When I’m looking for an idea,

I’ll do anything - -

clean the closet,

mow the lawn,

work in the garden…

~ Kevin Henkes, Chrysanthemum

There must be something to think about at

the end.

~Chris Van Allsburg,

The Wretched Stone

Once I have the idea for a story.

I start collecting all kinds of helpful

information and storing it in three-ring notebooks.

I may see a picture of a man in a magazine and say, “that’s exactly what the father

in my book looks like!”

~Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh

I love the swirl and swing of words as they

tangle with human emotions.

~James Michener

The golden rule of writing is to write what

you care about.

If you care about your topic, you’ll do your

best writing, and then you stand the best

chance of really touching a reader in some

way.

~ Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee

Ideas are the cheapest part

of the writing. They are free.

The hard part is

what you do with ideas you’ve gathered.

~Jane Yolen, Owl Moon

Push yourself to try new things –

It will make you a better writer.

~Deborah Nourse Lattimore, Medusa

Style will be a word that other people use to

describe words that have come to you,

and words you have spent time seeking

to make your characters

live their visible and invisible lives.

~John Casey, Spartina

The human brain now holds the key

to our future. Write for the future.

~David Suzuki

It takes time to craft a

book. Lots of

revisions, and

making sure it all

makes sense and

will be enjoyed by

people around the

world.

~Peter H. Reynolds

…figurative language adds pizzazz.

It raises work above the plain, the dull, the

ordinary.

~Ellen Hunnicutt, Suite for Calliope

I’ll write a few words ~~ then I’ll change

them. I add. I subtract.

I work and fiddle and keep working and

fiddling, and I only stop at the deadline.

~Ellen Goodman, Turning Points

The first draft is a skeleton~~ just bare

bones.

~Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh

I start off with something real, but then I

unleash my imagination to make it funnier,

more interesting and a better story.

~Gordon Korman, The Juvie Three

I like to turn basic boring facts into

something that jumps off the page.

~David Salariya and David Antram,

You wouldn’t want to be an Egyptian Mummy!

I’m a rewriter…

That’s the part I like best… once I have a pile of paper to work with, it’s like having the pieces of a puzzle.

I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture.

~Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade

Nothing

Try drawing or painting a scene you’re

working on. Often this will help free up

your imagination.

Writing is thinking on paper.

~William Zinsser

If you think of the Internet as a place to

“look up stuff”

You’re missing the best part.

When I write,

ideas wander

around in my mind

looking for something to do.

~S.E. Hinton

Students learn what they care about,

from people they care about

and who, they know,

care about them.

~Barbara Harrell Carson