I received a letter from an old friend yesterday–a literal letter. It was such a treat and made me realize how much, in the age of email and facebook, I miss getting actual handwritten letters. What about you? Do you miss getting a letter in the mail? What was the last piece of real mail that you received?
I think this comment illustrates beautifully the power of books (or poetry, or art, in general) to help us heal, empower and transform.
My daughters loved Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny when they were small. I must have read them aloud hundreds of times. We don’t always think about the writers behind these children’s classics or the lives they might have led. What was your favorite children’s book? Do you remember who wrote it?
Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing creativity and the meaning of life — and less time talking about the weather? According to a blog post at the NY Times, a study has shown that deep conversations make people happier than small talk.
“I was faced with the simplest life question I’ve ever had to answer. I asked myself whether, on my deathbed, I wanted to sigh and say, ‘I could have written a novel’ or ‘I wrote a novel.’ Believe me, the answer was simplicity itself.” — Elizabeth George
There is nothing “magical” about doing three to six months of revisions on your novel. It’s hard work. The first drafts of manuscripts, like the personalities of the chronically unaware, are raw, unrefined messes. To put first drafts out into the world is not only naïve but careless. They are almost always ineffective and even embarrassing when read a few years down the road. It is only in the subsequent drafts, where the true gold of a piece can be found.
Jennifer Higdon has composer anxiety, but she stuck with it and now she has a Pulitzer Prize for music for her Violin Concerto. Here is some of what Ms. Higdon had to say in a recent article in the New York Times.
Quotes about Writing and Creativity. Which one is your favorite?
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way. – Ernest Hemingway
“Becoming a writer is not a ‘career decision’ like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don’t choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you’re not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.”
The stories that we create and share are like cairns. They are like markers we leave behind that show other people the shape that our journeys have taken. I like this thought. Stories, to me, whether they are fiction, nonfiction or somewhere in-between, are sacred beings. They are our way of communicating with our current tribe, our descendants and also our imagination, intuition and spirit, the collective around us.
