This large corkboard hangs to the right of my desk -- as you can see, it's loaded with cards, sayings, photos, a calendar and even a zombie sock puppet. There are so two very important words on my board: "believe" and "dare."
When I'm starting out my work day, when I'm stuck or any other time my eyes -- and attention! -- wander, I see those words. They inspire me, challenge me, remind me of where I've come from in my writing (those years of accumulating rejection letters without anything getting published certainly required my believing in myself!) and where I'm going (daring myself to try something new and different in my work, to tackle a subject or character or problem I didn't think I could).
What are the words that challenge you? Pump you up? Inspire you? Please share!
Just a few that keep me going, thinking, and expanding. I love that you have this as your blog subject today! I revel in the power of words--how only one can keep you imagining and writing for hours on end!
ReplyDelete-"Research!"
-"Feel"
-"Purpose"
-"What IF!"
-"Remember the Five Senses"
-"Fail Greatly"
----------"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - JFK
Have I mentioned, by the way, how much I love Hattie Big Sky?? I don't believe I have! And also I hear you went to WWU--I go there! It's so inspiring to know that anyone, anywhere can become a writer. You don't have to live in some faraway land of glamor and pizzaz (that's how I think of New York...) I hope to hear you speak sometime!
Sometimes the words that get me getting back to work are, "I wonder what they're doing now?" (my characters). Really, that makes me curious again to go find out.
ReplyDeleteBut I also was heartened by your comment in your interview when you said, "The very activities that take away my time and space to write, do indeed give me something to say." (Lately I've had a lot of distractions from my writing, distractions that are meaningful to me, so I was encouraged by that idea.) A writer friend of mine who read that was equally encouraged.