Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 149

A Writer's Moment: 'It's what I do, every day'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's what I do, every day':   “Whether I'm critically well received, whether or not I sell books - of course it becomes progressively harder to ...

'It's what I do, every day'

 

“WhetherI'm critically well received, whether or not I sell books - of course itbecomes progressively harder to get them published - nevertheless, it's what Ido, every day.” – Tama Janowitz

 

Born on this date in 1957, Janowitzis part of the celebrated “Brat Pack” group of authors – along with Bret EastonEllis and Jay McInerney – from the 1980s.  A novelist, short story writer, and close friend of artist Andy Warhol,she first gained acclaim through her short story collection Slaves ofNew York, later adapted into a film starring Bernadette Peters.

 

Author of 7 novels, that short storycollection, and 3 nonfiction books, including a celebrated memoir, she lived inboth Manhattan and Brooklyn before settling near Ithaca, NY, where shecontinues to write and sometimes teach. 

 

Among her many awards are thegraduate fellowship that led to an MFA degree from Columbia, the Alfred HodderFellowship in the Humanities at Princeton University, and a grant from theNational Endowment for the Arts.   Whileshe’s been chastised for her seeming obsession with money – a focus of many ofher works – she says it’s just the part of life she’s chosen for her writings.

 

Her book, Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction,not only touches on that but also her somewhat “wild child” early life that oftenput her into the gossip columns and (some say) helped her book sales. ButJanowitz has no deep desire to relive those years. “I did not particularly likebeing semi-famous,” she said.  “I did not write books to be liked.”

 

 

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'Stories evolve, so just write'

 

“Ilove to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that otherpeople could write about the same subjects, but no one would write it just theway I do. It's very individual.” – David A. Adler
Born on this date in 1947, Adler is an American writer of more than 250 books forchildren and young adults, most notably the Cam Jansen mystery series, and the"Picture Book of . . ." series. 

Adler came up with aterrific kids’ protagonist in the form of fifth-grader Jennifer "Cam"Jansen, nicknamed Cam for her photographic memory.    At various points in a “Cam” story, shecloses her eyes and says "click,” mimicking the noise of a camera whilememorizing a scene in front of her.  Shelater recalls these scenes to aid in solving a mystery.    Cam is based on an elementary schoolclassmate of Adler's.   
A native New Yorker, Adler wasteaching math there when his writing career evolved aftera nephew had a question about a topic and couldn't find anything that had been published.  Adler decided towrite something himself, and the rest, as the saying goes . . .
“In my office I have a sign that says, 'Don't think. Just write!' and that'show I work,” Adler says in offering writing advice.   “I trynot to worry about each word, or even each sentence or paragraph. For me,stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript,many times.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Stories evolve, so just write'

A Writer's Moment: 'Stories evolve, so just write':   “I love to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that other people could write about the same subjects, but no one woul...

A Writer's Moment: The best time to write a poem

A Writer's Moment: The best time to write a poem:   “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that ho...

The best time to write a poem

 

“Thevery least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The mostyou can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the wallson both sides.” — Barbara Kingsolver

 

Kingsolver’s poems are (onecritic said) “songs of hope and longing as opposed to howls of protest anddespair.”   

 

As for why she sometimes writespoetry, she said, “In my opinion when you find yourself laughing and cryingboth at once, that is the time to write a poem. Probably, it's the only honestliving there is.”  For Saturday’s Poemhere is Kingsolver’s,

 

Apotheosis

There are days when I am envious of myhens:
when I hunger for a purpose as perfect and sure
as a single daily egg.

If I could only stand in the sun,
scratch the gravel and blink and wait
for the elements within me to assemble,
asking only grain I would
surrender myself to the miracle
of everyday incarnation: a day of my soul
captured in yolk and shell.

And I would have no need
for the visions that come to others
on bat’s wings, to carry them
face to face with nothingness.
The howl of the coyote in the night
would not raise my feathers, for I,
drowsy on my roost, would dream
of the replicated fruits of my life
nested safe in cartons.

And yet I am never seduced,
for I have seen what a hen knows of omnipotence:
nothing of the miracles in twelves,
only of the hand that feeds
and, daily, robs the nest.

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'I write because I can'

 

“Wewrite for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans– because we can.   We have some impulsewithin us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.  That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare tolove someone, that’s why we write – because we have the impulse to explain whowe are.” – Maya Angelou
 Angelou was an author, poet, dancer, actress, andsinger.  Born in St. Louis on this date in 1928, she authored 7 autobiographies, 3 books of essays, and many books of poetry.  She also wrote a long list of plays,movies, and television shows, received dozens ofawards and was presented with 50 honorary degrees.   It was her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, written in 1968 at the urging of fellow writerJames Baldwin and cartoonist Jules Feiffer that brought her worldwide attention and started her on the pathway tosuccess.
Angelou  "performed" many of her poems and essays at public readings and talks.  I had thegood fortune to hear her at one on the campus of AugsburgCollege and also be part of a small group gathering before the event.  I asked her if she wrote first for herself and then to share,or the other way around.
“I would be a liar, a hypocrite, ora fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader,”she said.  “I do.  But I write for the reader who hears, whoreally will work at it, going behind what I seem to say.  So I write for myself and that reader whowill pay his or her dues.”

A Writer's Moment: 'I write because I can'

A Writer's Moment: 'I write because I can':   “We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can.    We have some impulse within us ...

A Writer's Moment: 'Making you want to go there'

A Writer's Moment: 'Making you want to go there':   "That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing th...

'Making you want to go there'

 

"That'swhat writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put downon the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to gothere." – Anne McCaffrey
Born on April Fool's Day in 1926, McCaffrey was anactress and singer for 15 years before she started writing.  Herfirst short story was published in the late 1950s and her first novel in 1967after her three children were off to school each day and she made more time forher writing.     That first novel, Restoree, was written as a protestagainst what she termed “absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fictionnovels in the 1950s and early 1960s.”  That opened the gates to a spectacular writing career, particularly with her series' TheShip Who Sang and the Dragonriders of Pern.   Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first Sci-Fi books to be listed on the NewYork Times Bestseller list.
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The first woman to win Hugo and Nebula awardsfor fiction and science fiction, she also was honored by the Science Fictionand Fantasy Writers of America as a “Grand Master” and was inducted into theScience Fiction Hall of Fame.  McCaffrey used emotion as a writing tool, something she developed duringher years on the stage.  Known for hervivid scenes and settings, she also never hesitated to putproblematic elements into her work.  “(Myworlds) contain scary things; problems, but also a sense of rightness thatmakes them alive and makes us want to live there,” she said.