Tag: Life

Flights of Fancy

Nothing is more fatal to good writing than the temptation to let others tell you what or how to write, against your own best instincts. Writers are only human, and we can all only do our honest best — and we write best when we are most freely ourselves.

An idea that evolves on the page and takes on a life of its own, is more powerful because it comes from within us, and expresses something fundamental about being human.

That’s not to say our every utterance should be inscribed in letters of gold on blocks of polished marble for the benefit of future generations — merely that we write best when we write from the heart.

We may, sometimes, get a little bit carried away (with ourselves, or otherwise), and have to edit out a lot of surplus material. But if we didn’t write it in the first place without trying to second-guess our every thought, we’d never write anything.

And sometimes we just have to take the rough with the smooth – because, sometimes, we have to go through the rough to get to the smooth. Or else the “rough” has a character that’s all its own.

The whole business of writing, as with life itself sometimes, is often about doing our honest best at the time we do it.

It’s about having the confidence to be ourselves. You don’t look to others first for their approval, or for fear of what they might say. Life is too short –so you might as well be yourself.

It is in our flights of fancy, when we let our imaginations flow, our fingertips dancing across the keys, that we as writers are often at our most truly human.

It is when we choose to be ourselves, in everything we do, that we develop who we are: as writers and as people. That’s when we are at our most fully alive, and when we can truly call ourselves human beings.

Let the flights of fancy, flow: and whither they goest, we too shall go …

Dances with Destiny

A little kindness goes a long way. All the way to the heart, sometimes. And, as so often, it’s the little things that make a big difference in our lives.

It may be the little things that build up incrementally, or that happen on a regular basis — a text, a hug, a kind word. Or it may be the isolated little incidents and events, too small to notice at the time, and maybe even afterwards, that change the direction we go in at a crucial time in our lives.

So, little things can make a big difference. Not just when they happen to us, but in how the way we act affects the lives of the people around us. A small kindness at the right moment can change the course of our entire lives, and be the turning point in our existence.

Life is full of such turning points, little crossroads that, cumulatively, amount to a whole heap of difference. They may not mean much in themselves, but in their effect, they live on long afterwards.

That’s why you never give up, no matter how hard or hopeless things can seem at times. Because the future is not written in the stars, or in stone for that matter. It is within ourselves — we get to choose the directions and journeys that we go in and on.

We may not have a very good idea of where we’re going at the time, but we know it’ll be worth it when we get there.

Life, in short, is full of surprises, and nobody ever lost money by refusing to second-guess them.

Similarly, in writing: we may not know how it’ll turn out at the time, but we sit down and write, and suspend our disbelief for a while, and, lo and behold, we surprise our readers (and our doubters) — as well as ourselves.

Our lives, like all the best stories at the time they were written, are yet to be written. We can go dancing with destiny any time we choose. We just have to learn the steps, move in time with the waltz, and never fore-limit our own future: because we’re the ones who are writing it — one step at a time, one dance at a time, one day at a time.

You can dance, or not – it’s entirely up to you. But if you don’t dance, how will you ever know what you’re missing?

Destiny’s smiling at you – you wouldn’t want to disappoint her, now …