I've been trying to write this blog post since about a week ago, but things (as well as laziness) appear to have gotten in the way. Things are certainly picking up what with work starting this last week. Much of my homework involves reading, something I still haven't gotten completely used to it would seem. However, I'll just have to get used to it because besides writing and a project for my Creativity class, that's all my homework is all semester. Sounds nice doesn't it?
All of my classes seem pretty awesome so far, with maybe the exception being Art History. As cool as I think learning about dead guys who painted and sculpted amazing things, the class is boring. I am not a 'take notes on what the professor is saying' sort of person. I feel like I can't internalize anything she's saying as I'm scrambling to write it down (this isn't the prof's fault either. She's actually pretty cool-ethereal almost. She literally glides. No joke). Not to mention the room is cold, and I've been sick this past week. This combination as does not promote learning either.
What I do like about all of my other classes in comparison to Art History is that we get to talk about things. Two English classes (World Lit and Studies in Drama) promote discussion and deep thought about the text. Creativity, well this class is honestly just weird at the moment. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be taking out of it quite yet. Our end goal in class is a final project (everything we turn in is related to that project). We're supposed to do something we've never done before that is still, in some way, related to our hobbies and interests. On top of that we're meant to contemplate this idea of transcendence, social change etc. Our projects are, understandably, meant to have a purpose behind them, but I don't entirely know what I have to transcend in my life.
Winter is in full swing this weekend with it being -2 degrees this morning according to Google. There's well over a foot of snow on the ground and as much as I should take out the trash and do the laundry today (note, this was written on Sunday. I did get my laundry done)...I really don't want to trudge through it. The snow is not conducive to the various chores I need to get done.
Today is now Monday, and I should be leaving for class soon, but don't particularly want to. Walking through the snow isn't (as I've said) the funniest thing in the world to do. However, I've got three classes on Monday, two of which I actually enjoy going to.
That being said, I think I'll put on my boots and finish putting my bag together.
Happy Day.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
New Years and Nostalgia
It's a bit late, but Happy New Year.
Winter semester starts tomorrow, and I am officially back on campus as per yesterday. It always seems awkward to me moving in between campus and home--packing up all of my stuff into the van and staying in my room at home which is now home to wintering plants and an unused exercise stepper. I enjoy coming home and spending the break with my parents; however, it is during these times that I also wish I had my own apartment (and a license for that matter), so that I might have some sense of permanence.
Either way, I am excited for the beginning of a new semester and, with it, new classes to explore. The prospect of not having art for six hours a week fills me with a sense of joy and the hopes of more free time and maybe a few more work hours as well. But the first week of class is always an interesting one that almost makes me nervous. With no work and few assignments this early on, I am left with an ungodly amount of time on my hands, which I am always at a loss to deal with. I can't settle into a schedule during this week and for that reason, this week unnerves me. But a schedule will come eventually, and, I am sure, this semester will be over all too soon and, with it, my Junior year at GVSU.
Despite the apparently rapid forthcoming of my senior year of college and the excitement that should come with that, I have been desperately nostalgic for years past in the last few days. A friend of mine, who is a professor at a different school, is once again one of the faculty on a study abroad trip to Tully Cross, Ireland. I was fortunate to be invited along on this trip three years ago when my aunt, also a professor, asked me if I wanted to come. I graduated early from high school, forgoing the 'traditional' senior year and swapping it with four months on the Renvyle Peninsula.
There are just some places that you fall in love with, and Tully Cross was one of them. I get sentimental from time to time when I look the pictures and other scraps of adventure I brought back with me. I even fancied returning on the trip, this time as an actual student, for about a month. I only dropped the idea at the prospect of being apart from everyone for another four months, and that it would set my graduation from school back a whole semester. However, conversing with her through email and reading her own blog of adventures has made my heart ache for Ireland. I was extremely touched to hear that Brian, a local shop owner and sweet, old guy, had asked about me. I miss him and the other people in town, who must only have it worse than students like me. Every year, for the last 38 or so years, a new group of students comes and goes. I'll go back. Maybe I can make it a graduation trip.
