee or tea, attend more conferences than we […]

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Few people will author a bestseller, speak at conferences, or accept a Pulitzer Prize.

Most of us will work steadily over the years, faithfully putting down word after word as best we can. We’ll try to stay focused and motivated. We’ll chew our fingernails, suck down countless cups of coffee or tea, attend more conferences than we can afford, and check our inbox every ten minutes to see if the editor we queried has sent a response.

Some of us will lose hope. We’ll quit our novel halfway through. We’ll delete our short story. We’ll burn our journals. We’ll quit our writing group and sell our copy of the Chicago Manual of Style.

If that’s you, I hope you’ll realize not long after the embers cool from the night of journal-burning that you want to write after all. Regardless of the outcome. Regardless of outside affirmation. Regardless of negative reviews or the silence in the comments section at your blog or the “no” you heard from yet another editor, I hope you wake up tomorrow, pour a cup of coffee, open a new journal or Word document or fresh spiral-bound notebook and start again.

And as you sit there with your coffee, I hope you realize you’ve learned more about yourself and your craft over the years than you ever imagined. By writing regularly and taking the risk to send your work out, you’ve grown. You’ve tried to be honest and real instead of mimicking others or chasing commercial gain. You’ve tried to open your heart to your readers—wondering sometimes if you have more than one reader—and you’ll realize you’re ready to write for those readers again.

You know what? Don’t wait until tomorrow.

Start today.

Today, let’s flip open our journals or notebooks or laptops and scratch or tap out a few more paragraphs of our works-in-progress. Let’s write another blog post, another article, another poem, another chapter in that book.

No one said it would be easy. We have to wake up and do it anyway. Let’s keep showing up with our life experience and writing ability and heart and passion and understanding, and let’s do the work.

Anne Lamott wrote in Bird by Bird:

[I]f you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. (235)

Today, write the clearest and truest words you can find. If you do, you are living the writing life, doing the work of a writer. As Anne says, if any of us writes to the best of our ability, doing our best to understand and communicate, our work will shine “like its own little lighthouse.”

Today, please write. Your words, like a lighthouse, may help someone find his way home.

* * *

[I]f you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. –Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Source: Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. Print. (235)

___________________________________________

Is your writing life all it can be?

 

Let this book act as your personal coach, to explore the writing life you already have and the writing life you wish for, and close the gap between the two.

“A genial marriage of practice and theory. For writers new and seasoned. This book is a winner.”

—Phil Gulley, author of Front Porch Tales

The post Want to shine on paper? Write your clearest, truest words appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/16/want-to-shine-on-paper-write-your-clearest-truest-words/feed/ 2 https://annkroeker.com/2016/12/02/the-slow-writing-advantage-in-a-fast-paced-world/ Fri, 02 Dec 2016 13:00:00 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23561 There’s a time to write fast. Just ask any journalist, blogger, or college student. But to improve our skills—or any given manuscript—we may want to stop rushing. When we slow down, we give ourselves the advantage of producing our best possible work. In her book The Art of Slow Writing, Louise DeSalvo claims that by […]

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There’s a time to write fast. Just ask any journalist, blogger, or college student.

But to improve our skills—or any given manuscript—we may want to stop rushing. When we slow down, we give ourselves the advantage of producing our best possible work.

In her book The Art of Slow Writing, Louise DeSalvo claims that by taking our time with writing, we can improve our craft, think more deeply about our ideas and stories, and release creativity in ways that fast-paced, quick-turnaround writing cannot:

Beginning—and even accomplished—writers often expect to complete an essay in a few weeks, a book in a year…Yet the best writing grows by accretion, over time…Taking time prevents us from writing knee-jerk responses to challenging material. It encourages us to reflect upon, and express, the complexity of our subjects. It allows us to understand that creating fine work can only be achieved by a slow, consistent dedication to our craft. (xi, xii)

Our speed-driven world, she says, expects immediate responses via instant messages, social media, and email, which, “innocuous as it seems, shifts our attitude to time so we might begin to value only that which happens quickly. It can also rob us of our precious writing time—a writer friend having difficulty completing a book discovered she’d written more than three thousand words in e-mails in one day” (xvii).

