two for | The Merit of Meaning It

wax flowers on the windowsill
1.
"the merit of originality is not novelty, it's sincerity"
Thomas Carlyl

2.
"If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write towards vulnerability.

Don't worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent."
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

I want to be interesting, but I'm always erasing because I find myself mushy, and frilly, overly descriptive, and trite.  I liked these two passages - because they reminded me that the important thing is just to mean it.

(photo) on film with Nikon FM

9 comments:

  1. i LOVE this post sam... so much. especially the quote from anne lammott.. how perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i wrote and rewrote my post this morning for exactly that reason. glad to read this here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i love this. what writer doesn't strive to "write straight into the emotional center of things"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you. This meant a lot today.

    ReplyDelete
  5. very true. i'm quite a sentimental and emotional person, but expressing those feelings has never been my forte. i'm not a writer, nor do i strive to be, but it's important to me what i put out there. so, i find myself re-writing and erasing quite often. thanks for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was just about to write a post about how I overuse the same words in my writing far too often, especially on blogs.

    I think I'll still write it, but now I feel like it's a little less necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That passage from Anne Lamott is one of my favorites, one that always sticks with me when my writing scares me a little. From one sentimental heart to another, keep sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. This post is so perfectly timed for me. It can be so hard to be truly vulnerable as an artist but at the same time that's often where the magic comes from. Thanks for the reminder :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. This post is definitely being bookmarked. Thank you for sharing these two quotes. Truly letting go before I allow my doubts to set and taint my work is something I have been struggling with for a while. Will definitely be keeping these quotes in mind :)

    Mo x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for commenting, Darling Reader! I read + love each and every one of them. (Anonymous commenting has been turned off due to robots)

ashore All rights reserved © Blog Milk Powered by Blogger