I need to finish putting away my things and cleaning the things I left dirty before I left. Tomorrow, I head out to my first three classes of the semester and, probably, the bookstore. I still have a few more books to acquire. Why do they have to be so damned expensive?
Here's to a great semester.
Winter semester starts tomorrow, and I am officially back on campus as per yesterday. It always seems awkward to me moving in between campus and home--packing up all of my stuff into the van and staying in my room at home which is now home to wintering plants and an unused exercise stepper. I enjoy coming home and spending the break with my parents; however, it is during these times that I also wish I had my own apartment (and a license for that matter), so that I might have some sense of permanence.
Either way, I am excited for the beginning of a new semester and, with it, new classes to explore. The prospect of not having art for six hours a week fills me with a sense of joy and the hopes of more free time and maybe a few more work hours as well. But the first week of class is always an interesting one that almost makes me nervous. With no work and few assignments this early on, I am left with an ungodly amount of time on my hands, which I am always at a loss to deal with. I can't settle into a schedule during this week and for that reason, this week unnerves me. But a schedule will come eventually, and, I am sure, this semester will be over all too soon and, with it, my Junior year at GVSU.
Despite the apparently rapid forthcoming of my senior year of college and the excitement that should come with that, I have been desperately nostalgic for years past in the last few days. A friend of mine, who is a professor at a different school, is once again one of the faculty on a study abroad trip to Tully Cross, Ireland. I was fortunate to be invited along on this trip three years ago when my aunt, also a professor, asked me if I wanted to come. I graduated early from high school, forgoing the 'traditional' senior year and swapping it with four months on the Renvyle Peninsula.
There are just some places that you fall in love with, and Tully Cross was one of them. I get sentimental from time to time when I look the pictures and other scraps of adventure I brought back with me. I even fancied returning on the trip, this time as an actual student, for about a month. I only dropped the idea at the prospect of being apart from everyone for another four months, and that it would set my graduation from school back a whole semester. However, conversing with her through email and reading her own blog of adventures has made my heart ache for Ireland. I was extremely touched to hear that Brian, a local shop owner and sweet, old guy, had asked about me. I miss him and the other people in town, who must only have it worse than students like me. Every year, for the last 38 or so years, a new group of students comes and goes. I'll go back. Maybe I can make it a graduation trip.
I need to finish putting away my things and cleaning the things I left dirty before I left. Tomorrow, I head out to my first three classes of the semester and, probably, the bookstore. I still have a few more books to acquire. Why do they have to be so damned expensive?
Here's to a great semester.
Monday, November 8, 2010
The thing and the other thing.
The Gambler's Secret is progressing as well as I could expect right now. I'm a few days behind in NaNo, but I'm about 7,000 words in and that's more than I've written in a long time. Maybe I can get caught up a little bit this week. I was never good at disciplining myself over the weekends. Time to be lazy? Thank you.
The main issue I've run into is that Duncan (my main character) is just going with whatever he's told. He's being passive and while, yes, it will get him to his adventure, it doesn't really fit his character. It makes him flat.
On the other hand, Day Light Savings time ended and totally threw my internal clock for a day.
The main issue I've run into is that Duncan (my main character) is just going with whatever he's told. He's being passive and while, yes, it will get him to his adventure, it doesn't really fit his character. It makes him flat.
On the other hand, Day Light Savings time ended and totally threw my internal clock for a day.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Book in a Month (For Reals this time)
NaNoWriMo is upon us! This year, I've made myself a schedule to get my writing done. That, and to just get back into the habit of writing again.
1900 words down, 48,100 to go.
1900 words down, 48,100 to go.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Cthulhu is your God.
This totally exists, and I totally saw it on a car yesterday on campus. Did that make my day? Yes.
On another note...Straight line construction drawing for Drawing I? No thanks, but it's due for crit on Wednesday. So bored with drawing.
Monday, September 27, 2010
All That Crap Life is Made of
It's that time of year again. The time when I realize I've neglected things to which I mean to pay more attention. By which I mean, oh right, I started a blog awhile back and then never posted anything in it.
