tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265428284848727164.post8912794345046559530..comments2024-01-12T00:00:04.996-05:00Comments on The Paper Wait: Gee, Why couldn’t you come up with Harry Potter?Eileen Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03147679493619958932noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265428284848727164.post-25291047550388080722008-04-08T13:18:00.000-04:002008-04-08T13:18:00.000-04:00Hi Robin,I love the question you asked! It makes ...Hi Robin,<BR/><BR/>I love the question you asked! It makes me appreciate how lucky I am to have some family members who really "get" the whole writing thing.<BR/><BR/>But what I think is so very hard about writing is that you have to believe in yourself before anybody else does. I mean, before I had a single poem accepted for publication, I had to believe that I was good enough at writing poetry to keep going. And it's the same thing with every genre (and even every new manuscript), I create. <BR/><BR/>Will this manuscript be the one? I'm never sure, but I have to believe it will. Otherwise it's tough to keep going.Brianna Caplan Sayreshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10137299043891966903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265428284848727164.post-30731970159654590752008-03-28T14:15:00.000-04:002008-03-28T14:15:00.000-04:00Robin, your post reminded me of something Joan Bau...Robin, your post reminded me of something Joan Bauer (who won a Newbery Honor for Hope Was Here) said at One-on-One about a similar experience she had starting out as a writer. When she told an acquaintance that she was working on her first children's book, he scoffed, and said something like "Yeah, right, send me a copy when it's published." To which she replied, "I'm not going to comp you, you turkey!" Guess he's one trussed bird by now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265428284848727164.post-47949697029641845322008-03-21T19:45:00.000-04:002008-03-21T19:45:00.000-04:00Lunch boxes....My husband yearns to see my charact...Lunch boxes....<BR/><BR/>My husband yearns to see my characters syndicated into lunch boxes and happy meal figurines. Never mind that he wouldn't know one of my characters if he met them at a dinner party....never mind that I write mostly YA historicals so who's going to want a lunch box or a happy meal if they're reading YAs or that my one soon-to-be-published picture book is on the Holocaust. Talk about NOT GETTING IT!!<BR/><BR/>But that said, like Robin's family, my husband and children support me 100%. And I take even greater strength from their support because they haven't got a clue. It doesn't matter to them if I publish or not - of course they'd be happy because I would be happy - but the fact that they support and encourage me without knowing what the heck I'm doing while their dirty laundry piles up or they eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner AGAIN (because there are no frozen pizzas in the house because I didn't get to the grocery store AGAIN) means more than if they did get it. It shows their complete faith in me.<BR/><BR/>It's the rest of the world I'd like to shake until they suffer from shaken baby syndrome. Those who ask "are you working on another book?" once they hear that I have one coming out. <BR/><BR/>As if I only had one story in me!<BR/><BR/>AS IF!!Meg Wiviotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16178051434999444739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6265428284848727164.post-41247813150654232272008-03-21T08:07:00.000-04:002008-03-21T08:07:00.000-04:00Enjoyed reading Robin’s post. It’s a problem we wr...Enjoyed reading Robin’s post. It’s a problem we writers deal with, but I’m wondering if it’s only writers.<BR/>Imagine Andy Warhol’s relatives – “A still life of tomato soup cans? Gee, why not a basket of fruit like Cezanne?” Or: “A blue Liz Taylor? Too bad you couldn’t come up with a Mona Lisa.”<BR/>So what to do? Share your frustration with those who will nod, smile, and say, “I GET IT.” And make sure you have some of these people in your life.Gale Sypher Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06316827256622168039noreply@blogger.com