Sunday, March 8, 2009

1011+

Woot woot!

Today's goal was a little trickier to reach, as I got bogged down in editing yesterday's stuff.... but I REALLY like how it's going so far. Very smooth. Much improved. The characters are really making their own demands now, so it seems like it was worth the wait.

A friend sent me this quote by Elizabeth Gilbert about writing. I think it's wonderful!

As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck. When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.

1 comment:

Anna said...

oh, I REALLY like that quote!!

you're going great guns!! excellent!

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