On Moving Forward

I was innocently eating lunch with RadioMan. Sandwiches and chit-chat about bebe, talking about our busy weeks. You know, the stuff married people talk about on a non-date date. When I look at the wall and hanging up over our table is a quote from Nora Roberts.

Y'all know I have the love for Nora. I think I have even more for her now because the quote is...well, so simple, it's kind of stunning. "...if you don't step forward you're always in the same place."

I recently submitted a project I've been uber-excited about for the past couple of months. I also just turned in one book and had a 3-book deal picked up by one of my publishers...it's going to be a busy upcoming year! But as I was eating lunch and talking with RadioMan about my plans for the week, the sign was a reminder that I needed to start something new. Get out of my comfort zone a little bit. The project I just wrapped? Out of my comfort zone. And incredibly freeing along the way. The project I have in mind next? Outside my comfort zone just a little bit more...and I hope the next project and the one after that and the one after that are out of my comfort zone, too. Because that is moving forward, and that is living.

As I was making the graphic above (because I didn't have my phone to actually snap a pic of the quote-poster-thingy), I thought about a few other favorite quotes...and I think I'll share them with you guys, too.

"If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them -- you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea." -- Mark Twain

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God. - Sidney Sheldon

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying. - Anton Chekhov

I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly. - Edgar Rice Burroughs

People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it. - Harlan Ellison

Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. - Barbara Kingsolver

I love all these quotes for different reasons, but besides the Nora, I think Barbara's is the most true: we all have a story to tell. An experience to relate...and when it takes us out of the comfort zone, that is when we know it's good.

Do you have a favorite inspirational/writing quote?