So here I am, updating. I'm not going to pretend like I'm going to "try harder"--the truth is: I probably won't.
I've been back at school for about a month now, and I don't know if I can say I've gotten the swing of things. It almost feels like freshman year all over again except this time I actually know my way around campus. It's just, the dynamic of all of my classes is different. I'm not taking any class that requires me to sit and take notes and then regurgitate that knowledge back out on a test. All of my homework consists of reading, writing and art projects. It sounds amazing doesn't it? Except it confuses the hell out of me. I've found that I don't entirely know how to organize my time properly in order to get things done. I feel like everything is left until the last minute, so here is something I need to improve upon.
It would seem that I neglect to do things I love in much of my life, but especially make excuses not to during the school year. I have free time, however, it is poorly organized free time. I've been trying to remind myself of the philosophy with which I decided to enter college: grades are not the most important things, and, in the long run, aren't as important as what I actually take away from the experiences I have. I need to get out and meet people, but still make time for school work. After all, it was Mark Twain that said "never let your schooling interfere with your education."
On another note, ARTPRIZE! ArtPrize, the worlds largest art competition has once again graced the streets of my wonderful hometown. I went downtown yesterday afternoon with a friend and saw so many wonderful works. I need to finish registering to vote so I can participate. I love it so much; it brings so many people to town and displays the thriving art community that the area supports.
Anyways, this is one of those moments I need to remember. I had my fun at the Poetry Slam tonight and decided to take the time to update, but I should really make sure all of my homework is done.
Hopefully, more updates should follow.
Hannah
So here I am, updating. I'm not going to pretend like I'm going to "try harder"--the truth is: I probably won't.
I've been back at school for about a month now, and I don't know if I can say I've gotten the swing of things. It almost feels like freshman year all over again except this time I actually know my way around campus. It's just, the dynamic of all of my classes is different. I'm not taking any class that requires me to sit and take notes and then regurgitate that knowledge back out on a test. All of my homework consists of reading, writing and art projects. It sounds amazing doesn't it? Except it confuses the hell out of me. I've found that I don't entirely know how to organize my time properly in order to get things done. I feel like everything is left until the last minute, so here is something I need to improve upon.
It would seem that I neglect to do things I love in much of my life, but especially make excuses not to during the school year. I have free time, however, it is poorly organized free time. I've been trying to remind myself of the philosophy with which I decided to enter college: grades are not the most important things, and, in the long run, aren't as important as what I actually take away from the experiences I have. I need to get out and meet people, but still make time for school work. After all, it was Mark Twain that said "never let your schooling interfere with your education."
On another note, ARTPRIZE! ArtPrize, the worlds largest art competition has once again graced the streets of my wonderful hometown. I went downtown yesterday afternoon with a friend and saw so many wonderful works. I need to finish registering to vote so I can participate. I love it so much; it brings so many people to town and displays the thriving art community that the area supports.
Anyways, this is one of those moments I need to remember. I had my fun at the Poetry Slam tonight and decided to take the time to update, but I should really make sure all of my homework is done.
Hopefully, more updates should follow.
Hannah
Saturday, April 17, 2010
He has risen--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Staff Writing Retreats
Staff writing retreat at the Writing Center today, and it was surprisingly productive. From 9am until 5pm I sat at my computer (in the Writing Center of course) surrounded by 13 of my fantastic colleagues and we all wrote. Each one of us had our different projects which ranged from lesson plans to American Lit papers. Besides being full of fantastic people, it was also full of fantastic food--in the form of berry mango ice cream concocted and manifested by the amazing S. Duffie. Also, I ate too many cookies, but whatevs.
