Whether he’s teaching us how to have fun on a rainy day, or feeding us odd-colored food, or reminding us that “unless someone cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not,” Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Suess) knew how to weave an imaginative tale with an underlying message that still resonates with all ages.

I want to share with you something he once said about his writing that I particularly love:

“I tend to basically exaggerate in life, and in writing, it’s fine to exaggerate. I really enjoy overstating for the purpose of getting a laugh. It’s very flattering, that laugh, and at the same time it gives pleasure to the audience and accomplishes more than writing very serious things. For another thing, writing is easier than digging ditches. Well, actually that’s an exaggeration. It isn’t.”

Or how about this one:

“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”

In other words, indulge your crazy, funny, hilariously silly side and stretch that wonderful writerbrain of yours, if only in a few exercises. You never know where it might take you.

I’ll leave you with this final piece of sterling advice direct from the pen of the master – (and a lesson we’ll all do well to remember):

It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.

So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.

That’s why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader’s relief is.