The Call of a Writer

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” - Orson Scott Card

Walking On The Beach by Vera Kratochvil

Discovery is something that I look forward to every day. My mind dreams constantly of finding something new. A possibility, a hope, a unique object, a memory, a future... I grasp at the thrill of discovery, sending life through my veins. With the possibility of a story, I feel happy. The amazing thing about discovering a story, is that it can come in many different ways. One that comes to me, whispered by the wind, or thrust upon me unexpectedly. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes not.

    A story can be lived, written, sung, told, felt, dreamt or yearned for. That is what is so amazing about discovering them. Like Orson Scott Card said, we walk past stories everyday. The person sitting next to us, they have a story. The penny we find on the sidewalk, it has a story. The small flower sitting in a spot of dirt, it has a story. We just don’t know it. But that is the art of a writer. We find stories, dig them up from the dirt if we must, catch them from the sky as they whisk by like a shooting star, or just spend a moment listening to a tree, silently waiting. People walk past us, we find a story. The sun warms our back, we find a story. That is the call of a writer, discovering stories.

Born that way

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” - Ernest Hemingway

Violin by Vera Kratochvil

A writer comes in many different ways. Some claim that their destiny was fixed in them from the time they took their first breath or held a pencil in their hand. Others spend hours pouring over books, taking classes, practicing, to barely feel comfortable with the feel of writing. What some of us “born” writers neglect, is that even we make mistakes. Just because something runs in our heart, stronger than blood pumping to keep us alive, doesn’t mean that we are magically perfect.

This year I had a chance to do my very first violin solo for judges. I hacked away at that song for hours until is sounded decent, then I added some polishing touches. Wishing only to make it through alive. When I received the judges’ comments a week later, I found an unexpected compliment. It said: “You are a natural at the violin.” Upon showing it to my Mom, I said to her perplexed, “It takes me forever to learn a song. And I am so much slower learning the techniques. How could I be a natural.” She simply said: “Just because you are a natural, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to work hard.” I still didn’t believe it for a bit, but the concept cleared over time. Just because someone is born with a talent, doesn’t mean we don’t have to practice and learn that talent. But, like Ernest Hemingway said, “Let them think you were born that way.” And as long as the judge thinks I’m a natural, I won’t have to tell her how awful it sounded at first.

Guest Author: Difficulties

Short Bio: 

My name is Alyssa I am 18. I was born in the USA and I am a German American. Most of my mother’s side still lives in Germany and I’ve been out to visit them only a few times. I love being in Europe, specifically England, it’s my home away from home. My mom likes to joke that I was British in another life.

As such I enjoy tea far too much for my own good. Some of my other interests include writing and art, as well as a plethora of other things that you’ll just have to riddle out for yourself.

“Lines are very difficult to learn.”

Reading Easel by Anna Langova

                                ~Benedict Cumberbatch

Granted this quote is technically applied to actually lines from a T.V.  Show, play, or movie, but we’ve all had those times when we’ve had trouble with lines, or rather, learning how to interact with our world. Nobody ends up going through life with a perfect understanding of what’s going on, and knowing that is the key to success. I am always able to perform my best in awkward situations when I remember that everyone is just as nervous as I am. They just may be better at hiding it.

And for the record I’ve never actually had much trouble memorizing actual lines. It’s a talent.

Tiring Reality, Simply Dreams

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”

― L.M. Montgomery

Reading An Old Book by Talia Felix

Tire of reality. I suppose it's too early in the school year to officially be tired of it, since I started last Wednesday... But golly can I tell you it has felt like a month! My brain seems to be in a continuous state of brain fog. As summer habits die hard, which, unfortunately for myself, involved staying up waaay too late. Luckily I've trimmed off an hour or two. But I sure am glad for my dreams, though I have less time to sit mindlessly and picture them. Right now they are also considerably less elaborate; read a book for hours on end again, sleep in decently after staying up late, perhaps going somewhere just for fun... and on and on. My other dreams are still there, and I feel them skipping around inside me, hoping they get to live soon. Someday...

School or Education?

"I've never let my school interfere with my education." 
-- Mark Twain
 

Time To Study by Peter Griffin

This week I started school again... (I would cheer but I feel that would be misleading.) As it is, I'm also going to Education Week. My schedule looks something like this: Wake up 6-7am. Get ready. (Pack lunch and dinner.) Get to school before 8:45am. Classes. My Mom picks me up a few minutes after school around 3:30pm. She drives my sister and I straight to BYU campus. Classes. Get picked up around 9:30pm. Drive home. Do a few random things to prepare for tomorrow. Sleep... until the alarm interrupts it, + 5-10 minutes. Yes, I'm going to school. Still, I go to education week. Crazy? Maybe. But Mark Twain sure got it right to some extent, and this counts.

Excuses, Excuses

“The most profitless thing to manufacture is excuses.”

-- B. C. Forbes

This is a particular favorite of ours. One we often site to each other when one of us (sheepish grin) is showing a certain skill for creating a long list of excuses. So you see, though I agree with this quote, I do not exactly live by it. (As I am quite good at manufacturing excuses and am quite loathe to part with that skill.) However, it really is a profitless art. Many times I have talked myself out of an experience which would have been a great one filled with learning and much benefit. And, being a great procrastinator, I often exercise excuses much more than I ought to. However, as time goes on, and I realize the petty profit (if any) of my practice, I have come to a more determined attitude to complete things and carry on with a positive attitude in life. Put on my smile, take hold of my courage, and step forward into the rest of my unknown life. -- Kenzie 

Steps - Black And White by George Hodan

Repentance

"If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less in which to repent."

-- Mason

I don't know how to add on to that. The statement is simple and to the point. I've heard stories of people who deliberately wait all their life just to get baptized and enter Heaven clean. But as I think more and more about it, not only does it not make sense to wait that long, but why should we spend all of our lives waiting to feel cleansed, only to feel that way for a moment before death? I'm so glad that I don't have to keep adding days to my burden of mistakes, thankfully, I accept Mason's statement, and gratefully put it in action.