From Matador Network.com: Words
Shared by my friend Kristen, the ultimate German translator!
We love words!
Showing posts with label On Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On Writing. Show all posts
November 06, 2010
September 10, 2009
At Large and At Small - Swallowtail Butterfly
I had taken pics of a visiting bi-wing last summer, as my sprained ankle kept me captive in a bucket of ice on the deck. My aunt, mentioned before, turned a few of those photos into another digital scrapbook page. Imagine the thrill as I noticed Anne (Fadiman, author of At Large and At Small: Familar Essays, our September book club selection) mentioned the swallowtail butterfly on page 6 as well!
I am loving the essays (all one that I've read)! I just wish I could be reading them with a cup of something-hot in an independent coffee house where the jazz is good, and the hum of patrons provides the background music. Sigh. I'll work on getting there in my mind, and just concentrate on the words...with the shrieks of swimming practice or hush of the humidifier instead.
April 21, 2008
On Writing
From an interview of Katherine Paterson, author of 1977's Bridge to Terabithia:
What would be your "words of wisdom" to a person who wants to write, but is paralyzed by failure? What advice would you give people starting out?
When a teacher (still a dear friend) of mine in graduate school suggested I ought to be a writer, I was appalled. "I don't want to add another mediocre writer to the world," I said. She helped me (it took years of nudging) to understand that if I wasn't willing to risk mediocrity, I would never accomplish anything. There are simply no guarantees. It takes courage to lay your insides out for people to examine and sneer over. But that's the only way to give what is your unique gift to the world. I have often noted that it takes the thinnest skin in the world to be a writer, it takes the thickest to seek out publication. But both are needed—the extreme sensitivity and the hippo hide against criticism. Send your inner critic off on vacation and just write the way little children play. You can't be judge and creator at the same time.
http://www.terabithia.com/questions.html
What would be your "words of wisdom" to a person who wants to write, but is paralyzed by failure? What advice would you give people starting out?
When a teacher (still a dear friend) of mine in graduate school suggested I ought to be a writer, I was appalled. "I don't want to add another mediocre writer to the world," I said. She helped me (it took years of nudging) to understand that if I wasn't willing to risk mediocrity, I would never accomplish anything. There are simply no guarantees. It takes courage to lay your insides out for people to examine and sneer over. But that's the only way to give what is your unique gift to the world. I have often noted that it takes the thinnest skin in the world to be a writer, it takes the thickest to seek out publication. But both are needed—the extreme sensitivity and the hippo hide against criticism. Send your inner critic off on vacation and just write the way little children play. You can't be judge and creator at the same time.
http://www.terabithia.com/questions.html
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