Saturday, September 3, 2011

Why It Takes So Long to Write a Book


Sure, there are the normal things like cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, doctors, dentists, children, spouses, friends, family that need attention.

But then, also: there is the pale moon framed by branches

and


the flowers waving

and 



beckoning

and so

you have to stop

and pay attention

right?

20 comments:

  1. Absolutely! I'm learning to do that more and more as I get older, and you seem to be learning the same lesson.

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  2. I'd like to add that writing is one of the most wonderfully inefficient things out there.

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  3. I say enjoy the pale moon and wave back to the flowers! :)

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  4. Yes, there are so many distractions!

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  5. Hey Sharon! I think you and Lyle know how to stop and smell the roses. Ain't life grand? You seem to be able to work everything in and still get books written. Not too shabby. Of course the ideal office with a beautiful setting has to help.

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  6. And there is the distraction of your blog :-)

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  7. Noticing such things . . , really taking the time to notice, is probably what makes your writing so lovely.

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  8. Hi Sharon, Oh, I just love this! Wishing you a lovely week ahead. – g

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  9. So, even being a writer, you're human, after all?... :o)
    All those little pretty things surely feed your imagination!

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  10. I do mind the boring labor, or work, that goes with writing books; or, my books often require repeating stuff and when they are done by hand, it gets to be tiresome. The books I used to write for students - workbooks.

    I no longer write books by hand, thankfully; but doing videos is how I got to do my first TV series.
    Thankfully, I do take on things like the genealogy of small towns and villages - one-of-a-kind books for local libraries, etc. I enjoyed that but am too old now to take use my time being out and about at court houses and different places, like museums, doing research.

    I admire people who take the time.

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  11. Yes...you have to stop and pay attention, and we, your readers are so glad that you do! I just finished rereading "Walk Two Moons" today. What a gem! I always tell people, when I recommend one of your books, that there are children's writers and then there are most excellent writers who write for children. You most definitely are the latter! I admire your talent, I connect with your vision of life and of the world, and I adore your sense of humor. Thanks for writing! And...I recommended your book "The Wanderer" to one of my dearest friends who is teaching 6th grade writing for the first time, and she will be teaching it this year. So, Ms. Creech...do stop and notice, because when you do, we all benefit!

    Yours,

    Portia Pennington

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  12. Sharon...

    I did ask Audrey if she had read any of your books and she doesn't recall your name associated with the books she has read. I think she is reading the "Hatchet" at the moment. Sort of alarming to me, her grandfather, but her mom, my daughter, knows it and approves. Anyway, I was surprised at the number of books you have written. I am astonished, to say the least, that you have time left over to blog.

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  13. Vincent van Gogh said:
    "I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it — keep going, keep going come what may.
    But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought."

    You are very talented, your books, your thoughts and words, bring beauty from your heart to this world, thanks so much! :)

    Hugs
    Léia

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  14. Definitely Sharon, specially big yellow pansies, thank you so much for taking 'time out' to visit me in Perth today, gave me a chance to enjoy looking through yours as well.

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  15. You are so right. And then, of course, you have to photograph them! And so the writing gets on hold for a while...just a little while.

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