“Don’t approach your history as something to be shaken for its cautionary fruit…Tell your stories, and your story will be revealed…Don’t be afraid of appearing angry, small-minded, obtuse, mean, immoral, amoral, calculating, or anything else. Take no care for your dignity…” ~Mary Karr
Some years ago I participated in Dr. Martin Seligman’s first international Authentic Happiness program and it included conversations in real time with positive psychology pioneers. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spoke engagingly about creativity and I was inspired to read his book FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Today I’m sharing a quote from his book CREATIVITY: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. “Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.” Aha! Sounds like resiliency! P.S. In order to pronounce his name with …
“All great works and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.” ~Albert Camus
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King
Listening to author and writing mentor Al Watt today as he boils story down to three words: Desire. Surrender. Transformation. That nails it for me.
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader–not the fact that it is raining, but the feelings of being rained upon. ~E.L. Doctorow
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~ William Wordsworth
Moon on December 25th, storm coming~a night to write
And bright!
You must open your story to duality and opposition. You must explore all sides of the dramatic question through your characters, search all nooks and crannies for the elixir–your protagonist is only as strong as the forces of opposition.
