Just a brief thought today.
“Writers live twice.”
I found this snippet while compiling The Write To Know this week, and just had to share it with you.
The concept of writers living twice is so utterly compelling because, in my opinion, we do just that.
We live our physical lives, and then we get to live our fiction lives. This is the space where we can process - or try to process - our experiences.
It’s a gorgeous concept.
Here’s the full quote from Natalie Goldberg, who is the author of Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.
“Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as far as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives every second at a time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details.”
There’s something rather wonderful about being able to weave an inner world around your outer story. About being so free that you can play with the textures and details, and shape them to fit another vision.
That’s not to say that we’re all writing our autobiographies.
Far from it. Just that we get to live our lives in all ways and all shades.
Ain’t that grand?
Have a great week everyone!
Lisa
Goldberg's book was one of my early bibles as I wove my way through learning to write. Loved it! I did forget this quote though, which is priceless, and so true!
I think Anaïs Nin said it first and more succinctly than Natalie Goldberg:
“ We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”