Jo Malby (semi hiatus)

7 Reasons You Should Meditate if You Write or Make Art inspireportal.com/ways-meditatio… Feat. @losapala @OrnaRoss #meditation #authors #MondayBlogs

“In the hands of a strong storyteller they will be recognisable… Readers feel an echo of having lived the same moment, stood at the same crossroads or felt the same thing as the character. Recognition is powerful—hooking readers and keeping them engaged.” buff.ly/XcbHChp

The birds fell quiet first. Then the world went quiet, and the birds began a softer song towards dawn. ~ Lisa Alletson // #Photography by Claudía Lungauer, claudialungauer.com #vss365 #tanka #micropoetry

“Like most aspects of the #creative life, this is a practice, not a goal… It does get easier, but only if you practice… Remind yourself, over and over, that it doesn’t matter if you’re “doing it wrong.” […] what you naturally have to offer is enough.” buff.ly/oyDqECg

“I am alive, I live, I breathe, I put my hand out, unfolded, into the sunlight.” ~ #MargaretAtwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

all day in flint clouds light was explaining itself in terms of water peat-gold at the edge of dawn brimming bone-blue pools at dusk ~ Catherine Baker // #Photography by Mark Littlejohn, @mark_lj / marklittlejohnphotography.com #tanka #vss365

“He was supposed to be a walk-on character—enter a scene, deliver a message and leave. But he stuck around, brought secrets with him and developed his own emotional arc. After I’d completed that initial novelette, he continued to prod!” buff.ly/Rtj02S5 #writingtips

“Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them... The important thing is not to censor them. What they are talking about may not seem to have anything to do with what you as a writer are #writing about but it does.” ~ August Wilson

summer night— in the nascent darkness, your voice turns into moonlight ~ Ellie Krupich, @EllenKrupich // #Photography by David Smith, @photosbydavid1 / photosbydavid.org #vss365 #haiku

“Start at the beginning, or the middle, or wherever. Write a fragment, or an incomplete scene. Don’t keep track of your word count… Just start #writing and see what happens… You don’t need to know everything [or] know how it ends.” buff.ly/3OETHhO #writingtips

“What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question… The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” ~ Virginia Woolf

unrequited love somewhere a river changes its course ~ Meraki, @Meraki_k // #Photography: ‘Golden Sunset’ by Jaroslav Zakravsky #haiku #vss365

“What makes choice such a powerful #narrative moment are the stakes… There’s no option to ‘do nothing’ because the failure to act also has a consequence… Some of the most interesting moments in #literature are centered around this kind of plight.” buff.ly/VEEQ5c1

“Summer is in full swing. The days are hot but the nights are cool. The mockingbirds sing off and on all night long and the honeysuckle and magnolia are in bloom… The clang and clamor of New York drops away like a last year’s dream.” ~ Zora Neale Hurston

night sky settles softly on the grass fireflies ~ Elisa Bobbiesi, @wildolivewrites // #Photography: ‘Green Light Forest’ by Shirley Wung #vssnature #3lines #haiku

“I see many people with the desire to write but needing a plan… some prior guarantee. Write. If someone ever reads it, you did what had to be done. By focusing on the activity, it frees the #writer from the pressure of performance that limits our #art.” buff.ly/Qh2el38

“The author and the reader ‘know’ each other: they meet on the bridge of words.” ~ Madeleine L'Engle

summer lake she and I ankle-deep in stars ~ Chen-on Liu, @ericcoliu #Poetry in the Moment chenouliu.blogspot.com // #Photography by Alyn Wallace / alynwallacephotography.com #vss365 #haiku

“Hone the tools of fiction #writing… work on natural dialogue, sensory description, vivid action, language, foreshadowing… Work on trimming the excess… Approach a published #story like mechanics, looking under the hood to examine how and why it works.” buff.ly/gLeClsc

“She did not need much, wanted very little. A kind word, sincerity, fresh air, clean water, a garden, kisses, books to read, sheltering arms, a cosy bed, and to love and be loved in return.” ~ Starra Neely Blade

floating clouds— fragments of a conversation across the lake ~ Helga Härle // #Photography by Jack Lodge, jacklodge.co.uk #vss365 #haiku