“Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Consider again the last part of that quote:
“But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.”
Today my friend asked me if I thought I had experienced a lot of tragedy in my life. “Sometimes I think my life would make several LifetimeTV movies,” I responded. I added, “But I have loved a lot of people and I have loved a lot of people well, so when one does that - there is more likelihood of tragedy.”
In that case, it is worth it. I would rather have loved oodles of people and experienced grief and sadness than never have experienced the love we had together.
I’m not just speaking of romantic love here, I mean deep friendship sorts of love, too. In fact, once we love someone on any level, we are taking a risk.
Something occurred to me as I wrote that sentence.
Writing can be like that, too.
When we put our words on paper, we take a risk.
When we share our words, we take a risk.
It is worth it, though, to do so. We do not and will not die if our words are horribly bad to someone else. We will simply keep at it until we clearly communicate whatever it is we need to speak.
Let’s spend some time in creative play from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s words:
Questions & Free Writing
What writing have you done that has been especially bright to you?
How can you compare your writing life with your work or family life?
Take up to ten minutes to free write about writing and risk. Better yet, pick up that theme for at least ten minutes for the next three days and see what you discover over those three days. Your subconscious will continue to work on the theme when you aren’t writing and you are bound to learn more from keeping it tucked in the back of your mind as you are going about your life.
Lists:
Make a list of 5 to 10 of the biggest risks you have taken in your life so far
Make a list of 3 to 5 risks you would like to take (or talk about taking) that you haven’t yet.
Conventional Writing Prompt
If my life were more like a novel, it would…
I love to tell my story about….
If I could change the ending to one of the chapters of my story, it would be….
Why be inspired by literary grannies? Read the introductory post here -
This series (now a part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge) is also 
serving as a bridge to my new blog which will be unveiled in the middle of the month. In past blog challenges I have offered prompts under the "Let Your Words Flow" name. The Inspiration from Literary Grannies serve as a subset of that series.
I welcome your comments, your questions and your quote contributions. Please share the prompts with your writing buddies and friends!
In fact, as you read books written by women in 2015, take note of inspiring quotes. I would love to add them to my collection and may even write a prompt from them.
This is day 14/31 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Winter 2015 and beyond.
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