Magic is all in your head, all about two things, imagination and will. You have to focus on your desired outcome and you have to have the will to make it happen.
~Jim Butcher in Dresden Files, Welcome to the Jungle
Sounds like hard work and passion is magic, doesn’t it? Hmm. He might be onto something here.
We all have magic, it’s all around us as well. We just don’t pay attention to it. Every time we make something out of nothing, that’s an act of magic. It doesn’t matter if it’s a painting or a garden, or an abuelo telling his grandchildren a tall tale. Every time we fix something that’s broken, whether it’s a car engine or a broken heart, that’s an act of magic.
And what makes it magic is that we choose to create or help, just as we can choose to harm. But it’s so easy to destroy and so much harder to make things better. That’s why doing the right thing makes you stronger.
If we can only remember what we are and what we can do, nobody can bind us or control us.
Charles de Lint The Mystery of Grace p. 235
I was reading this book tonight and was struck by this passage. I will share it with my Creative Writing class tomorrow. This is what it’s all about. The magic of creating something from nothing. It’s about crafting worlds from electrical charges firing in the brain, such sparks are magic in its purest form: undeniable..
“The odd sense of calm with which he’d waked was still with him. Something had changed in the night. Maybe it was sleeping…among the ghosts of his own future.”
Diana Gabaldon
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.
These lines resonated with me. While the character in this scene is being literal, I think we sleep among the ghosts of our own futures on a frequent basis. For example, you know how they say men carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. The ‘hamartia’ or fatal flaw of literary characters occur within our real lives, and who we will be is created by the decisions that we make.
Destinations require both journeys and beginnings. We go to bed with a decision, and we rise with a spectre of our future self as a result.
I suppose this also works in reverse. If we have a ‘someone’ we want to be, we can only get there by the conscious and sub-conscious decisions we make toward that image of ourselves. Just like if you want to be a teacher, you volunteer with kids, graduate from high school, study at university, so there are steps to every image.
If you want to write a book some day, sit today and pound out two hundred words. Tomorrow pound out five hundred. Get your rhythm, Keep writing. Eventually you will have a book, and eventually, you will have readers.
In chapter 15 of Diana Gabaldon’s Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, Jenny says of Jamie,
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This line made me chuckle. My husband is just like this, though he also very frequently explains himself. 😉 Kind of scary how observant he is.
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Sometimes you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are the books…which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.
(John Green, The Fault In Our Stars p. 33)
Obviously for me Outlander is the book series that fills me with evangelical zeal. I’ve been trying to think what the special and rare book is for me, that I’d not want to share with anyone. I can’t think of one. Then again, I’m not a very private person, and as a librarian, I’m kind of into the whole sharing books, though I try to match the book to the right person, of course. How about you? Do you have a rare and special book that you hold close to your heart?
PS. If you haven’t read the amazing book I’m quoting from above, you really should check it out. I think it was one of the best books I’ve read in the last year (and I read over a hundred books in the last year).
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On Twitter yesterday, a young fan asked Diana if she had any advice for aspiring writers who felt completely inadequate. This was Diana’s response. I plan to frame it and post it all over my class room. You don’t get better at ANYTHING unless you practise. Dedication will pay off in the long run, as long as you work at it, and endeavour to keep improving. Diana was brilliantly concise. (Being a ballerina drop out, I can vouch for the accuracy, too! I never got on my toes.) 😉
Quotes from Stephen King 11-22-63
The scholars’ greatest weakness: calling hesitation research ( 282)
This is true for writers, too. I have notes from a workshop by C. C. Humphreys about this. The first book, you want to get everything researched, and you read and read, study and copy notes. He says, quit researching, and get writing. Get the first draft, then go back and focus your research to fix and fill. If you don’t have a purpose to you research, it can go on forever. If you are researching for something specific, you find and move on.
Most things are not…simple and pure, with so much focus given to each syllable of life as life sings itself. But that kind of attention is the prize. To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass–seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that is presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one.
~ Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird. p. 102
It is a wonderful goal to see the good in things, to relish moments, to celebrate the daily joys, to dwell on the positive. It’s not always easy. Looking closely can also mean seeing more clearly, taking off our rose coloured spectacles and really looking at a situation, searching for a solution or an understanding. Is micro or macro view the more rational one? Does it depend on what you’re looking at?
Today (August 13, 2013) on Diana Gabaldon’s Facebook page, someone asked Diana whether she finds writing easy or difficult. She replied,
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If you’re a writer, on your project today, do you feel like you’re shoveling rocks uphill with your nose, or does it flow? Tell us what you’re working on!
Shawn L. Bird 
quote- the mind December 26, 2013
Tags: attitude, clinical depression, depression, John Milton, mental health, mind, Paradise Lost, quote
Milton said that in Paradise Lost in 1667. That’s 344 years ago, and as fine a statement on mental health as ever I’ve heard.
If you’re not clinically depressed, it expresses the simple concept that your attitude to the situation is what’s important, not the situation itself.
I’ve known a lot of people over the years who are constantly saying negative things about their hard-working, diligent spouses. For whatever reasons, they feel that bashing their spouse is acceptable sport. Inevitably, their relationships crumble, and they blame the spouse for the divorce when in fact, their own attitude is what doomed the relationship.
Speak what you want to be true, and you will make it so. Articulate thankfulness, appreciation, and passion and you will create those things.
It may only be in your mind, but your mind controls the body.
If you are clinically depressed, this quote expressed the simple concept that your perception of the situation transforms it. Other people may see simple delights, while you see complicated anguish. Your perception is valid, but don’t let it ruin you. See your doctor. You’d be willing to medicate for a heart condition, your brain deserves just as much respect.
Your mind controls the body. Make sure it’s healthy.
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