Anna Staniszewski

I’ve been reading through Jane Yolen’s wonderful book Take Joy this week. It’s filled with wisdom and inspiration on writing. My copy is currently filled with little post-its to keep track of all the tidbits that really struck a chord with me or made me think. Here are a few of the ones that really stood out to me.

Writing takes us into another, brighter, deeper, more engaging world than the world we actually live in.

Nice, huh?

I am one of those people who makes a distinction between being a writer and being an author. A writer puts words on a page. An author lives in the story. A writer is conversant with the keyboard, the author with the character.

This one made me stop and think: am I a writer or an author? I realized that I’m both. There are days when the characters can’t wait to run around on the page and act out their stories, and I type as fast as I can to keep up with them. On those days I’m an author. But on days when my mind is blank and I sit at my computer and stare for a while and finally make myself start writing something, anything, just to get my word count up: on those days I’m a writer.

Fiction is more than a recitation of facts or author embellishments. It is reality surprised. It shakes us up and makes us see familiar things in new ways. Fiction is like wrestling with angels – you do not expect to win, but you do expect to come away from the experience changed.

Thinking about all the books that have really stayed with me, I think this is absolutely true. The things that ring true as “real” are great, but the things that take us past reality are what make us think.

I think there are two kinds of writers: those who can talk about a project and by doing so begin to get a handle on it, and those who need to keep it a secret to protect themselves from talking away the good stuff.

I have met both kinds of writers and I would say I firmly fall into the first category. If I didn’t give my writing groups chapters as I went along, I’d never figure a story out; by bouncing ideas off of them (and off my husband) I start to get a sense of what needs to happen to make my book work.

How about all of you writers out there? Which category do you fall into?