WORDS OF WISDOM

Thanksgiving, for me, is a time of reflection.

~Trish Regan, Journalist

TRAGIC HEROES AND HEROINES

I seem drawn to authors who experienced tragic lives. When I read their works and their biographies, I ask myself, how can someone so gifted be so self destructive?

Some of them had conflicted or troubled childhoods. Others experienced much loss (Edgar Allan Poe). Still others were so conflicted about themselves (Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath). I am amazed by the amount of work they put out. 

Would these authors be as famous as they were, if they suffered no tragedy and conflict? I'll never know. Perhaps this is where their genius is expressed. Some of the best writing is produced during troubled times. 

WORDS OF WISDOM

 

ORIGINALITY

 

TEA AND A BOOK

 

WORDS OF WISDOM

In a way, writing is an incredible act of individualism, producing your language, and yet using it from the heart of a crowd as opposed to individual performance is a conflicting thing. I do stand-alone, and yet it's not about being an individual or being ambitious.

~Arundhati Roy

A COMPLEX POET

 Sylvia Plath wrote some of the most poignant poetry,

 filled with metaphors, mythology, and conflicted feelings. 

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

NORMAL- Alabama, Illinois

SANDY- Oregon, Utah

POEM

 

WORDS OF WISDOM

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

~Virginia Woolf, Author (1882-1941) 

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

HUDSON- Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina

LEICESTER- Massachusetts, Vermont

NORMAL- Alabama, Illinois

BE THANKFUL

 Be thankful for everything.

WORDS OF WISDOM

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story. 

Lynn Abbey, Author (b. 1948)

WRITE ANYWAY

 

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

 STERLING- Massachusetts, Virginia

WRITING DIFFERENT GENRES

Though famous authors are known for writing a particular genre, they have written other lesser-known works.

James Baldwin was a novelist, essayist, and playwright. How many people know that he has many collections of poetry? Sylvia Plath wrote short stories besides poetry. Though noted for prose, Herman Melville wrote poetry. Edgar Allan Poe is the inventor of detective fiction. Toni Morrison was a book editor besides being a novelist and essayist.

Writing different genres can stretch the mind and expand one's horizons. I wrote short stories, essays, and commentaries. I took to poetry a decade ago believing my story writing had grown stagnant. Since then, I have written a few plays, horror, haiku, and prose. 

Writing teaches me discipline and structure. I have written short stories since my teen years. When I tried poetry, I was locked in on my thought process. Since then I have written around three hundred poems.

CREATIVITY KNOWS NO BOUNDS

There are many talented and creative people in my neighborhood. Musicians. Actors. Writers. Poets. All ages, races, and backgrounds. Each person has their own particular style which I find fascinating. 

I'm not one to be married to a particular style. I read different styles of writing as it stretches my writing creativity in new directions. Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven, stoked my interest in writing horror stories. 

I'm sure many creative works will come out in spite of COVID19. Creativity will always abound. Perhaps, many artists' horizons were broadened. What it has done for me is to support the arts more. 

WORDS OF WISDOM

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

~William Makepeace Thackeray, Novelist (1811-1863)

SAME CITY, DIFFERENT STATE

BOLTON- Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Ohio

SYNONYMS