{"id":2046,"date":"2008-03-25T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-25T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:28:44","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:28:44","slug":"literature-of-longing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=2046","title":{"rendered":"The Literature of Longing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning I was reminded of how our best writing takes place from a sense of longing. The Writer’s Almanac<\/a> today made note of the fact that it’s Kate DiCamillo’s birthday. “She spent most of her childhood in Florida, but after college she moved to Minnesota to work for a book wholesaler… That first winter in Minnesota was one of the coldest on record, and DiCamillo missed her hometown in Florida horribly. She also desperately wanted a dog, but couldn’t have one because her apartment building didn’t allow dogs. So she began writing a story about a stray dog that helps a 10-year-old girl adjust to life in a new town…” and we know the rest of the story from there.<\/p>\n

On the tail end of this very cold, wet, miserable winter, I can only imagine the author’s horror. Snow is pretty — when you don’t ever have to go outside, or are only visiting it temporarily. I imagine that after growing up in Florida, it must have seemed impossible, yet Kate DiCamillo found room in her mind to create a place where she wanted to be, and people she wanted to be with. And she found herself a dog.<\/p>\n

Is your writing real?
Is it so heartfelt<\/a> that it’s part of your inner world translated to paper? It seems that stories like these are the best things to read, and the most worthwhile to write.<\/p>\n

A story I wrote features an older character who changed and grew with the novel until she was a major player along with the teens in the story. I really enjoyed rounding out the character and including her, because I enjoyed rewriting, in a small way, my actual history. I created a relationship like the one I very much wished for with my own grandmother, and that character has attracted favorable comment from many people.<\/p>\n

It may seem a little… weird and needy to rewrite the world to your specifications, making yourself the heroine of all encounters. More importantly, it can be completely boring — keeping in mind the writer’s adage that Just Because It Happened To You Doesn’t Make It Interesting<\/i>. There’s a difference between writing out your own personal history and personalizing<\/i> a story by writing a real emotion. It’s a worthwhile bit of digging, to find something real.<\/p>\n

Shrinking Violets<\/a> has a few things to say on introverts vs. extroverts from the book The Introvert Advantage<\/a><\/i>. Most notable to me is the assertion that extroverts “adapt more quickly to time-zone changes than introverts.” Also, extravert’s test performances were improved by receiving praise. This is some really fascinating stuff — I imagine it’s very valuable for parents, too, not to mention writers who have to figure out how to manage the public side of the field. Thanks, Violets!<\/p>\n

NPR’s Morning Edition<\/i><\/a> discovers comic books. Comic book audiences are …different, Joss Whedon discovers. “You can evoke ire that you’ve never dreamed of in TV.” Yeah… Ire. Controversy<\/a>. Whatever you want to call it…<\/p>\n

WRITING CONTEST ALERT<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/a> Aerin @ In Search of Giants<\/a> is hosting an April Fool’s Writing Contest! It’s easy — because all you have to do is finish a story. Do you love yourself some Mad Libs? Or those ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books? Go to the site<\/a>, read the story starter which has been presented by Writer At Work<\/a>, and — finish it.<\/p>\n

Prizes are subjective, of course, but there will be a $20 SuperCertificate to the author of Writer At Work<\/a>‘s favorite ending, one Readers’ Choice $20 SuperCertificate and one $10 random lottery prize SuperCertificate by random lottery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I was reminded of how our best writing takes place from a sense of longing. The Writer’s Almanac today made note of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,15,10,52],"class_list":["post-2046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-happenings","tag-random-notes-and-errata","tag-views","tag-writing-daze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4808,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046\/revisions\/4808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}