Jane Friedman

Hello again.
If you would like to know or learn more about what it means to be a writer in the digital age, Jane Friedman has a wonderful blog where she shares her insights, lessons, invites people to her blog, and gives awesome advice.
You can find her link in the Recommended Sites at the right of this blog.

Writing Quote

Paraíso

To Be a Writer

To be a writer is to suffer an incurable disease

To be a writer is to feel in company even when you know how lonely you are

To be a writer is to feel alone among a crowd

To be a writer is to feel you can be a child again

or a teenager or a senior whose years you have never met

To be a writer is to take outside the inner battles that torment you

To be a writer is to go to bed and get insomnia from one, two, or three more stories that began when you weren’t ready for them, when you didn’t have a plan, when you least expected them, without a plot, nor an outline

To be a writer is to feel happy for things some other people don’t enjoy as much as you do such as writing or reading or playing stories in your imagination

To be a writer is to feel alive even when you see the reality that in one way or another is killing you, that the years pass and you can’t do anything except write; to regain the sense that you are alive, that there is a purpose in your life that sometimes disappears because you have a pen and paper. A pen and paper are such simple tools and elements that how can you build the purpose of your life relying on them?

To be a writer is to feel the need to claim the right for the things that you love. That who and what you love is okay and that you shouldn’t move away from them nor from the what because LOVE is what keeps you alive.

To be a writer is to want to read the forbidden books and sometimes read them; and construct something out of that

To be a writer is to have a mind that revolves at stories that get entangled in one or two circumstances whether insignificant, trivial, or more complex

To be a writer is to have a strength you know for sure you don’t have

To be a writer is to want to write and make an impact in others, a positive impact, to hope that your words can help others, change as you change when you write; that the process somehow permeates from the pages or the more advanced and modern technological devices

To be a writer is to feel happy when you write because that’s your biggest desire and has been for a long long time

To be a writer is not as simple as some people think
To be a writer is to have your hands expressing that your heart is paper and your pen is your mind

To be a writer is to feel terrible when you can’t physically write

To be a writer is to feel awesome when you can

To be a writer is to feel in company when others write and that makes them your friends

To be a writer is to know you have imaginary friends even when your childhood happened a long time again

To be a writer is to feel.

ON WRITING: Tempting, isn't it?

Keep quiet, stay silent, and close your mouth, your very big mouth (or excessively inked pen). That's the suggestion of the previous philosophical joke. But should we? Should we human beings? Should we writers? Should we teachers?
I’ve lost the count of the times I’ve heard the saying: “el pez muere por la boca” (the fish dies through its mouth).

Just one day, the fish will die through its mouth. The rest of its days the fish will feed himself through that mouth, that very big mouth.
Another saying goes “en boca cerrada, no entran moscas” (Flies don't enter a close mouth).

The benefits of silence have been exaggerated. Conceded, silence might shake hands with diplomacy, decorum, and prudence. Good education, great manners, ...
But, on the other hand, have we counted the times we’ve got in trouble by keeping quiet? or the times we have avoided getting out of trouble by not speaking out?
No. I’m not saying that we should become involved in heated arguments, quarrels, bickering, insults, shouts, papaya throwing wars; or any kind of verbal or physical fights. Things get complicated when we cannot communicate effectively. We need to listen to the other side but if the other side doesn’t talk, how are we going to be able to listen? Should we guess?
Through good communication we can always have the possibility to fix things up with anyone, anywhere, at any time. However, nobody said that good communication was a piece of cake.
Should we be afraid of saying what and how we truly feel? What we truly believe and think? Should we tremble and try to run away when we hear “We’ve got to talk”?
I’ve frequently been the person who says the wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong person. Or that’s what some people have said. Luckily not everyone had agreed.

My maternal grandfather used to say “la mentira nunca, la verdad no siempre”

"NEVER A LIE,

NOT ALWAYS THE TRUTH"

We don’t have to reveal the secrets that people who trust us have confided us.
We writers don’t bury deep down what’s already in the edges of our lips. Do we?
Writers will write in the flying up, in the fall, in the swimming, and inside of the cat’s mouth. Forget about the joke, wide open your mouth, and eat those flies! Some people must tell what others don’t. Keep writing.

(If you didn't read the previous post and watch the video, I suggest you to do so in order to get a better understanding of the context of this post).