Writers’ Wisdom

“A word is dead,
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just begins
to live that day.”
Emily Dickinson

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Writing is now in session

(Getty Images photo)

Out of nowhere last night came an idea for a book, or what I think may be a book.
Maybe it’s just a short story or a novella, it’s too soon to tell for sure.

As it was late when the idea hit (which is when most of my inspiration strikes me), I quickly scribbled down the opening scene on a notepad and went to sleep with the idea and characters floating in my mind.

They, a guy and a girl in their late twenties, early thirties, haunted me all day long, but I didn’t know where they needed to go, but once I got home from work and decided to type up those chicken-scratched notes as the Flaming Lips played on the iHome, something began to take shape.

I don’t know quite what it is yet, or where these two are going, but I’m three (short) chapters deep, and 1,380 pages into their journey. Can’t wait to see where they lead.

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Writers’ Wisdom

“Prose is architecture,
not interior decoration.”
Ernest Hemingway

(LA Times photo)

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Writers’ Wisdom

This is, by far, my favorite quote about writing.

The first time I read it years ago, it stopped me in my tracks. Such a simple request, so hard to actually do. Chekhov’s words haunted me; so much that I wrote them on a sticky and put it up on the wall above my desk in my old apartment to be inspired by every day. And even though it’s no longer hanging up where I could see it daily, it’s a quote that is embedded into my very core.

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining;
show me the glint of light on broken glass.” 
Anton Chekov 

(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Writers’ Wisdom

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have
the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
Sylvia Plath

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Bookworm: “Sweet Tooth”

Through some luck of the draw, I’ve spent a lot of time with pretentious people in my lifetime, from all the way from grade school to the working world. They were people smug because they had more than everyone, and they were people who didn’t ever let you forget that, even if you didn’t give a damn. 

I chalked it up to their just being insecure about who they were because, really, take away the family trust, and you’ve got nothing — not a personality, not a veritable skill set, just a bunch of bones under their skin, just like everybody else. Quelle horror!

So because of that, I’ve always had an aversion to pretentious people. I can respect confidence or affluence when it’s worth being respected, of course, but never pretentiousness just for the sake of being pretentious. And if I don’t like being around such people, I most certainly do not like reading about them.
See exhibit A: My Bookworm about “The Receptionist.”

It’s a similar distaste I had for Serena, the main character in Ian McEwan’s “Sweet Tooth,” the story of a girl recruited into MI5, the British Security Service, in the early ’70s. She works on a project that takes aim against communism by way of intellectual circles. She’s given a mark and promptly falls in love with him.

This is my first read of McEwan, and I just don’t think I liked his style. I’ve heard that “Atonement” is fantastic, but after really digging the premise of “Sweet Tooth,” I don’t know if I want to check out anything else by him. 

Serena just isn’t likable, and when I first started reading this book months ago, I tweeted about how I was struggling to read it because I wasn’t able to connect with her or McEwan’s words. A few people commented back saying to give it time because his other works were stellar, and one said, “You aren’t SUPPOSED to like her,” which suddenly made a bit of sense.

After abandoning it a little less than halfway through, and reading a half-dozen other books in the meantime, I made myself return to “Sweet Tooth,” with some more patience this time around. I ended up liking it a bit more than I think I would have if I trudged through it in one read. But having said that, the plot just seemed like a plodding walk through the mud. I did like the ending, which came as a surprise, even though Serena herself gives the spoiler right in the novel’s first paragraph. But other than that, this was not one of those “wow” books for me.

Win some, lose some, I s’pose.

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Writers’ Wisdom

I’m a big fan of quotes, the more empowering the better. In my old house, I used to have a wall with tons of different quotes from writers that I’d use as inspiration to better my writing skills.

In honor of that, I’m going to start a new feature here on Ink for Blood called Writers’ Wisdom, with nuggets from some of my favorite writers to ponder and be inspired by.

Photo from Getty Images.

With the soon-to-be-released big-screen version of her “Tiger Eyes,” I feel Judy Blume is a great writer to start with. At my parents’ house, there is a box that has dog-eared copies of   Blume’s books from “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret?” and “Forever” to “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and my childhood favorite, “Just as Long as We’re Together.” And, of course, I can’t forget my favorites to re-read as an adult, “Wifey,” “Smart Women” and the fantastic “Summer Sisters.”

Without further ado, let’s see what Judy Blume has to say about writing, and be on the lookout for future installments of this feature!

“The best books come from someplace inside.
You don’t write because you want to, but because you have to.”
Judy Blume 

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