Posts tagged - author

William Joyce and Billy’s Boogers

Posted on: December 22, 2014, in: , ,

William Joyce

William Joyce

I saw an interview today with William Joyce, the American writer, artist and filmmaker. He wrote his first story in second grade as part of a school contest. Joyce said he was not good at math and wanted to be a superhero, so he wrote a story called “Billy’s Boogers,” about a kid who wasn’t good at math. His superpower was that his boogers would fly out of his nose and help people, then fly back into his nose.

I was laughing at the idea and could imagine how elementary school kids would love a story like that! It turns out the principal hated it. But Joyce was not discouraged and continued to create. After college he sent his portfolio out to publishers and got 120 rejections before a publisher took a chance on him. He worked on Toy Story, wrote a ton of children’s books and won an Academy Award for an animated short film among his many other projects.

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Why Was Louis L’Amour Writing so Fast?

Posted on: December 11, 2014, in: , , ,

“One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter – who was a child at the time – asked me, “Daddy, why are you writing so fast?” And I replied, “Because I want to see how the story turns out!” — Louis L’Amour

This quote highlights what to me is the most wonderful part of writing — seeing a story forming as you keyboard it. Characters appear and begin talking, the environment starts to take form, and the story darts off in unexpected directions. I always thought that stories must be plotted out beforehand, and some probably do. But leave yourself open to the magic that happens when your characters start taking the story away from you.

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