Solitude

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

* * *

“I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.”

(Audrey Hepburn: Many-Sided Charmer, LIFE Magazine, December 7, 1953)
― Audrey Hepburn

It’s been a very busy month and even though we’ve already had the residency for this semester, packet work doesn’t officially begin for another week, so here’re a couple quotes to tide you over until I get back to work and start posting regularly again.

J

 

New Beginnings

“All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.”

—Erica Jong

* * *

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

—Stephen King

Because I haven’t posted a quote in a while, here are two.  These are in honor of starting the new semester and really starting my thesis.

J

The Residency

There is something beautiful and incredible and magical about throwing a bunch of writers, from all walks of life, together for a full week of writing insanity. There is really nothing like residency week at Goddard. I got home late last night and I’m missing it already.

We have work to do, meeting with our advisors and planning the semester, creating study plans, writing annotations or whatever else our advisors assign. We attend workshops on anything from critical writing to describing the senses to improving characters. We attend and participate in readings—I didn’t attend very many, but the ones I did, were great. We share meals and we play.

Now we will spend the rest of our semester working on our own, as writers tend to do, but that bond we create at residency sticks with us. We can still turn to each other to celebrate and commiserate and bounce ideas around. We talk about our work and we talk about our lives and all the crazy changes we’re going through.

Now that I’m home again, I miss Goddard and all my friends there, especially the Fireballs, but I love them all still and with the boost I get from residency, I’m ready for this rollercoaster semester and ready to write my book.

J

On the last day of residency, I took a break to just sit and read with some of my fellow Goddardites. The campus is so astoundingly beautiful in summer.