Bestselling writers feel pushed by publishers to spit out books at an unrealistic rate. She cited Lisa Scottoline’s schedule, necessary to produce two books a year (as reported in an article in The New York Times): “2,000 words a day, seven days a week, usually ‘starting at 9 a.m. and going until Colbert.’”

“Publishers,” DeSalvo writes, “now act as if writing is the same as typing” (xvii-xviii).

What if, instead of racing through the work to get it out there and get known more quickly (“I don’t want to get left behind!”), we built in steps to help us grow as writers? What if, instead of slamming out a draft and calling it a final version, we spent time reading it aloud, revising, requesting input from a writing partner, instructor, editor, or coach? What if we studied techniques and stretched ourselves with creative writing exercises?

DeSalvo recommends deliberate practice to improve our strengths and “remediate our shortcomings” (35). She outlines methods from Geoff Colvin and Daniel Coyle for improving our craft—using their ideas for deliberate and deep practice, we can do things like create a self-study program that pushes us out of our comfort zone and helps us avoid telling the same stories in the same ways. We can analyze passages from writers who model excellent craft in areas where we’re weak. We can pick apart their transitions and observe how they construct their sentences and paragraphs. We can practice, day by day, inventing exercises and activities that improve our technique.

“It takes daily, deliberate practice to become a proficient writer,” DeSalvo writes (37).

She cites Howard Gardner’s Creating Minds that states “a decade of concentrated study and practice ‘heightens the likelihood of a major breakthrough’ in our work.” A decade. That’s a long-range view, a slowed-down approach—a healthy perspective for writers who rush headlong into the work and then feel tempted to give up when they don’t see quick results.

Don’t give up! Everything you write, regardless of its “success,” is contributing to the ten years’ growth.

Some writers will publish their work during those ten years, building a platform along the way; others will write privately and wait until they feel they’ve arrived at a certain level of proficiency before submitting to publications. All writers will improve over time if they embrace a slower, deliberate mindset. Recognizing that our best work may come years after we begin might feel discouraging at first, but it can be exciting as we look ahead with the pleasure of knowing our work now is building toward something even better.

With so many programs offering quick results, it’s easy to wonder why one writer isn’t seeing the same fast-track success as another.

Author Sue Grafton believes more writers could achieve success if they developed their capacity to endure. “‘[S]o many people have the ability but they can’t withstand the long apprenticeship that every artist must go through’…. Too often beginning writers ‘get discouraged and disheartened and give up way too prematurely.'” But ‘if they…can hang in there long enough to learn their craft, they might be fine writers'” (58).

DeSalvo’s message is to slow down, hang in there, work hard. Learn your craft and you may indeed become a successful writer, turning out your best work.

Source: DeSalvo, Louise. The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014. Print. [p. (xii)]

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Is every hour rush hour at your house?

Explore the jarring effects of our overcommitted culture and find refreshing alternatives for a more meaningful family and spiritual life.

Find a pace that frees your family to flourish.

“Not So Fast is a gift to every reader who takes the time to slow down and breathe in its pages.”

—Lee Strobel, best-selling author of The Case for Christ

The post The Slow-Writing Advantage in a Fast-Paced World appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/17/eleanor-roosevelt-none-us-can-afford-stop-learning/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/17/eleanor-roosevelt-none-us-can-afford-stop-learning/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2016 04:06:11 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23536 Eleanor Roosevelt nurtured an active, curious mind. She believed that “living and learning must go hand in hand,” and her philosophy played out in life and in print. She wrote about curiosity itself and about things that reflected her curiosity. “This part of learning—learning as you go—gives life its salt. And this, too, comes back primarily […]

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]]> Eleanor Roosevelt nurtured an active, curious mind. She believed that “living and learning must go hand in hand,” and her philosophy played out in life and in print. She wrote about curiosity itself and about things that reflected her curiosity.

“This part of learning—learning as you go—gives life its salt. And this, too, comes back primarily to interest. You must be interested in anything that comes your way” (16).

This mindset is an asset for any person, especially a writer. Be interested in anything that comes your way. Pay attention. Ask questions. Dig deeper. Seek to understand.

