Saturday, March 2, 2013

Wisdom from the Tack Board

When I get ready to start a new writing project I like to clean off the tack boards that surround my writing desk. They're covered in layers of drawings, maps, pictures, and note cards scribbled with important plot points, midnight inspirations, and quotes I've collected. Before I clear everything off and file it away I'd like to share a few of the quotes I've accumulated over the past year. For some of these, I know the source. Others I didn't attribute when I jotted them down. Still more are my own summary of something I read or heard. Enjoy!

Audiences know what they expect, and that's all they are prepared to believe in. -Tom Stoppard

I decided I'd do my best in future not to write books just for the money... If I did work that I was proud of and I didn't get the money at least I'd have the work... The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.
- Neil Gaiman

Keep Calm and Carry On

Don't Buy the Liverwurst

Real Motivators: Autonomy, Mastery, Making a Contribution

Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets. -Ludvig Van Beethoven

Temple Grandin's Three Principles to Manage Anything: Improve the Environment, Provide Instruction, Monitor and Reward Desired Behaviors.

Middle grade readers want to escape the real world and to understand the real world.

You rarely go to a place that isn't on your map.

Find out what you do best and have the sense to do it. -Paul Darcy Boles

Evil mainly works by getting good people to believe in lies.

We have only just begun to write.




6 comments:

  1. Haha! I was just singing "Don't buy the Liverworst" to my baby yesterday, and thinking what a fun a cappella group number it would be if anyone could arrange it.

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  2. I love quotes! Thanks for a new slew, Rebecca!

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  3. I love quotes too, Jonene! And Rachel, I was nearly forty years old before I heard "Down by the Riverside," the original song that "Don't Buy the Liverwurst" is a parody of. It serves to remind me that parody often outlives the original.

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  4. One of those quotes was something your silly daughter stuck up there in capitalized rainbow letters with a poorly drawn hat on it.

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  5. I enjoyed these Rebecca, but I have to say, I often find myself going places that just aren't on my map.

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    1. That's awesome, Amber, and the mark of a true adventurer.

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