on writing - a writer is...

A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any
feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of
wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes.
- William Sansom

Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.
- Robert Penn Warren

The duty and the task of a writer are those of an interpreter.
- Marcel Proust

photo stories - katerina plotnikova

Because so many stories exist about or including a special relationship
between man/woman and beast, I had to post these by Plotnikova...

Compelling dynamics and characters worth writing about.

the well written - catherynne m. valente

And so he made his way home, discovering the second truth of
Quests, which is that, mysteriously enough, the path homeward is a
great deal shorter than the path deedward.  The sun slips easily
through the sky, as if on a golden rail, and earth seems to positively
skip by under one's feet.

- Catherynne M. Valente, In the Night Garden

By LaLaMiMiSaSa

from unexpected places - accidental archive

For some reason, I find collections of objects very inspiring, however
they're organized - color, shape, era, etc.  So these photographs by
Sara Cwynar really caught my eye.  Maybe it's the overall impression
that inspires, or being forced to pay attention and sort the items out,
but there are magical stories here - magical or scientific, surreal,
romantic, quirky, and more.  Sort through and see..

Observations often tell more about the observer than the observed.
- Chris Geiger

on reading - anna quindlen

In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.

- Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

a dreamer's wisdom - charlotte bronte

I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of
hopes and fears, of sensations and excitments, awaited those who
had the courage to go forth into it's expanse, to seek real knowledge
of life amidst it's perils.

- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

photo stories - isabel o'toole

Isabel is skilled at capturing her subjects in a moment that perfectly
expresses something deeply true about them - the perfect candid
portrait.  And a portrait is a great way to start a story...

Do any of these characters belong to you?

the well written - oscar wilde

She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an
individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make
Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our
laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust
into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.

- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

illustration - aniela sobieski

Any one of these works by Aniela Sobieski would make a wonderful
short story.  A girl with a pet dinosaur, a peculiar waiting room, an
obsessive moth collector, and a mysterious aquatic humanoid with
bright red lips.  Any of these sounds good to me.

Write on.