The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. -Emily Dickinson

Motivation Monday: When Your Characters Are Ready for New Experiences, and You Aren’t

Before I began to participate in the literary blogosphere, I had no idea that characters in novels sometimes did things their authors didn’t allow, or even anticipate. 

I don't work with inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work.

Motivation Monday: Is Inspiration Really for Amateurs?

Them’s fightin’ words, Chuck Close. Especially for me, since one of the things I love to do is get dormant writers writing.

I was a late bloomer. But anyone who blooms at all, ever, is very lucky. -Sharon Olds

Motivation Monday: Writing Age Is Just a Number

Who cares how old you were when you wrote and sold your first work?

I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else. -Cormac McCarthy

Motivation Monday: A Cry of Pure Frustration.

The fact that you just flushed an entire writing notebook down the toilet, page by page, is completely normal and does not mean you should swear off writing forever. 

All writers shouls be put in a box and thrown into the sea. -Gordon Hinckley

Motivation Monday: So Your Writing Annoyed Somebody

Now what?

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke. -Benjamin Disraeli

Motivation Monday: Being a Courageous Creator

I absolutely love this quote from 19th century writer and British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road. -Richard Price

Motivation Monday: Right in the Feels

It takes practice, and sometimes a bit of luck, to affect your reader quite like this.

paul simon quote

Motivation Monday: The Critical Importance of Eavesdropping

Listening to others’ conversations in public places can be a fun and writerly activity, provided you’re not actually invading someone else’s personal space.

They who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure. -James Allen

Motivation Monday: How to Become Failure-Proof

What if I told you the courage to begin was all you needed to ensure you wouldn’t fail?

Wihtout craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind. -Johannes Brahms

Motivation Monday: Craftmanship Is a Comfort to the Writer

Have you ever felt that, despite being a gifted wordsmith, you simply had nothing to write about?

%d bloggers like this: