To Live Awake

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Yesterday I went to an annual writer's conference called Write Angles with three of my writing buddies. We are all writing memoirs and part of this event was the opportunity to sit with an agent, get feedback, hope that he/she has an interest in seeing more than a one page query letter.

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I've hit a roadblock with book # 2. It's been too personal, too painful, too difficult to write the truth because of my own privacy and the privacy of others. I've put it aside for awhile. Most likely I'll spend the winter on Renee's Book of Love.

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The bottom line for me is that the agent looked at the jacket of my first book, The Light Stays On, and asked for a copy. This means she will consider whether she wants to represent the distribution of the book to larger publishers. Be still my heart.

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I can't rightly explain what it felt like to be in the presence of writers all day; and this conference was all about the craft of writing.

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I thought of many of you, because whether your medium is writing or painting or photography or knitting or whatever else, seeking, wanting, living the creative life is TO LIVE AWAKE. We are in this one together.

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Here are some of my favorite quotes from the day. I read them to JB, who is an artist but not a writer, and we both agreed that it's not hard to apply these quotes to any one of us.

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Writing a memoir is the struggle of memory against forgetting

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The world needs writers, not entertainers

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Answers are not always necessary: a realistic exploration of doubts is just as good

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You have to do the scene and tell the story before you earn the right to reflect on it

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Adverbs can be the sharpest or the dullest tools. Sometimes you should skip the adverbs and just say it! For example:

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"I'll call you later," he said halfheartedly.

vs.

"I'll probably call you if I have time but I'm not sure."

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and my favorite:

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"Goodbye," he said angrily

vs.

"Goodbye asshole."

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Make your characters round by including revealing salient details, such as:

"He bought her a soft serve ice cream and asked for a receipt."

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And from the incredible writer and guest speaker, Andre Dubus III:

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"When I read I want to be taken somewhere that isn't me but gives me me"

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Art is transferring feeling from one heart to another (Tolstoy)

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The most important thing about writing is not the main question a newspaper asks (What happened?) The storyteller doesn't ask 'what happened' but "What's it like, what's it really like, to be in thing that's happened?" (Mike Nichols)

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It's a mystery why stories feed our souls so deeply

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The work is divine, but the tools aren't

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"There's a certain grain of stupidity the writer can hardly do without and that is the quality to stare

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Writing is about expressing yourself before you're dead

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If you think that you are thinking when you're writing, think again.

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The writer does not choose the subject.

The subject chooses the writer.

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Everybody gets an imagination. Everybody.

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The job of the writer is not to write about the character but with the character

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The number 1 enemy of any artist is self consciousness. It's hard to do the thing when you're watching yourself.

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This is my one time to be me on this planet. I'm writing my truth because I'm gonna die.

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This conference is called Write Angles and yesterday was it's 25th conference, my first. It was astonishing.

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Love

kj