Writing Quote created by Paul Jenny with Flickr photo by Joseph Voves
I like to say we human beings live in story like fish live in water. Take fish out of water and they can’t live, they flop around gasping for breath wondering, “What happened?”
The same is true for us. We ask the same question, over and over again, every day of our lives.
“What happened?”
When we don’t answer that question we feel just like those poor fish.
When we experience anything, major or minor, we tell a story to relate it to those we care about (or to anyone who will listen). We want to share our experience with others and let them know, “This is how it is for me.”
I’m grateful that I get to do that every day as part of my human being-ness. I chose Mr. Pullman’s quote today because it puts the importance of story right up there with shelter, nourishment and companionship.
Please leave a comment about something that happened to you recently that made a big difference in your life. I’d love to hear about it.
Stories are the Wildest Things.
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Watch Philip Pullman doing an Open University lecture about his writing on YouTube.com
Flickr photo by Joseph Voves (CC License)
Thank you, christinavarga! I appreciate you stopping by.
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First of all, I absolutely LOVE Pullman, such a fantastic writer. I devoured his books when I was a kid!
I had an interesting birthday lunch with my mother this weekend. We were randomly talking about a family friend who was depressed and engaging in some destructive behavior and my mother randomly asked me “have you ever cut?” Completely out of the blue and I explained to her that I had never hurt myself in that way. That brief conversation put me into a writing frenzy later that night. I have built off of that conversation and wrote some poetry and a decent chunk of a chapter of the novel I’m working on because of that short, 5 minute conversation.
It fascinates me that however good, or bad, the initial conversation, observation, situation, etc. is, we can always learn from and pull from those experiences, build on and modify it, to suit our writing. This “human-ness” is what I strive to emulate in my writing.
Absolutely loving your blog! So happy I came across it and am looking forward to reading more! 🙂
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I read More Than This by Patrick Ness, and afterwards I was filled with the spookiness that comes with his intelligent writing. Then I was reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and I was just so inspired with how crafted Morrison’s writing was, and it got me out of a writing and reading slump and led me to create this newbie of a blog. Thanks for posting this, much appreciated!
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Thank you, sugarteasugar!
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Reblogged this on Kenzie Chase Wattpad Blog.
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Hi, kenziechase! Thanks for all the reblogging, I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts.
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I reconnected with an old friend, which was pretty amazing 🙂
Great post! Really makes me think about the stories and little things in life that are important.
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Thanks for sharing, Mishka!
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