Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 389

Writing in her own voice

“I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.” – Terry McMillan
Born on this day in 1951, McMillan grew up in Michigan and earned a degree from UC-Berkeley before starting her writing career in her late 30s.  After modest success, she had a major breakthrough with the 1992 best-seller Waiting to Exhale, credited with contributing to a shift in Black popular cultural consciousness and the visibility of a female Black middle-class identity in popular culture.     And while she drew on her own experiences for part of that book, it was the 1998 semi-autobiographical novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back that firmly cemented her writing as a force to be reckoned with.
Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists, and she says all of them reflect a part of herself, something she thinks all writers have incorporated into their work.   
“Few writers are willing to admit (that) writing is autobiographical,” she said.  “But it mostly is.”

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Great research; great tales

“I love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment of starting to write the story.” – Alan Garner
There are few writers who wouldn’t agree with Garner, born on this date in 1934.  Gathering info. that you want to utilize as the foundation for your stories is always a gratifying and fulfilling thing.  But most writers are procrastinators by nature – knowing that they should put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, but just dreading how things are going to start and where they are going to lead.  But, as every author knows, the time comes when you’ve got to kick the kid out the door.  In other words, get busy and write.
Born in the front room of his grandmother’s house in Cheshire, England, Garner grew up near that northwestern English city, where he has chosen to set most of his books.  Best known for his children's fantasy novels and his re-tellings of traditional British folk tales, his work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county.      Noted for his “slow, but steady” writing style, he takes his time but always produces winners, earning him almost every major writing award for young people’s literature in the process.

As for procrastinating, he said being a writer is really pretty simple. “ Look, if you are going to write, nothing will stop you,” he said.  “And if you are not going to write, nothing will make you.” 

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Great research leads to great tales

“I love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment of starting to write the story.” – Alan Garner
There are few writers who wouldn’t agree with Garner, born on this date in 1934.  Gathering info. that you want to utilize as the foundation for your stories is always a gratifying and fulfilling thing.  But most writers are procrastinators by nature – knowing that they should put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard, but just dreading how things are going to start and where they are going to lead.  But, as every author knows, the time comes when you’ve got to kick the kid out the door.  In other words, get busy and write.
Born in the front room of his grandmother’s house in Cheshire, England, Garner grew up near that northwestern English city, where he has chosen to set most of his books.  Best known for his children's fantasy novels and his re-tellings of traditional British folk tales, his work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county.      Noted for his “slow, but steady” writing style, he takes his time but always produces winners, earning him almost every major writing award for young people’s literature in the process.
As for procrastinating, he said being a writer is really pretty simple. “ Look, if you are going to write, nothing will stop you,” he said.  “And if you are not going to write, nothing will make you.” 

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Creative, funny and kind

“An early editor characterized my books as 'romantic comedy for intelligent adults.' I think people see them as funny but kind. I don't set out to write either funny or kind, but it's a voice they like, quirky like me... And you know, people like happy endings.” – Elinor Lipman   Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1950, Lipman studied journalism at Simmons College and began her writing career as a college intern with the Lowell (MA) Sun.   Right out of college she was hired to do press releases for Boston television station WGBH, a job she held throughout the 1970s before turning to a creative writing career and never looking back.  Her first book, Into Love and Out Again, featured a collection of her short stories.
She started writing novels in the 1990s and has had great success with them ever since.    Her first novel, Then She Found Me, was also made into a successful movie in 2008, and two more of her books also have been optioned for movies.  Her most recent best seller is 2017’s On Turpentine Lane.               Known for her wit and “societal observations,” Lipman also reaches a wide audience through her column, "I Might Complain," written for Parade.com.   Her novel writing advice is simple:  “Five hundred words a day is what I aim for. And I don't go on to the next chapter until I've polished and polished and polished the one I'm working on.” 

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A prolific climb to writing heights

“Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.”–  P. G. Wodehouse
Born on this date in 1881, Wodehouse was one of the most widely read and quoted humorists of the 20th century.  The son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse studied business and worked in banking for a time before realizing that what he enjoyed most was writing.  “I know I was already writing stories when I was 5,” he said.  “I don’t know what I did before that.  Just loafed I suppose.”
A prolific writer throughout his life, he authored more than 90 books, 40 plays, and 200 short stories and other writings right up until his death in 1975.
While most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in England (he is credited with creating the stereotypical English butler character Jeeves), he spent much of his life in the U.S. and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. He also wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies during and after WWI – together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern – that played an important part in the development of modern American musicals and musical comedy.
Since Wodehouse's death there have been numerous adaptations and dramatizations of his work on television,        and the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 1,750 quotations from Wodehouse, illustrating terms from crispish to zippiness.
“Everything in life that’s any fun,” Wodehouse wrote shortly before his death, “is either immoral, illegal … or fattening.”