Much of my time was spent writing a paper on the Christian symbolism found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I have now realized I haven't read since my mother read them to me when I was 8. Anyways, I had finally narrowed down what to talk about enough to not go insane trying to write this thing. Which I had been believe me. Never try to write a 3 page paper about all of the Christian mythology found the entire Chronicles. I'm pretty sure people have written whole BOOKS on the subject. If working the desk in the WC has taught me anything at all, it's that you need to have a narrow subject or you just might mange to have nothing and everything to talk about at the same time. Take that WRT 150. You taught me nothing about papers. But seriously, a three page paper shouldn't be that hard to write. I think I've lost the context for writing short papers since I took American Lit last semester. It's almost like I can only think about it as a 8-10 page paper now especially since I was analyzing something. I keep thinking to myself--"Does she want quotes? I should have quotes..." Really though, it's just a 3 page paper, so I won't get too worked up about it.
I also managed to finally get the scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie when Aslan is resurrected into the presentation that is to accompany my paper. It was one of those "Oh, look how easy that was. Why did it take me three days to figure that out?" sort of things.
However, I have now effectively knocked out pretty much all of the homework I had for the last week of classes.
On the other hand, I'm not really getting anywhere with my novel...It just hasn't really 'hit' me. While forcing myself to write is a fine habit, and one I should practice more often, I will not be reaching a book in a month...In fact, I'm still sitting hard on 6 pages. Here's the part where I make excuses and say it's the end of the semester and I've got projects, papers and finals to worry about. I'm definitely going to keep myself writing something! Mostly, the whole point of the book in a month was that I would get myself going again. Who knows, maybe I'll start something else or go back to something old. I guess we'll see, but for now, I'm out of here.
Much of my time was spent writing a paper on the Christian symbolism found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I have now realized I haven't read since my mother read them to me when I was 8. Anyways, I had finally narrowed down what to talk about enough to not go insane trying to write this thing. Which I had been believe me. Never try to write a 3 page paper about all of the Christian mythology found the entire Chronicles. I'm pretty sure people have written whole BOOKS on the subject. If working the desk in the WC has taught me anything at all, it's that you need to have a narrow subject or you just might mange to have nothing and everything to talk about at the same time. Take that WRT 150. You taught me nothing about papers. But seriously, a three page paper shouldn't be that hard to write. I think I've lost the context for writing short papers since I took American Lit last semester. It's almost like I can only think about it as a 8-10 page paper now especially since I was analyzing something. I keep thinking to myself--"Does she want quotes? I should have quotes..." Really though, it's just a 3 page paper, so I won't get too worked up about it.
I also managed to finally get the scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie when Aslan is resurrected into the presentation that is to accompany my paper. It was one of those "Oh, look how easy that was. Why did it take me three days to figure that out?" sort of things.
However, I have now effectively knocked out pretty much all of the homework I had for the last week of classes.
On the other hand, I'm not really getting anywhere with my novel...It just hasn't really 'hit' me. While forcing myself to write is a fine habit, and one I should practice more often, I will not be reaching a book in a month...In fact, I'm still sitting hard on 6 pages. Here's the part where I make excuses and say it's the end of the semester and I've got projects, papers and finals to worry about. I'm definitely going to keep myself writing something! Mostly, the whole point of the book in a month was that I would get myself going again. Who knows, maybe I'll start something else or go back to something old. I guess we'll see, but for now, I'm out of here.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 1...er...2. Nevermind, I lied.
So, remember two weeks ago when I said I was about a week into it? Well, the truth of the matter is that I'm still a week into it. Frankly though, I told myself I would write five days a week so really I'm only 8 days right? Either way I'm slightly behind. Still, I'll keep giving myself Thursdays and Fridays off. Why Thursday and Friday might you ask? Well, those are my so-called busy days. So called only because those are the days when I have Writers' Club and play Dungeons and Dragons at late hours of the night. It's fantastically fun even if it does put a damper in the time I have to write.
I'm finding the Book in a Month (BIAM) system wonderful and frustrating at the same time. For whatever reason, brainstorming has never been my strong suit. Oh, I could sit and write about characters and other various things, create a "guide" per-say, but this is organized and involves plotting. How I hate to plot.
