Monday, November 30, 2020

When All Else Fails: Words of Writing Inspiration

Okay...maybe National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and tweeting your #amwritng daily word count just isn't your jam or flew right by because you know - life, 2020, and that prickly COVID thing.  I can certainly relate, and that's when I have to make a conscious choice between guilt and grace.  

This year I choose grace.  And with grace comes revisiting the words from my favorite literary friends who I can only hope will carry me into 2021 in quest of telling that burning story buried deep inside one's soul - with only the rawest of truth and beauty:


"The only obligation any artist can have is to himself.  His work means nothing otherwise.  It has no meaning." ~ Truman Capote 


"In truth, I never consider the audience for whom I'm writing.  I just write what I want to write." ~ J.K. Rowling


"Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone." ~ Amy Tan 


“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” ~ Anne Lamott


“Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.” ~ Stephen King


“When your writing is unselfconscious, when it comes from your heart, that's when it's powerful.” ~ Sandra Cisneros


"I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn." ~ Anne Frank


"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." ~ Anaïs Nin


"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~ Toni Morrison


“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou


“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~ Sylvia Plath


“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” ~ Elmore Leonard


“The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” ~ Agatha Christie