You Can Do Hard Things

I want you to take a moment and think about the title of this post. Now, look at the information below:

Characteristics of Hard Things:

• Hard things are difficult 
• Hard things are overwhelming
• Hard things make you feel scared and inadequate

Now read the following sentence:

 You can do hard things.

Doesn't that just lift the weight off of your shoulders? Suddenly whatever it was that was belittling you with it's scary difficult-ness seems just a little bit less difficult, right? Those five little words just made you feel better about yourself. Language is a powerful thing.

I have to admit, mantras don't usually work for me. Maybe they do when someone else is drilling them into my head, but not when I'm on the brink of some scary something and I'm trying to tell myself it will be okay. "You don't know that!", my brain says, "You're just saying that in an attempt to calm yourself down. And you better try something else because it's not working!" Despite my fickle brain,  "You can do hard things" is one of the phrases I've found that actually works. Whenever the going gets tough, wether it has to do with writing, or school, or (more recently) my driver's test, I say that phrase to myself. Why? Because  instead of filling my head with promises of everything magically working out, or making myself feel worse by pretending that what I'm trying to do is easy, those five little words actually make me believe that I can do it. Why again? Because I can! I think that every one of us is capable of doing hard things. We just have to put our minds to it. And that is what makes this phrase so powerful. It's the truth.

Armed with this new knowledge, you are ready. The time has come. Go out and write that novel, or ace that test, or climb that mountain. Yes, it will be difficult. But something tells me you can do it.

Update

Okay. So I know I'm not supposed to apologize on my blog, or make excuses about why I haven't been posting recently, but I have a couple of legitimate reasons for my absence that I'd like to have go on record:

1. The end of May was insane, with finals and the end of my Junior year of high school. I am officially a senior now!
2. I just got back from a seven day cruise in the bahamas. My computer stayed at home. 
3. I am going to break the first rule now and apologize for being missing in action. I do plan to continue writing in this blog and I hope you will continue reading! (Next time I'll try to warn you about any absences!)

Well, now that that's out of the way, I thought I'd give you a little update on the things going on my life right now: 

• I got accepted to the Iowa Young Writer's Studio! I will be there for two weeks in July, not including a detour my parents and I are taking in order to explore colleges in that area when the workshop is over. I WILL be bringing my computer, so I will try to keep you updated on all the goings on.
• Two pieces of my writing were accepted for publication in the Ivy Quill, Ivy Tech Community College's (in Indiana) literary magazine. So happy!
• As part of our assignment for the fiction class that I will be taking in Iowa, we have to write in a notebook every day. I've been trying to do that, with...moderate success.
• I just started writing on a new project that I'm dubbing "Laura's Super Secret Project."More on that later.
• Also, I love this video. This is what I hope writing a novel is like, even if it does make me seem crazy. (Via: Kaleb Nation)
• I'm sick. Meaning I have a cold. And it sucks.

Well, that's about all for now. I just want to say how good it feels to be blogging again! In a few days I will try to post another "From a Writer's Notebook" post. I feel kind of bad that I haven't done more with that series.

Also: I'm currently reading "A Good American" by Alex George. It is wonderful so far. Stay tuned for a review!

Finally, thank you everyone who has read and commented on this blog. It means so much to me!

Ten Things Playing the Piano has Taught Me About Writing

From MaltaGirl

1. Practice, Practice, Practice!
2. Don't rush: Being good takes time.
3. Don't be afraid to experiment.
4. Listen. To everything.
5. Let yourself go. Loose sight of reality. When you come back to it, everything will be different.
6. Learn through imitation.
7. My piano teacher has a sign on her wall that says, "All pianists must have wrists of butter and fingers of steel."  How about, "All writers must have hearts of butter and minds of steel."
8. Don't be rigid. Fold yourself into your piece. Be flexible.
9. Each new accomplishment is a kind of amnesia. You forget about the pain that went into learning/writing the piece. And best of all, you know it was all worth it.
10. Share your work with anyone who will listen.

