When I lock myself up to write, I cannot allow myself to think about the censor or the reviewer or anyone but my characters and their story!
Judy BlumeRead
I'm a rewriter. That's the part I like best . . . once I have a pile of paper to work with, it's like having the pieces of a puzzle. I just have to put the pieces together to make a picture.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The creative process involves rearranging and refining ideas until a cohesive work emerges.
Judy Blume’s quote emphasizes the joy of rewriting in the writing process. It illustrates that the act of reworking drafts is akin to assembling a puzzle, where initial scattered thoughts and ideas gradually come together to form a complete and meaningful narrative, showcasing how creativity thrives on revision and patience.
Themes
RewritingCreative ProcessWritingPuzzleRevision
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing workshop, to inspire students to embrace the rewriting process.
More from Judy Blume
All quotes →What I remember when I started to write was how I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to get to my characters.
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What can happen if a young reader picks up a book he/she isn't yet ready for? Questions, maybe. Usually, that child puts down the book and says, 'Boring.' Or, 'I'm not ready for this.' Kids are really good at knowing what they can handle.
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Concentrate on how good if feels to be alive. No matter what. Just to see the color of the sky, just to smell the air, and feel the wind in your face
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I wrote 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' right out of my own experiences and my own feelings when I was in sixth grade.
Judy BlumeRead
Nobody ever asks me why my characters don't text each other. Besides, as soon as you put something 'electronic' in a book, it's already out of date by the time it's published: everything will have changed. Human emotion, on the other hand, will never change.
Judy BlumeRead
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