• Home
  • Books
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • Links
  • Events
  • Giveaways
  • Contact
Katie Van Ark
Passion on the page

Technique Tuesday: Remember This Is Supposed to be FUN!

6/3/2014

0 Comments

 
Fellow writers, do you ever feel like this about your writing? (And editors, anybody sympathizing with poor Flynn/Eugene?)

A skating friend of mine dreads competitions. As they approach, she often reminds herself and all of us at the rink to remember that “this is supposed to be fun!” It doesn't hurt to remember the same about your writing. The deadline looms and every word smells like yesterday's kitchen trash? Take a few minutes and remember what drew you to write in the first place.

Tonight, I read some of Shel Silverstein's poetry with my oldest daughter before bed, and rekindled some of my early sparking with words. So I leave you with some words of wisdom collected from Silverstein's poetry.

From IVITATION:
“If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer,
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire...”

From LISTEN TO THE MUST'NTS:
“Listen to the MUST'NTS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS.
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS, the IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS.
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me –
Anything can happen, child.
ANYTHING can be.”

And from THE LITTLE BLUE ENGINE:
“He was almost there, when – CRASH! SMASH! BASH!
He slid down and mashed into engine hash
On the rocks below...which goes to show
If the track is tough and the hill is rough,
THINKING you can just ain't enough!”

Write on! (And if you need a fun distraction, check out the cover directions for my novel and cast your vote!)
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Reflections on Writing

    Picture
    I love few things better than a bottomless to-read list of books and firmly believe the world has room for all the stories we want to share. This blog is intended to provide resources and spark discussion about improving writing. Opinions are my own and not intended to discredit anyone else's work, only to open conversation. Thanks for reading!

    Archives

    January 2018
    July 2017
    April 2017
    August 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Blog Hop
    Character
    Craft
    Craft Analysis
    Description
    Donald Maass
    Fantasy
    Figure Skating Championships
    Heather Demetrios
    Interview
    Jennifer Comeaux
    Jenny Elliott
    LGBT
    NaNoWriMo
    Premise
    Presentation Skills
    Rainbow Rowell
    Setting
    Skating
    Stakes
    Voice
    What To Read This Weekend
    World Building
    World-building
    Writing
    YA

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from diongillard, BLMOregon, ebbandflowphotography, French Tart, photographerglen, York College ISLGP, apalca, VinothChandar, 4Neus, ♔ Georgie R, anokarina, martinak15, photosteve101, revjett, Skley, Peter Werkman (www.peterwerkman.nl), Rusty Darbonne, JoshArdle Photography, ashraful kadir, Guillaume Paumier, ChrisL_AK, ryantron., koadmunkee, Jim Larrison, JMR_Photography, ulazarosa, jfingas, Hamed Saber, kyz