Truth

" ' Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
--- from Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats

Originality

C.S. Lewis:  "....in literature and art, no man who bothers with originality will ever be original; whereas, if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed."

Failure

C.S. Lewis: "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

What happened?

Kazuo Ishiguro: "As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened."

Return to Paradise

The Atoll:  "To say men died in such places, engulfed in disillusion and despair, is merely to point out that on a lonely atoll, as in most cities, good men find loveliness, weak men find evil."
 -- James A. Michener, Return to Paradise, p.19

Imagination

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."  -- Lauren Bacall (actress born 1924)

Ideas

Where do writers get their stories?

Most stories have been told before in one way or another. Life and fiction repeat, but that doesn't make them any less interesting. Childhood fairy tales, family legends, classic fables, modern fiction, myths, and the newspapers all repeat stories of things that matter to people.

Any action viewed by several people will be described and reported uniquely by each person depending on what they saw and felt. Each author retells stories in his own way.

quote for today  

"From a little spark may burst a mighty flame." -- Dante

Planning

Planning

    

     In writing what is the role of planning?

    I don't know. Some writers seem to plan everything. They write out a detailed outline before starting. Others just start with a topic or an idea and start writing.
    Usually an idea bounces around in my head for quite awhile, off and on. Then one day I take part of it and try to put it down in words. It is always horrible. Somehow the words on paper do not fit the grand idea in my mind.
    Ambrose in Undaunted Courage writes Eisenhower's favorite saying was: "...in war, before the battle is joined, plans are everything, but once the shooting begins, plans are worthless."
    Perhaps that is also true in writing and life.

Carpe Diem

Seize the Day

Today is all that is allotted to us. There is no guarantee for tomorrow. If there is something you really want to do or write, begin it today.

Erle Stanley Gardner

Public Radio's Writer's Almanac of July 17, 2014 mentions that Erle Stanley Gardner while working as a lawyer wrote at night. They quote him as writing ".....my daily stint of 4,000 words minimum..."

Daily 500

Busy with summer -- home, yard, vacation, and holidays. But still writing my daily 500 -- often just a freewrite putting down anything to get that number of words down but more recently short story roughs.