Ava Jae: Archive

“Many adults are put off when youngsters pose scientific questions. Children ask why the sun is yellow, or what a dream is, or how deep you can dig a hole, or when is the world’s birthday, or why we have toes. Too many teachers and parents answer with irritation or ridicule, or quickly move on to something else. Why adults should pretend to omniscience before a five-year-old, I can’t for the life of me understand. What’s wrong with admitting that you don’t know? Children soon recognize that somehow this kind of question annoys many adults. A few more experiences like this, and another child has been lost to science. There are many better responses. If we have an idea of the answer, we could try to explain. If we don’t, we could go to the encyclopedia or the library. Or we might say to the child: “I don’t know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be the first to find out.” —

Carl Sagan (via ohioclaire)

Absolutely. This.

(via kristinamarie)

Apr 12, 201235,649 notes

“It was only later that I realized the value of being bored was actually pretty high. Being bored is a kind of diagnostic for the gap between what you might be interested in and your current environment. But now it is an act of significant discipline to say, “I’m going to stare out the window. I’m going to schedule some time to stare out the window.” The endless gratification offered up by our devices means that the experience of reading in particular now becomes something we have to choose to do.” —Clay Shirky - How Will We Read (via bijan)

Apr 12, 2012392 notes

“This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.” —John Cleese shares 5 factors to make your life more creative in this classic 1991 talk. (via explore-blog)

Apr 12, 2012244 notes

“The thing is, once we have reached a certain mastery of craft, craft is no longer the issue. In order to take our writing to the next level we must embrace our strange, unique, and often embarrassing selves and write about the things that really matter to us. We need to be willing to peel our own layers back until we reach that tender, raw, voiceless place—the place where our crunchiest stories come from. We need to get some skin in the game. It should cost us something emotionally to tell our stories. But many of us who come to writing do so because they were voiceless at some point in their lives, so doing that can be the most terrifying risk of all.” —The fabulous Robin LaFevers on second chances in one’s writing career (Writer Unboxed)

Apr 11, 201249 notes

Apr 11, 20122,154 notes

“I don’t believe in writers’ block. Why should writing be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working.” —Philip Pullman (via amandaonwriting)

Apr 11, 201254 notes

“So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them.” —Sylvia Plath (via misswallflower)

Apr 11, 20127,476 notes

When it comes to how to publish, I truthfully don’t believe there’s a blanket right or wrong answer— it most certainly depends on your goals as a writer. So I’m curious. Would you publish traditionally if you could? (read more)

Apr 11, 20121 note

#blog post #writers #question #publishing

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” —Charles Bukowski (via wordpainting)

Apr 11, 2012198 notes

A dramatic Shakespearean response to every situation

When something bad happens: True is it that we have seen better days.
When something REALLY bad happens: O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day! Most lamentable day. Most woeful day That ever, ever I did yet behold! O day, O day, O day! O hateful day! Never was seen so black a day as this.O woeful day! O woeful day!
When people say that something is wrong because the Bible says so: The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
When my girlfriend abandons me for food: FRAILTY, THY NAME IS WOMAN!
When someone doesn't thank me for holding the door open for them: BLOW, BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND! THOU ART NOT SO UNKIND AS MAN'S INGRATITUDE!
When I burn something while cooking: MY CAKE IS DOUGH!
When human stupidity frustrates me: LORD, WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE!
When someone says I'm going to hell for my sins: NYMPH, IN THY ORISONS BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBER'D.
When I'm broke: My pride fell with my fortunes
When someone turns the light on after a period of darkness and blinding light ensues: OH, SHE DOTH TEACH THE TORCHES TO BURN BRIGHT!
When someone disagrees with me: THERE ARE MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH, HORATIO, THEN ARE DREAMT OF IN YOUR PHILOSOPHY.
When I argue with my girlfriend: The course of true love never did run smooth.
When I'm embarrassed: MUST I HOLD A CANDLE TO MY SHAMES?!
Someone says "Good Night": Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Apr 10, 201289,453 notes

“Some people bring out the worst in you, others bring out the best, and then there are those remarkably rare, addictive ones who just bring out the most. Of everything. They make you feel so alive that you’d follow them straight into hell, just to keep getting your fix.” —Karen Marie Moning (via creatingaquietmind)

Apr 10, 201235,484 notes

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” —Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (via prettybooks)

Apr 10, 2012736 notes

“[He calls you occasionally at the office to ask how you are. You doodle numbers and curlicues on the corners of the Rolodex cards. Fiddle with your Phi Beta Kappa key. Stare out the window.] You always, always say: “Fine.” —Lorrie Moore, from “How To Be An Other Woman” (thanks, pinkcloudpaper)

Apr 9, 201291 notes

Point being, writers don’t often have an abundance of time— and we rarely have any time to waste.

So when you consider just how easy it is to fall into the trap of spending hours scrolling through your Twitter/tumblr/Facebook feed (what I like to call the Time Suck of Doom), social media can be just as dangerous as it is useful. (read more)

Apr 9, 20122 notes

#writing advice #blog post #social media #time

“Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.” —Charles Baudelaire; The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays (via wordpainting)

Apr 9, 2012337 notes

“Obviously, when a beloved character dies, it will create a different emotional effect on a reader (and on a writer) than if someone nobody cares about dies. But it’s also true that you can sometimes create a beloved character in a handful of words.” —Neil Gaiman (via crashingthisplane)

Apr 9, 2012628 notes

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” —Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum (via writersbloqinc)

Apr 8, 20124,358 notes

“I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.” —Oscar Wilde (via jenngofett)

Apr 8, 201299,778 notes

libraryland:

“That’s the worst of girls,” said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. “They never can carry a map in their heads.”
“That’s because our heads have something inside them,” said Lucy.
― C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

Apr 8, 2012214 notes

“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.” —Chaim Potok (via creatingaquietmind)

Apr 8, 20123,036 notes

Ava Jae

April 2012

112 posts