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'Painting' life with his words

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”–  e. e. cummings
Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of cummings, who authored some 2,900 poems, 2 autobiographical novels, 4 plays and several essays in his eventful and event-filled lifetime.  

Some of his poems are free verse (with no concern for rhyme or meter), but many have a recognizable sonnet structure of 14 lines, with an intricate rhyme scheme. A number of his poems feature a typographically exuberant style, with words, parts of words, or punctuation symbols scattered across the page, and needing to be read aloud in order to clarify his meanings and emotions.  Also a painter, Cummings understood the importance of presentation, and used typography to "paint a picture" with some of his poems.   While he was not without controversy in his life and 
political leanings (he was a staunch supporter of 
Joseph McCarthy, for example), there’s little doubt [image error]that he is remembered as an eminent voice of 20th century literature.Check out Hello Poetry  http://hellopoetry.com/e-e-cummings/ to see some Cummings’ poems, including many showing his unique "paint a word picture" style. It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/e...
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/e... rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.
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Fostering a daily poetic notebook

“If someone is alone reading my poems, I hope it would be like reading someone's notebook. A record. Of a place, beauty, difficulty. A familiar daily struggle.” – Fanny Howe

Born on Oct. 15, 1940, Howe was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.     One of America’s most widely read poets, she also has a distinguished record as a novelist and essayist.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Howe’s,Footsteps I have never arrived
into a new life yet.

Have you?

Do you find the squeak
of boots on snow

excruciating?

Have you heard people
say, It wasn't me,

when they accomplished
a great feat?

I have, often.
But rarely.

•

Possibility
is one of the elements.
It keeps things going.

The ferry
with its ratty engine
and exactitude at chugging
into blocks and chains.

Returning as ever
to mother's house
under a salty rain.

Slave up, slave down.


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Like reading a daily notebook

“If someone is alone reading my poems, I hope it would be like reading someone's notebook. A record. Of a place, beauty, difficulty. A familiar daily struggle.” – Fanny Howe

Born on Oct. 15, 1940, Howe was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.     One of America’s most widely read poets, she also has a distinguished record as a novelist and essayist.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Howe’s,Footsteps I have never arrived
into a new life yet.

Have you?

Do you find the squeak
of boots on snow

excruciating?

Have you heard people
say, It wasn't me,

when they accomplished
a great feat?

I have, often.
But rarely.

•

Possibility
is one of the elements.
It keeps things going.

The ferry
with its ratty engine
and exactitude at chugging
into blocks and chains.

Returning as ever
to mother's house
under a salty rain.

Slave up, slave down.


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For the love and joy of writing

“I think it's a terrible thing to write and not enjoy it. It's a sad thing. But of course a lot of people do work because they need to eat. And we all need to eat, but that's not the only reason to work. You couldn't have paid me not to write.” – Anne Perry
Born Juliet Marion Hulme in October, 1938, Perry is an English author of historical detective fiction.  Best known for her Victorian-era Thomas Pitt and William Monk series’, she started writing in the late 1970s with her first book, The Cater Street Hangman, introducing Pitt and starting a 32-book series featuring him and his wife Charlotte.  
She also has written 24 Monk books and a remarkable 96 books or novellas overall, including A Dark Tide Rising and A Christmas Revelation, both released this year.   None of her books has ever been out of print; many have been bestsellers in numerous countries; and more than 20 million copies are in print worldwide.
Also a popular speaker (primarily on the topic of the power and universality of storytelling), Perry said her mother taught her to read and write by age 4, and her father encouraged her to write things down and be creative.    While she encourages all writing styles, she is quick to share the one that works best for her.
“You start at the end, and then go back and write and go that way,” she said.  “Not everyone does, but I do. Some people just sit down at the page and start off. I start from what happened, including the why.”




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Meeting your audience's expectations

“I think the bar is higher these days in terms of audience expectations of authenticity.” – Shawn Ryan
Born on this date in 1966, Ryan is the creator and producer of such hit TV shows as The Shield, The Chicago Code, Timeless, and S.W.A.T.   A native of Rockford, IL, he migrated east to study writing and theater at Middlebury College in Vermont, and then moved west to Hollywood to use that creativity in his wide range of hit shows.
The son of a schoolteacher, Ryan said he was always interested in TV dramas and the various Sitcoms of the day, early influencers on his career choice.       He said he loves researching his shows and making sure, as he said, that they are as authentic as possible.   The award-winning writer said he also enjoys a wide range of topics and not getting pigeonholed or pegged for his writing style.   “I don't want my writing to be recognized,” he said.  “I don't want my writing to be so unique that when you apply it to different genres, it seems like the previous show that people already know you from. “




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