navigation
miete ("thought") + lause ("phrase")
count: 77
filter: title = Bird by Bird clear
"You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backwards."
tags:
progress
The idea of spending entire days in someone else's office doing someone else's work did not suit my father's soul.
tags:
dedication
commitment
Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere.
tags:
attention
A life oriented to leisure is in the end a life oriented to death--the greatest leisure of all.
tags:
leisure
"...who as a young person, like me, accepted being alone quite a lot. I think that this sort of person often becomes either a writer or a career criminal."
tags:
solitude
I devoured books like a person taking vitamins, afraid that otherwise I would remain this gelatinous narcissist, with no possibility of ever becoming thoughtful, of ever being taken seriously.
tags:
effort
"[Write] every day for a while. Do it as you would do scales on a piano. Do it by prearrangement with yourself. Do it as a debt of honor. And make a commitment to finishing things."
tags:
commitment
Don't worry about doing it well yet; just start getting it down.
page: 4
tags:
shipping
Some days it feels like you just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can use you to write it.
page: 8
tags:
writing
You don't care about those first three pages; those you will throw out, those you needed to write to get to that fourth page, to get to that one long paragraph that was what you had in mind when you started, only you didn't know that, couldn't know that, until you got to it.
page: 9
tags:
drafts
My son, Sam, at three and a half, had these keys to a set of plastic handcuffs, and one morning he intentionally locked himself out of the house. I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when I heard him stick his plastic keys into the doorknob and try to open the door. Then I heard him say, "Oh, shit." My whole face widened, like the guy in Edvard Munch's Scream. After a moment I got up and opened the front door.\n
"Honey," I said, "what'd you just say?"\n
"I said, 'Oh, shit,'" he said.\n
"But, honey, that's a naughty word. Both of us have absolutely got to stop using it. Okay?"\n
He hung his head for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay, Mom." Then he leaned forward and said confidentially, "But I'll tell you why I said 'shit.'" I said Okay, and he said, "Because of the fucking keys!"\n
page: 13
tags:
exploration
experimentation
Then your mental illnesses arrive at the desk like your sickest, most secretive relatives. And they pull up chairs in a semicircle around the computer, and they try to be quiet but you know they are there with their weird coppery breath, leering at you behind your back.
page: 16
tags:
mental health
Write about only what you can see through a one-inch picture frame. "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E. L. Doctorow
page: 18
tags:
focus
scope
Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong.
page: 19
tags:
writing
growth
You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
page: 22
tags:
worldview
The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.
page: 22
tags:
drafts
Writing is, for some of us, the latch that keeps the door of the pen closed, keeps those crazy ravenous dogs contained.
page: 26
tags:
mental health
Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children, anyone who is whining in your head. Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want--won't give them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn it all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft.
page: 27
tags:
mental noise
Perfectionism, tidy writing, suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.
page: 29
tags:
perfectionism
drafts
Awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learning to be more __compassionate__ company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.
page: 31
tags:
mindfulness
We need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here--and, by extension, what we're supposed to be writing.
page: 32
tags:
failure
"When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth."
page: 32
tags:
vonnegut
Emotional acres. We all get an acre all to ourselves. We can do whatever we want with it. Plant flowers, a garden, turn it into a junkyard, a garage sale. If people come in and muck it up, we get to ask them to leave, because this is our acre. When writing a character, develop their acre first.
page: 44
tags:
emotions
characters
When we see someone and say "How are you?" we know that by no they may have another story to tell, or they may be in the middle of one, and we hope it is joyful.
page: 48
tags:
joy
stories
We all know we're going to die. What's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.
page: 51
tags:
death
A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way.
page: 52
tags:
writing
lying
Your characters know more about themselves then you do. Stay open to them. It's teatime and all the dolls are at the table. Listen. It's that simple.
page: 53
tags:
characters
You are not going to be able to give us the plans to the submarine. Life is not a submarine. There are no plans.
