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Writer's Notes - July 2010



Wise Sayings for Writers, Round 2

Last time, I shared six fortune-cookie sayings that my mom had tucked away prior to her passing – partly as a small way of honoring her July 3rd birthday and partly to offer some great advice to my fellow writers. Today, I'll share the other six sayings. Hopefully they'll inspire you to nurture your talents, step out, and move toward achieving your writing goals.

Here are the other six:

Past inspirations and experiences will be helpful in your job.

While this can be true for anyone, the writer will find this particularly relevant to both the craft and the business of writing. As the writer nurtures the creative, intuitive spark and begins to draw parallels between the past and the current creative work taking shape within his imagination, something magical happens. Insight flows and new life is birthed into the work. Whether or not he writes for money, creativity is every writer's "job" – and everything that's gone before can provide insight that helps him do it well.

Your heart is pure, and your mind is clear.

During your most creative moments, you draw pure inspiration from deep within, giving your thoughts a singular clarity that's clearly not present at other times. These are the moments all writers live for. Give yourself the opportunity to experience these moments as often as possible. Allow yourself some time for contemplation. Provide an atmosphere that's conducive to inspiration. Let yourself sense and feel and visualize. It will bring new power to your work. Relax, refresh, recharge, and renew in whatever ways you most enjoy and respond to best. Read for relaxation, entertainment, and inspiration and not simply for research, study, or self-improvement. Chat with a friend and bounce ideas off him or her to broaden your perspective and provide fresh new insight. These will help inspire and bring you to that pure, clear place.

Now is the time to try something new.

Have you been feeling as if you'd like to work on something you've never tried before – perhaps attempting a new style, form, or genre? Perhaps you've considered an entirely different creative outlet than you're used to, such as art, photography, or Web design. If you've been blessed with multiple talents, interests, and passions, nurture them. Each one is there for a purpose, and you'll never achieve that purpose unless you use all your talents.

Some people are natural born specialists. They focus on one major area of endeavor and are happy doing so. Others have far too many interests to settle for a single one, and they are only happy when encouraged and supported in their efforts to indulge them all, thereby building a multi-faceted creative existence. Both types are good, the world needs both types, and both types can adapt the concept of trying something new to their own natural style. The specialist can try a new project or new method for creatively carrying out her area of specialization, and the non-specialist can focus on an entirely different interest area.

Someone is interested in you. Keep your eyes open.

Somewhere, someone – an editor, an agent, a client, a fellow blogger – is interested in you and your talent and seeking precisely what you have to offer. You may not have found this individual yet, but he or she is out there just waiting for the moment of meeting and discovery. Believe and trust that that's the case and then seek out this person for all you're worth. As you go about the daily business of writing and researching and promoting and connecting, watch for new opportunities – opportunities that may turn out to be tailor made for you.

Take that chance you've been considering.

Every time you put yourself and your work out there for others to judge and evaluate, you're taking a risk – and risk can be unsettling. But, if writing is your calling and you know deep inside that you have what it takes – or you know you're willing to do whatever it takes to get to that point – don't sit on the sidelines watching others earn the recognition, enjoy the exposure, or reap the monetary rewards. If you have your eye on a market in which you'd love to see your work, if you'd like to approach a certain client, try a new creative collaboration, or work on a different type of project than you have up to this point – do your homework and then go for it. You'll never know how successful you might have been if you never try.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

If you're having trouble finding inspiration, motivation, ideas, time, quiet, or – you fill in the blank – you'll have to be creative in finding ways around these obstacles. You are a creative, after all. This is what you do. The same creativity you apply to your writing can be applied to your life to make it more conducive to your craft. If you want it badly enough, you can make it happen.

I've delved a little more deeply into these six fortune-cookie sayings than I did into most of the first six. Perhaps that's because these sayings are more philosophical than the others. Or perhaps I'm simply in a more philosophical mood today or feeling more inspired. Whatever it is, I hope you've received some benefit from my musings and that they'll help you – in some way big or small – to achieve your writing goals.

Write on!
Jeanne



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Fortune-Cookie Wisdom

I don't generally take fortune-cookie fortunes very seriously. But, one day recently, as I went through some of those slender slips of paper that I'd found among my late mom's papers, I realized how often they consist more of good, sound advice than predictions about the future. And that started me thinking about how many of them might be applied to writing. (Most, it turns out!) So, in honor of Mom's July 3rd birthday, I thought I'd share some of them, along with a few of my own thoughts about each.

I'll share six of them in this post and the other six in my next one.

Here's the first group:

It is quality rather than quantity that matters. Do a good job.

While we certainly need a balance between quality and quantity to earn a living as writers, it's important to be reminded every now and then how much more important quality is than quantity--that is, if we'd like to derive any real satisfaction from our work.

Rely on long time friends to give you advice.

This is such a necessity in the writing--and especially the blogging--world. How often do we savor the support, encouragement, and wise advice of long-time writing and blogging friends?

Others appreciate your good sense of humor.

This is so true for us as writers. When we add a touch of humor to our work, it can lighten heavy topics and provide a moment of pleasure for our readers that makes them enjoy our work even more than they would have without it.

We can learn from everyone, even our adversaries.

For the writer, this can be looked at in more than one way. We can recall people and/or life experiences that have challenged us, recognizing their potential for teaching us lessons that can make our writing richer. We might also think in terms of our critics, who can teach us much about our writing, ourselves, and human nature--providing another rich reservoir from which to create our written works.

It is proper to speak the truth.

As we express ourselves in our writing, authenticity is so important. "Authenticity" may be an overused word in writing circles today, yet I believe it's a concept that will never go out of style. When we speak the truth, transparently sharing our hearts through our writing, we have greater credibility with our reader, which develops a trust that enables the reader to truly enter into our work.

Keep your idealism practical.

I love this one, because, while its emphasis is on practicality over idealism, the first part says, "Keep your idealism," which I believe is step one. While writing for a living involves the necessity to be practical by balancing creativity with pragmatism, we still want to stay true to our ideals, since these are part of the wisdom we impart to our readers. Our goal is to develop a healthy balance, sacrificing neither of these two vital factors in favor of the other.

I hope you've enjoyed these first six examples of fortune-cookie words of wisdom for writers and that you'll tune in next time for the other six.

Keep writing!
Jeanne



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