Happy Tuesday! I have to admit, as I’ve been watching the news about the Nor’easter on the coast, I chuckle.
Heh. Nah nee nah nee boo boo! Thwpppt! Yesterday Minnesota had a high of 45 degrees. In January. We’ve had highs above freezing for the past week or so, and we get another couple days before reality returns. Hey, we’re just enjoying it. Even though Winter is returning this weekend with lows below zero, at least we’ve had our January thaw. Even saw an outdoor volleyball game on the news, with players wearing t-shirts, shorts, and boots (there was still snow on the sand).
A wonderful writer friend of mine is celebrating a birthday today. She shared this link with our writing group: Clarissa Pinkola Estes literary birthday
The page has a list of quotes, which are all wonderful, but a few in particular speak to my writing soul:
- Writing, real writing, should leave a small sweet bruise somewhere on the writer … and on the reader.
- If you’ve lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more.
- I hope you will go out and let stories, that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these stories… water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.
These sound like they come from the universal writer’s spirit, the one you channel through your Muse. Think about each of them (actually, the whole list is quite poignant). Roll them around in your mind. Use them to tune in to your creative energy, and watch your Muse settle back with a huge smile and a sigh of satisfaction because you have a better understanding of his job.
Four days and counting until Feb 1 and the first day of my self-imposed NaNoWriMo. Anyone want to join me? Fifty-thousand words in 28 days. I’m even cutting two days from my usual NaNo allotment. Normally, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but this way I have some sort of accountability, so I can’t use the excuse that it really isn’t November so it shouldn’t count. I’ll post my weekly word counts–even more accountability.
I’m breaking from the usual for this project; I’m actually writing what I know. I told my husband what my project was going to be about. He said, “It’s about time!” He’s watched Charlie Rose interviews with numerous writers, and he always mentions what the writer answers to Charlie’s inevitable question about advice for other writers. The most popular answers are, of course, write every day and write what you know.
What I know is not nearly as exciting as what I can make up, but I’ll try it out.
Facets of a Muse 
January 27, 2015 at 4:09 pm
I’m doing a self-imposed NaNoWriMo type event in February, too! I won NaNoWriMo 2014, but then I took December entirely off and have spent all of January editing, so I want to get back to writing and knock out a new manuscript in February. Best of luck with your writing, too!
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January 27, 2015 at 4:33 pm
High five! Sounds like me; I won NaNo 2014, didn’t write much during Dec. Not editing much in Jan–trying to outline my Feb project.
Woo-hoo! Let’s crush 50k in Feb!
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