page: 55
tags:
planning
life
Characters should not serve as pawns for some plot you've dreamed up.
page: 54
tags:
plot
Find out what each character cares most about in the world because then you will have discovered what's at stake. Find a way to express this discovery in action, and then let your people set about finding or holding onto or defending whatever it is.
page: 55
tags:
characters
plot
I'm the person whose job it is to hold the lantern while the kid does the digging. I don't even know what the kid is digging for half the time--but I know gold when I see it.
page: 56
tags:
writing
The basic formula for drama is setup, buildup, payoff--just like a joke. The setup tells us what the game is. The buildup is where you put in all the moves, the forward motion, where you get all the meat off the turkey. The payoff answers the question, Why are we here anyway? What is it that you've been trying to give?
page: 59
tags:
drama
jokes
"Over and over I feel as if my characters know who they are, and what happens to then, and where they have been and where they will go, and what they are capable of doing, but they need me to write it down for them because their handwriting is so bad."
page: 60
tags:
characters
If you're a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how you spend your days--listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you've taken in, all that you've overheard, and you turn it into gold.
page: 66
tags:
observation
writing
You must learn about people from people, not from what you read. Your reading should __confirm__ what you've observed in the world.
page: 68
tags:
people
The unconcious mind is the cellar where a little boy sits who creates your characters, and he hands them up to you through the cellar door. He might as well be cutting out paper dolls. He's peaceful; he's just playing. You can't will yourself into being receptive to what the little boy has to offer, and you can't buy a key that will let you into the cellar.
page: 72
tags:
creativity
I love to see people in gardens, I love the meditation of sitting alone in gardens, I love all the metaphors that gardens are. The garden is one of the two great metaphors for humanity. The other, of course, is the river. The garden is about life and beauty and the impermanence of all living things. The garden is about feeding your children, providing food for the tribe. It's part of an urgent territorial drive that we can probably trace back to animals storing food. Its a competitive display mechanism, the greed for the best tomatoes and English tea roses; it's about winning, about providing society with superior things, and about proving that you have taste and good values and you work hard. And what a wonderful relief every so often to know who the enemy is--because in the garden, the enemy is everything: the aphids, the weather, time. And so you pour yourself into it, care so much, and see up close so much birth and growth and beauty and danger and triumph--and then everything dies anyway. But you just keep doing it.
page: 77
tags:
gardening
You can see the underlying essence only when you strip away the busyness, and then some surprising connections appear.
page: 84
tags:
insight
Everything is going to be okay, you just might not know exactly what okay is going to look like.
page: 87
tags:
okay
optimism
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.
page: 93
tags:
perfectionism
To be engrossed in something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind.
page: 102
tags:
purpose
If you find that you start a number of stories or pieces that you don't ever bother finishing, that you lose interest or faith in them along the way, it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately.
page: 103
tags:
finishing
passion
You can't tell your truths in a sentence or a paragraph; the truth doesn't come out in a bumper sticker.
page: 103
tags:
truth
authenticity
When you start off writing, you may want to fill the page with witticisms and shimmering insights so that the world will see how uniquely smart and sensitive you are. But much of the drama of humankind does not involve witticisms and shimmer.
page: 104
tags:
drama
writing
wit
insight
A moral position is not a slogan, or wishful thinking. It doesn't come from outside or above. It begins inside the heart of a character and grows from there. Tell the truth and write about freedom and fight for it, however you can, and you will be richly rewarded.
page: 109
tags:
morality
truth
freedom
Take the attitude that what you are thinking and feeling is valuable stuff, and then be naive enough to get it all down on paper.
page: 113
tags:
thinking
feeling
When you need to make the right decision, in your work or otherwise, and you don't know what to do, just do one thing or the other, because the worst that can happen is that you will have made a terrible mistake.
page: 114
tags:
decision-making
KFKD radio station: left inner ear is how much more open and gifted and brilliant etc you are, the right inner ear is self-loathing and imposter syndrome.
