quotes

They say it's my birthday – This year's request

Happy birthday to me! I plan on spending this birthday watching the electrician and the handyman continue to do their magic on the house. Which means noise and distractions but not a lot of time to focus. So I’d like to spend my birthday here with my friends. At least until my hubby comes home and cooks me up my yummy birthday dinner.

Last year my birthday request was for garden memories. This year I’m thinking of inspiration for my writing.

Yesterday Sara Lewis Holmes shared this quote:  "The real meaning of a poem is to stop time." – Ralph Fletcher (A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You) and I knew right away I was going to add it to my inspiration notebook. I’d love to gather up some more.

So please, help me celebrate my birthday by leaving a comment of a favorite inspirational quote that has to do with writing, poetry, or creativity.

Thank you in advance.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010|Categories: Random|Tags: , |23 Comments

Writing thought of the day

From the book Emotional Structure – Creating the Story Beneath the Plot  by Peter Dunne

The mentor represents the protagonist’s highest aspirations.

He personifies the kind of moral person the protagonist wishes he could be and mirrors the protagonist’s spiritual center. While the mentor is allowed to give the protagonist all the encouragement in the world, he isn’t allowed to give him any answers. And the reason is simple. The mentor’s answers are HIS answers. The protagonist has to find his own.

Learning how to find the answers is the lesson being taught.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007|Categories: Writing Process|Tags: , |2 Comments

thought for the day

Monday has  been hard. Inside and out. Upside down. Everywhere.

My thought for the day.

The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle just to be you.
 — Leo Buscaglia

 

Monday, October 22, 2007|Categories: Random|Tags: |14 Comments

Thoughts on the creative life

No time for a regular post so I leave you with a few of my favorite quotes (and no, they are not from the sidebar here on my blog.) More this afternoon.

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”  Pablo Picasso

 “There’s one thing your writing must have to be any good at all. It must have you. Your soul, your self, your heart, your guts, your voice — you must be on that page. In the end, you can’t make the magic happen for your reader. You can only allow the miracle of ‘being one with’ to take place. So dare to be yourself. Dare to reveal yourself. Be honest, be open, be true…If you are, everything else will fall into place.”  Elizabeth Ayres

“Each man has his own way. After all, most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk. I’d say it occurs in the quiet, silent moments, while you’re walking or shaving or playing a game or whatever, or even talking to someone you’re not vitally interested in. You’re working, your mind is working, on this problem in the back of your head … What’s an artist? He’s a man who has antennae, who knows how to hook up to the cosmos; . . . why do ideas, why do great scientific discoveries often occur in different parts of the world at the same time? The same is true of the elements that go to make up a poem or a great novel or any work of art. They are already in the air, they have not been given voice, that’s all. They need the man, the interpreter, to bring them forth.”  Henry Miller

“Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones out of our minds, come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at once. It takes time. Continue to turn over and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil.” Natalie Goldberg

“Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.”  Bonnie Friedman

“It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard.”  May Sarton

“All writers are discontent. That’s because they’re aware of a potential and believe they’re not reaching it.”  William Saroyan 

Thursday, October 18, 2007|Categories: Random|Tags: |9 Comments