Also, maybe the last month of school wasn't the best time to start a BIAM. I'm planing on doing this again (probably with the same novel) over the summer. Maybe I'll get more done then. On the bright side, I've been super productive when it comes to homework! I'll be attending a writing retreat at my work on Saturday and I'm hoping to finish some of my final papers and get somewhere with my novel.
I'm trying to update more often---I swear!
Wish me luck!
I'm finding the Book in a Month (BIAM) system wonderful and frustrating at the same time. For whatever reason, brainstorming has never been my strong suit. Oh, I could sit and write about characters and other various things, create a "guide" per-say, but this is organized and involves plotting. How I hate to plot.
Also, maybe the last month of school wasn't the best time to start a BIAM. I'm planing on doing this again (probably with the same novel) over the summer. Maybe I'll get more done then. On the bright side, I've been super productive when it comes to homework! I'll be attending a writing retreat at my work on Saturday and I'm hoping to finish some of my final papers and get somewhere with my novel.
I'm trying to update more often---I swear!
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Book in a Month
Alright, alright, I haven't posted anything here since I started in November. That's utterly horrible of me, and I feel super bad about it, but some how I feel like I can sit here and pretend to justify it by saying that I'm a busy college student trying to figure things out. That's generally my justification for procrastination, right? That I have so many projects and papers and whatever else, that I just can't maintain much else unless I completely forgo the social life I pretend I have.
The truth is I spend most of my time sitting on the internet doing nothing.
Frankly, it's starting to bug me. So here I go back into this project and along side it, I am going to be writing a Book in a Month. Yeah, I know--I should have done this back in November right? That was NaNoWrMo, but this is totally different, so bear with me.
I recently purchased a book titled Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt which tells me, wait for it....That I can write a first draft of a book in one month! I'm about a week into it (in reality I'm giving my self 5 weeks, or until the end of the school year.) I am enjoying it so far. It's nice to be in the process of thinking about a project pretty much everyday. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. It feels as if I haven't really written anything in such a very long time. I've been working on plot and characterization--a few things I seem to have trouble with often. Plot especially. I've also written 4 pages, which doesn't sound totally exciting, but it totally is.
So here's what I'm going to do-for real this time. I'm going to use this blog to reflect on my life, and on my writing. For the next month especially, I'll try and chronicle my adventure through a Book in a Month. Here's to trying to get into a new groove!
The truth is I spend most of my time sitting on the internet doing nothing.
Frankly, it's starting to bug me. So here I go back into this project and along side it, I am going to be writing a Book in a Month. Yeah, I know--I should have done this back in November right? That was NaNoWrMo, but this is totally different, so bear with me.
I recently purchased a book titled Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt which tells me, wait for it....That I can write a first draft of a book in one month! I'm about a week into it (in reality I'm giving my self 5 weeks, or until the end of the school year.) I am enjoying it so far. It's nice to be in the process of thinking about a project pretty much everyday. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. It feels as if I haven't really written anything in such a very long time. I've been working on plot and characterization--a few things I seem to have trouble with often. Plot especially. I've also written 4 pages, which doesn't sound totally exciting, but it totally is.
So here's what I'm going to do-for real this time. I'm going to use this blog to reflect on my life, and on my writing. For the next month especially, I'll try and chronicle my adventure through a Book in a Month. Here's to trying to get into a new groove!
"The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep." - Paul Strand
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Words to Live By
Today marks the official start of me blogging, and I hope that this is the first of many more to come.
I guess the first question to answer would be who am I and why have I decided to start blogging?
Well here's a bit about me:
My name is Hannah and I'm currently a sophomore at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. I'm a Creative Writing Major with a Minor in Art&Design. I'm hoping that, through this blog, I can share my ideas about lots of things (Music, Movies, TV, Books etc), but most of all about Creative Writing. Creative Writing is something I've always loved, but sometimes life becomes far too hectic, and it's hard to find time to write. So I hope that by chronically all of this I can not only keep my inspiration turned on but yours as well!
So welcome to The Light Switch!
