Literary Birthday – 17 March – Ralph Fletcher

Happy Birthday, Ralph Fletcher, born 17 March 1953.

Ralph Fletcher Quotes

1. G.K. Chesterton once said: If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. I live by this philosophy when I teach writing. It seems to me vastly more important that a student try a new technique in her writing, and use it imperfectly, than never try the technique at all. (What A Writer Needs)
2. Writing becomes beautiful when it becomes specific, concrete. (What A Writer Needs)
3. You don’t learn to write by going through a series of preset writing exercises. You learn to write by grappling with a real subject that truly matters to you. (What A Writer Needs)
4. When students write from experience, they can breathe those specifics into their writing- dialect, odd smells, precise names of plants- that can animate even the most tired and tedious text. (What A Writer Needs)
5. Use your notebook to breathe in the world around you. (A-Z)
6. The real meaning of a poem is to stop time. (A-Z)
7. It’s misleading to think of writers as special creatures, word sorcerers who possess some sort of magical knowledge hidden from everyone else. Writers are ordinary people who like to write. They feel the urge to write, and they scratch that itch every chance they get. (How Writers Work: Finding a Process That Works for You)
8. Good writing happens when human beings follow particular steps to take control of their sentences-to make their words do what they want them to do. (A-Z)
9. Keeping a notebook may be the single best way to survive as a writer. It encourages greater sensitivity to your world, inside and out. It serves as a haven for new ideas until they are strong and mature enough to face the harsh light of rational judgement. It gives you a quiet place to catch your breath and begin writing. (Ralph Fletcher Books)

Ralph Fletcher is an American writer. He is the author of children’s picture books, young-adult (YA) fiction, and poetry, as well as books for both children and teachers on the art of writing. His vivid stories and poems draw from personal experiences of family life and childhood in New England. He is the oldest of nine children. He uses first person point of view to build emotional intimacy. His books include the YA novels, Uncle Daddy and Fig Pudding and poetry book I Am Wings. He has written a memoir, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid. His books on writing for children, include the guide, A Writer’s Notebook which helps budding writers, giving them a place to keep track of all the little things they notice every day. Fletcher collaborates with his wife, JoAnn Portalupi, on professional books for educators.

Source for image: Yiddayadda, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ralph_Photos.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: Literary Birthday Calendar