When I’m looking for an idea,
I’ll do anything - clean the closet,
mow the lawn,
work in the garden…
~ Kevin Henkes, Chrysanthemum
There must be something to think about at
the end.
~Chris Van Allsburg,
The Wretched Stone
Once I have the idea for a story.
I start collecting all kinds of helpful
information and storing it in three-ring
notebooks.
I may see a picture of a man in a magazine
and say, “that’s exactly what the father
in my book looks like!”
~Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
I love the swirl and swing of words as they
tangle with human emotions.
~James Michener
The golden rule of writing is to write what
you care about.
If you care about your topic, you’ll do your
best writing, and then you stand the best
chance of really touching a reader in some
way.
~ Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
Ideas are the cheapest part
of the writing. They are free.
The hard part is
what you do with ideas you’ve gathered.
~Jane Yolen, Owl Moon
Push yourself to try new things –
It will make you a better writer.
~Deborah Nourse Lattimore, Medusa
Style will be a word that other people use to
describe words that have come to you,
and words you have spent time seeking
to make your characters
live their visible and invisible lives.
~John Casey, Spartina
The human brain now holds the key
to our future. Write for the future.
~David Suzuki
It takes time to craft a
book. Lots of
revisions, and
making sure it all
makes sense and
will be enjoyed by
people around the
world.
~Peter H. Reynolds
…figurative language adds pizzazz.
It raises work above the plain, the dull, the
ordinary.
~Ellen Hunnicutt, Suite for Calliope
I’ll write a few words ~~ then I’ll change
them. I add. I subtract.
I work and fiddle and keep working and
fiddling, and I only stop at the deadline.
~Ellen Goodman, Turning Points
The first draft is a skeleton~~ just bare
bones.
~Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
I start off with something real, but then I
unleash my imagination to make it funnier,
more interesting and a better story.
~Gordon Korman, The Juvie Three
I like to turn basic boring facts into
something that jumps off the page.
~David Salariya and David Antram,
You wouldn’t want to be an Egyptian
Mummy!
I’m a rewriter…
That’s the part I like best… once I have a
pile of paper to work with, it’s like having
the pieces of a puzzle.
I just have to put the pieces together to
make a picture.
~Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade
Nothing
Try drawing or painting a scene you’re
working on. Often this will help free up
your imagination.
Writing is thinking on paper.
~William Zinsser
If you think of the Internet as a place to
“look up stuff”
You’re missing the best part.
When I write,
ideas wander
around in my mind
looking for something to do.
~S.E. Hinton
Students learn what they care about,
from people they care about
and who, they know,
care about them.
~Barbara Harrell Carson