Never, perhaps, have any of us needed as much as we do today to use all the curiosity we have, needed to seek new knowledge, needed to realize that no knowledge is terminal…. None of us can afford to stop learning or to check our curiosity about new things, or to lose our humility in the face of new situations. (16)

She urged people not to shy away from something that presents itself; instead, face it head-on.

We cannot say, “I have learned all I need to know; my opinions are fixed on everything. I refuse to change or to consider these new things.” Not today. Not any more. (16)

This growth mindset can keep us engaged with the world—with people—as we look around and try to grasp the meaning of whatever new thing we face, whatever new idea we encounter.

Eleanor wrote:

If you can develop this ability to see what you look at, to understand its meaning, to readjust your knowledge to this new information, you can continue to learn and to grow as long as you live and you’ll have a wonderful time doing it. (22)

Let’s look around with humility and curiosity to see, understand, and readjust, as needed…so we can learn and grow—and have a wonderful time doing it.

“None of us can afford to stop learning or to check our curiosity about new things, or to lose our humility in the face of new situations.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living

Source: Roosevelt, Eleanor. You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960. Print. [p. 16]

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Eleanor Roosevelt: None of us can afford to stop learning appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/17/eleanor-roosevelt-none-us-can-afford-stop-learning/feed/ 2 https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/09/mary-pipher-quote-writers-can-unite-people-divide/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/09/mary-pipher-quote-writers-can-unite-people-divide/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2016 14:32:03 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23507 Writers can unite people or divide them. Let’s use our words well to inspire a kinder, fairer, more beautiful world. Let’s be part of the clean-up team. “Language imparts identity, meaning, and perspective to our human community. Writers are either polluters or part of the clean-up team. Just as the language of power and greed […]

The post Mary Pipher quote: Writers can unite people or divide them appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> Writers can unite people or divide them.

Let’s use our words well to inspire a kinder, fairer, more beautiful world. Let’s be part of the clean-up team.

“Language imparts identity, meaning, and perspective to our human community. Writers are either polluters or part of the clean-up team. Just as the language of power and greed has the potential to destroy us the language of reason and empathy has the power to save us. Writers can inspire a kinder, fairer, more beautiful world, or incite selfishness, stereotyping, and violence. Writers can unite people or divide them.”

— Mary Pipher, Writing to Change the World

Source: Pipher, Mary. Writing to Change the World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2006. Print. [p. 14]

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Mary Pipher quote: Writers can unite people or divide them appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/09/mary-pipher-quote-writers-can-unite-people-divide/feed/ 3 https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/04/bradbury-quote-without-gusto-without-love-without-fun-you-are-only-half-a-writer/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/04/bradbury-quote-without-gusto-without-love-without-fun-you-are-only-half-a-writer/#respond Fri, 04 Nov 2016 08:30:41 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23380 In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury warns us not to get distracted by the commercial market or by experimental, avant-garde work, because most likely we are veering from our true self and the writing most suited to our passions and opinions. He says the writer must be excited. “He should be a thing […]

The post Bradbury Quote: without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury warns us not to get distracted by the commercial market or by experimental, avant-garde work, because most likely we are veering from our true self and the writing most suited to our passions and opinions.

He says the writer must be excited. “He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it’d be better for his health” (4).

I know sometimes a writer can get in a slump. Life gets hard. We’re exhausted. We feel overwhelmed, depressed, blocked. We can feel like half a writer.

But what if we can tap into that energy Bradbury talks about? What if we write spontaneously about things we love and hate, things that delight and irritate—without second-guessing ourselves? What if we get it all out without worrying about how it will be received or if we are edgy enough or how well it sells? Can we write with that level of freedom and openness?

Let’s try it. Let’s make ourselves laugh and cry with the stories we tell, the memories we drag up, the events we relive, the words we put down.

Write fiction and essays, poetry and blog posts, op-eds and letters to the editor—anything you like, whatever strikes your fancy. Get it down while you’re feeling the energy. Write with gusto. Write with zest.

Write with love.

And for heaven’s sake, have some fun with it. Yes, write with fun.

“[I]f you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.”

— Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Bradbury, Ray. Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1989. Print. (Library) [p. 4]

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Bradbury Quote: without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/11/04/bradbury-quote-without-gusto-without-love-without-fun-you-are-only-half-a-writer/feed/ 0 https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/21/writing-quote-ray-bradbury-art-can-revitalize-us/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/21/writing-quote-ray-bradbury-art-can-revitalize-us/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2016 13:26:49 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23368 In the preface to Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury explores what writing teaches us. He says that more than anything, it “reminds us that we are alive.” In the midst of draining, depressing, stressful days, writing—which Bradbury broadens to “our art”—helps restore life to us. It’s a way to regain stability after getting knocked flat by […]

The post Writing Quote: Ray Bradbury on How Art Can Revitalize Us appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> In the preface to Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury explores what writing teaches us.

He says that more than anything, it “reminds us that we are alive.”

In the midst of draining, depressing, stressful days, writing—which Bradbury broadens to “our art”—helps restore life to us. It’s a way to regain stability after getting knocked flat by the death of a loved one or staring in disbelief at the doctor delivering the diagnosis.

If we were to expand the list of loss and suffering, it would never end. “The list is endless and crushing if we do not creatively oppose it,” he says. Writing pushes back against the darkness; it fights back and gives us hope that we can find a way to press in and through whatever we come up against.

Is writing therapy? Bradbury resists that word (“too clean, too sterile”).

Instead, he means “writing as cure,” revitalizing us in the midst of it all.

Writing cannot save us, but it can energize us. We write; therefore, we are alive.

“So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.”

— Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Bradbury, Ray. Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1989. Print. (Library) (p. xii)

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Writing Quote: Ray Bradbury on How Art Can Revitalize Us appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/21/writing-quote-ray-bradbury-art-can-revitalize-us/feed/ 2 https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/14/if-you-are-struggling-with-what-you-should-be-writing-look-at-your-scraps/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/14/if-you-are-struggling-with-what-you-should-be-writing-look-at-your-scraps/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2016 22:36:52 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23340 Sometimes it’s hard to know what to write about, what your “brand” is, or what topics and themes can hold your interest over time. What should you be writing? To figure that out, it helps to pay attention to the ideas and issues you’re drawn to. I’ve suggested before that keeping “five fat files,” whether physical or virtual, can be […]

The post Writing Quote: If you are struggling with what you should be writing, look at your scraps appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> Sometimes it’s hard to know what to write about, what your “brand” is, or what topics and themes can hold your interest over time. What should you be writing?

To figure that out, it helps to pay attention to the ideas and issues you’re drawn to. I’ve suggested before that keeping “five fat files,” whether physical or virtual, can be one way to collect information focused on things you care about, think about, research, and read about. The five fat files are a purposeful, intentional way to deepen your understanding over time and start to “own” that content, increasing your bank of knowledge and expertise.

Another idea comes from author and literary agent Betsy Lerner, author of The Forest for the Trees. She says, Look at your scraps.

Look at the lines you write in journals, the poems you pen in the margins of a manuscript, maybe the witty tweet or thoughtful Facebook update that reflects your personality and preferences.

You may discover your best themes and subject matter—the things “you should be grappling with as a writer”—hidden in plain sight.

“If you are struggling with what you should be writing, look at your scraps. Encoded there are the themes and subjects that you should be grappling with as a writer.”

— Betsy Lerner

Source: Lerner, Betsy. The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers. New York: Riverhead, 2000. Print. (p. 24)

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

___________________________________

Is your writing life all it can be?

 

Let this book act as your personal coach, to explore the writing life you already have and the writing life you wish for, and close the gap between the two.

“A genial marriage of practice and theory. For writers new and seasoned. This book is a winner.”

—Phil Gulley, author of Front Porch Tales

The post Writing Quote: If you are struggling with what you should be writing, look at your scraps appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/10/14/if-you-are-struggling-with-what-you-should-be-writing-look-at-your-scraps/feed/ 4 https://annkroeker.com/2016/07/15/every-death-like-burning-library-alex-haley-quote/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/07/15/every-death-like-burning-library-alex-haley-quote/#respond Fri, 15 Jul 2016 21:07:13 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=23073 Ask. Listen. Capture the stories. Every death is like the burning of a library. — Alex Haley Source: Pipher, Mary. Writing to Change the World. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print. (p. 41) Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes Image design by Isabelle Kroeker. ___________________________________ Is your writing life all it can be?   Let this book […]

The post Every death is like the burning of a library – Alex Haley quote appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> Ask.

