A Writer's Moment: 'Creating fun and interesting worlds'

A Writer's Moment: 'Creating fun and interesting worlds': “When I was making ‘Star Wars’ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science.   I simply said, ‘I’m going to create a world...

'Creating fun and interesting worlds'

“When I was making ‘Star Wars’ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science.  I simply said, ‘I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.’” – George Lucas

 Before Lucas became one of the world’s great scriptwriters and filmmakers he wanted to be a racecar driver.  Born in California in May of 1944, Lucas spent most of his high school years street racing and hanging out at garages.  But after nearly being killed in a racing wreck, he lost interest and switched his focus to . . . Anthropology, Sociology and Archaeology.   Those early passions later played a huge part in his creation of the character Indiana Jones.

 

Ever experimenting in his college courses Lucas then turned to art, photography and filmmaking, including writing movie scripts, a skill that has won him numerous awards.

 

Among those award-winning scripts is American Grafitti, a semi-autobiographical coming of age story set in the 1960s.  Winner of a Golden Globe for Best Writing, the script and subsequent movie have been preserved in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" for the time period they depict.

 

“There wasn't much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things,” Lucas said. “Writing a good story is simply the process of creating good characters and putting them into a good plot.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing life' wherever it happens

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing life' wherever it happens:   “Life happens, and I write about it wherever I am.” – Melissa Etheridge   Etheridge, who was born in Leavenworth, ...

'Writing life' wherever it happens

 

“Life happens, and I write about it wherever I am.” – Melissa Etheridge

 

Etheridge, who was born in Leavenworth, KS, on May 29, 1961 said almost from the time she could walk and talk she was interested in music, singing everywhere she went and learning to play the guitar by age 8.

She started writing words to go with the music in her elementary school years and never looked back, becoming one of the world’s top singer-songwriters before age 20.    Writing and performing songs inspired by her experiences and support for causes like the environment, she’s earned Grammy and Oscar Awards and dozens of other honors, including her own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. “As an artist, singer and songwriter, I try to use my words to create pictures in people's minds.”

  

A breast cancer survivor who underwent surgery and chemotherapy, she said she celebrates life each and every day.   "I don't have a bucket list," she said.  "Whatever I do each day IS my bucket list.”

A Writer's Moment: 'I learned that words are powerful'

A Writer's Moment: 'I learned that words are powerful': “I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stori...

'I learned that words are powerful'

“I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stories and mystery books, and I have wonderful memories of my mom reading picture books aloud to me. I learned that words are powerful.” –  Andrew Clements

Born in New Jersey on this date in 1949, Clements (who died in 2019) wrote dozens of children's books, beginning with Frindle, an ongoing favorite of kids around the world.

 

In 2016 the book won the Phoenix Award as “the best book that did not win a major award when it was published in 1996.”  Frindle gives us a different way to look at dictionaries and how words are developed and used.

 

“The dictionary is like a time capsule of all of human thinking ever since words began to be written down,” Clements said.   “Exploring where words have come from can increase your understanding of the words themselves and expand your understanding of how to use the words.”  

 

It was Clements’ use of words and his ability to “get into the personnas” he created that made him a favorite, especially among the “Tween” age group.   For a terrific read (and don’t be embarrassed about reading a kids’ book), read his compelling Things Not Seen.  It will open your eyes (no pun intended).

 

“Part of being a good fiction writer is being able to imagine how someone else is thinking and feeling,” he said.  “I think I've always been good at that.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Just get the right words in the right order'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just get the right words in the right order':   “I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right orde...

'Just get the right words in the right order'

 

“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), Stoppard 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 film Shakespeare in Love, in which Gwyneth Paltrow also won for Best Actress in her first starring role.  In 2013 Stoppard was awarded the prestigious PEN Pinter Prize for lifetime achievement.

