Source of Inspiration: Dani Shapiro
This is what my copy of Still Writing by Dani Shapiro looks like after one night of binge reading.
Green and yellow sticky-notes sticking out like blades of grass sprouting and rays of sunshine beaming from between the pages.
Nothing is more soothing to the aspiring author’s soul than a good creativity comfort book like this one.
I will keep it on my bookshelf or stack it on the nightstand next to Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, The Right to Write by Julia Cameron, On Writing by Stephen King, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and A Year of Writing Dangerously by Barbara Abercrombie.
One of the ideas from Still Writing that I hope stays in my brain has to do with discipline.
Many times during the years when I’ve been writing and attempting to publish my first book, The Possibility Book, I have wondered whether I have the discipline to pull it off.
So it was a relief to read Dani’s words saying that she likes to think about a working routine as rhythm instead of discipline.
I love this. Doesn’t rhythm sound so much more desirable than discipline?
Discipline conjures drill sergeants, jumping jacks and hum-drum boring repetition. Rhythm brings to mind music and dancing and the pulsing of the jellyfish at the aquarium and heartbeats and breath during meditation.
If you’re like me, maybe we can’t or don’t want to be disciplined, but we can and do want to have rhythm. At least sometimes, anyway. Maybe often and long enough to finish writing and sharing our stories.
I have gratitude in my heart for my friend who gave me Still Writing (thank you Ellen) and now perhaps I’m giving you the idea to get the book too. If you do, I hope you find plenty of paragraphs that resonate with you and reasons to use sticky notes.
