Saturday Quotes

I don't know why, but quotes really are just something I love, have always loved, and always will.

I don't know if it is because of the truths they speak or words they express. I don't know if it is because of how they can punch one short meaning into a sentence so small. I don't know if it is just because they are so beautiful. But they touch me, heart and soul, and I can't escape them.

 

 

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive - it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for the imagination then, would there? But am I talking to much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I CAN stop when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult."

~ L.M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

 

 

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent”
~ Victory Hugo

 

 

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."

~ J. R. R. Tolkien

 

 

 

 

 

"Make the most of yourself........for that is all there is of you."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

"Never dull your shine for someone else."

~ Tyra Banks

 

 

"You are you! Now isn't that pleasant!"

~ Dr. Seuss 

"Writing is an intesely interesting art. It's also dangerous. Once you start, it is incredibly hard to stop."
~ Anonymous
 

 

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

~ Mae West

 

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
~ G. K. Chesterton

 

 

“It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?”
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

"The saddest words of tongue and pen are those that might have been."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

 

  

 



You sit there for hours and...type?

This was a question put to me not long ago. I smiled, gave a little nod, and responded, "Oh yes."

I'm sure my interrogator had no clue what she was really asking. What was behind that simple reply. Who can really know the depth of that question. It's more than just laying the fingers to the keypad. It's more than compiling a massive word count. It is more than a steady plotline and unpredictable characters.

It is the hours, the agonies, the moments of hair wrenching and feeling like you want to hurl the computer across the room. It is the soul, the passion, the unloosing of emotion and heart. That is what it is all about. Letting go.

Anyone can write a good story.

Only those whose very souls are bound to what they write can create a masterpiece that will change the world.


This week, Write On Edge did a prompt for music. I have 350 words to share inspired by a specific song.

This week, I have been listening to a huge variety of songs: soundtracks, classical, pop, Christian contemporary...

But I can say without a doubt there is one song that has influenced a huge section of my book, The Last Scribe.

The words to this song, specifically the first verse, seem to echo Breem's thoughts entirely.

The setting:

The Woodland of Eradrea, home of the unknown TerRors

Bitter darkness

 

 

 

 

Word count: 194
Ó Pure Grace

 

I stay awake late into the night, watching the fire burn into nothing but embers. Kiar’s even breathing is enviable, but I can’t sleep. I keep thinking of Mikailah, curled up next to her far away fire, and the king, Mytharel, a lost boy somewhere out in the world, and of the journey I have to make to get back home.

And just what is home? I ask myself. What calls me back out of this wilderness?

There is nothing.

The thought is discomforting and I turn on my side, face away from the red and orange coals, and look out into the silvery night. Huge trees stand as silent sentinels through the inky blackness, guarding some ancient mystery that will never be solved. Their branches stand still, leaves rustling with the slight wind. The three moons make their upward trek across the sky, searching for the sun, a little desperate, very blue and sad. Stars shine around them, illuminating the violet night sky with their tiny pinpoints of light. How many nights have I slept beneath this same night sky and yet tonight it looks different. It looks wild, and hopeless, and broken.

 

 





Writing and Music

One of the things I have found in my years as a writer is music is essential. It arranges the mood, gives feeling and emotion, and drives farther into heart of what I am trying to say than words often can. There is a simple joy and sorrow bound up in the orchestral lines of music that spells out just what needs to be felt.

Music. It is not a way to view life, but a way to feel it.

 



Most often, the music I am listening to sets the stage for what I am wanting to say. If I want to write a sad selection into my book, I bring up mournful, wailing melodies that can bring tears to your eyes without reference to anything. If I feel particularly funny and spunky and just want to get a good laugh out of my readers, I bring up the funky tunes and giggle away at their bright, bubbly sounds.

There are certain songs in my playlist that will be forever linked to scenes and lines in my books because of how they panned out. They just had the right character and theme just when I wanted it. And now, I can't hear them without thinking back to those parts of my book.

But no matter what I am writing, I listen to music. It matters. It adds something to the character to my writing I cannot even describe. But it is important.

Do you listen to music while you write? What kinds? Do you have favorite songs that just seem to spill out all you want to say?



P.S. This Wednesday's Once Upon a Time... linkup will be on: trust. Come back Wednesday and add your link!

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