Yes, it's hard

A while back I wrote about how writing is like Michelangelo creating David from a block of marble. The act of creation in turning a hulk of rock into a glorious sculpture. I was reminded of this... when one... [someone] mentioned that writing a first draft is actually creating the marble itself, creating something out of nothing first. Then the subsequent rewrites and edits turn it from a block of stone into a beautiful sculpture.

Once you've quarried the marble, carve. And carve and carve. And carve. That's where the real fun begins.

More from this great post on How It Feels to Finish the First Draft of Your Novel.

If you don't, who will?

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. Anne Lamott

This and other bon mots from her Twitter: @ANNLAMOTT

Naked is sexy

True freedom is liberating somebody else by telling your story, and even though it exposes you, it will set somebody else free. Oprah Winfrey

Dare to be uncomfortable

To the degree we're not living our dreams, our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves. Peter McWilliams

To the misunderstood geniuses

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive.

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes

Perseverance, my fellow geniuses, can often mean having to stand against being understood by friends, lovers, etc, as a stubborn eccentric. To find power in truth, personal truth, is the essence of the good life. And, if truth destroys something––as has been said––then it may truly be something that needs to be destroyed. What can be more noble than destroying fraud with truth? That is capital T truth.

"According to legend, Honore de Balzac drank 50 cups of coffee a day to fuel his writing."

He also died of a heart attack at 51. 

(It was probably worth it, though.)

The headline quote was found here.

If she's Reading Great Gatsby or 50 Shades of Gray, your chances of getting laid are better

According to this helpful little article on Jezebel, women's likelihood of hooking up whilst traveling can be easily assessed by checking out the book in their lap. (Women do most of their reading while traveling, apparently.) The information was culled from a survey. How scientific or reliable the survey was is uncertain. According to its research, women who read "blockbusters" are your most likely candidates, i.e. a lady of... regressive, heteronormative proclivities, to paraphrase.  

Also, lumping women who read Gatsby with those reading 50 Shades seems rather unscientific. On the other hand, maybe they're both game just stylistically different. E.g., think of the possibilities of the woman reading Twilight (or better yet, the last one in the series whatever it's called––I could've googled it but, really, who cares?).

I'd avoid the Twilight reader.