Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 361
June 3, 2019
A Writer's Moment: 'Someday' Should Be Today
A Writer's Moment: 'Someday' Should Be Today: “Someday is not a day of the week.”— Janet Dailey And that’s why Dailey said “waiting for someday” was no longe...
'Someday' Should Be Today
“Someday is not a day of the week.”—Janet Dailey
And that’s why Dailey said “waiting for someday” was no longer an option if she was going to fulfill her lifelong dream to actually BE a writer.
And so she did, and was, completing more than 90 novels in just 25 years. Her books, primarily romances, are widely loved and have sold over 300 million copies in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular writers throughout the world. [image error] Many writers tend to procrastinate and usually need a challenge to finally get the ball rolling. For Dailey it was a challenge to “prove it,” when she said she was disgusted with a lot of romance writing and thought she could do better.
“A challenge is a challenge,” she said, “and while writing is a challenge it’s also a fulfillment.”
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
And that’s why Dailey said “waiting for someday” was no longer an option if she was going to fulfill her lifelong dream to actually BE a writer.
And so she did, and was, completing more than 90 novels in just 25 years. Her books, primarily romances, are widely loved and have sold over 300 million copies in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular writers throughout the world. [image error] Many writers tend to procrastinate and usually need a challenge to finally get the ball rolling. For Dailey it was a challenge to “prove it,” when she said she was disgusted with a lot of romance writing and thought she could do better.
“A challenge is a challenge,” she said, “and while writing is a challenge it’s also a fulfillment.”
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
June 1, 2019
A Writer's Moment: Endowing Each Word With Life
A Writer's Moment: Endowing Each Word With Life: “When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.” – J...
Endowing Each Word With Life
“When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.” – John Drinkwater
Born in England on this date in 1882, Drinkwater was not only a poet but also a playwright and critic, a typical “man of letters” of the Georgian age of the 1910s and 1920s. He also is noted for being one of the first poets to record both his own works and those of other poets and authors of the day, beginning as early as 1906. For Saturday’s Poem, here are Drinkwater’s famed “Sun,” and his clever children's favorite, “Washing.” SunI told the Sun that I was glad,
I'm sure I don't know why;
Somehow the pleasant way he had
Of shining in the sky,
Just put a notion in my head
That wouldn't it be fun
If, walking on the hill, I said
"I'm happy" to the Sun.
Washing
What is all this washing about,
Every day, week in, week out?
From getting up till going to bed,
I'm tired of hearing the same thing said.
Whether I'm dirty or whether I'm not.
Whether the water is cold or hot,
Whether I like or whether I don't,
Whether I will or whether I won't,
"Have you washed your hands, and washed your face?"
I seem to live in the washing-place.
Whenever I go for a walk or ride,
As soon as I put my nose inside
The door again, there's some one there
With a sponge and soap, and a lot they care
If I have something better to do,
"Now wash your face and your fingers too."
Before a meal is ever begun,
And after ever a meal is done,
It's time to turn on the waterspout,
Please, what is all this washing about?
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
May 30, 2019
A Writer's Moment: Write With Assurance and Confidence
A Writer's Moment: Write With Assurance and Confidence: “The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be ...
Write With Assurance and Confidence
“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.)" – Neil Gaiman
Born in England in 1960, Gaiman now makes his home near Minneapolis where he writes in virtually every genre from Children’s and Young Adult to short fiction, novels and graphic novels. He also is a prolific writer of nonfiction, audio theatre, poetry, song lyrics and films. And his blog and Twitter feeds have millions of followers. Credited as one of the creators of modern comics, Gaiman is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers.
Among his dozens of honors are Hugos, Nebulas, Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both a Newbery and a Carnegie for the same work –The Graveyard Book (slated for a movie). His title The Ocean at the End of the Lane won the British Book of the Year award. Gaiman credits librarians with fostering his life-long love of reading. "I wouldn't be who I am without libraries. I was the sort of kid who devoured books, and my happiest times as a boy were when I persuaded my parents to drop me off in the local library on their way to work, and I spent the day there.”
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
May 28, 2019
A Writer's Moment: The Book - Humankind's Great Achievement
A Writer's Moment: The Book - Humankind's Great Achievement: “Read. The book is still the greatest manmade machine of all – not the car, not the TV, not the computer or the smartphone...Do not allow ...
Our Greatest Achievement
“Read. The book is still the greatest manmade machine of all – not the car, not the TV, not the computer or the smartphone...Do not allow our social media to segregate us into ever smaller tribes and clans, fiercely and sometimes appropriately loyal to our group, but also capable of metastasizing into profound distrust of the other.” – Ken Burns
Burns, noted for his many outstanding, award-winning films, made those comments in a 2015 commencement speech to the graduating class at Washington University in St. Louis, essentially adding speechwriter and speaker to his already impressive resumé.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1953, Burns has produced over 30 major films anddocumentary series including *The Civil War (winner of more than 40 awards); The National Parks: America's Best Idea; and The Vietnam War. He also is credited with developing a filming technique known as “The Ken Burns Effect,” giving life to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. This year his newest film is on Country Music, and in 2020 he is focusing on the great writer Ernest Hemingway.
Burns has been a lifelong avid supporter of education, libraries and the arts. “Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts,” Burns said. “They have nothing to do with the actual defense of the country – they just make the country worth defending.”
*The Civil War features a distinctive melody throughout called "Ashokan Farewell,” a haunting song that embodies that terrible struggle and its effect on our nation and perhaps best on display in a scene featuring a letter by combatant Sullivan Ballou. Ken Burns’ amazing filmmaking skills and this beautiful song can be heard and seen at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VK1KcZoDu0
Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
May 27, 2019
A Writer's Moment: Effectively 'Nudging' Our World
A Writer's Moment: Effectively 'Nudging' Our World: “I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge ...
Effectively 'Nudging' Our World
“I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.”– Tom Stoppard
A Czech-born playwright (in 1937), Tomas Straussler escaped the Nazis as a child, ending up in Great Britain. He changed his name and started writing journalistically in 1954. Then in 1960 he decided to try writing plays and his first effort, A Walk on the Water, not only made it to the stage but was televised by the BBC. His second play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead earned him international acclaim from which he never looked back, earning 4 Tony Awards in the process.
Also a writer for radio, television and film, he co-wrote the Academy Award winning script for the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, which also won best actress for Gwyneth Paltrow in her first starring role.
In July 2013 he was awarded the prestigious PEN Pinter Prize for both his lifetime achievement as a writer and for his ability to (as the award states): "to define the real truth of our lives and our societies by putting the words in the right order," and so that they effectively “nudge” our world.“I cannot say that I write with any social objective,” Stoppard said. “One writes because one loves writing, really.”
Writer’s Moment with a friend at http://writersmoment.blogspot.com
