Sharpening Pencils

A new week--a new writing month. Time to sharpen pencils and get down to work. July's goals? Tie up loose revision ends, tighten up query letter--and target initial markets that I've researched. Maybe a bit optimistic for what I might actually accomplish--after all, it is summer--but a girl can dream can't she?

Like Joyce Myers said, "A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere."

What else has been said about the pencil? Well, how about this: "The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser--in case you thought optimism was dead." --Robert Brault.

Optimism is not dead.

Other pencil-themed thoughts (thanks to BrainyQuote):

•  "When you write down your ideas, you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools."--Michael LeBoeuf
• "I don't know how many thoughts we have a second, but it's quite an amazing number, and just to pin down the appropriate sequence of those, all you really need is a pencil and a piece of paper." --Robert Wyatt
• Ideas are elusive, slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside, so you can stab them during the night before they get away." --Earl Nightingale
• "The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly." --Bernard Malamud
• "I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil."--Truman Capote

And a personal favorite:

• "You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be led."--Stan Laurel

Happy writing this week...this month! What current goals have you sharpened your pencils for?