Everyday Canvas

Literary Inspirations and Fall Writing

Prompt: When you were first beginning writing, who were your literary inspirations? What did you learn from their writing? Are they still as inspiring?

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In the very beginning when I was far too young, a set of children’s books by Comtesse de Segur were read to me, to teach me how to behave. There were several children in those books, but Sophie was the one I felt a certain kinship to because she always got in trouble although her ways were understandable, at least by me.

As soon as I learned to read, The Little Prince was the book to impress me greatly. I am sure it inspired me in some way, but I can’t say which.

After I wrote my first poem at eight--- it was about a violet, the wild flower-- other authors and poets began to have an effect on me.

Of my middle to high school years, my true inspiration came from Rumi and Dostoevsky, both introduced to me by a lit teacher.

Rumi opened my eyes to a feeling, a certain feeling of love for the divine and behavior because of it, something lofty that I hadn’t noticed in religion or in any other superficial spirituality. Since I refrain from talking about belief-related things in this blog, this is as much as I am going to say about Rumi.

Coming to Dostoevsky, I adored him, and still do. His work, especially the Idiot, showed me the innocence of a true human being, his ability to forgive, to accept people as they are, and to be as one is.

Dostoevsky’s novels point to a world of mystery and wonder. His characters live in a parallel reality with depth of internal dynamics and give-and-take of ideas – not the reality that is around them, although the real world around them exists and they live and survive within it. Then, at the drop of a hat, the author turns, deftly, villains into heroes and vice versa.

Even the dialogues in his works have an experimental, introspective quality, with questions and answers reminding one of the Socratic method, and yet, turning the interactions among characters into very lively exchanges.

Yes, Dostoevsky and Rumi are still inspirational for me.

Prompt: What are your writing goals for this fall? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Entering contests? Blogging?

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I am now doing NaNo Prep. I don’t know how it will come out, but I’ll try for NaNo, as I have been doing almost every year. My blogging may suffer a bit, but I’ll try to write in my blog at least once in a while.

I don’t know about contests. Sometimes, an idea strikes and I do, but I am not much of a contest person, in general. Usually, I like to write what I want to write in one of my book items on the site.

Above all, my favorite type of writing is free-flow in a notebook with a pen, whenever I fine the extra time.