Hard At Work, Waiting

What Inspires: Kindred Spirits"Oftentimes writing can feel overwhelmingly lonely, a fool's errand," Daniel Alarcon wrote in THE SECRET MIRACLE; THE NOVELIST'S HANDBOOK. (Alarcon was one of the writers included in The New Yorker's "20 under 40" list).

"It's gratifying to be reminded that at any given moment, there are thousands of others, working in hundreds of languages all over the world, engaged in much the same pursuit. They, like all of us, have good days, bad days, and days where it is more useful to sit quietly and read, let the writing wait."

First Love!

What Inspires: First Love! And they ask: "Are you ever going to try writing a 'real' book" . . .

 “The prime function of the children’s book writer is to write a book that is so absorbing, exciting, funny, fast and beautiful that the child will fall in love with it. And that first love affair between the young child and the young book will lead hopefully to other loves for other books and when that happens the battle is probably won. The child will have found a crock of gold. He will also have gained something that will help to carry him most marvelously through the tangles of his later years.”

Notable children’s books by Roald Dahl include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The BFG, The Gremlins, The Enormous Crocodile, Esio Trot, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine, and Danny, the Champion of the World.

I’m reading a collection of Dahl's adult short stories now—beautiful writing at its most irreverent, racy, scary, creepy, often horrific. No crock: pure gold!

I'm Not Going To...and You Can't Make Me!

What inspires: Saying NO! It's usual to begin a new year with a resolutions. Lists of things we "must do" and "have to" and "will do" lists. It's also usual, and expected, that we will break those resolutions (If we're honest, don't we make some specifically so we can break them?)  We are barely into the 2nd month of the year, it's FULL MOON Time, and I've already broken mine...

So instead of more Do lists, how about a couple of Don't Do lists? Here are two :  the first a quit-pussy footing-around-and-get-after-it list called "Twenty-Five Things Writers Should Stop Doing..." specifically for us writers by novelist, screenwriter and self-proclaimed "Freelance Pe-monkey"  Chuck Wendig.

And for everyone:  the list that inspired Chuck to "cobble" his list: 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

Just say no! Reading them inspired me to begin my own No List. Item #1: NO MORE BEATING YOURSELF UP!