Listen.

Capture the stories.

Every death is like the burning of a library.

— Alex Haley

Source: Pipher, Mary. Writing to Change the World. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print. (p. 41)

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

___________________________________

Is your writing life all it can be?

 

Let this book act as your personal coach, to explore the writing life you already have and the writing life you wish for, and close the gap between the two.

“A genial marriage of practice and theory. For writers new and seasoned. This book is a winner.”

—Phil Gulley, author of Front Porch Tales

The post Every death is like the burning of a library – Alex Haley quote appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]> https://annkroeker.com/2016/07/15/every-death-like-burning-library-alex-haley-quote/feed/ 0 https://annkroeker.com/2016/04/08/dont-ever-lose-your-sense-of-wonder/ https://annkroeker.com/2016/04/08/dont-ever-lose-your-sense-of-wonder/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2016 12:00:20 +0000 https://annkroeker.com/?p=22520 How’s your sense of wonder these days? Do you stop and stare at the sunrise? Would you marvel at a squirrel’s acrobatics? When’s the last time you studied a crocus poking through winter’s last snowfall? The past few weeks, I’ve been revisiting my first book, re-reading it closely as I prepare to release a revised edition. For the book, […]

The post Don’t Ever Lose Your Sense of Wonder appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

]]>

How’s your sense of wonder these days? Do you stop and stare at the sunrise? Would you marvel at a squirrel’s acrobatics? When’s the last time you studied a crocus poking through winter’s last snowfall?

The past few weeks, I’ve been revisiting my first book, re-reading it closely as I prepare to release a revised edition. For the book, I interviewed a group of moms, asking about their faith and their family, to include their responses in each chapter. My friend Trish said this:

My daughter, Sabrina, helps me see the majestic in the mundane. We were walking up to the post office to mail some presents, and I couldn’t wait for vacation, to get to the mountains and get some good-looking scenery. I was focused far ahead and not focused on the present. As Sabrina was walking up, she gasped and said in a hushed voice, “Mommy, look! There’s a sea of diamonds!” This was a revelation to me. I started noticing, and you know, the glistening snow really is a sea of diamonds! What a blessing to have this child in my life; I would never have seen it otherwise.

How do we let ourselves be surprised like that? How do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?

I think one way is to develop—or redevelop—our sense of wonder.

Maybe you made it to adulthood still full of childlike delight, optimism, and imagination. If so, capitalize on the energy that flows from that free and fanciful way of interacting with the world. It’ll feed your imagination and fuel your creativity. With optimism and delight, you’ll find ways to maintain a sense of wonder.

But guard yourself, lest you start speeding up to the pace of our culture, moving too fast to notice the beauty right in front you, to listen to the music of the mockingbird, or to smell the hyacinths blooming by the mailbox. Guard yourself, or over time you may lose that sense of wonder.

The good news is that all of us, even those who are a bit distracted or jaded, can start paying closer attention. Look back at what Trish said. At the post office that day, she was focused on the future, not on the present. Sabrina helped her notice the beauty right at her feet—to see the majestic in the mundane.

Trish engaged her senses. She slowed down. She paid attention. By seeing what her daughter saw, Trish had eyes to see. A little child led her.

I turned into my driveway the other day and saw the magnolia tree bejeweled with magenta blossoms poised to unfurl.

“A tree of sapphires.” I remembered Sabrina’s gaze at a snow-covered parking lot littered with diamonds.

I slowed down to take it in. I engaged my senses. I paid attention.

Because I don’t ever want to lose my sense of wonder.

A man who has lost his sense of wonder is a man dead.

— William of Saint Thierry

Source: Talbot, John Michael, with Steve Rabey. The Lessons of St. Francis. New York: Dutton, 1997. 181. Print.

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Photo and image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

_________________________________

Are the demands of motherhood keeping you from a rich relationship with God?

