Inspire Christian Writer's Group

Great Quotes on Juggling Home and a Writing Career

Here are some more great quotes from Mount Hermon. These were also shared by Barbara Curtis. She is the mother of twelve (12!) and has written nine books, thousands of articles and posts daily to her blog, MommyLife.net. She understands the struggles that face writers who are committed to managing their homes and training their children.

“I have to continually balance ‘being a writer’ with being a wife and mother. It’s a matter of putting two different things first, simultaneously.”   Madeleine L’Engle

“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.”   Francois Sagan

“How can you sit down to write until you have stood up to live?”              Thoreau

 

“I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.”       Saul Bellow

 

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes." St. Augustine

 

It’s great to know that others have carved the path I tread, one that requires dual purpose and singular focus.

Gratefully,

Beth

Great Quotes on the Discipline of Writing

Barbara Curtis, one of my favorite bloggers, shared these during a workshop she taught at Mount Hemon Christian Writers Conference last week. As a recovering procrastinator, I need semi-constant nudging. Maybe you do to.

“I know writers who write only when the inspiration comes. How would Isaac Stern play if he played the violin only when he felt like it! He would be lousy.”            Madeleine L’Engle

“If you wait for inspiration, you’re not a writer, but a waiter.”                  Anonymous

“Perhaps it would be better not to be a writer, but if you must, then write. If it all feels helpless, if that famous ‘inspiration’ will not come, write. If you are a genius, you’ll make your own rules, but if not—and the odds are against it—go to your desk, no matter what your mood, face the icy challenge of the paper—write.                    

J.B. Priestly

 

“The more a man writes, the more he can write.”

William Hazzlitt

 

“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance; but he has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”           

St. Augustine

 

So now I’m off to face the icy challenge of the paper—and write.

Gratefully,

Beth

Inspire Writers Attend Christian Writers Seminar

 

Here we are leaving for the 2009 Christian Writers Seminar:

 

Dee Aspin, Kris Lindsey, Me, Beth Self and Lori Sinclair just before we climbed into my car for the drive to Castro Valley. Half the fun of attending a conference with the Inspire group is the lively conversations along the way.

James Scott Bell encouraged us with "Every hour you spend writing is an hour you don't spend worrying about your writing."

He also urged us to continue writing during these tough economic times, to provide encouragement, hope, escape and entertainment to a world in need of our words.

Me, Joanne Kraft, Lori Sinclair, Kris Lindsey and Beth Self at the beginning of the final keynote session.

Other great quotes gleaned at CWS:

"If you build a house and no one moves in—it is incomplete. Similarly—writing is incomplete without a reader." Cindy Martinusen Coloma

"The last sentence needs to go KA-BOOM! It should not trail off into the wind." Ken Jones

"Articles must always answer the 'So what?' question." Lynne Thompson

"Set realistic goals so you can feel the satisfaction of reaching them instead of feeling like a failure for falling short." Cindy Martinusen Coloma

"Always give God the glory." James Scott Bell

 

Kris Lindsey, D. L. Huckabay, Beth Self, Me, Joanne Kraft and Lori Sinclair. The Seminar has just ended. Now if we can just apply everything we learned!

Watch for information on several upcoming conferences. We would love to have you join us.

Gratefully,

Beth

Frederick Buechner Quote

The Power of Sharing our Stories

I am re-reading Telling Secrets: A Memoir by Frederick Buechner and want to share this quote:

"But I talk about my life anyway because if, on the one hand, hardly anything could be less important, on the other hand, hardly anything could be more important. My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I, of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through these stories in all their particularity...that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally. If this is true, it means that to lose track of our stories is to be profoundly impoverished not only humanly but also spiritually." (page 30)