Do you clip passages and link them to your dreams?
- Thread starter KTC
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YOung at Heart - a movie with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. He's leaving town, sitting at a piano in an empty bar and she walks in, they chat for a bit. He's trying to tell her that he has to leave because he loves her and it's breaking his heart that he can't have her. He's heartbroken and it's killing him to see her. He says.
"Then you come in here looking like a convention of angels. Why does the sunlight have to hit you just right?"
And he's so heartbroken, it was pure gold.
Why does the sunlight have to hit you just right... *sigh*
I wanted better dialogue for my characters after that.
And one of the best passages in A Moveable Feast:
"I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for, and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil."
It made me want to be a better writer.
"Then you come in here looking like a convention of angels. Why does the sunlight have to hit you just right?"
And he's so heartbroken, it was pure gold.
Why does the sunlight have to hit you just right... *sigh*
I wanted better dialogue for my characters after that.
And one of the best passages in A Moveable Feast:
"I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for, and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil."
It made me want to be a better writer.
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I'm puzzled by the reference to "dreams" in the title of this thread. :?
Anyway...I don't do this, but I think the main reason is I have OCD and am already a hoarder, thus, to clip passages from others' works and try to keep track of them would hinder me rather than help me. Knowing me I'd turn it into more of an obsessive ritual than a source of inspiration. Plus, while I might find quotes in others' writing inspiring or good, they don't ever seem to have a direct bearing on the things that I MYSELF am writing. I. e., out of the context of the original work, they're meaningless. They're good in THAT person's story but they don't have any relation to mine. And I certainly can't copy someone else's style or try to modify and incorporate their really good passages into my work. It would lose that which made it special if I did that.
Other people's work might inspire me but not in a way that keeping track of certain quotes will help me write better in any way. Maybe it's just me though. :/
Once in a great while however there's a quote that might apply to the writing process in general. The Jung quote in my signature is the only one I can think of at the moment. When I can't seem to interest anyone in my writing, even after all the hard work I put into it, it gets really difficult and I wonder why I keep at it; that quote is something I'd really like to take to heart.
Anyway...I don't do this, but I think the main reason is I have OCD and am already a hoarder, thus, to clip passages from others' works and try to keep track of them would hinder me rather than help me. Knowing me I'd turn it into more of an obsessive ritual than a source of inspiration. Plus, while I might find quotes in others' writing inspiring or good, they don't ever seem to have a direct bearing on the things that I MYSELF am writing. I. e., out of the context of the original work, they're meaningless. They're good in THAT person's story but they don't have any relation to mine. And I certainly can't copy someone else's style or try to modify and incorporate their really good passages into my work. It would lose that which made it special if I did that.
Other people's work might inspire me but not in a way that keeping track of certain quotes will help me write better in any way. Maybe it's just me though. :/
Once in a great while however there's a quote that might apply to the writing process in general. The Jung quote in my signature is the only one I can think of at the moment. When I can't seem to interest anyone in my writing, even after all the hard work I put into it, it gets really difficult and I wonder why I keep at it; that quote is something I'd really like to take to heart.
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