For anyone with a little block

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In case the story you have is sagging...take a look at this rowdy crowd and see if they can add some spice.

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I love writing.  I love the mastery of finally crafting that perfect sentence and seeing its power and function in a story.  I love seeing a story and shaping it with each key stroke. I love that the industry doesn't require special permits, certifications, test or clubs to be a part of it.  I love the fellowship of other active writers that are working to hone their craft and who inspire and push me to be better.  

However, one of my biggest pet peeves is the person who claims to be a writer but doesn't understand the rules and techniques of writing well. People who tell me, "Oh you are a writer...I am too." When asked to tell me about their writing they stumble and can't give one example...but they have ideas.  Those people always have ideas.  Ideas with no conviction, skill, or craft are dreams or what ifs.

To be a writer you have to write...daily and passionately.  I did not dare consider myself a writer until that most amazing day that I first got paid to write.  Then again I felt it in my heart when I finished my first novel.  I wear that shiny badge proclaiming the focus of my soul, "writer."  It is out there for all to see.  

John Updike

This clip starts with a discussion of the sequel to The Witches of Eastwick.  He doesn't speak too much about his craft but speaks more about where he was in his life at this time.  It is a longer video but it is still intriguing to watch one of the greats of this century articulate his growth and changes as a person.

I found the part about aging as a writer and still finding love in the finished product of completing a book to be interesting.  If we are lucky we will be aging writers.  

John Grisham says...

If you want to be a writer...then write.  

Start with a page a day, 250 words.  Do that for a year and you have a giant pile of pages, who knows maybe even a book.  But it all comes back to you.  You have to do the work or the dream doesn't happen.  

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Thoreau said it...

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity"

~Henry David Thoreau

How do you spend your time?  Is it wasting away in front of Pinterest, Facebooking/Tweeting about writing?  I have done it. It is relaxing sometimes. The only problem is it is not writing...and at he end of the day you have nothing.  To have a strong body of work you must write, and continue to write. The only way to get it right is to write. I love this advice as how to be a writer. 

Salman Rushdie on Truth in Literature

Truth isn't realism?  It is truth.  Writing is not about reporting back events that you have seen it is creating them to be seen.

But isn't some truth stranger than fiction?  Isn't it that the truth that inspires the most authentic of fiction?

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, writer of Fahrenheit 451, offers up his love of books in his interview.  I love how Ray has intimate relationships with writers and how they were friends for him.  I couldn't agree more with him. During my childhood books were my escape from my reality.

I love how he used the UCLA typing room as his office to write Fahrenheit 451.  And how he describes the characters as people that talk to him through the books.  I have this too but in the last novel I wrote they all seemed to be pretty pissed off at me...there was a lot of cold shoulders.  This current work in progress they all have something to say and fight for my attention.

Ray made me smile when he stated, that "we all need to jump and we will build our wings on the way down." Just write and the skills will develop, for those who persist.