A Letter to My Former English Teachers

Dear Former English Teachers,
        You may remember me...or not. I'm the one who wrote passionate, page long answers to your questions like "What is your favorite book?"and "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" and you'll be happy to know that I can tie To Kill a Mockingbird into just about anything (and I did, in an essay on the AP English Language test yesterday-I'm not allowed to talk about specifics). But enough about me.
        I'm here to talk about you. Collectively, you are the craziest, most passionate group of people I know. Some of you were odd balls, or just plain grumps, but I understand how teaching long enough can make you that way. You each have your quirks: one of you is afraid of hair (Journalism teacher), another of you used to teach 3rd grade math and made us play math games in class, and you, my current english teacher, are obsessed with Batman and John Keats (nicknamed Junkets). And I love you for it. Even the teachers I'm not particularly grateful for have taught me something, even if it's only, "Don't grow up to be like her." 
        And without you, ALL of you, I might never have discovered my love of language. The books we read in elementary school stay in my memory to this day. And the books after that, and the books after that. Harper Lee, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, Alice Walker. Their voices stay with me. I can hear the words running through my mind, and what I was feeling when I read them, and what I was feeling when you talked about them in class. Your voices run together into a collective voice, at times passionate and inspiring, and at times serious, asking the tough questions, telling me to think harder than I am. 
        You teachers don't get much recognition. Chocolate, maybe, at Christmas time, and lots of Barnes & Noble Gift Cards. But real recognition? For everything you do? Every day, you deal with math loving *shudder* middle schoolers *shudder*. I'm sorry I never told you how I feel. I hope my love of English was evident in my writing. I hope, even in those dark ages known as middle school, that you knew I cared. You were the ones who planted the spark. The spark that makes me sit down and write every day. The spark that keeps me up to all hours of the night, reading. The spark that makes every essay a personal challenge to outdo myself, and every question like "What is your favorite book?" a dissertation.
         So thanks for being there. For pushing me when I needed pushing, and praising when I needed praising. Thanks for showing up at awards ceremonies. Thanks for showing up, period. Because even if we seem like thankless slobs who can't even remember to do our homework, we will never forget you. And that's the truth.

-Laura

***

On a loosely related note, this is what our current english teacher wrote about John Keats on out final exam review sheet:

"In order to adequately prepare for the rest of your life, you must learn to embrace John Keats [know the glorious date of his birth, know that Fanny could never deserve the greatness of his love, and know that "When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be" is his most truly awe-inspiring poem!]"

Yeah, she's cool, right? And for those of you who are interested, here is my summer reading list:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Started reading it but never finished.)

How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (Same as above.)

Macbeth by William Shakespeare (Never read. Excited about this one!)

Finding Your Own Inspiration

(Before we begin, I just wanted to take time to acknowledge that this is my 50th post on The Blank Page!)

Today, I found this:

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

(Thank you to Bethany Suckrow for posting this on her blog. It's pure luck that I even stumbled across it, but I'm so happy that I did!)

This poem is truly amazing. Despite it's beautiful use of language (so simple, yet so meaningful!), I can't help feeling that it was meant for my eyes. One of the things that I've always found inspirational is wild geese. Don't ask me why. I don't even live in an area where I am able to see them in real life. But I find them the most majestic creatures, and just thinking about them makes my fingers itch. I want to write about flying. And autumn. And the crisp, cold air rushing beneath their feathers. And what it must be like to approach a deep blue lake in the evening, descending, slowing until it feels as if you can't stay aloft any longer, and then gliding seamlessly into the water below. 

But, as is the nature of inspiration, wild geese may not ignite the same passion in you. You may be inspired by summer rain, or the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, or something that, while I might find it interesting, may not give me the same electric shock that it gives to you.

The important thing is to find what inspires you. It might take a while. But if you hit a road block, don't give up. Keep growing and experiencing new things and eventually you will know where to look. And once you find it, chase it. Because what good is inspiration if you don't use it as such? 

ps. One of the best "goose books" I've read, besides The Goose Girl, is The Fledgling by Jane Langton. Don't be scared away by the fact that it's a middle grade novel. It is superb! (Actually, it's hard to put these two books in the same category. They are so different, but so good!) Also, going along with our goose theme, Fly Away Home is a wonderful film and right up there with my favorite movies of all time. (The music is beautiful, as well!)

pps. Feel free to share your inspiration in the comments!

