Sometimes I write and write and out of pages and pages of insanely boring drivel, or rather, to give it its technical term, brain fart, I maybe get one sentence that not exactly gleams but makes me sit up and think: okay, there's possibility here. I'm not just talking about fiction writing, but any other writing that I am compelled to do for myself. Because of this and because writing is such a solitary activity, it is easy to become discouraged. Which is why I stop for long periods of time. That and life getting in the way.
I'm trying to get myself started again. Starting with freewriting and seeing where it takes me. Because I'm still trying to find out what it is I actually want to write and because I get bogged down with all sorts of doubts. Good thing I came across these pearls of wisdom then...
"...the process of writing fiction is totally unconscious. It comes from what you are learning, as you live, from within. For me, all writing is a process of discovery. We are looking for the meaning of life. No matter where you are, there are conflicts and dramas everywhere. It is the process of what it means to be a human being; how you react and are reacted upon, these inward and outer pressures. If you are writing with a direct cause in mind, you are writing propaganda. It's fatal for a fiction writer." (- Nadine Gordimer being interviewed for the Guardian Saturday Review 6 Nov 2011)
"Style requires digesting who we are. It comes from the inside. It means becoming more and more present, settling deeper and deeper inside the layers of ourselves and then speaking, knowing what we write echoes all of us; all of who we are is backing our writing. That is very solid ground to stand on.
We are each a concert reverberating with our whole lives and reflecting and amplifying the world around us.
Nanao Sakaki on the poet Issa: Not gifted with genius, but honestly holding his experience deep in his heart, keeping his simplicity and humanity." (From Natalie Goldberg's Wild Mind)
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