With ideas from mothers in all seasons of life, this book offers creative, practical, and enjoyable suggestions to help you discover how a passionate relationship with God is possible in the midst of motherhood.

“The Contemplative Mom gives busy, loving, kid-centered mothers permission to rest, like a tired child, in God’s strong arms. An important book.”

—Rachael and Larry Crabb, authors and speakers

The post Don’t Ever Lose Your Sense of Wonder appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

She tried responding, “I’m writing a book-length lyric essay” and “…a work of creative non-fiction,” but those answers sounded pretentious to her. She tried mumbling, “…a memoirish-type thing.” That seemed incoherent.

Then she landed on it.

“I’m writing an Inquiry.”

She elaborated:

Everything I’ve ever written might be described as an inquiry. My novels all begin with questions – though these questions may not be ones I can articulate when I begin…The memoir aspects of Still Writing were an inquiry into what was formative for me as a writer. And now my questions have evolved into ones about marriage and time.

She says, “I write in order to discover what I don’t yet know.”

This idea has been expressed in different ways by different people. Today, I’m sharing American historian Daniel Boorstin’s version:

“I write to discover what I think.”

Essayists write for this reason. So do researchers and historians as well as many writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.

We can all approach at least some of our writing as inquiries, starting with a question that sends us off to read, write, think, discover.

A rich explanation for what writing can do…don’t you think?

I write to discover what I think.

— Daniel Boorstin

Source: Trimble, John R. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing, Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 166. Print.

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Boorstin – I Write to Discover What I Think appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Why is this dragging? What’s slowing it down? How can I switch things up to keep the plot moving?

Curiosity raises questions that guide me to solutions for a work-in-progress, and curiosity reveals stimulating new topics, themes, and ideas to explore in the next project.

With a healthy dose of curiosity, a writer will overcome hurdles and never be without ideas…at least not for long.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

— Ellen Parr

Source: Quote Investigator, HT Trisha Mugo

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

The post Writing Quote: The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

He told stories of his work as an undertaker, how he stood with families during powerful moments of grief, loss, and final farewells.

He spoke of how our culture needs to value and care for people at the end of life as much as we value and care for people at the beginning of life.

And he suggested that writers have an important role similar to that of the undertaker: to witness and keep track.

As writers, we can walk through life attentively, making connections, taking note of sensory details, watching for what sets one moment apart from all others, and identifying changes we observe. We can be the ones to take it all down so it doesn’t fade away unnoticed, unnoted.

If we show up—if we have eyes to see—we can do that work: We can bear witness. We can keep track.

Witness and keep track. That’s the basic work of writers.

— Thomas Lynch, writer, poet, undertaker

Source: Thomas Lynch said this in a speech given at the 2012 Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

• Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post The Work of Writers: Witness and keep track – Thomas Lynch appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

If for some reason you cannot read aloud, try audio books. The more you hear masterful prose, the more you’ll be able to tell when yours is working…or isn’t.

[G]ood writers train their mind’s ear to listen to their own prose—to hear as they write.

— Ursula Le Guin, Steering the Craft

Source: This and many other memorable Ursula Le Guin quotes can be found in Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. Le Guin (updated and available in a new edition: Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story). 

You might also enjoy:

• Ursula Le Guin on Adjectives and Adverbs
• Ursula Le Guin on what interests prose writers
• Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Writing Quote: Ursula Le Guin on training your mind’s ear to listen to your prose appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Ask the writer sitting in front of the blank screen, staring at the blinking cursor, struggling to begin his piece—his deadline two days away.

Ask the writer who opened her email inbox to see a rejection from her dream publication.

Ask the writer whose friends keep forwarding a scathing review of his recently released novel, “Have you seen this?”

Ask the writer whose idea was scooped, whose family keeps asking when she’ll actually make money from her writing, whose striving for excellence tips into perfectionism and paralyzes her creativity.

Stay with it.

Those who push past those miserable, awful moments can join with Ann Patchett and attest that writing is a marvelous thing. To write—to be a writer—is an honor, a challenge, a joy.

It is better than anything in the world.

“Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.”

— Ann Patchett

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
___________________________________

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

Sure, you can poke around the Internet collecting writing prompts and creative writing exercises.

Or you could buy an ebook that collects them for you in one place.

Convenient.

Inspiring.

Affordable.

Learn more

The post Writing Quotes: Ann Patchett on writing as miserable appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

If you’re interested in learning more about poetry but unsure where to start, I recommend you explore Tweetspeak Poetry. The team is “committed to helping people become who they really are. We believe in the power of community reading, writing, playing, and just plain living, to accomplish this.”

“A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.”

— E. B. White

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

The post Writing Quotes: E. B. White on how a poem adds music appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

“[T]he rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned, and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.”

— from Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

Source: Little Women, Part One: Chapter Two – A Merry Christmas.

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

____________________________________

Are the demands of motherhood keeping you from a rich relationship with God?

With ideas from mothers in all seasons of life, this book offers creative, practical, and enjoyable suggestions to help you discover how a passionate relationship with God is possible in the midst of motherhood.

“The Contemplative Mom gives busy, loving, kid-centered mothers permission to rest, like a tired child, in God’s strong arms. An important book.”

—Rachael and Larry Crabb, authors and speakers

The post Christmas Greetings and a Writing Quote from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

“Prose writers are interested mostly in life and commas.”

— Ursula Le Guin

Source: This and many other memorable Ursula Le Guin quotes can be found in Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. Le Guin (updated and available in a new edition: Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story). 

You might also enjoy:

• Ursula Le Guin on Adjectives and Adverbs
• Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
_______________________

Book Discussion – The Art of Memoir

Do you read or write memoir? If so, you’ll enjoy the book discussion of Mary Karr’s recent release The Art of Memoir. I’m posting a new set of questions on Tuesdays.

Join the conversation Tuesdays at my Facebook page:

• Preface
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6
• Chapters 7-9
• Chapters 10-12
• Chapters 13-15
• Chapters 16-18
• Chapters 19-21

The post Writing Quotes: Ursula Le Guin on what interests prose writers appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Madame Curie’s quote reminds me of a similar one from Eleanor Roosevelt, who said (bonus quote!), “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”

— Marie Curie

Source: “Science Quotes by Marie Curie.” Marie Curie Quotes. Todayinsci, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2015. [the website cites the following source for this particular quote: as quoted in Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard, Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes (2000), 150.]

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
_______________________

Book Discussion – The Art of Memoir

Do you read or write memoir? If so, you’ll enjoy the book discussion of Mary Karr’s recent release The Art of Memoir. I’m posting a new set of questions on Tuesdays.

Join the conversation Tuesdays at my Facebook page:

• Preface
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6
• Chapters 7-9
• Chapters 10-12
• Chapters 13-15

The post Writing Quotes: Marie Curie, be more curious about ideas appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

My friend, I urge you to pin this, print this, tweet this…to remind you to live this. Forgo the distractions and go about the business of writing.

“[C]reation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.”

— E. B. White

Source: White, E. B. “Here Is New York.” Essays of E.B. White. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. N. pag. Print.

Related Reading:

• E. B. White’s “Here Is New York” is available to read online
• Yes, You Can Maximize Distraction-Free Writing
• Write in the Middle of Chaos
• Write in the Middle of Everyday Distractions (7 Strategies for Getting Back on Track)

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
_______________________

Book Discussion – The Art of Memoir

Do you read or write memoir? If so, you’ll enjoy the book discussion of Mary Karr’s recent release The Art of Memoir. I’m posting a new set of questions on Tuesdays.

Join the conversation Tuesdays at my Facebook page:

• Preface
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6
• Chapters 7-9
• Chapters 10-12
• Chapters 13-15

The post Writing Quotes: E. B. White on forgoing distractions appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

“I write entirely to find out what is on my mind, what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I’m seeing, and what it means.”

— Joan Didion

Source: Trimble, John R. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing, Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 169. Print.

[Trimble includes a section at the back of the book called “Writers Talking Shop.” His source for the Didion quote follows: Joan Didion, “Why I Write,” a Regents’ Lecture at the U. of California at Berkeley, reprinted in The Writer on Her Work, ed. Janet Sternburg (New York: Norton, 1980), p. 20.]

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
_______________________

Book Discussion – The Art of Memoir

Do you read or write memoir? If so, you’ll enjoy the book discussion of Mary Karr’s recent release The Art of Memoir. I’m posting a new set of questions on Tuesdays.

Join the conversation Tuesdays at my Facebook page:

• Preface
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6
• Chapters 7-9

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You’ll survive wading into memory’s waters. You’ll learn who you are and emerge with “the personal liberation that comes from the examined life” (12).

“[E]verybody I know who wades deep enough into memory’s waters drowns a little” (27).

— Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir

Source: Karr, Mary. The Art of Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 2015. Print.

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.
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Book Discussion – The Art of Memoir

Do you read or write memoir? If so, you’ll enjoy the book discussion of Mary Karr’s recent release The Art of Memoir. I’m posting a new set of questions on Tuesdays.

Join the conversation Tuesdays at my Facebook page:

• Preface
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6

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For example, today’s from Roman poet Decimius Magnus Ausonius (frequently referred to simply as Ausonius), is meant as a gentle nudge to just get started on your writing project, because you will surely move closer to completion by beginning the deed.

Begin, for half the deed is in beginning;

Begin the other half, and you will finish.

— Ausonius

Source: Finnegan, Ruth. “5. Harvesting Others’ Words: The Long Tradition of Quotation Collections.” Why Do We Quote? Cambridge, UK.: Open Book Pub, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

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No doubt a modern writer can relate to this one, as this powerful trio will help you succeed as a writer.

Curiosity, coffee, and chocolate: three things you need to succeed as a writer.

— Ann Kroeker

(Yes, you can quote me on that. And hopefully you can find some chocolate on sale today.)

What strengths do you really need as a writer? Share your thoughts at this post: Five Writing Strengths

Browse the growing collection of Writing Quotes

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Today’s comes from Ursula Le Guin, as she cautions us to avoid overindulging.

Adjectives and adverbs are rich and good and fattening. The main thing is not to overindulge.

— Ursula Le Guin, Steering the Craft

Many memorable Ursula Le Guin quotes can be found in Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. Le Guin (updated and available in a new edition: Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story). 

Image design by Isabelle Kroeker.

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“My well-used dictionaries and thesauri sing out to me when I write, and all English words are the plainsong of my many-tongued, long-winded ancestors who spoke before me.”

— Pat Conroy, Why I Write

Source: Thompson, Mary Ellen. “A Conversation with Pat Conroy.” Beaufort Lifestyle Magazine. Independence Day Publishing, 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Image designed by Isabelle Kroeker.

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From p. 34 of Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew, by Ursula K. Le Guin (updated and available in a new edition: Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story). 

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An entry in the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest offers a writerly application.

From My Utmost for His Highest (December 15)

If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don’t, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with someone else. But you must be willing to go through God’s winepress where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God’s truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God’s wine of strength to someone else. But if you are not diligent and say, “I’m not going to study and struggle to express this truth in my own words; I’ll just borrow my words from someone else,” then the words will be of no value to you or to others. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else.

Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make it yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn’t know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly.

It’s what we can do in journals, letters, blogs, articles and books. We can “[a]lways make it a practice to stir” our minds thoroughly to think through what we’ve easily believed, so that through study and suffering, we can “own” our position.

As Chambers recommends, we can strive to “re-express a truth of God” to ourselves clearly and understandably in these places — the journals, letters and blogs where we wrestle to understand truth at a personal level and put words to it — and it’s possible that God can later use that same explanation when we share it with someone else.

I underlined and asterisked that final section:

The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is…the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly.

This is what I hope to offer as a writer, friend, speaker or mentor:  Through my own willingness to struggle with a truth, I hope to give it expression and speak it clearly and boldly for the benefit of others.

And thanks to others who have struggled with truth and given it expression, this has happened to me — quite often I’ll read something and almost gasp at how perfectly someone captured what I had struggled so long to understand, grasp, or express. “Yes!” I’ll exclaim. “That’s exactly what it’s like!”

It might be in a song.

A book.

A blog post.

Or a personal e-mail or conversation.

Beauty.

Truth.

Let’s stir our minds thoroughly and see what falls into place when it settles.

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