“You may have sympathies, you may have grievances, you may have met with wrongs, and you may use them, if you chance to wish to, in the making of a play. But never in order to attack the wronger, never in order to voice your grievance, but merely using the material because it was sent to you by fate, as a wind of spring may chance to bring a straw to building birds” (Lord Dunsany 1928:62).
Straw comes. Build a strong nest Writer.
Lord Dunsany, 1928. ‘The Carving of the Ivory’ in The Art of Playwrighting. Lectures Delivered at the University of Pennsylvania on the Mask and Wig Foundation. University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 47-68.
Reasons to Keep Writing 
Sometimes the synchronicity of words astounds me. Thank you for posting this (and so weirdly… especially today).
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I had the same with your tussle on writing violence.
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I had a great creative writing professor who made me believe I could be a writer, but I had to be honest, brutally honest with myself and my readers. When you can get to that, the writing takes care of itself, but is so damn hard sometimes.
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What comes between you and honesty in your writing Mike?
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Ego mainly….I don’t want to admit weaknesses or focus on the darker side of my character. I want a perfect image so no one ever knows that part of me and use it against me.
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Have you had good things come from being honest in your work?
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Yes, it uncovers more of my true self, which is so much better than my fake self.
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Synchronicity for me!! I just wrote a post titled “Building My Nest” that I’m publishing tonight. This is lovely, thank you for sharing 💜
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I read it. Very thorough. Good nest.
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Thank you, means a lot 🙏
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The analogy of using life’s experiences as straw to build a strong nest for creativity is both poetic and insightful. Writers often draw from their life experiences, not to attack or vent grievances but to craft meaningful stories. It’s a beautiful way to look at the creative process.👍🏆🎁
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Thank you for your thoughts and words.
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🤝👍
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Straw doesn’t do it for me. Like building on sand. I dig around in my life or previous unviable writings and call it mining
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