 

“I cannot say that I write with any social objective,” Stoppard said.  “One writes because one loves writing, really.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Write your story as it needs to be written'

A Writer's Moment: 'Write your story as it needs to be written':   “The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. – Neil Gaima...

'Write your story as it needs to be written'

 

“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. – Neil Gaiman

 

A British author of . . . well, almost everything . . . Gaiman was born in Hampshire, England in 1960.   A practitioner of what he preaches, he has won dozens of awards for works ranging from screenplays to short stories to graphic novels to journalism.   

 

He has homes in Wisconsin and Massachusetts and has been a longtime teacher at Bard College teaching courses in theater and performance, written arts and experimental humanities.  He also writes a blog and is a regular poster on 'X,' formerly known as Twitter.

"So write your story as it needs to be written," Gaiman says. " Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. At least, not ones that matter.”

 

A Writer's Moment: Nature's promises kept

A Writer's Moment: Nature's promises kept:   “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” – William Wordsworth This beautiful sky greeted me as I ...

Nature's promises kept

 

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” – William Wordsworth

This beautiful sky greeted me as I stood at the edge of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, and I was reminded of Wordsworth's poem.  So, for Saturday's Poem, here is,

 

                              I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought: 

 

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

A Writer's Moment: 'A yardstick for the language'

A Writer's Moment: 'A yardstick for the language':   “Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the la...

'A yardstick for the language'

 “Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.” – Joseph Brodsky

Born in Leningrad on this date in 1940, Brodsky started writing at age 15.   Published by the underground journal Sintakss (Syntax) before he was out of high school, his early works got him in deep trouble as being “anti-Soviet” and by his late 20s the Soviet government had him “confined” to a mental institution and then expelled from his homeland. 

 

Then, thanks to the help of poet W.H. Auden, he came to live in the United States where he had a long and eventful writing career leading, ultimately, to being named for the Nobel Prize.

 

Besides writing, he taught poetry and creative writing at Yale, Columbia and Michigan before becoming a full-time faculty member at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts where he taught until his death in 1996.

 

 His 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”   In 1991, he was appointed United States Poet Laureate, the first naturalized citizen to be so honored.  America, he said, was a breath of fresh air that renewed his spirit and belief in his fellow human beings.

 

“Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family,” he advised.  “Know how delightful it is to find a friend in everyone you meet.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Not a good place to hide your heart'

A Writer's Moment: 'Not a good place to hide your heart':   “I hid my heart under my bed because my mother said if you're not careful someday somebody's going to break it....

'Not a good place to hide your heart'

 

“I hid my heart under my bed because my mother said if you're not careful someday somebody's going to break it. Take it from me, under the bed is not a good hiding spot.” – Shane Koyczan

Born on May 22, 1976 in Yellowknife in Northwest Territories, Koyczan grew up in British Columbia and was the first Canadian to win an Individual Championship title at the U.S. National Poetry Slam.

 

A spoken word poet, writer, and member of the group Tons of Fun University, he is best known for writing about issues like bullying, cancer, death, and eating disorders and internationally famous for his anti-bullying poem To This Day, which has more than 25 million YouTube views.

  

 Also the author of 4 books of poetry and many essays – both written and spoken – Koyczan said he’s interested in pursuing opera next.  “Opera is the original marriage of words and music, and there's a theatre element, a dramatic element,” he said.   “It's right up my alley.”

A Writer's Moment: Tragedy to comedy, 'Everything is copy'

A Writer's Moment: Tragedy to comedy, 'Everything is copy':   “My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the next.” – Nora Ephr...

Tragedy to comedy, 'Everything is copy'

 

“My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the next.” – Nora Ephron

Ephron, born in May of 1941, was a journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger born into a family of writers.  She popularized the term "Everything is copy" when asked where she got her writing ideas.  

 

Ephron's parents were both writers, and she was the first of 4 sisters to follow the profession.  One of her three marriages was to Washington Post writer Carl Bernstein - with who she had two sons (one, Jacob, also becoming a writer).   Ephron died from pneumonia in 2012, a complication brought on by leukemia. 

 

A three-time Academy Award nomineee for her writing of Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle, she won numerous writing awards in many different genres.  And for When Harry Met Sally, had there had been an award for best original scene, she probably would have taken that home too.  It depicts an elderly woman sitting in a restaurant watching Sally and telling the waitress “I’ll have what she’s having.”   If you haven’t seen it, take a look on You Tube to brighten your day.

 

“I try to write parts for women that are complicated and interesting,” Ephron said.  “Just as women actually are.”                                                         

A Writer's Moment: 'Run from ghosts or ride on dolphins'

A Writer's Moment: 'Run from ghosts or ride on dolphins':   “With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts or ride...

'Run from ghosts or ride on dolphins'

 

“With my writing, I can still play inside an enchanted castle or live inside an old fort. I can run from ghosts or ride dolphins any day of the week.” – Mary Pope Osborne

 

Almost every young reader know Jack and Annie, the brother-and-sister protagonists created by Osborne, who was born at Ft. Sill, OK on this date in 1949.  The duo are the stars of Osborne’s award-winning Magic Tree House series, now translated into some 30 languages with over 130 million copies in print worldwide. 

 

The daughter of a career military man, Osborne lived in 13 houses around the globe before age 15.   "Moving was never traumatic for me, but staying in one place was. When my dad finally retired to a small town in North Carolina, I nearly went crazy with boredom."   That led her to try Community Theater to rekindle that sense of adventure that she was missing.

 

“I continued to visit imaginary places … whether I acted in a play or worked backstage, the world of Tennessee Williams or Shakespeare always seemed more real to me than the dreary life of high school,” Osborne said.

 

In her early 30s, “one day, out of the blue” she started writing a story that she had been thinking about.  “It just came to me,” she said.  The result was the semi-autobiographical Run, Run As Fast As You Can and she has never looked back.  The first of her Magic Tree House books, Dinosaurs Before Dark, followed.  In them Jack and Annie are transported to different areas and eras for a series of cliffhanging adventures thanks to their titular magic treehouse.

  

While the duo’s adventures are at the heart of each story, readers also are subliminally introduced to events, animals and people worldwide and from throughout history. “I discovered writing children's books was a way to keep living in my imagination like a child,” Osborne said.  “ I could be somewhere different in every single book.”

A Writer's Moment: 'An orphan of silence'

A Writer's Moment: 'An orphan of silence':   “Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.” – Charles Simic   Born i...

'An orphan of silence'

 

“Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.” – Charles Simic

 

Born in Serbia in May of 1938, Simic emigrated to the U.S. at age 16, served in the U.S. Army and then studied at New York University where he began his writing career.  A multiple award winner for his works, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The World Doesn't End.

 

He served as co-poetry editor of The Paris Review in the 1990s; was the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008-09; and won the Robert Frost Medal for “lifetime achievement in poetry” in 2011.  A prolific writer, Simic authored 40 books of poetry, the last one (No Land In Sight) published shortly before his death in 2023.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Simic’s,

 

                                                Country Fair

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

A Writer's Moment: 'Talent, determination . . . and sheer luck'

A Writer's Moment: 'Talent, determination . . . and sheer luck':     “If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say one is talent, two is stubbornness or determination, and th...

'Talent, determination . . . and sheer luck'

 

 

“If people ask me for the ingredients of success, I say one is talent, two is stubbornness or determination, and third is sheer luck. You have to have two out of the three. Any two will probably do.” – Fred Saberhagen

 

Born on May 18, 1930 Saberhagen is most famous for his Sci-Fi Berserker series of short stories and novels.  He also was one of the first writers to put together a series of novels where vampires (including Dracula) are the “good guys.” 

 

A native of Chicago and a Korean War veteran, Saberhagen started writing science-related pieces and then fiction “around the age of 30.”   His first novel The Golden People came out in 1964 following a series of successes with magazine articles and short stories.  He said he was “filled with ideas” and felt the urge to write every day.

