Fortune Cookie Wisdom for Writers, Continued
July 7th 2010 07:48
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 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 now 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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Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
Some great quotes and lovely insights on them as well. As usual I've enjoyed your post.
~Dianna
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Comment by Cath Lawson
I submitted a lot of articles on cats, but I was a bit eccentric when it came to my cat and I don't think my articles were exactly what they were looking for.
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Often our early work is a bit lacking in the experience department, but our passion keeps us going until experience catches up with us.
As young, inexperienced (though oh so enthusiastic) writers, we often make the consummate new writer's mistake of submitting to the wrong markets and consequently collect so many rejections that we begin to wonder if we have any talent at all (or if we're sure we do have talent, we wonder if anyone else will ever notice). Oh, the growing pains the young writer must pass through!
Yet, as we mature and learn more about the writing business and the writing process, we begin to handle ourselves in wiser ways, and our experience begins to show in both our writing and our business dealings. Nothing can really take the place of that experience, and every writer must pass through it to grow and learn and begin to write with authority, credibility, precision, and grace.
Of course, even our non-writing experiences combine to help us turn our writing into a special expression of who we are, what we have learned about life, and the wisdom we've gathered and willingly share with our readers. This is the unique contribution that we alone can make to the collective body of knowledge and experience that make up our world.
Thanks for sharing your own experience with us. It helps us know we're not alone!
Comment by Anonymous
Thank you and keep up the great writing!!!
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Nice to meet you -- virtually, at least!
Thanks for stopping by Writer's Notes -- and sharing a few supportive words!
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Let me know if you have any trouble getting hold of Dawn via Facebook. She's not really very active there, though I'm assuming she'll get your message.
I'll hold off contacting her for now, since she's sometimes hard for me to track down, as well!