page: 116
tags:
voices
You see the amazing fortitude of people going through horror with grace, looking right into the pit and seeing that this is what you've got, this disease, or maybe even this jealousy. So you do as well as you can with it. And this ravaged body or wounded psyche can and should still be cared for as softly and tenderly as possible.
page: 129
tags:
coping
"I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing."
page: 130
tags:
perseverance
One of the things that happens when you give yourself permission to start writing is that you start thinking like a writer. You start seeing everything as material. Grist for the mill.
page: 136
tags:
material
writing
Index card notes. You don't always have to DO something with what you write down. They're just memory triggers. Sometimes writing it down is enough.
page: 137
tags:
triggers
notes
You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it, too.
page: 156
tags:
feedback
criticism
My first response to criticism is never profound relief that I have someone in my life who will be honest with me and help me do the very best work of which I am capable. No, my first thought is, "Well. I'm sorry, but I can't be friends with you anymore, because you have too many problems. And you have a bad personality. And a bad character."
page: 166
tags:
criticism
I don't think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect.
page: 170
tags:
respect
kindness
Writing is also about dealing with the emptiness. The emptiness destroys enough writers without the help of some friend or spouse.
page: 170
tags:
emptiness
If you look around, I think you will find the person you need. Almost every writer I've ever known has been able to find someone who could be both a friend and a critic. You'll know when the person is right for you and when you are right for that person.
page: 171
tags:
writing
If you're stuck, try telling part of your history (or part of a character's history) in the form of a letter. The letter's informality might free you from the tyranny of perfectionism.
page: 172
tags:
inspiration
Writer's block isn't really a block. It just means you're looking at the problem from the wrong angle. If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.
page: 178
tags:
emptiness
Breaking through the writer's block is like catching amoebic dysentery. You'll just be sitting there minding your own business, and the next minute you'll rush to your desk with an urgency you had not believed possible.
page: 180
tags:
blocks
All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right.
page: 180
tags:
control
Write down everything that happens to you, then take out the parts that feel self-indulgent.
page: 193
tags:
writing
When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are.
page: 198
tags:
inner monster
We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. Otherwise, you'll just be rearranging furniture in rooms you've already been in.
page: 198
tags:
discovery
self-analysis
Truth seems to want expression. Unacknowledged truth saps your energy and keeps you wired and delusional.
page: 199
tags:
truth
energy
delusion
You cannot write out of someone else's big dark place; you can only write out of your own.
page: 199
tags:
darkness
Find your room or closet or wood or cave or abyss that you were told not to go into. Go in and look around for a long while, just breathing and taking it all in. Then you will be able to speak in your own voice and stay in the present moment. And that moment is home.
page: 201
tags:
prompts
being present
You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward.
page: 203
tags:
gifts
We are wired as humans to be open to the world instead of enclosed in a fortified, defensive mentality. So be open. Give.
page: 206
tags:
receptivity
The real payoff is the writing itself, a day when you have gotten your work done. The total dedication is the point.
page: 215
tags:
writing
dedication
Quote from Cool Runnings: "If you're not enough before the gold medal, you won't be enough with it." Being enough is going to have to be an inside job.
page: 218
tags:
being enough
Try to write in an emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don't be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.
page: 226
tags:
emotion
time
Truth is always subversive--it is a revolutionary act.
page: 226
tags:
truth
Writing is like building sand castles out of words. We believe, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.
page: 231
tags:
writing
People need writers to mirror for them and for each other without distortion. To say, "This is who we are."
page: 234
tags:
writing
Maybe what you've written will help others, will be a small part of the solution. You don't even have to know how or in what way, but if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.
page: 235
tags:
truth
communication
purpose
So why does our writing matter? Because of the spirit. Because of the heart. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.
page: 237
tags:
writing
spirit
heart
isolation
life
soul