63 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.48

Laurie Seidler’s Followers (4)

Laurie’s Bookshelves

read (68)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (10)

Laurie’s Friends (3)

Heidi Frenzel

199 books | 3 friends

Brandy

1,439 books | 55 friends

Michele Lafollette

1 book | 1 friend

Laurie Seidler

Goodreads Author

Born

New York City, The United States

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction, Art

Influences

Tom Barbash, Rick Bass, Maggie Nelson, Barry Lopez, Eliot Weinberger, ...more

Member Since

July 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomlaurie_seidler

edit data

Laurie Seidler is a writer, teacher, and editor. She began her career as a reporter, spending over a decade with Dow Jones & Co. in New York and Sydney, Australia. After years of covering financial markets, she shifted gears and began concentrating on writing fiction. Laurie has a BA in history from Yale and an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son and an assortment of pets, including a dog that frequently noses his way into her writing. She is the author of numerous short stories and articles and was the founding editor of the online literary magazine VerbSap. 22 Shelters: Lessons from Letters --a blend of micro essays, fiction, and writing advice inspired by th ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Laurie Seidler questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Laurie Seidler Almost six years ago to the day that 22 Shelters was published I received an inquiry from an agent in New York about representing my writing. I had be…moreAlmost six years ago to the day that 22 Shelters was published I received an inquiry from an agent in New York about representing my writing. I had been waiting my whole adult life for that to happen and the instant it did I stopped being able to write. 22 Shelters is what emerged as I healed. The book's chapter Persist, based on the Phoenician letter hèt meaning fence or obstacle, is about writer's block.

What eventually allowed me to work again?

Ideas often come to me when I walk, and one day while I was hiking with the dog I realized that I had mapped out the whole of a story in my mind. I knew that I wouldn't be able to write it down if I went home and began typing, so I kept walking afraid to stop. But at some point during that journey I stopped worrying and started thinking about how the experience of thinking-while- walking differs from thinking-while-typing. The difference I kept circling back to has to do with sight and criticality.

When I type I usually watch the words appear on the screen, and I edit as I write. The less successful I perceive my writing as being, the more I edit. In crisis mode, a single sentence can take me hours to compose. But when I'm walking I can't "see" the story, and what I can't see I don't analyze word for word. When I'm walking, I don't constantly criticize my work or hold it to impossibly high standards.

When I went back to the house that day I covered my computer screen with a tea towel. I set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes and told myself, "Laurie, you are going to sit at this computer and write without stopping until the timer goes off. You will not rewrite. You will not back space. The cursor will only move forward." I pledged that when I peeked at the screen afterward I would be accepting not critical of whatever I found. And that's what I did. I sat and typed, and when the timer went off I was drenched in sweat and beneath the tea towel the screen was filled with stream-of-consciousness prose, much of it incomprehensible. Nestled within the chaos was the seed that would become 22 Shelters.

True story.

I kept to that same strange regimen for weeks, tea towel in place, gradually increasing the length of my writing sessions and ultimately doing away with the timer. I encountered Dorothea Brande's 1934 book Becoming A Writer and began, as she advises, to write first thing in the morning without getting out of bed. Brande believed that this enables you to catch your unconscious mind "in the ascendant," uncluttered by distractions, and while it sounds eccentric I've found that I do much of my best work in my pajamas, propped up by pillows like a diva. Now, though, I can also write at my desk with—drum roll, please—no towel in sight. As I type this I am looking straight at my naked computer screen and it is a lovely sight to behold.

I am no longer the writer I once was, but change is inevitable. We mourn what we miss and move on as best we can. I have sent a quirky and imperfect 116-page book out into the world for anyone to criticize, not just me, an act I once feared impossible. There was an obstacle in my path and I overcame it, and I will carry the knowledge of that accomplishment with me always. Loss teaches us to value what we have. For now I have words and the ability to share them and for this I am extremely grateful.
(less)

flag

like
Comment

See 1 answer from Laurie Seidler…

Combine Editions
Laurie Seidler’s books

Average rating: 4.64 · 11 ratings · 1 review · 1 distinct work

22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

4.64 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

0 posts
Laurie Seidler's Blog

Laurie Seidler hasn't written any blog posts yet.

Quotes by Laurie Seidler (?)

“You flourish one hushed breath at a time. Imagine all you can build word by single word.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: breathe, words, writing-inspiration

4 likes

“Language is a door. Words en-trance and are an entrance; they draw you in. When you read, the book you cradle disappears and the tales within unfold in your mind. Writing is a shelter of words and reading an interior adventure.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: inspiration, language, language-play, reading, shelter, sheltering, writing, writing-life

2 likes

“My theory is you shouldn't apologize for believing in an idea-channeling muse. You should just be sure to feed her.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: inspiration, muse, writing-inspiration

0 likes

See all Laurie Seidler's quotes »

Laurie’s Quotes

tags: inspiration, language, language-play, reading, shelter, sheltering, writing, writing-life

2 likes

“My theory is you shouldn't apologize for believing in an idea-channeling muse. You should just be sure to feed her.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: inspiration, muse, writing-inspiration

0 likes

“You flourish one hushed breath at a time. Imagine all you can build word by single word.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: breathe, words, writing-inspiration

4 likes

“Doubt is not an offense. Questioning is a step toward understanding. I am riven by beauty. I am humbled by grace. I strive to be kind, but not because I was told to.”
― Laurie Seidler, 22 Shelters: Lessons From Letters

tags: authority, beauty, doubt, grace, kindness, questioning-beliefs

0 likes