« Character Education | Main | Through the Glass Snarkly »
May 17, 2006
See-ing the Light about Good Writing Habits
I adore Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life. One of her disciplines is to write 1000 words a day. And she doesn't cheat: if she writes 2000 words one day, it's still 1000 the next. No banking of words! (Notice I am cleverly avoiding commenting on my own daily output.)
The other discipline she follows is writing one charming note a day (phone calls count but emails don't). I've given this a shot myself and, while I don't write one a day, those I have written have led to some lovely exchanges. I've been penpals with Elvira Woodruff, Candace Fleming and Frances O'Roark Dowell among others. I've even sent mash notes to editors, telling them when I love a book of theirs or complimenting them on a well deserved award. When I wrote to Jeannette Larson at Harcourt after How I Became A Pirate won some award or another, I not only received a nice note in return, I scored some pirate tatoos!
Here are my rules, adapted from Carolyn's: charming literary notes must be handwritten on great stationery (I love using Julie Paschkis' "Liberty Notes" or notes purchased from the Kerlan collection; they must be sincere (no brown-nosing allowed) and they must simply share good wishes or compliments. No asking for favors!
Go ahead -- give it a go. And let me know about any delicious correspondences that develop.
Posted by kirby at May 17, 2006 02:07 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.kirbylarson.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/7