Petals!

When I am outdoors, I like to listen to human voices.  Each voice has a unique texture and sound quality, which cannot be compared to another. [ Bonus READ: On Success , No Woman on the Moon ] I carry a notebook with me - with a navy blue cover -to write the dialogues that catch my fancy. When I first began jotting down these dialogues, I thought that this notebook will be sparsely populated. That didn't happen. The notebook is now filled to the brim.  We can learn so much from a set of dialogues - about a person's beliefs, region, education, culture, etc. Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, shares some beautiful insights about how human voices inspire her writing.  I thought I'd share it here - for you. What are the human voices, conversations or dialogues that have made a remarkable impact on you? [ DO READ:  Shobha De says "Writing is like a heartbeat to me...I live to write ! ]

If you love writing as a craft, David Morrell's book Lessons from a  Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks At His Craft  is bound to excite you! The book packs in many useful, practical writing tips.  For instance, he says, " Instead of waiting to write until you've thought through an idea, why not write as you think? The format is a conversation with yourself..." [READ: What makes your writing shine?  and Home is Where the Heart is ] I've often had this inner argument with myself while writing.  Hmmm, that's a thought, isn't it? Here is a blog post in which I wrote just like I normally speak:  How I Made My First Kerala Fish Molee. And this forms the crux of that inner argument: the time-taking birth of beautiful sentences.                                       Source:  http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/115664474886 How do yo...

The best writers get their story ideas from crazy, unexpected places. If you don't believe me, read Stephen King's book 'On Writing.' You may also want to read my previous posts on ' How to transform a blank page into a chrysalis, a work of art ' and  ' What do you want from your writing? '  So, what's still holding you back from exploring fabulous story ideas?  Maybe the thought that there's nothing left to learn in a world where everything is written about already?  This reminds me of an apt quote from Avvaiyar, " What we've learned is like a handful of earth, what we are yet to learn is like the whole world. " Profound, isn't it? If you are still on the lookout for story ideas, Barry has an answer for you and yup, it tucks in a dash of magic. Here you go: Imagine you have a magic blender. And you carry it with you all day as you go about your life. And stuff falls into it: Sounds, names, words, smells, peo...