Learn how to listen to the story that wants to be told....

If you're stuck in your writing process, most often it's because you have an agenda for you story instead of learning how to listen to the story that wants to be told. 

"Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: 

must I write? 

Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must", then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.   

Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.  Write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty.  Describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. 

If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world's sound - wouldn't you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? 

Turn your attention to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. 

And if out of, this turning within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. 

A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it...go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to, the question of whether you must create."
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- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

If you're stuck in your writing process, most often it's because you have an agenda for your story instead of learning how to LISTEN to the STORY that WANTS to be TOLD. ⁣ ⁣ "Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? ⁣ ⁣ Dig into yourself for a deep answer....& if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must", then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. ⁣ ⁣ Then come close to Nature... try to say what you see & feel & love & lose. Write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind & your belief in some kind of beauty. Describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity...use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. ⁣ ⁣ If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world's sound - wouldn't you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? ⁣ ⁣

A post shared by April Yvette Thompson (@aprilyvettethompson) on Aug 17, 2018 at 8:36pm PDT