Quote of the Day - Saturday, May 19, 2007

"Let Yourself Listen - One of the simplest and smartest things I ever learned about writing is the importance of a sense of direction. Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up. Whenever I strive to "think something up," writing becomes something I must stretch to achieve. It becomes loftier than I am, perhaps even something so lofty, it is beyond my grasp. When I am trying to think something up, I am straining. When, on the other hand, I am focused about just getting something down, I have a sense of attention but not a sense of strain." - Julia Cameron, from her book "The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life"

Quote of the Day - Saturday, May 19, 2007

"Let Yourself Listen - One of the simplest and smartest things I ever learned about writing is the importance of a sense of direction. Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up. Whenever I strive to "think something up," writing becomes something I must stretch to achieve. It becomes loftier than I am, perhaps even something so lofty, it is beyond my grasp. When I am trying to think something up, I am straining. When, on the other hand, I am focused about just getting something down, I have a sense of attention but not a sense of strain." - Julia Cameron, from her book "The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life"

Quote of the Day - Friday, May 18, 2007

" If we eliminate the word "writer," if we just go back to writing as an act of listening and naming what we hear, some of the rules disappear. There is an organic shape, a form-coming-into-form that is inherent in the thing we are observing, listening to, and trying to put on the page. It has rules of its own that it will reveal to us if we listen with attention. Shape does not need to be imposed. Shape is part of what we are lisening to. When we just let ourselves write, we get it "right." " - Julia Cameron, from her book "The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life"