Sunday, February 12, 2012

Learning Things



This postcard has become one of my most treasured material possessions, and I have carried it since I first picked it up in a coffee shop in 2002. Wherever I have hollowed out a little space for myself, I have stuck it on the wall at eye level. It’s a good reminder.

I’ve started a list of little learning things I intend to make my way through this year. It’s in keeping with my renewed fervor for goal setting and creativity scheduling—which I’ve promised myself I will value and adhere to as strictly as my paid-work schedule. It’s all an investment in what I truly love, part allowing of more steady forward motion and part swift kick in the posterior.  

For example, because confidently constructing a plot is my Achilles’ heel, I have a few books in my reading pile:

  • Plot by Ansen Dibell (Elements of Fiction Writing series. Writer’s Digest Books)
  • Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (Write Great fiction series. Writer’s Digest Books).
  • Advanced Plotting by Chris Eboch… an eBook that was recommended by Janet S.Fox, and since I was so thrilled by her talk at NESCBWI's regional last year, I trust that it will be good. 

What’s on your learning list this year? 

2 comments:

  1. Go Marlo, education and learning for it's own sake is probably the most important thing you can do... the time spent in learning anything at all is never wasted time.
    I constantly seek to know things i have not encountered before,no matter what the subject.
    Motto ... Learn all you can, don't spend time on gossip! Mutti.

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  2. Your post reminds me of a quote from someone on the 'Bookmaker's Dozen' panel at the SCBWI conference in NYC - "Everything you do informs your work." Like you, I also like to learn all I can in any situation. However, to be more specific, this year I'd like to learn what it feels like to be published! (Grin).

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