“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.
“You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every barking dog.” [Winston Churchill].
People and problems will try to lure you off the path. Remain focused and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Whether you are moving slow or fast, keep moving forward. Do not allow anyone to steal your dreams.
When the journey is complete, your joy will trump any disappointment from stinging words or hasty retreats by those who once mattered to you.
Persistence is victory and treasure is in the end. Keep going every day. Happy trails.
Links to various things that I think writers might find interesting. Since we are all different, we will not all agree. But, hey, what can you expect for free. 
See my other Informed Writer posts for a bevy of links.
Why Reading is Good for your Brain
Nine images from Washington Irving books
An African-American young man asks what’s wrong with reading? The culture NEEDS to change
Literary Agent is Attacked by an Author who had his Manuscript Rejected
Ten Surefire ways to Succeed in Publishing
“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 difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning” [Mark Twain].
Putting pen to paper and describing the scene in our head is easy. Stringing dialogue based on the way we speak is not challenging. However, forming everything together into a cohesive, compelling novel that publishers will consider publishing is quite a different matter, indeed.
Countless people aspire to write fiction and dream of accolades and glory. Friends and family read their offerings and praise their efforts. They start building houses in their head and plan the outfits they will wear to book signings.
Confident in their mastery, they send their masterpiece to someone knowledgeable about writing and hear that their manuscript is filled with mistakes and inconsistencies. They either become angry, crushed or ambivalent about the advice.
Why does this happen? Because writing fiction is easy and very difficult at the same time and the sooner we realize this, the better. Anyone can tell a story but doing so at the highest level takes an incredible amount of work.
“The writer must always leave room for the characters to grow and change. If you move your characters from plot point to plot point, like painting by the numbers, they often remain stick figures. They will never take on a life of their own. The most exciting thing is when you find a character doing something surprising or unplanned. Like a character saying to me: ‘Hey, Richard, you may think I work for you, but I don’t. I’m my own person.’” –Richard North Patterson
…the world may pass us by! We all need to squeeze out the writing time from our very busy schedules. Difficult decisions will be worth it in the end. This applies to me as much as any of you. Be strong and persevere! Bylines will make missed time worthwhile.
The Moving Word
