Throwing myself off a cliff

Quotes of the day:

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."

—Ray Bradbury


Love this one. He also said one of my favorite quotes about risk-taking and the creative act:

"Throw yourself off a cliff and build your wings on the way down."

He apparently liked that quote, too, for when giving speeches over the years he used several variants:

“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.”

“Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”

"First you jump off the cliff and you build wings on the way down."


I think I prefer the simplicity of the first one. Or maybe I just like that one better because it was the first variant I heard and because it was quoted to me by my departed friend, Stephan. It has become something of a mantra for me in my creative process, anyway.

Writingness of the day:

It's official. I'm going to do another rewrite of Shivery Bones before sending out my next batch of agent queries, see if I can cut 20k. There are a number of things killing me on that book, I suspect, but surely the 143k length is one of them.


SURVEY (as opposed to Monday poll):

How many of you read Evil Editor?