Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Let’s kick things off with an Author Tweets of the Week regular, @Novelicious.

This is a great Ray Bradbury quote. At first it comes across as either (a) daunting or (b) meaningless. Daunting because writing everyday of your life seems, well we already said it, daunting. Meaningless because at cursory glance it feels like a fluff quote—write and then hope you’re lucky!

But when you dig into it, it’s neither of those things.

One thing with which I find most writers struggle, including myself, is trying to write that perfect book that will show you belong as an author. We often times endeavor to create the perfect work on the page. It’s a fruitless struggle, though. There is no such thing as a perfect work. I find I often times have to remind myself that I just need to write, early and often. The more I write, the better I’ll get at being a writer, then more fulfilled I’ll be in my writing.

It’s a simple equation. Now if I can just focus for one damn minu… ohhh a bird!

 

I enjoyed this quote from Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s beautiful and poignant. But I also enjoyed the tweet from @1022Tiger. I found it to be vulnerable and open.

I’m not sure entirely why either. It’s not like she was pouring her heart out about something private or personal, but she was being very open about her love of language. I love when people are excited about things in life. (It’s for this reason I hate the stereotypical hipster personality—they’re passionate about nothing except in their passion to be indifferent.) Even more than my love of people’s excitement, however, is my love of when people share that excitement.

Thank you @1022Tiger for sharing a piece of your excitement!

 

 

I tweeted a snippet of this story last night in response to this tweet, but it’s hard to do so in 140 characters. Here’s the longer version.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love. I heard an interview with her years ago. When asked about the fears and doubts that she had with her writing, Gilbert said (and I paraphrase) that she finally had an epiphany that her “writing muse” was telling her that this isn’t her story. If she doesn’t tell it, she bemoaned, then the muse would move on to someone else who will. Ms. Gilbert discussed how freeing this was for her. She was no longer declaring to the reader: “Listen to me. I have something to say.” Instead, she was writing through her muse, her inspiration. It was almost as if she had no other choice but to write. This opened her up to write every day without fear of the result.

This interview was powerful for me in my writing journey. It freed me to realize that my writing is an effort to participate in the human experience with other writers and readers. Nothing more than that. I’m not trying to change the world or shout that what I’m saying is important. I’m just writing what my muse is telling me to write.

 

With that, allow me a moment of shameless promotion.

Boom! That is a wonderfully kind message for an author to receive. If you’re reading this and you haven’t read Pieces Like Pottery, well what are you waiting for?!?! How many people have to tell you to read it before you actually decide to pick it up?!

 

Ok, ok, I’m done. Now for promotion of two other authors.

I enjoyed both of the articles referenced in these next two tweets by @assaphmehr and @jeanknightpace. I recommend checking them out.

 

 

 

 

 

I see this next quote a lot on twitter. It always invokes beautiful imagery for me.

 

 

Let’s call back Assaph Mehr and look at a FB post of his. This made me laugh.

 

 

 

Love this next one.

 

Love that. Absolutely love it. If you don’t follow, tweet me.

 

 

All right, enough fun and games. Back to work, friends! Let’s let @FarahGhuznavi get us focused.

https://twitter.com/FarahGhuznavi/status/859138063913463809

 

Write with vigor and passion, friends. Write early and often. Write well.

Happy writing! Have a good weekend.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

 

 

Find more writing and publishing tips at Nothing Any Good.