“The way I write, it’s like feeling your way in the dark. You don’t know if it’s going to catch fire — not just your imagination, but your emotions.” — Dan Coshnear Northern California writer Dan Coshnear is the author of two collections of stories, Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001) and Occupy & Other Love Stories (Kelly’s Cove Press 2012). Born in Baltimore in 1961, he has traveled in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, and all over the U.S., often by thumb, and once for a few thousand miles by freight train. After living on Cape Cod and in New York and San Francisco, he finally settled with his wife, Susan, in a house under some very tall trees along the Russian River in Sonoma County, California. His stories have been published in Fourteen Hills, juked, The Missouri Review, Third Coast and Zyzzyva. About Dan’s latest publication . ….
Category: Quotes
I went deep into storytelling mode — Becca Lawton
Today’s quote is from Write Free – Attracting the Creative Life by Rebecca Lawton and Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Rebecca wrote: “I wrote another personal essay, in part with the column in mind but mostly with the intention of simply telling my story. There was a message I wanted to convey in the piece: one of loss and sadness, but also of triumph and survival. Because I had taken my focus off publication while writing, I went deep into storytelling mode. Much of the writing for the piece was done in subconscious writing fashion. When I finished a decent draft, I went outside to water my flower garden. I felt a certainty that hadn’t been there before. the essay was so good, so moving. I knew it would be published — if not in the target column, then certainly elsewhere.” Note from Marlene: What strikes me as being important in this…
Your gut may lead you astray, but . . .
“Your gut may lead you astray, but it’s never wrong. If you don’t have the guts to act on something and the moment passes, you will always remember that you were a gutless wonder. In gut we trust.” Herb Caen Herb Caen (1916–1997) was a journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, painful puns and offbeat anecdotes appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly sixty years. “The secret of Caen’s success [was] his outstanding ability to take a wisp of fog, a chance phrase overheard in an elevator, a happy child on a cable car, a deb in a tizzy over a social reversal, a family in distress and give each circumstance the magic touch that makes a reader an understanding eyewitness of the day’s happenings.” Wikipedia
All writing is . . . E. B. White
All writing is communications; creative writing communication through revelation — it the Self escaping into the open. — E. B. White The Paris Review Interview E.B. White was a contributor to The New Yorker, co-author of The Elements of Style and author of Charlotte’s Web.
When one is freshly informed. . . . Joan Anderson
When one is freshly informed, has a serendipitous experience, one’s mood is changed, one’s heart is changed. That is why taking the time to see, hear, be present to images and language that arise from new experiences have the power to change one from one way to another. — A Year by the Sea, by Joan Anderson.
Being optimistic is like a muscle . . .
“Being optimistic is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. Makes it easier when the tough times arrive. You have to change the way you think in order to change the way you feel.” — Robin Roberts, Everybody’s Got Something, her memoir. Note from Marlene: Sometimes the sweetness of serendipity brings tears to my eyes. I have a list of quotes to post on Thursday Quote Day on The Write Spot Blog. This one, by Robin Roberts, was next in line when I looked in my quotes file. I booted up to post the quote and surprise! There was a post waiting for approval by marcyt, writing about cancer and doctors and well, you should read this one. Marcyt’s post is in sync with Robin’s quote. Thank you, marcyt, for your lovely, poignant, gorgeous writing. Everyone: Please . . . do make comments on any of the posts on…
I read it on Facebook.
Thursday is Quote Day on The Write Spot Blog. I like to post something interesting someone has said, or pithy or memorable. Adair Lara’s writing matches all three. Adair Lara comments, lifted from Facebook: “Facebook is destroying small talk. You open your mouth, and they say, ‘I know, I read it on Facebook.’” — January 24, 2014 Adair on Passwords: “I recall, children, a time when you didn’t have to spend part of each day trying to remember passwords, looking them up in your password file cleverly called something else, like sammy’s dog, putting them in wrong, having to get the password from the site which entails remembering whether you said the name of your maternal grandfather was Tom or Thom, and then having your new password being called weak or strong, and capitalizing the “H” to please them (you’ve employed a variation of the same password since you were…
Maybe what I have written today is messy, clumsy, raggedy . . .
“Say to yourself, ‘Maybe what I have written today is messy, clumsy, raggedy, but that’s my poem for today.’ Maybe there is a neater poem buried inside it that I can work on tomorrow.” — Naomi Shihab Nye, April 2014 Writer magazine, “Mystical Jolt,” by Robert Hirschfield
Listen to the world around you — Jörgen Elofsson
“If you want to write about a ‘broken heart,’ it’s good to know what a broken heart feels like. I also believe you need to take the time and not rush things, keep it playful . . . and listen to the world around [you].” — Jörgen Elofsson, songwriter for Kelly Clarkson, excerpt from the May 2014 issue of The Writer Magazine. Photo: Jorgen
Sometimes writing badly leads to something better.
Do you ever have writer’s block? Anna Quindlen was asked this question. She answers: Some days I fear writing dreadfully, but I do it anyway. I’ve discovered that sometimes writing badly can eventually lead to something better. Not writing at all leads to nothing. — April 20, 2014 Parade magazine. The Writer’s Block, 786 Ideas To Jump-Start Your Imagination by Jason Relulak.