 

 “Ideas are everywhere,” he said.   “It's the paperwork, that is, sitting down and thinking them into a coherent story, trying to find just the right words . . . that can get to be a writer’s labor.”

As a writer of “serious science,” too, he served as both editor and writer for all the chemistry articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s.  But, from that point until his death in 2007 he only wrote science fiction.

 

His advice to aspiring writers: “Keep writing, and keep sending things out, not to friends and relatives, but to people who have the power to buy. A lot of additional, useful tips could be added, but this is fundamental.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Persistence and faith in your ideas'

A Writer's Moment: 'Persistence and faith in your ideas':   “The thing about reading is that if you are hooked, you're not going to stop just because one series is over; you&#...

'Persistence and faith in your ideas'

 

“The thing about reading is that if you are hooked, you're not going to stop just because one series is over; you're going to go and find something else.” – Eoin Colfer

Born in Wexford, Ireland on this date in 1965 Colfer is best known for his “Artemis Fowl” children’s book series, although he also gained considerable fame after being selected to do the 6^th edition of the popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series – titled And Another Thing.

 

Colfer grew up in southeast Ireland and started his adult life as a schoolteacher, following in the footsteps of his parents.   After trying a couple of stand-alone books for young readers, he created his 12-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl.  His tales have been wildly popular around the globe, spinning off into a graphic novel series and TV movies.   Ever the teacher, Eoin (pronounced Owen), is a popular speaker st writing conferences and workshops where he encourages persistence and faith in ideas.

 

“I often meet frustrated young writers who say they've only got so far and just can't finish a book,” he said.  “Even if you don't happen to use what you've worked on that day, it has taught you something and you'll be amazed when you might come back to it and use it again.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Giving shape and meaning to chaos'

A Writer's Moment: 'Giving shape and meaning to chaos':   “Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, thin...

'Giving shape and meaning to chaos'

 

“Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.” – Katherine Anne Porter

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist, Porter was born in Texas on this date in 1890.   She wrote only one novel – but it was a really good one.   Ship of Fools not only was a worldwide bestseller, it also earned her the Pulitzer, The National Book Award, and a box office hit movie. 

She also won the National Book Award for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, often hailed as a hallmark of short story excellence.

Porter’s journalism career began on the East Coast, then gravitated to Colorado where she was writing for the Rocky Mountain News when she almost died during the 1918 flu pandemic. When she was finally discharged from the hospital, she was frail and completely bald and when her hair finally grew back, it was white and remained that way for the rest of her life.  Her life-and-death experience was reflected in her award winning trilogy of novelettes led by the wonderful Pale Horse, Pale Rider. 
 

Porter advised young writers to look upon writing as an art AND a profession.  “Writing is a craft,” she said.  “Take an apprenticeship in it just like any other profession.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Perfect, unspoiled time awaits you'

A Writer's Moment: 'Perfect, unspoiled time awaits you':   “The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a...

'Perfect, unspoiled time awaits you'

 

“The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life.  You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. “ – Arnold Bennett

 

Bennett, born in Britain on this date in 1867, was a journalist, editor and filmmaker who  devoted the last half of his life to creative writing.  He also wrote several non-fiction books tht have stood the test of time, including the bestselling self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day from which the above quote comes.    

 

But, it was his creative writing around which he focused most of his career.  He wrote 30 novels, led by The Old Wives' Tale, considered one of the great works of 20th Century English literature.  It gives us an in-depth look at 70 years in the lives of two sisters, following their stories from youth through old age.

 

Bennett also was acclaimed as a “discoverer” of other great writers and his reviews were highly sought after.   Reviewing a constant stream of new books, he unerringly picked out the important writers of the next generation—James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway—and praised them discerningly.  He said, in his mind, everyone has “artistic” moments.   

 

"At moments," he said, "we are all artists."