I keep this journal by my computer. It's a very nice journal with a metal inlay of dragonflies on the cover, and at one point it held my innermost thoughts. It might not hold my innermost thoughts anymore, but it does hold a very special purpose. It is my quote book. You see, when I was in the 10th grade my English teacher had us do a project. We had to pick quotes from Emerson and Thoreau and put them onto a poster board with pictures that detail what the quote means. We also had to explain why we chose the quote and what it meant to us. I probably took the assignment way to seriously (my poster held 16 quotes and about a hundred pictures), but ever since then I've fallen in love with quotes. So now I keep this book, which is much more compact than a poster. Whenever I come across a quote I like or that resonates with me, I write it down. Sometimes I go searching for quotes and sometimes they come to me. They don't always have to be serious--I've got quotes from TV shows that are just particularly funny to me in there. I find it to be a solid source of inspiration, so here are some of the quotes I've found on Writing:
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." -Tom Clancy
If something doesn't make sense in a book, people throw a fit. If something doesn't make sense in real life, people might ask questions, but it's reality. I love this. You can have as many plot holes in reality as you want, but everything in fiction has to be explained.
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is something we've been talking about in my American Lit class as of late. In fact that's how this quote happened to come to me. Fiction is able to show extreme truth that people over look in real life. People just don't pay attention enough in real life to always see these details, but when presented them in the form of a metaphor such as fiction, it opens itself for a new understanding.
"How vain is it to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!"- Henry David Thoreau
This fits into the whole "write what you know" category. How can someone sit down to write about life when they haven't experienced anything? If you want realistic characters, go out and meet people. If you want realistic sounding dialogue, listen in on peoples conversations as they walk by you. It's as simple as that.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."-Albert Einstein
Okay, so this isn't specifically about writing, but still holds true. Well I don't condone plagiarism, but the truth is no story is truly original anymore. Everything can be melted down to the basic archetypal plot. What is Star Wars but another Hero's Journey. It's the same with Harry Potter. It isn't about coming up with something so completely original that no one's ever thought of it before; it's about twisting up what's already there to make it interesting again. I mean, look at how Stephanie Meyer butchered the idea of vampires.
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."-Cyril Connolly
Once again, this quote rings so true to me. I feel like it all boils down to "if you love what you do, you'll never work a day." If you have an audience in mind, that's fine, but you should always write for yourself. If you don't, you'll hate writing. I mean there's a reason that "As You Like It" isn't one of Shakespeare's greater artistic plays. It has often been believed he wrote is as crowdpleaser, hence the title As You Like It. It is far better to love what you write and want to write than to simply write to be accepted or famous. I've seen people (mostly tweens) on forums who think that writing is something that will get them famous or rich. Well you can become famous or rich, the odds aren't likely. This is why you must write for the sheer joy of writing.
"Learn as much by writing as by reading."-Lord Acton
"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or tools to write."-Stephen King
These two ultimately say the exact same thing: if you don't read, how can you write? I love books. LOVE THEM. It's part of my inspiration. I always want to write something after I've been reading a really good book. How can someone call themselves a writer if they refuse to read the work of their peers?
"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."-Stephen King
I love love love love LOVE this quote because I hate it when people go thesaurus searching. Someone actually did this recently in my creative writing class. Her word was cacophonous, and it threw me off in the first two sentences. I asked two people and then look it up in the dictionary to figure out what exactly it meant. Now, I had been able to guess a little at the meaning of the word by the context, but the word was so exceptionally different than the rest of the language in the short story. When I told her the word had thrown me off and asked why she'd used it, she told me she had "wanted a different word for noisy." Well I find this a respectable reason to search through a thesaurus, but please pick a word you already know. I try to only consult a thesaurus when I find I've used a word to many times in a row. If you didn't know the word to begin with, please just don't use it.
I guess the first question to answer would be who am I and why have I decided to start blogging?
Well here's a bit about me:
My name is Hannah and I'm currently a sophomore at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. I'm a Creative Writing Major with a Minor in Art&Design. I'm hoping that, through this blog, I can share my ideas about lots of things (Music, Movies, TV, Books etc), but most of all about Creative Writing. Creative Writing is something I've always loved, but sometimes life becomes far too hectic, and it's hard to find time to write. So I hope that by chronically all of this I can not only keep my inspiration turned on but yours as well!
