Write As If There's No Tomorrow, by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Write As If There's No Tomorrow
by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ (mailto:shery@writesparks.com)


   "If thou art a writer, write as if thy time is
    short, for it is indeed short at the longest."
    -- Henry David Thoreau

Three years ago, I asked in a survey for writers: If you knew you were
going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?

One wrote that she'd spend her time writing to her loved ones. Another
said he'd write "one hell of a killer love story and dedicate it: 'With
much love... you know who you are.'"

And another wrote, "I will write my ideas in mathematical form. I have
a great deal of phenomenal theories in Physics and Mathematics that I
have never told anyone. I would spend my last night pushing my academic
prowess to the limit."

And this one from a fellow named Joe, who threw the question back to me
-- If you are going to die tomorrow, how about writing your own
epitaph? "I came, I saw, I wrote all about it."

In one way or another, all of the writers who responded to the question
said they would spend at least a time of their remaining day doing
something that resembled writing.

When writing gets in your blood, it stays there. Once you start your
affair with the written word, you're stuck with it, like it or not. You
can choose to ignore it, or you can choose to acknowledge it as part of
who you are.

Life is too short for us writers, and the stories waiting to be told
and written are not going to be written quickly enough. What we can do is
write as much as we can.

Writing doesn't wait. You shouldn't too. Write now. Write today as if
there's no tomorrow.


Copyright © 2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

[ And just in case you have a web site or publish an e-zine, feel free
to reprint this article. Just don't forget to include my resource box
below. And please publish my article as is, without any alteration. ]


=> Resource Box <=

Shery created WriteSparks! - a software that generates over 10
*million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks! Lite
for fr*e - http://writesparks.com
--


More sparks to feed your Muse, you say? Here ya go, generated by
WriteSparks!™ Premium (which is now on sale, btw) --


1. Write from the POV of an old car that has just gotten a new paint
job.

2. Connect these images in a story or poem: "pleading knife," "basket
reciting angrily," and "icy saucer."

3. Describe in concrete terms how "curiosity suffers."

4. What images does this line in one of Gregory Corso's poems spark in
you: "They want to make buttons out of my bones."

5. What story can you create out of this plot: "her meddling boss wants
her to reunite with her ex."


Happy writing, and I'll see you again soon!


Best,
Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
WriteSparks! creator
http://writesparks.com