                                            

A Writer's Moment: A poet's Mother's Day praise

A Writer's Moment: A poet's Mother's Day praise:   “Poetry wishes to say what it is like for any man to be himself in the presence of a particular occurrence as though only he were alone...

A poet's Mother's Day praise

 

“Poetry wishes to say what it is like for any man to be himself in the presence of a particular occurrence as though only he were alone there.” –  Archibald MacLeish

Born in May of 1892, MacLeish won a remarkable three Pulitzer Prizes for his poems and strived throughout his life to promote the arts, culture and libraries.  And, he was the Library of Congress's first Poet Laureate.   For Saturday’s Poem and Mother's Day, here is MacLeish’s,

 

       Poem in Prose

 

This poem is for my wife.
I have made it plainly and honestly:
The mark is on it
Like the burl on the knife.

I have not made it for praise.
She has no more need for praise
Than summer has
Or the bright days.

In all that becomes a woman
Her words and her ways are beautiful:
Love's lovely duty,
the well-swept room.

Wherever she is there is sun
And time and a sweet air:
Peace is there,
Work done.

There are always curtains and flowers
And candles and baked bread
And a cloth spread
And a clean house.

Her voice when she sings is a voice
At dawn by a freshening spring
Where the wave leaps in the wind
And rejoices.

Wherever she is it is now.
It is here where the apples are:
Here in the stars,
In the quick hour.

The greatest and richest good,
My own life to live in,
This she has given me --

If giver could.

A Writer's Moment: 'What could be more fulfilling than that?'

A Writer's Moment: 'What could be more fulfilling than that?':   “Librarians and romance writers accomplish one mission better than anyone, including English teachers: we create readers for life - and ...

'What could be more fulfilling than that?'

 

“Librarians and romance writers accomplish one mission better than anyone, including English teachers: we create readers for life - and what could be more fulfilling than that?” – Susan Elizabeth Phillips

 

Credited as being the creator of the sports romance genre, Phillips also has been called the “Queen of Romantic Comedy” with books published in more than 30 languages.  Born in Ohio in 1944, she is the only 5-time winner of the Romance Writers of America Favorite Book of the Year Award.

 

A graduate of Ohio University, she was a teacher for a number of years, then a stay-at-home mom when she joined with neighbor Claire Kiehl to co-author her first book, The Copeland Bride, under the pen name Justine Cole.  By the mid-1980s she had begun her own career, which has now produced three dozen titles.

 

Among her many bestsellers are the terrific “Chicago Stars” series, including It Had To Be You; Heaven, Texas; First Star I See Tonight; and this year's hit Simply The Best. 

 

Inducted into the Romance Writers Hall of Fame, Phillips also is recipient of the Romance Writers Lifetime Achievement Award.    When she isn’t writing she enjoys hiking, gardening and reading – and supporting her local library.

 

A self-styled "positive person," she advises others to focus first on themselves and what they want to achieve.  “You can't do extraordinary things in the world if you're spending time criticizing others because they don't look or behave the way you think they should.”

A Writer's Moment: 'I love writing' every step of the way

A Writer's Moment: 'I love writing' every step of the way:   “I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.” – Caroline B. Cooney ...

'I love writing' every step of the way

 

“I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.” – Caroline B. Cooney

Born in Geneva, NY, on May 10, 1947 Cooney has authored some 80 books in a wide range of genres and primarily for young adults.   Now a resident of South Carolina, she said she thought from the 6^th grade on that she might want to be a writer, but her early attempts met with failure.  After writing 8 historical fiction books and getting none of them published, she switched to the YA and Children’s market and hit her stride. 

 

 Her 1979 novel Safe As The Grave opened the door to her remarkable string of book successes.  One of her best known, also adapted as a TV movie, is The Face on the Milk Carton.

  

She said she gets letters from readers who say they didn’t like reading before trying one of her books and now they are reading more if not every day.   “I'm thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.”