10 things people say to creative writers:

This is glorious and true. # 11 … You’ll get over it.

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Excellent advice Mr Hemingway …

Excellent advice Mr Hemingway …

Roald Dahl … Simply the Best

Roald Dahl … Simply the Best

Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

2016 marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl. 

R. L. Stine … You give me Goosebumps!

R. L. Stine … You give me Goosebumps!

Robert Lawrence Stine (born October 8, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has been referred to as the “Stephen King of children’s literature” and is the author of hundreds of horror fiction novels, including the books in the Fear Street, Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The Nightmare Room series. Stine’s books have sold over 400 million copies worldwide.

R. L. Stine has a very entertaining website and answers a question about his daily routine in typical fashion …

I wake up. Brush down my werewolf fur. Devour one or two live chickens for breakfast. Then I work on my books. I usually write from 9 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon. Then I walk my crocodile and get ready to hunt or fish for my dinner.

He has also explained  how he is able to maintain such a prolific output …

I outline every book first. I do a very complete chapter by chapter outline, and that’ll take four to five days, but then I’ve done all the thinking; I know everything that’s going to happen in the book. It makes the writing so much easier. Kids always ask me about writer’s block and I say if you plan out the whole thing first, then you can’t have writer’s block. You’ve done the hard part. And then I just have fun with the writing. It takes me three to four weeks to write a Fear Street novel. In two weeks I can write a  Goosebumps novel.

It’s like factory work: Every day I get up at like 9:30, 10, I sit down and I write 2,000 words, and then I quit. Five to six days a week I write 2,000 words. It’s fast. I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week. 

R.L. Stine in his office

 His author website

Anthony Browne … Gorilla in the Midst

Anthony Browne … Gorilla in the Midst

Anthony Browne in his studio.

Anthony Browne is a British writer and illustrator of children’s books, primarily picture books, with nearly forty titles to his name. For his lasting contribution as a children’s illustrator he won the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000, the highest recognition available to creators of children’s books. From 2009 to 2011 he was Children’s Laureate. His books include Gorilla (1983), Willy the Wimp (1984), The Tunnel (1989), and Changes (1990)

Anthony Browne’s studio. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

In an interview with The Guardian he spoke about the studio at his home in Kent :

This is my wonderfully light-filled studio, the conservatory at the back of my house in Kent. It’s where I do all my illustration work – the words can come to me anywhere. I work fairly normal office hours, starting at 9.30am and usually finishing late afternoon/early evening. Although I have two good Anglepoise lights, I much prefer to work by daylight.

Most of the day I work standing up, as I once read somewhere that it’s the best position for the back. The laptop I use mostly to play music as I work – an eclectic mixture of jazz, classical and pop. I’m impressed by the way some illustrators develop their images on computers, but it’s too late for me to start and I’m still in love with paper and paint and pencils.

Anthony Browne’s Website

A.A. Milne Quote

A Pondering Mind

Source: http://www.picturequotes.com

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A Short Analysis of Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’

Interesting Literature

An introduction to Wordsworth’s classic daffodils poem

Often known simply as ‘Daffodils’ or ‘The Daffodils’, Wordsworth’s poem that begins ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ is, in many ways, the quintessential English Romantic poem. Its theme is the relationship between the individual and the natural world. Here is the poem, followed by a short analysis of its themes, meaning, and language.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

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