Inspirational quotable quotes

I assume that it is common for us all, when reading, to feel that thrill when we intersect with 'old friends', or elements of our own profession in whatever medium we are enjoying. We get that spark of recognition which makes us feel warmer, somehow. If the interdisciplinarity is well done, we feel at home. 

(and turned-off, if it mile-wides our professional standards and knowledge).

Earlier this year I was reading a couple of books by writer and therapist, Susan Shapiro. She was explaining that she had received what she termed "extremely helpful career advice to 'exploit your obsessions' and 'write about people you love'" (2007, p. 14-15), which made me laugh, along with the views of her parents, who "to this day still hope I'll come to my senses and go to law school" (p. 26). She found some great mentors, including the writer Howard Fast, who provided very sage advice with "A page a day is a book a year" (p. 21). All helpful, but I am most enticed by the career advice to "exploit [...]our obsessions" (p. 14). If we are interested in something, we are so much more likely to stick at it.

Another memorable phrase struck a chord with me because I am interested in the parallels between learning digital - computer - competence and learning music. Both fields have an esoteric language, a procedural way of working and require a lot of hand-eye co-ordination, and both, I think, take as long to learn well. In an Enid Blyton biography I read, "One would have thought that an experienced pianist would have preferred touch typing, and she did indeed become highly dextrous in typing at speed" (Greenfield, 1998, p. 16); Enid presumably not being a touch typist. She learned to type quickly with practice, with a small typewriter on her lap, sitting under a pergola in her quintessentially British rose garden, hammering out more than 750 published works (Enid Blyton bibliography, 2023). Ms Blyton's lack of orthodoxy in the hammering certainly did not hamper her prodigious output. And she was, after all, intended to be a concert pianist (Blyton, 1952; Greenfield, 1998). 

Another evocative phrase comes from John Quiller-Couch (1916) about writing style, that - if we start to get too enraptured with our lovely turns of phrase - we ruthlessly edit our highfalutin' ideas by "Murder[ing ...]our darlings" (p. 235). This was picked up by Stephen King as "Kill your darlings" (2000, p. 222). What does it tell us? That we need to not get attached. And edit. And edit. And edit.

Which brings me nicely around to Mr King, who - in the horror novel, Bag of Bones (1998) - wrote about author with a terrible case of writer's block. The protagonist talks about "the boys in the basement" as "an old trick from my writing days. Work your body, rest your mind, let the boys in the basement do their jobs" (King, 1998, p. 120). Letting the top storey get on with operations while our "under mind" (Blyton, 1952, p. 81) freewheels in the depths, and Lo! Suddenly the answer, the connection, the inspiration comes to us. Trying harder does not always necessarily bear fruit: sometimes we just need to give those "boys in the basement" time to do their work on our behalf. 

I do enjoy collecting these fragments of wisdom. 

Sam

References:

Blyton, E. (1952). The story of my life. Grafton.

Enid Blyton bibliography. (2023). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton_bibliography

King, S. (2000). On Writing: A memoir of the craft. Scribner.

King, S. (1998). Bag of Bones. Scribner.

Quiller-Couch, A. T. (1916). On the Art of Writing. Cambridge University Press.

Shapiro, S. (2007). Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons from My Favorite Literary Gurus. Seal Press.