25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing » http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/03/25-things-writers-should-stop-doing/

"No is the most important word a working writer can learn..."

N is for No » http://www.alisonkent.com/blog/2012/04/16/n-is-for-no/

"Many artists are born, not made. Meaning, they can't magically 'switch off' and flip burgers or become electricians any more than a horse can fly. I've known creative people who, when made to stop creating for economic reasons, were driven to the brink of total madness. I've known some who simply slipped off the brink. Even some who killed themselves to escape the horrifying responsibility of being an artist in America. I don't think this is something that can be completely comprehended by individuals who simply chose a decent and respectable way to earn a living and kept on with it because they had no strong inklings one way or another. This is something that was understood, even respected hundreds of years ago, but now is laughed at and mocked as a form of elitism or something."

No…

"Everybody thinks they can 'at least' write. I taught a screenwriting class last year (I don't know why!) and I was amazed that almost all my students thought that they had a screenplay in them. I thought about it, then assigned them an entire one-hour, 50-page screenplay by the next class (one week later). I said I would do the same. The following week when we met (only 11 of the 16 showed) and there was only one screenplay written. Mine. Not one page of any other work was available, although the excuses were endless and complex."

—James Strauss

"The simple fact is that people who achieve excellence in their fields didn’t just have a dream. They got up at 4:00 am to practice on parallel bars...or had to forgo other desirable activities and paths in order to get in six hours of violin practice a day...or stayed off several million absurd writing advice blogs with their overheated little cliques that dispense useless regurgitated maxims and empty praise and decide to actually confront their own thoughts on a page. Or, because someone of more experience and wisdom told them to do so, they read 'Beowulf' and Dante carefully and deeply when they didn’t see any point, since all they were interested in was Sylvia Plath.

"I don’t know whether we’re overly lazy, stupid, or childish these days but the idea of…

Kindred spirit » "I'm extremely sensitive and simply not wired to handle shitty people, shitty behavior, or shitty energy. Like many creatives, I wasn't born with emotional insulation and, despite being stronger and more stable than ever, sometimes my coping mechanisms are still pretty fragile. [...] I've lived in a state of despair for a long time and it's only in the last couple years that I've made my way to the light again. Not surprisingly I'm fiercely protective of my peace of mind. For me, serenity isn't something nice to have, it's a matter of life or death." —Carla Blazek

"After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago, my wife and I decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books..."

"I've yet to use a cellphone and I've never Tweeted or entered Facebook. I try not to go online till my day's writing is finished. [...] Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It's actually something deeper than mere happiness: it's joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as 'that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.'"

The Joy of Quiet » http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Contemporary Romance @ She Writes.

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides; and, when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being 'in love'—which any of us can convince ourselves we are.…

"A writer writes. If you're going to be a writer, nothing can stop you. You'll write poems, you'll write stories, you'll begin a novel about suicide or bisexuality or a suicidal bisexual that will forever languish in a shoebox beneath your bed, but you will write. You'll do it in your spare minutes, you'll snatch time before work or eschew prime-time TV after. You'll think of stories while you're walking the dog or driving to work. You'll do it because it's your passion and your calling, because doing it makes you happier than almost anything else, because, really, you don't have any choice. [...] If a writer writes poems and short stories and novels, but nobody ever reads them, is she really a writer? Nope. If you want to be a writer, you've got to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (not to mention evil reader reviews on amazon.com). You've got to put your stuff out there…