“Forget about inspiration and get into the habit of writing every day. Habit has written far more books than inspiration has. If you want the Muse to visit you, she needs to know where you are: so stay at your desk.” —Philip Pullman

Quote in “Write it All Down” by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

#justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter

“Be brave with it. Be brave with the thing that you are most scared to talk about, that is the thing you need to be able to talk about. There are so many tragedies in you and joy in you that need a voice, and you would be so surprised to see that when you voice that thing you are so scared of how many people across the world will go, ‘Hey, I feel like that too. Thank you for putting a voice to how I feel.’” —Nikita Gill

Quote in “Write it All Down” by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

“ . . . there’s nothing more glorious than when a fictional character feels completely real. And nothing more meh than when a fictional character feels like a cardboard cut-out.” — Excerpt from Forever Workshop

From Marlene: I agree! I love to immerse myself in writing that takes me into another world. I’m not interested in reading what a character looks like and haven’t been able to articulate why until I read this by Jo Gatford:

“I usually don’t give much of a crap what a character looks like, unless there’s a particular physical attribute, gesture, or way they move that helps show who they are. So dive deep and look for a line that gives us a guts-first impression of your fictional person.”

From Workshop Your WIP — Introduce Your Protagonist with ONE Line, By Jo Gatford

A Prayer For The World

Let the rain come and wash away

the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds

held and nurtured over generations.

Let the rain wash away the memory

of the hurt, the neglect.

Then let the sun come out and

fill the sky with rainbows.

Let the warmth of the sun heal us

wherever we are broken.

Let it burn away the fog so that

we can see each other clearly.

So that we can see beyond labels,

beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness

of the sun melt our selfishness.

So that we can share the joys and

feel the sorrows of our neighbors.

Let the earth, nourished by rain,

bring forth flowers

to surround us with beauty.

And let the mountains teach our hearts

to reach upward to heaven.

 —Rabbi Harold Kushner

“Even after a poem has hardened into print, it may continue to represent a risk, a chance, a surmise, or a hypothesis about itself.” —Mary Kinzie. A Poet’s Guide to Poetry, U Chicago Press

Thank you, Sonoma County Poet Laureate, Dave Seter, for letting me know about Mary Kinzie.

Dave’s response to Mary’s quote:

“What this means to me is, a piece of writing is never truly ‘done’ so instead of worrying so much about whether it is ‘done,’ we should share our writing with each other even when it feels a little raw, because there is power in the original idea and sometimes it takes time for the words to catch up with the idea.”

#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter