Being a librarian certainly helped me with my writing because it made me even more of a reader, and I was always an enthusiastic reader. Writing and reading seem to me to be different aspects of a single imaginative act.
Margaret MahyRead
Try not to become disappointed if someone doesn't like a story you've written. Stick up for your ideas, but listen to what other people say, too. They might have good advice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
It's important to value your own ideas while also remaining open to constructive criticism.
This quote emphasizes the balance between self-assertion and receptiveness in creative endeavors. It encourages individuals to advocate for their own narratives while being open to feedback from others, suggesting that such insights can enhance the quality of one's work. Disappointment is a natural reaction to criticism, but the willingness to listen can ultimately lead to valuable improvements.
Themes
CreativityFeedbackIdeasAdviceSelf-Advocacy
In practice
Example use cases
During a writing workshop, to encourage fellow authors sharing their work.
More from Margaret Mahy
All quotes βBy the time ordinary life asserted itself once more, I would feel I had already lived for a while in some other lifetime, that I had even taken over someone else's life.
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When you are reading, someone has done a lot of work on your behalf, someone has had ideas and has then written and corrected and improved them so that they can be shared.
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Perhaps every time anyone is praised it means that someone else somewhere is going to be ignored
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It can certainly happen that characters in more sophisticated stories can 'take over' as they develop and change the author's original ideas. Well, it certainly happens to me at times.
Margaret MahyRead
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