If you would not be forgotten,
as soon as you are dead and rotten,
either write things worth reading,
or do things worth writing.
-Ben Franklin
If only you’d remember before you ever sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world [you] would most want to read if [you]had [your] heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined. Oh, dare to do it! Trust your heart.
-J.D.Salinger
I’m all riled up.
I want to do things worth writing. I am having trouble sitting still. It’s all I can do to type out this post.
I crave the scratch of pen on paper, the gloss of wet ink.
The photo is of a bearded robber fly, which is such a great name.
Jacob volunteered that he looked like Ben Franklin. I don’t know, if you’re a ten-year-old boy you see such things.
Hence, the quote. Which reminded me of the above passage from Seymour: An Introduction, which is akin to my own personal bible.
Which got me all riled up, as it always does.
Maybe later I will settle down, come back, finish the post I started last night.
I hope not. I hope I never properly settle down again.
What gets you all riled up and dreaming of greatness?
What things will you do this weekend worth writing about?
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