Literary Birthday – 6 June – Sarah Dessen

Happy Birthday, Sarah Dessen, born 6 June 1970.

Nine Quotes

1. You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It’s not overrated. There’s a reason for all those songs.
2. That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it’s reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.
3. You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.
4. There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.
5. Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.
6. I wondered which was harder, in the end. The act of telling, or who you told it to. Or maybe if, when you finally got it out, the story was really all that mattered.
7. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting.
8. But I’d long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren’t guaranteed or promised. You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a good-bye at all.
9. An ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have the last word.

Seven Writing Quotes

1. I just have to be super strong when it comes to my work time. Shut the browser, ignore the email alerts, and just WRITE.
2. I don’t do an actual outline, as much as what I call a ‘skeleton’. I never start a book until I have the first scene, last scene, climactic scene and first line all in my head.
3. When I’m working on a book, I have to really just focus on the story, and nothing else. Otherwise I’ll make myself nuts. That’s one reason I don’t talk about my books while I’m writing them: not even my husband knows what a novel’s about until it’s done. I just like knowing something is all mine.
4. Editing is hard but nowhere NEAR as tough as facing that blank page and blinking cursor each day. You’re all alone and no one else can do it. At least with editing you have someone in the trench with you.
5. I’m very disciplined, which with writing is often half the battle, or more.
6. There are so many stories out there waiting to be told. You just have to keep your eyes open!
7. I do my best writing in the afternoons, between about three and five, but I can do little spurts just about anytime. I’ve learned to take writing time when I can get it, but the afternoons are ideal.

Sarah Dessen is an American writer. She is the author of several novels, including Someone Like You, Just Listen, and Lullaby.

Source for Image – Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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