on writing - advice from ramona ausubel

Two things: As Jim Shepherd says, “Follow your weird.”  Figure out
what fascinates you, what makes the little fizzy feeling in your chest
while you’re writing and do that.  Don’t worry about what you think
you are supposed to do.

And second: spend 99% your time thinking about writing, and 1%
thinking about the business of publishing.  We all know that it’s good
to make connections and network, but all that will come easily if you
have a fully-realized, beautifully executed book or story that’s all
yours, and that sings.  Let’s say writing is an ocean, and finding
readers is air that you need in sips, like a whale.  Your whole life is
spent swimming deep down, and you come up for a moment, take a
breath, and go back. (Via Slice)

- Ramona Ausubel, author of A Guide to Being Born

By Paula Bonet

the well written - louise erdrich

A simple, beautiful sentence:

Our little house yawns, its careful air plays through the walls, and
I'm restless.    - The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

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...

write me - kevin russ

These photos by Kevin Russ were taken in various spots of California.
When looked at together, they create an idea of a story that, at some
point for some writer, may actually inspire words to string and puzzle
the photos together into something grand.  Have a look...

a dreamer's wisdom - miguel angel ruiz

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the 
risk to be alive—the risk to be alive and express what we really are. 
– Miguel Angel Ruiz

By Chad Wys

on reading - anne lamott

Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and
widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers
make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their
truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy
is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping
along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over
and over again.

It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop
the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the
people who are together on that ship.

- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

on writing - some thoughts on adjectives

The adjective is the enemy of the noun.   - Voltaire

The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.
– Clifton Fadiman 

When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but
kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken
when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.
- Mark Twain

I think my mistakes were kind of common - leaning on cliches and
adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew
how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days.
- Dick Schaap   

By Francois