5 for Friday: Quotes and Meditations for our writing

Here are 5 quotes and their matching meditations from Walking on Alligators, by Susan Shaughnessy. Some reminders for when you need them… perhaps to keep you writing through the weekend.

1.“When stuff in life gets really rough, I would just die if I was not writing a novel. Once you think it up, it’s like a whole other city with a little door and every time you sit down to write you just open the door and there you are—a wonderful vacation for two hours.” –Lee Smith

Today I’ll try a new attitude toward my writing. I’ll view it as a vacation from life.

2.“Today is a dawdly day. They do seem to alternate. I do a whole of a day’s work and then the next day, flushed with triumph, I dawdle…The crazy thing is that I can get the same number of words down either way.” –John Steinbeck

I’ll give up on estimating whether it’s worth writing today by the way I feel. I will write today.

3.“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” –Mark Twain

I have resolved to be a writer. I will welcome encouragement, and forgive and forget everything else.

4.“It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs.” –Gerald Brenan

I will write today. It is my chance to do what I have said I want to do.

5.“The material’s out there, a calm lake waiting for us to dive in.” –Beverly Lowry

Today, I’ll take a deep breath and plunge into the calm lake of creative material within me.

Seems like writing today, writing everyday is the goal. While that may not always be possible, it’s something worth striving towards. Have a great weekend, everyone!