So welcome to The Light Switch!
I keep this journal by my computer. It's a very nice journal with a metal inlay of dragonflies on the cover, and at one point it held my innermost thoughts. It might not hold my innermost thoughts anymore, but it does hold a very special purpose. It is my quote book. You see, when I was in the 10th grade my English teacher had us do a project. We had to pick quotes from Emerson and Thoreau and put them onto a poster board with pictures that detail what the quote means. We also had to explain why we chose the quote and what it meant to us. I probably took the assignment way to seriously (my poster held 16 quotes and about a hundred pictures), but ever since then I've fallen in love with quotes. So now I keep this book, which is much more compact than a poster. Whenever I come across a quote I like or that resonates with me, I write it down. Sometimes I go searching for quotes and sometimes they come to me. They don't always have to be serious--I've got quotes from TV shows that are just particularly funny to me in there. I find it to be a solid source of inspiration, so here are some of the quotes I've found on Writing:
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." -Tom Clancy
If something doesn't make sense in a book, people throw a fit. If something doesn't make sense in real life, people might ask questions, but it's reality. I love this. You can have as many plot holes in reality as you want, but everything in fiction has to be explained.
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is something we've been talking about in my American Lit class as of late. In fact that's how this quote happened to come to me. Fiction is able to show extreme truth that people over look in real life. People just don't pay attention enough in real life to always see these details, but when presented them in the form of a metaphor such as fiction, it opens itself for a new understanding.
"How vain is it to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!"- Henry David Thoreau
This fits into the whole "write what you know" category. How can someone sit down to write about life when they haven't experienced anything? If you want realistic characters, go out and meet people. If you want realistic sounding dialogue, listen in on peoples conversations as they walk by you. It's as simple as that.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."-Albert Einstein
Okay, so this isn't specifically about writing, but still holds true. Well I don't condone plagiarism, but the truth is no story is truly original anymore. Everything can be melted down to the basic archetypal plot. What is Star Wars but another Hero's Journey. It's the same with Harry Potter. It isn't about coming up with something so completely original that no one's ever thought of it before; it's about twisting up what's already there to make it interesting again. I mean, look at how Stephanie Meyer butchered the idea of vampires.
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."-Cyril Connolly
Once again, this quote rings so true to me. I feel like it all boils down to "if you love what you do, you'll never work a day." If you have an audience in mind, that's fine, but you should always write for yourself. If you don't, you'll hate writing. I mean there's a reason that "As You Like It" isn't one of Shakespeare's greater artistic plays. It has often been believed he wrote is as crowdpleaser, hence the title As You Like It. It is far better to love what you write and want to write than to simply write to be accepted or famous. I've seen people (mostly tweens) on forums who think that writing is something that will get them famous or rich. Well you can become famous or rich, the odds aren't likely. This is why you must write for the sheer joy of writing.
"Learn as much by writing as by reading."-Lord Acton
"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or tools to write."-Stephen King
These two ultimately say the exact same thing: if you don't read, how can you write? I love books. LOVE THEM. It's part of my inspiration. I always want to write something after I've been reading a really good book. How can someone call themselves a writer if they refuse to read the work of their peers?
"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."-Stephen King
I love love love love LOVE this quote because I hate it when people go thesaurus searching. Someone actually did this recently in my creative writing class. Her word was cacophonous, and it threw me off in the first two sentences. I asked two people and then look it up in the dictionary to figure out what exactly it meant. Now, I had been able to guess a little at the meaning of the word by the context, but the word was so exceptionally different than the rest of the language in the short story. When I told her the word had thrown me off and asked why she'd used it, she told me she had "wanted a different word for noisy." Well I find this a respectable reason to search through a thesaurus, but please pick a word you already know. I try to only consult a thesaurus when I find I've used a word to many times in a row. If you didn't know the word to begin with, please just don't use it.
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