Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming ...

Books aren't written, they're rewritten. ~ Michael Crichton

There is no great writing, only great rewriting. ~ Justice Brandeis

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. 

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


So, what do a fish named Dori and these three famous fellows have in common? They're all telling me to stop getting bogged down in the muck of my writing; they're sick of me drowning in my own less-than-perfect writing and not finishing anything.


I've been writing, writing, writing for several years now, but I have yet to accomplish the greater art Longfellow refers to. So I'm taking Chrichton and Brandeis's advice in one hand and Dori's words of encouragement in the other, and--armed with them both--I'm going to become that "greater artist" Longfellow mentions ... the one who actually finishes.

Victor Hugo dropped something

Next to Jack London's note about hunting down inspiration with a club, I found another piece of advice scrawled on a map of the Parisian catacombs. It says, "He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign." ~V. Hugo


And though I know I heard one of those other authors shouting out from around the bend something about the best laid plans of mice and men, I'm pretty sure this bit of map is too valuable to ignore. In fact, I think I'll have Bradbury's illustrated man tattoo it onto my forehead. Backwards, of course, so I can actually read it when I get up in the morning.


Dogged disciplined diligence.


Day Two:
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