If You Want To Write
Brenda Ueland

Summary

Great read on why everyone should be writing. Self-doubt and other people's judgement often stop us from writing but Brenda argues everyone should write no matter what. Personally can vouch for how great writing can be, even if you never share your work with anyone.

Rating: 4/5

Notes

‘He who knows not his own genius has none’ - William Blake

Be bold, be free, be truthful

Everybody is talented and original and has something important to say

Everybody is original if he speaks from his true self, not the self he thinks he should be

Work with all your intelligence and love

Art is a creative impulse

Writing is an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had

If nothing is ever published and you never make a cent, it will be good that you have worked

Inspiration comes very slowly and quietly

The imagination needs noodling - long, inefficient, happy idling and puttering

The true self, imagination, conscience: it is what is always searching in us and trying to free what we really think from what we think we ought to think

Think and let it out. Act. Always.

People are afraid to be with their own thoughts because at first they are bound to be depressing but that is the beginning and it is where your imagination is leading you

Keep writing new things because you’ll learn so much about yourself and your work by not organizing and perfecting each piece

It is when you are really living in the present that you are living spiritually with imagination

If your scared to write, think about writing the worst story possible because it will never turn out bad

To have things interesting and alive, it must be personal, it must come from I; what I know and feel

If you write something and everyone says it’s bad but if you believe it and it’s true to you, then stand by it

In writing, one must be bold, free and truthful

Singular and particular detail is the foundation of the sublime - Blake

Become microscopically truthful, talk about the details

Improvement makes straight roads but crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius - William Blake

You must write freely and recklessly make new mistakes - in writing or in life- and do not worry but pass on and write more

You can write as badly as you want to but you must write freely and feel when you write

There is nothing in the world that should not be expressed in such a way that an affectionate seven year old boy can see and understand it

When a sentence comes from your true self, it infects; its alive. But when the sentence is not felt from the writer, it’s dead and has no infection

Whatever you write will reveal your personality and whatever you are will show through in your writing

Do not try and think of better words when refining a story but think of the people better

Never, never lie to yourself

Don’t be afraid of writing bad stories because write 3 more and then go back to the first one to see how you improved

Write as often as you can, free, quick and insolent as if you vomited words on paper

Writing is talking, thinking on paper. The more impulsive and immediate, the better

Do not worry about the whole article. Write what is next, the idea that comes in the moment

Try writing utterly unplanned stories and see what comes out

It helps often to have an imaginary listener when you are writing, telling a story

Don’t plan too much, write what comes to you now and it will flow

Enthusiastic adaptation is the first principle of knowledge and it’s last - Blake

Try to discover your true, honest, untheoretical self

When discouraged, just write whatever and work at it

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