Thursday, May 1, 2014

Writers: Let Your Words Dance and Sing

I haven't done one of these inspirational quotes for writers for a while (I've been feeling a little uninspired), but I was recently doing some research about writing picture books and came across this gem: 


"Create characters, carve great ideas, and cast words well—for it is by allowing our words to dance in our minds and out onto the page, brush stroke by brush stroke, dip by dab, that the manuscript we paint will sing.” 

Jodell Sadler, Saint Training: Truly a Novel That Sings, Rockford Childrens Books Examiner, January 6, 2012


I love the idea behind this! It reminds me that it's important to have fun while I'm writing.

I know that once I get an idea, I sometimes rush into following one path, rather than taking some time to daydream and see what other directions or possibilities the words or characters can lead me to discover.  By giving the words, characters or ideas more time to dance freely, who knows what will happen?

2 comments:

  1. I think this is possibly one of the advantages of pantsing and of writing slowly. Well, relatively slowly. And I like to allow for this "dancing" in the first draft so, hopefully, the right direction will become foundational in the first draft.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's nice to think that there are some benefits to writing slowly, since I sometimes have the impression that there's some pressure to get things written fast and to produce.

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