Book Borrowing Etiquette

I'm a very generous person with my books. You ask to borrow one, and I will say yes in a heartbeat. But, as I'm sure we've all experienced at some point, there will always be people who test your patience with their inadequate knowledge of the rules that come with borrowing books. For all you lenders and borrowers out there, this post is for you. Follow these few simple guidelines, and the book sharing process will be a fun one!

From: The Secret World of Arriety (Based on the book: The Borrowers)

For the Borrowers:
Borrowing books from friends and acquaintances is one of the best ways to expand your reading repertoire.  It's better than the library because, unless you have a rather uptight friend, you can take your time reading the book, and you have someone to discuss it with when you're finished. Despite many borrower's good intentions, things can happen that will strain your book sharing relationship and put your future chances of borrowing from that person again at risk. Below are a few things that could go wrong, and how to avoid them.

• Make sure you know the lender's expectations: Does he or she need it back soon? Is it a book that is particularly special to them? What was their reaction when you asked to borrow it? Did they give it to you to read without you having to ask for it? These are all important things to think about. If the the lender seems reluctant to let you borrow the book, make it clear that you will take good care of it and possibly even set a date at which it will be returned to them. If they asked you to read it, they want to share it with you, and while you should make it one of your first priorities, you have a little more wiggle room as far as the length of time you hold on to it. If they really don't want to lend it to you, don't push the subject. That is one case when going to the library is the better option.
• Take good care of the book: Even if it seems like the lender couldn't care less if they never see that book again, you never know how people will react to you damaging their property. Books can get damaged in unexpected ways (I have to be very careful about putting books in my school backpack), so keep an eye out. This also includes not losing the book. That's just not right.
• Set some sort of time limit: You may be a slow reader. I get that. I know I am! Most of the time people don't mind if you don't return book within a few weeks and some can get away with keeping them much longer than that, but that doesn't mean you can read it and forget about it. As soon as you are finished, contact the lender, say thank you, tell them what you thought of the book, and discuss a time at which you can return it. They will be impressed by your initiative to follow up.
• Don't borrow too many books at once: Lending books is often a very personal act. When you give someone a book, you want to share that reading experience with them. It can be discouraging to the lender if they ask if you've finished it yet and you say, "No, I've got too many other books to read." Borrowing several books from several different people just adds to your stress level and their disappointment at you not having read it yet.

To some people this post might seem a little over the top. "Why are there so many rules?!" they would say, "It's a book. It's not that big of a deal." And in some cases, that's true. But some things are just polite, and the right thing to do.  Borrowing books is like being a good neighbor. You share each other's joys and sadnesses, and if someone comes over asking for a cup of sugar or your copy of The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale*, you let them have it, knowing they would do the same for you.

ps. Stay tuned for my next post about Book Lending Etiquette!

* Guess who I had the pleasure of meeting recently? More on that later!

On Being Interesting

So, guess what everyone....I have a twitter account! Some people would shrug that off as if it were nothing. "Oh," they say, "Well, I've got a Facebook and Tumblr and Flickr and Twitter and Pinterest and Blogger and Google+..." The list goes on. And maybe they are the type of person that will say anything on the internet, that doesn't care if their status updates lack substance (A prime example being: "I'm booored. Text me!"), but I'm not that kind of person. I want people to take something away from my words, or at least empathize with them, or at least think about them.

When I first started this blog, I was terrified that no one would want to take writing advice from an unpublished author (And a teenager, no less). Why would anyone want to hear about my life when they could read the thoughts of their favorite authors, go behind the scenes of their favorite books? And while that fear still haunts me at unexpected moments, like the first time I opened my twitter page and freaked out, having no idea where to begin and wondering why anyone would want to follow me, I've learned that, for the most part, the internet is not that different from real life. Be yourself. Share what you love, and learn from people who love the same things you do. Find a community. Have a laugh,  and make new friends.

 Now, I wish this post could be a success story about my rise to fame as an aficionado of the social media world. But my (inevitable and glorious) internet celebrity-dom is still a work in progress. Already I have learned so much from fellow bloggers (I mean, Nathan Bransford's post about re-tweets?! I wouldn't have known what that was a week ago, much less the best way to utilize them!), and for the people that have commented on this blog in the past or are one of my followers on twitter (I have 5! Can you believe that!), thank you! You are truly, undeniably awesome.

Oh, and by the way, you can find me on twitter at @laurapoet33... Just sayin'. :)