In a previous post, I confessed to the crowded conditions of my office due to my ridiculous collection of Sorcerer’s Apprentice clutter. It is not my only collection. The second one is easier to store and takes up much less space.
I collect quotations.
I started doing this after the first semester of my MFA program. The class that graduated that term gifted the incoming class with large diaries. I decided to use mine to write down any lines of inspiration I found as I did my semester readings. Sometimes, I’d add a note about how the author’s thoughts impacted me in my current work.
Every once in a while, I pull the book out to reread or to add to. (I did mention they were very LARGE diaries, right?) Everyone who works in the arts, pays attention to those who came before. Painters study brush strokes, musicians attempt to correctly interpret notations, actors examines the timing in line delivery. We are all trying to answer the questions: How did they succeed? and What can I learn from them?
Here are a few from my collection. Maybe they’ll inspire you, too:
“Hard and unremitting labor is what writing is. It is in that labor that I feel the weight and force of my own life. That is its great and mettlesome reward.”
Paula Fox
“The hardest trade in the world is the writing of straight, honest prose about human beings.” Ernest Hemingway
“I have to go where the book wants me to go. To start, you need a structure, something to hang it on, but if it wants to change, you have to listen and let it change. Fiction is not so much written as rewritten.” Madeleine L’Engle
“ No matter how much you know, you will not be a good writer until you practice.”
Ayn Rand
This sampling deals with writing fiction. I’ve done both, but confess I prefer non-fiction most of the time. All of these quotations can apply to the non-fiction writer, too. It is a “great and mettlesome reward” to be able to find the right words to explain a concept. Non-fiction should always be made up of “straight, honest prose.” We writers all have to go “where the book wants me to go.” The research and explanation must fit the audience it’s meant for. And, every writer who has been asked the question: How to I become a writer? will always get the answer: read, read, read, then practice, practice, practice! (Write there!)
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