She Writers, you inspire. Here are some of our favorite lines from your responses to this week's prompts so far:
PROMPT 1: "What inspires you to...be your authentic self?" - Lissa Rankin, author of What's Up Down There?: Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend
"I think I would feel more authentic if I was a newspaper reporter again. At least for a little while to see if it' still works for me. What I knew as a kid was that a newsroom was where I felt most like myself. I don't think newsrooms are dying, just the delivery system. Alternately I feel authentic when I can tell a good story. With a good beginning, middle and end. I think that works in any realm. I have mushy stuff to tell too. My husband makes me feel authentic because he doesn't let me get away with anything that lacks authenticity. Fortunately he's not on She Writes, or it could be a long evening." -Barbara Fischkin
"I do not have my Sister’s, Parents’, or Grandparents’ bravery of voice; mine is more subtle than theirs, except when in ink. What I do share with each of them is a healthy and hearty sense of humor about myself. My family is a freak-show, and I am every bit a part of it. While we may have missed the mark in many ways, being our authentic selves has never been a struggle, so the question of inspiration seems odd to me. Instead, I wonder how someone becomes something other than their authentic self, and why." - Lanita Andrews
"[It is] an incredible privilege to be able to be one's authentic self at work. Feminism is in my blood and I can't imagine having to stifle that for 8 hours a day. It's why I hesitate when people say "don't you want to move up?" Well, maybe, but not if it means having to check my feminism at the door." -Brenda Bethman
PROMPT 2: What inspires you to...keep writing when writing gets tough?" -Deborah Siegel, author of Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild
"When I’m struggling, I go back to basics. I write “Dick and Jane sentences,” ie: “See Dick Run. Run, Dick, Run!” If I can’t tell a story creatively, I tell it un-creatively: “The family’s house burned down. The girl stood outside in her nightgown and cried.” If I write this way for a while, soon the logjam breaks and the words flow again. Later, I go back and rewrite the beginning: “The girl stood outside in her nightgown, staring at the place where she used to sleep. She cried, no longer having a room where she could wake up from a nightmare and feel safe.” -Cara Lopez Lee
"When the writing gets tough,when my imagination takes a hike and my process goes into a coma, when I can't bear to stare at that damned half-filled screen anymore -- that's the time I think about other people sitting in their cubicles. The men in suits of shiny, non-creaseable fabrics that don't breath. The women imprisoned in ruffles and pantyhose. Surrounded by walls of gray, a withering plant and a cheaply framed picture of family as the one allowable personal statement. They are the clockwatchers. In at nine and out by five." -Marcy Gray Rubin
"Writing is often like stumbling through a dark room. We feel along, we fumble, sometimes we stumble, and then click--we find the light switch. The promise of those light switches are what push me through my darkest writing moments (and days, and weeks...). I constantly remind myself that the only way to get that dazzling brightness, the joy and surprise of clarity, is to flail around in the dark. And so it is those potential chandeliers, bare bulbs, ceiling fans, or modern swedish orbs that keep me searching." - Kelley Clink
PROMPT 3: Who inspired (and inspires) you to...write?" -Kamy Wicoff, author of I Do But I Don't: Why the Way We Marry Matters
"It's hard to explain what it means to me as a writer, a woman writer, an American writer, a Black American writer-- to have my book read by a reader, a woman reader, an American reader, A Black American woman reader passing the time on her job with a book….Vanessa, I'm getting off track here, but the point is that your opinion means everything to me. I'm going to work today and since you asked, I am bringing you the manuscript pages of my new book, SILVER SPARROW. I really really hope you like it." - Tayari Jones
"My late mother inspires me to write. When I was a little girl, I spent at least one day a week at the public library hanging out with my mother who was a voracious reader. It wasn't until I published my first book five years ago that I realized she was also a frustrated writer. She was a child psychologist and wanted to write a book about how every child is special. When she died I found her notes and an outline, but no book. Now the world will never have her unique wisdom. I wonder how many children and families might have been helped. I write because my mother couldn't and should have." - Cali Yost
Keep 'em coming...we'll post more responses next week.
Top photo: Neal Fowler/flickr