Follow the path of your aroused thought, and you will soon meet this infernal inscription: There is nothing so beautiful as that which does not exist. ~ Paul Valery

If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do. ~ William Zinsser

Today’s Word Count: 250

Total Word Count: 36,453

Morale: As of today I’m putting my NaNo journey on hold. Personal issues have caused me to hold off on the writing for at least the next three to four days. If I can get back to finish this novel I will, but if I don’t I’m not overly worried. For me family comes first and in this case my elderly Mother needs my attention.

Life is what happens to a writer between drafts.
Damon (aka Dennis R. Miller) …who spent 25 years completing his novel The Perfect Song.

Happy Writing

Sandie

Writing a book is a adventure. To begin with it is a toy and amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public. ~ Winston Churchill

Success comes to a writer, as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

Today’s Word Count: 605

Total Word Count: 36,203

Morale: As you can see the words are still coming slowly and I can’t blame it on the story, this time it’s me and life/family needing to come first. It happens sometimes, but when you need to be a good Mum, daughter and grandmother you have to do what needs to be done.

The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you’ve done a story justice, you’re in the wrong business. ~ Robin McKinley

Happy writing

Sandie

Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head. ~ From the movie Finding Forrester

Today’s Word Count: 509

Total Word Count: 35,595

Morale: A slow day today, my Mum was in hospital last night so I spent most of the afternoon with her and a a writers meeting in the morning.

Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize it of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to your friend, if he be an author especially. ~ A. Bronson Alcott

Happy Writing

Sandie

It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page. ~ Joan Baez

Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

If I’m trying to sleep, the ideas won’t stop. If I’m trying to write, there appears a barren nothingness. ~ Carrie Latet

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning:  I wanted to know what I was going to say.  ~ Sharon O’Brien

It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write. ~ Sinclair Lewis

Happy Writing

Sandie

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence. ~ Samuel Butler

If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don’t remove it – I might be writing in my dreams. ~ Danzae Pace 

Today’s Word Count: 1,807

Total Word Count: 32,816

Morale: The words are flowing sort of, I’m not sure where this is going to go or what it will end up as. Anyway one more suspect cleared, that leaves me with two, I have a better idea as to who it will be, but who knows with my characters.  

Writing is both mask and unveiling. ~ E.B. White

Happy Writing

Sandie

A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. ~ John K. Hutchens, New York Herald Tribune, 10 September 1961

Today’s Word Count: 1,697

Total Word Count: 31,009

Morale: Feeling much better than I did yesterday. Although still recovering from the effects of the mirgaine. Tomorrow I should be back to normal.

Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn’t we? ~ Audra Foveo-Alba

Sandie

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen I suppose you must scratch any way you can. ~ Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind. ~ Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957

Today’s Word Count: 150

Total Word Count: 29,312

Morale: Not much writing achieved today, had a migraine and spent almost all day in bed.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music the words make. ~ Truman Capote, McCall’s, November 1967

Happy writing

Sandie

Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors. ~ Rhys Alexander

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~ Sylvia Plath

Today’s Word Count: 563

Total Word Count: 29,162

Morale: Beginning to waver, today I found it very easy to find an excuse or two not to write. This is not acceptable. Tomorrow, or later today, it is back to the grindstone, no leaving the computer until the words are on the page. Aim 2,000 words.

The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. ~ Norbet Platt

Happy writing

Sandie

Don’t let a single day go by without writing. Even if it’s garbage, if garbage is all you can write, write it. Garbage eventually becomes compost with a little treatment. ~  Anonymous

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Today’s Word Count: 500

Total Word Count: 28,599

Morale: High, even after a couple of slow days I’m confident that I will pick it all up again tomorrow and during the week.

You are a bundle of mysteries. Finding and conquering yourself is a lifetime task. There are unplumbed depths in you full of the rich ore of personal discovery. Explore yourself! There is power in you – the power to change yourself and to change the world; the power to create plans, projects, movements for the common good; the power to inspire and serve. ~ Wilfred Peterson

Happy writing

Sandie