Story and Inspiration-And Especially Self-Discipline
February 12, 2010
I feel today like posting a long list of quotes that hammers away at the need for the writer to be self-disciplined? Because I need to hear them again myself. Often. I mean really often. And with a threat implied.
Why is that when any of us watch an Olympic athlete–as many of us are doing lots of these days–we’re not the least bit startled to learn that the skier or snowboarder spends an eight-hour day in training. Of course, we nod–that’s why they’re so darn good. Yet we beat up on ourselves if we can’t plop down, cold and unpracticed, and pound out a brilliant, suspenseful first draft of that novel we’ve always wanted to write?
Before I’d had a first book accepted, or even completed, back when writing was something I knew I wanted to do, something I talked a lot about but honestly didn’t do much of, someone quoted G.K.Chesterton to me. The first step in becoming a writer, Chesteron said, though I’m paraphrasing, is applying the seat of one’s pants to the seat of one’s chair.
Ouch. No mystical descriptions of inspiration or first drafts dropping like manna from heaven.
Just sitting down. Today. And tomorrow. And every day. With no guarantees how all this work will turn out in the end. With no assurance that anyone anywhere will ever want to read today’s work, or tomorrow’s.
But with gratitude, still, for the trying. Always gratitude.
On Inspiration–and What If Doesn’t Come?
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
–Jack London
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…The wait is simply too long.
–Leonard Bernstein
To draw, you must close your eyes and sing
–Pablo Picasso
Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.
–Emily Dickinson
There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect
–G. K. Chesterton
…And On Perseverance
You keep putting one blessed word after another, just as you hear them, as they come to you.
–Anne Lamott
After ecstasy, washday
–Zen saying
If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
–Michelangelo
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Joy,
I love all of these inspirational quotes, especially. I can really relate to Chesterton’s advice to put the seat of my pants to the seat of my chair…finding the time to do this (at least lately) has been the most difficult, but when I do find the time, I find that I have a lot to say!
“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club,” sounds to me like something you might say.
Great site!
Joy,
These quotes give me a lot of hope. They add a much needed level of realism for me. It is the hope that if I work hard enough, if I dedicate myself to do what it takes, then just perhaps I can be successful. The issue now becomes what do I consider successful and how much do I want it; which is where my focus should be and not revolving around the fear of knowing that I have absolutely no natural ability what so ever.
-Dolores
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth
I just had to share this one…it is why I wrote when I was a teenager, to let my heart breathe lest it suffocate by holding everything in without release.
I find the quote by Michelangelo really interesting. He is not someone I think of as having to work at his craft. I have always thought, at least when it comes to painting, that it is more about talent than practice. Thanks for sharing!
Joy & friends:
Here’s another quote on writing that arrived in my email this morning. I just love Emerson!
“Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
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