illustration - write me - dilka bear

Dilka Bear doesn't create stories, per se - she creates characters.
Each of these works is a dense drop of someone she's created, ready
for some storyteller to come along and expand.

Dilka Bear says she likes to portray a world without the things that
bind us.  Smiles make her nervous, which is why she doesn't include
them often; they don't often accurately reflect the world.  Have a
look and see if there's a connection between your work and hers...

illustration - amanda blake

This little piece from Amanda Blake is amazing - and all because of
its title: 15 people holding on to that which will determine their fate.
Wow.  Had to share.  Hopefully that gets your storytelling gears going..

the well written - jonathan stroud

The bristling eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. Mesmerized, the
boy watched them disappear under the hanging thatch of white hair.
There, almost coyly, they remained just out of sight for a moment,
before suddenly descending with a terrible finality and weight.

- Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkand

By Sarah Gordon (Rather Lemony)

on writing - story structure

The other day I stumbled upon this article by Chuck Wendig.  I
found many of the points helpful, and some helpful reminders.
Here are some of my faves, but I highly encourage you to go over
to his site and read the original post.

2. THINK OF IT AS STORY ARCHITECTURE

Structure serves story; story does not serve structure. A cathedral
is built toward certain considerations: the beauty of God, the
presence of God’s story, the need for acoustics, the accommodation
of seating, the sacrificial altar, the DJ booth, and so on. You design
a structure to highlight the type of story you’re telling. Using a non-
linear structure in a mystery story is so that you maximize on the
uncertainty and use the rejiggered narrative to create suspense.
Structure has purpose. Structure is where art and craft collide.

9. OMNE TRIUM PERFECTUM

Loosely translated, “Every set of three is complete.” Even if you
ignore all other structural components, this is a good one to keep
an eye on — the Rule of Threes suggests that all aspects of your
story should have at least three beats. Anything that has any value
or importance should be touched on three times and, further, evolve
a little bit each time. Every character arc, ever act, every scene,
every setting, every motif or theme, needs you the storyteller to
call it back at least three times.

By Wonil Suh

illustration - cendrine rovini

These works by Rovini are simply breathtaking.  Of her artistry
she says, "This is not a whim, I merely need this, I need to express
those things I have in me and floating around me, trying to make
them visible a little more."  Her main sources of inspiration are the
characters already in her head, who she has a hard time claiming
creatorship for.  When she has an idea, she's impatient to begin the
work, and can't wait for all to be in order so she can begin.  She
says, "I just follow the lines and colors arriving under my hands
directly from this space of my soul."  (Via Ana Pina)

Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices
begin to speak... surrender to them. Don't ask first whether it's
permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god.
You will ruin yourself if you do that.   - Hermann Hesse

the well written - catherynne m. valente

She stayed in the ground for no more than a quarter of an hour -
but in her memory it was all day, hours upon hours, and her father
didn't come until it was dark.  Memory is like that.  It alters itself
so that girls are always trapped under the earth, waiting in the dark.

- Catherynne M. Valente, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time"

By Mao Hamaguchi

the well written - nnedi okorafor

"If you spend enough time in the desert, you will hear it speak."

"Of course," I said.  "It speaks loudest in wind."

"Right," Mwita said.  "Butterflies understand the desert well.
That's why they move this way and that.  They're always
Holding Conversation with the land.  They talk as much as
they listen."

- Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death

By Hadley Hutton

illustration - sarah mcneil

Sarah McNeil describes her work as delicate and soft secrets.
She likes how people can walk past one of her pieces and not
notice it, only to come back later and realize the wonder of
what's there.  Sarah works best in isolation (write with the door
closed, rewrite with the door open, as Stephen King says),
though outside of work time she gets outdoors to feel the wind
in her hair.  Things she needs to keep creating: tasty snacks,
tea, coffee, white paint, natural materials, and lots of sketches. 

What I love is that Sarah gives the face and initial mood of a
character, and we're left to dream the rest.

on writing - the synopsis

A. Howitt recently posted advice on Mythic Scribes about how to
write a great synopsis to go with your stellar query and sample pages.
She gives examples from her own work too.  A synopsis, she says, is
painful to write because it gives away the secrets of our stories, but it
is often necessary, so we must make it as compelling as possible.

1. Make the first sentence count:

Write one long sentence describing your novel.  Perhaps take
something from your query letter that you loved, and ramp it up a bit.
Here’s mine:

From a life of comfort, on the arm of one of Brazelton’s most
powerful men, Raven is cast into a world of shape-shifters and dragons,
when an unexpected letter changes her life forever.

I chose to write about the first plot twist, and set the tone for the rest of
the journey.

2. The tone of the synopsis should convey the tone of the book:

The last thing you want is a synopsis that reads like, “This happened,
then these people went here, and then this happened…” You need to let
the agent know what she’ll be reading, and the best way to do that is to
demonstrate your tone.

By Nicole Sharp

on writing - ernest hemingway

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop
when there was still something there in the deep part of the well,
and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

The first draft of everything is shit.

I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try
to put the shit in the wastebasket.

In order to write about life first you must live it.

A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.

By JM Hillman

on reading - e.p. whipple

Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. 

- E.P. Whipple

By Gwyn Michael

the well written - a.s. byatt

They took to silence. They touched each other without comment
and without progression. A hand on a hand, a clothed arm,
resting on an arm. An ankle overlapping an ankle, as they sat on
a beach, and not removed. One night they fell asleep, side by
side...He slept curled against her back, a dark comma against her
pale elegant phrase.

- A.S. Byatt, Possession

By Higinia Garay

from unexpected places - ania cywinska's collages

I stumbled upon these by Ania Cywinska.  Most are from a series
entitled, "Snow Queen".  They're not all the way illustration nor all
the way photography, but what I love is that they definitely give
an impression of a story - one about a psychopathic empress on a
remote planet decades into its dystopia maybe, and the two girls that
tried to challenge her.  Each collage reeks of mood, builds it with
every positioning, combination, and tint.  So congrats to Ania.
And our stories should do the same.

It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden,
fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should
speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her
unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing
straight and proud, shapely as a lily and yet knew that it was hard, as
if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

on reading - james russell lowell

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen
from one to another mind.

- James Russell Lowell

By Presley Fox

on reading - on writing - lisa see

Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.

- Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

By Erika Kuhn

on writing - elie wiesel

Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story.
That is his duty.

Think higher, feel deeper.

Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you
alone can write.

I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny.  Some invite
sorrow, others joy, some both.

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the
very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages, which is the result
of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred pages are there.
Only you don’t see them.

- Elie Wiesel

By Clare Owen

a dreamer's wisdom - edgar allan poe

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which
escape those who dream only by night.

- Edgar Allan Poe

By Lilie Melo