On a whim last week and in search of a quote, I opened up my copy of Dinty W. Moore’s The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life. I wasn’t working on anything writing related, not really; I was typing up the biweekly newsletter for my day job, which is all university-this and accessibility-that. But something about the title of the book pulled at me.
All over campus, and across the state, things are in a bit of an upheaval. To say the least. I went in search of sage advice for the week, something that might distract us all from the heat of the moment. In truth, I was in search of my own relief.
I didn’t find a quote for the newsletter (it’s hard to mix work and writing sometimes). But I found several passages that shifted my line of vision just enough, reminders about perspective and focus.
From page 23:
[A]n awareness of all things–not just lush farmland in the early summer, but crowded city streets, jarring suburban shopping centers, even those most unpleasant places, like airports–will open us up as writers, and help us to see the story or poem or play or monologue or memoir in everyone and everything.
To see the story in everything. I love that.
And then this from page 19:
Every writer does well to step away from the desk at regular intervals, to confront life where it is most tangible, most urgent: not on the page, but out in the world.
But even in these cases, it is only what you see, what you hear, what strikes you as important and significant, that you can write about.
Tell the story that only you can tell.
Why I didn’t just google “quote of the day” right off the bat is a mystery. The audience for Moore’s book is primarily writers. I knew that. But, in the end it was clear: the pages are full of what’s good, what’s important. They touch on pursuing what we can control versus letting go of what we can’t.
Have you read Dinty Moore’s book? Have you stepped away from your desk today?
Great advice! I haven’t read this one; sounds like a keeper.