Don't get discouraged if you're hammering away at a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter, and it keeps coming out wrong. You're allowed to get it wrong, as many times as you need to; you only need to get it right once.
Interpretation
Persistence is key in the writing process; mistakes are part of the journey.
This quote emphasizes the importance of perseverance in creative endeavors, particularly writing. It reassures individuals that encountering obstacles and making mistakes is a natural part of the process, and that ultimately, achieving success is possible through continued effort and resilience.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to encourage participants to embrace their drafts.
I used to think I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands, pulled the stitches tight and I could unpick them any time I wanted. Now I think it always ran deeper than that and farther, underground; out of sight and way beyond my control.
Over time, the ghosts of things that happened start to turn distant; once they've cut you a couple of million times, their edges blunt on your scar tissue, they wear thin. The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got the chance to happen.
Most animals are pragmatic about mysteries: If they run across something they don't understand, all they care about is whether it's edible and whether it's dangerous. Humans, on the other hand, are drawn to the mystery for its own sake.
I wanted to tell her that being loved is a talent too, that it takes as much guts and as much work as loving; that some people, for whatever reason, never learn the knack
If you're writing a scene for a character with whom you disagree in every way, you still need to show how that character is absolutely justified in his or her own mind, or the scene will come across as being about the author's views rather than about the character's.
I had been right: freedom smelled like ozone and thunderstorms and gunpowder all at once, like snow and bonfires and cut grass, it tasted like seawater and oranges.
It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
The surest way to lose at any endeavor is to quit.
We can control a few things: our attitude, our effort, our focus and how we go about treating our teammates.
I look at myself like a show dog. I've got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.
Enchantment is the purest form of sales. Enchantment is all about changing people's hearts, minds and actions because you provide them a vision or a way to do things better. The difference between enchantment and simple sales is that with enchantment you have the other person's best interests at heart, too.
Be willing to wait longer for you goals to bear fruit than you had anticipated.
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