Madeleine L'Engle on Ideas

(excerpt from The Literary Ladies)

"...I am somewhat like a French peasant cook. there are several pots on the back of the stove, and as I go by during the day's work, I drop a carrot in one, an onion in another, a chunk of meat in another. When it comes time to prepare the meal, I take the pot which is nearly full and bring it to the front of the stove.
So it is with writing."

What do you do with the ideas that come to you? Do you have more than one story brewing on the back burner?
I tried to have a notebook specifically for my ideas when they came along. But I didn't carry it everywhere so my ideas are in one story's notebook or on the little pad of paper in my black purse or on the restaurant napkin in the butterfly purse. When I'm ready to put the whole story together, I usually glance through my notebooks and purses to find my ideas. I've come to enjoy my time spent searching for tidbits. It's almost like searching for gold; even a little nugget is worth it's weight or wait. :)

Are you more organized than me? Do you have any tips on keeping ideas or on how to come up with ideas?

Edna Ferber on characters

(Excerpt from The Literary Ladies)

"Writing is a lonely work but the creative writer is rarely alone. The room in which one works is peopled with the men and women and children of the writer's imagination. Often they are difficult--but rarely boring--company. This is a fortunate thing, for they are with one day and night, they never leave while the book or play is in progress. One wishes sometimes that they would go away. just leaven me alone for an hour--a minute--won't you! Often they are so much more fascinating to the writer than the living people once actually encounters that to go to a party, a dinner, even to the theatre is an anti-climax. Every day for hours one is shut up in a room with a company of chosen people created by oneself."

What did Ms. Ferber write? Glad you asked. She is not a well known as other female authors but you might have heard of some her novels-turned-movies such as: Giant, Show Boat, and Cimmaron. Ms Ferber also wrote So Big which won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize.
I've often heard of characters coming alive for the author. Has a character or plot pestered you until you wrote their story? This happened to me recently. I have two books I put on the shelf until I finished edits on one to submit it. Suddenly, one of the books called to me. The main character was ready to tell her story, never mind I already had 40,000 words written. I like this character. She's sharp, funny and fun-loving. I can't wait to finish her story.

Have you ever stayed home from an event or date to write? Excusing yourself from a family reunion to write doesn't count. :)

Willa Cather on voice

(Excerpt from The Literary Ladies)

"When I was in college and immediately after graduation, I did newspaper work, I found that news paper writing did a great deal of good for me in working off the purple flurry of my early writing. Every young writer has to work off the "fine writing" stage. It was a painful period in which I overcame my florid, exaggerated, foamy-at-the-mouth, adjective-spree period. I knew even then it was a crime to write like I did, but I had to get the adjectives and the youthful fervor worked off.
I believe every young writer must write whole books of extravagant language to get it out. It is agony to be smothered in your own florescence, and to be forced to dump great cartloads your posies to in the road before you find that one posy that will fit in the right place..."
Inter, Lincoln Daily Star, 1915

I LOVE Willa Cather's voice in this interview, don't you? Voice is a struggle for most writers I think. Finding one's voice is probably the biggest task in the journey of a writer.
One suggest is finding your style and voice through imitation of your favorite authors while learning the lessons you need. Willa Cather admits to copying Henry James.

Do you have a favorite author? What have you learned from them?