"Eat a Salad, and Take a Walk!"

I wanted to share with you some of my "take-away" quotes

from the writers conference ( Write Your Heart Out Washington).  

Enjoy . . . . . . 

Roy Peter Clark

"It's the SPECIFIC that helps us SEE." 

"EMPHATIC WORD ORDER!" ( Word order, emphatic).   

     "WHITE SPACE (on the page) is one of the most important and powerful forms of punctuation".

"White space VENTILATES, allowing the text to BREATHE."

     "Place the most POWERFUL STATEMENT in the SHORTEST SENTENCE."

Keith Woods

"Finding YOUR story in MINE."

"Identify the POTENT MOMENT - FIND YOUR MOMENT, and write from there."

Lonnae O'Neal Parker

"It's all about CONNECTING ( with the reader)."

          "What can you RENDER?"

          "Find an editor that you can 'fight' with."

Gene Weingarten

A few favorite jokes -

     Question:  "Why do dogs smell poop?"

     Answer:    "They're reading."

     Question:  "Does your wife make a good apple pie?"
     Answer:    "NO, but she makes my banana cream!"
                                 ( Soupy Sails )


On winning the Pulitzer prize -  

     "The best things seldom win."


On the realization that his pants were frayed on the ends -

     "Look at me. I'm half a human being!"


On writing - 

     "It's not so much the words you write, but the words you DON'T write,
                 allowing the reader to become an ally." 


A borrowed quote from Dave Barry -

     " I always try to put the FUNNIEST WORD at the END of a sentence."

Anne Hull

Sometimes . . . . . . "we all just bumble around."

"Just be quiet!  Sometimes we talk too much, and don't listen enough.
                                             Very often, that is when we learn the most."

"REGIONALISM -  REGIONS have as much character, as people!"

"Did the mall have carpet, or not?"  

          "READ IT ALOUD."  

"What happens next? - the ENGINE to every story." 

"FIGHT to keep editors from taking important details out!  Fight to keep it IN!"

Kathleen Parker

On writing - 

     "First thing I do is take a shower." 

     "I LOVE tightening my sentences."

Eugene Robinson

An example on taking a risk as a writer -

     "Eat a salad, and take a walk!"

Leslie Morrissette

     On THAT note . . . . . .

                      I think I'll go take a shower, then go for a walk 
                                   ( not necessarily in that order ).  

                                                     Then, maybe, I'll eat a salad.