“What made Parker special was the twisted combination of a polite and personable woman with a wit designed for evisceration, a pen dipped in blood, and a tongue that worked best when unleashed.” Source
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force” [Dorothy Parker].
She was absolutely one of a kind and we will continue to enjoy her wit for generations to come.
“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.” (Ernest Hemingway).
The life of the mind is inward, dreaming, walking in another world. You become a new person and your mind is aflame with the brightness of your creation.
Every day you add to the corners, fleshing out the streets and neighborhoods and the people who walk there. You see into them and behind their veils where they hide their problems, weaknesses and secrets.
You respect them but find them exhilarating. Nevertheless, you back away to look again at a safer distance, picking up your brushes to paint.
Words spill out on the canvas before you–ideas, thoughts, fits and starts.
Skeletons become flesh, animated and dressed. They develop personalities, connections and boundaries. The vivacity of this new world envelopes you as the people of your mind live, love and breathe.
The life of the mind allows us to walk in our own mundane existence. We love the people here, our relationships and our work but the responsibilities and stresses of life stir our souls to another place.
We long for those stolen moments so we can return to the soil of our mind. We catch glimpses of it in store windows and on the panels of passing trucks.
We dream of merging our two worlds so we can be whole.
The written word allows that to happen. Get it down, shape, mold and polish until it’s ready to steal their imaginations. Produce something special so that your readers will mourn the sweet parting of the page as real life grumbles and beckons.
Walk there in your world and lead others to its shores. Read, write or scribble, anything to get the words from the canvas onto paper where they can live and breathe.
Think and see the world anew. Find the cracks in the cement, the turmoil in the lives of those you see.
Creation has a price but boundless opportunities. Live through its storms, sunsets and summer days.
Nourish your land and never stop dreaming and reading. The mind can starve without them and that would be tragic.
The Informed Writer [formerly Writer's Thoughts] contain links, tips and quotes for writers. We cover the art of writing, publishing and social media. Thanks for visiting my blog.
Eleven Questions for Crafting a Pitch For Your Novel
How to Make Your Point Without Being Preachy
Five Secrets To Help You Write Like a Pro
The Power of the First 250 Words in Your Novel
In Defense of Telling [Not Showing]
Novelists Rebel Against Trend of Present Tense Writing
Comment on Other Blogs To Bring Traffic to Your Blog
The Informed Writer [formerly Writer's Thoughts] contain links, tips and quotes for writers. We cover the art of writing, publishing and social media. Thanks for visiting my blog.
Five Tips to Strengthen Your Scenes
Ten Ways to Improve Your Romance Novel
How to Write Compelling Blog Posts
Twitter Can Make You a Better Editor
Should You Publicize Rejections?
Writing Good Online Book Reviews
“The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote…By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught. [WALT WHITMAN].
“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.” [JESSAMYN WEST]
Tips, Links, Quotes to Spur the Writer Into Action
“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing” [E.L. Doctorow].
“Please don’t start your submissions letter by telling me how much I’ll love your book. Let your book do the selling” [Laura Anne Gilman].
How to Structure Your Short Story
Ten Commandments of Fiction Writing
Five Tips to Polish Your Fiction
How to Write Intriguing Male and Female Characters
“If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you” {Natalie Goldberg].
“While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living” [Cyril Connolly].
If we will think. expand our reading and vocabulary, we can always arrive at fresh ways to say things.
Unlock Your Writing Through Visualization
“…your reader is at least as bright as you are.” [William Maxwell].
Quotes, tips and meditations from the Writer’s Desk
Ten Ways to Write Skinny Sentences
How to handle pronouns in our fiction
The proper way to handle self-promotion
“You have to protect your writing time. You have to protect it to the death” [William Goldman].
Ten Habits of Successful Authors
Becoming a Successful Freelancer
Five Tips to Effective Writing
I hope you are doing well and your writing is prospering. Thank you for visiting the Moving Word and check back often and share with others.
“Writers get immediately into your characters action – the reader doesn’t want to know about fluffy clouds.” (Peggy Bechko).
“Prescription for writer’s block: fear of poverty” (Peter Mayle).
13 Rules for marketing your book
Strengthen the first page of your novel
Ten Things Your Novel Must Accomplish Before Submitting to an agent
Eleven Myths of Social Media Marketing
Secrets to Writing Good Headlines
Increasing Your Influence Online
Family Fiction is ostensibly a full service Christian Fiction site
Writing for God has intrinsic value. However, writing for pay allows more time to write. Writing moves from the side to the center. You have the opportunity to focus exclusively on one task, thereby being more productive.
Peggy Bechko asks whether we should write for pay
Word are tools, not weapons. Use them wisely.
Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
Be interesting and the world will listen.
Five ways that paperback books are better than eBooks
Top Ten Mistakes Bloggers Make
Nina Lassam has a good article on the future of the author in the age of digital books.
Nine reasons to be optimistic about books and writing in the digital era.
Amazon claims 70% to 80% of the e- book market
Discussion of Amazon and the Book Market
Authors sell directly to readers
Electronic Books are Transforming the Concept of a Book
What Americans do online and the growth of Social Media
Random House CEO on the future of the E-Book Age
“A writer’s voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer’s voice is the stroke of an artist’s brush—is the thumbprint of her whole person—her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms” [Patricia Lee Gauch].
“A good title should be like a good metaphor. It should intrigue without being too baffling or too obvious” [Walker Percy].
“Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day” [Ray Bradbury].
“I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms 39 times before I was satisfied” [Ernest Hemingway].
Excellent analysis of Dostoevsky’s, “The Gambler.” In doing so, teaches some good lessons about plot development.
Stieg Larsson Sells One Million Kindle Books
Ebooks: A Writer’s Best Publisher
Five Tips to Make Your Blog More Readable
Guide to help you self-publish your book
Americans spending more time on Facebook and Twitter
The Moving Word
