How to Write
Poetry is only secondarily about words. Primarily, it is about truth. I dealt with the Ding an Sich, the substance behind the shadow, weaving powerful concepts, similes, and connections the way an engineer would raise a skyscraper with the whiskered-alloy skeleton being constructed long before the glass and plastic and chromaluminum appears. And sl
... See moreDan Simmons • Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1)
I wish I had a secret I could let you in on, some formula my father passed on to me in a whisper just before he died, some code word that has enabled me to sit at my desk and land flights of creative inspiration like an air-traffic controller. But I don’t. All I know is that the process is pretty much the same for almost everyone I know. The good n
... See moreAnne Lamott • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Writing, too, is 90 percent listening. You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you. If you can capture that reality around you, your writing needs nothing else.
Natalie Goldberg • Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
The resonance of many profound creative pieces stems from a deep understanding of the human condition; and to get there the creative process necessitates a significant amount of trial and error.