I have two printed quotes above my PC, which I look at when I'm finding writing hard and i'd like to share them. It reminds me of why I labour so hard at the keyboard:

'I feel assured I should write from the mere yearning and fondness...'

'That which is creative must create itself'


Steve

Mine is: 'Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.' By Goethe, although I know it sounds as if it could have come from a Mind Body Spirit book. It was on a postcard sent to me by some actors touring one of my plays to a particularly inhospitable audience. Yours are nicely oblique- it's lovely finding out what other writers have daily inspiring them.

Anna,

I like those words you put up.

Steve

My screensaver reads: 'Not a word is wasted', because I'm very dissatisfied with 99% of my efforts, but I live in hope that all that pooey stuff will ferment into a rich, fertile, compost heap, from which, one day, might bloom a single rose. Sorry about the smell...

Julia Cameron (whose passion, love, conviction and commitment re: writing, is beautiful to behold) says - among many other things - 'Just keep showing up at the page.'

Regards, Pete

I agree about Julia Cameron. Her books are filled with inspiring quotes.

Does anyone do 'morning pages'?

Catherine

Catherine,
What's a morning page?
Becca.

Becca,

It's a little boy at a funeral.

Len, that's wicked...

Becca, 'morning pages' are recommended by Julia Cameron in her book The Artists Way. The theory is that you keep a notebook and a pen by your bed then, the moment you wake up, you write three pages (clue here - chose the size of the book carefully!). Don't think about it. Just let the words come out onto the paper in a stream-of-consciousness. After a little practise, all sorts of things begin to emerge to inspire your 'real' writing.
I tried it for a while. Sometimes the only thing I could think to write was 'I can't think of anything to write' over and over again but it helped me considerably at a very early stage of my writing career.(I use the word 'career' in its loosest sense )
I've seen 'morning pages' mentioned about three times this morning. Perhaps it's a sign that I should start doing them again. A New Year's resolution perhaps...

Dee.

A boy at a funeral. Haha!

I have to admit, my morning pages started on A4 and are now on A5!

I've done them for the last two years on and off (more on than off). Sometimes they've turned into shopping lists and all sorts, but other times they've really helped me come up with ideas.

Sometimes if I don't know what to do next in a creative piece or have a problem with something, I write a question I need answered. More often than not the answer emerges when I do the pages the following morning.

Cath

Yes. I used to do morning pages and I did them for about five months until they delivered the idea for my first novel. Up to that point I wrote A4 (smug,eh?)pages of some really weird stuff. Best not let my therapist (or lawyer) see any of it.
But I must admit that since the delivery of the start to the novel I haven't retuned to the habit. I kid myself that as long as I can sit at the keyboard and write something every day (well, most days) I am keeping the creative soup bubbling! But maybe that's just a cop out!

John

I think it's somewhere in William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade (I'm relying on my unreliable memory) that the (apocryphal?) tale is told of a writer who was careful to always keep a notebook at his bedside. Sure enough, he awoke in the middle of one night having dreamt the ultimate Great American Novel/All Time Silver Screen Blockbuster, and, in high excitement, scribbled down a note as an aide memoire.

In the morning, he awakened and scooped up his notebook, all primed to begin his task of changing the face of world literature. Alas, his scribbled note said nothing more than "Boy meets girl."

<Added>

P.S. Oh yes, the motivational quote hovering over my own desk:

The harder you try, the luckier you are. -- Pee Wee Russell, jazzman

Haha - agree about the therapist/lawyer bit. I've also got this weird phobia of my mum seeing it!!

Cath

Cath

Now you come to mention it, I can see that!

John

Morning pages sound good. I suppose the nearest I get to them is my dream diary. I've had it running for a decade, but there are big gaps in it. Never the less the early dreams and the late ones relate. I can't see it as useful for writing, but I guess having to remember every detail is a good exercise for the brain.

I have two, both Latin quotes:

"Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor"
- Come rising avenger, from my ashes


and

"Oderint Dum Metuant"
- Let them hate, so long as they fear


And no, I'm not normal.