Brenda Euland and William Blake

I'm rereading Brenda Euland's wonderful book "If you want to write." Her book is not just about writing, but about all acts of creation.

Chapter 1 is titled: "Everyone is talented, original, and has something important to stay." She goes on to proove it and to give examples of people who reached their potential as creators. I'm reading her recounting of William Blake, and that sent me off on a research project to find out more (Damn that Internet! It makes it too easy).

Quotes from Euland about Blake: [Blake's] free and abundant use of his creative power made him one of the happiest men who ever lived. He wrote copious and endless poetry (without the slightest concern that it would ever be published)

Blake said that most of us mix up God and Satan. We see God as "mere prudence."

The only way we can grow and know if something is good or bad is to do it. "Sooner strangle an infant in a cradle than nurse unacted desires."

The Reason that "shrivels the ardor and freedom and the passionate enthusiasm that wells up in us" is Satan. It limits our creativity and denies God, for "nothing is pleasing to God except the creation of beautiful and exalted things."

"Writing, the creative effort, the use of imagination, should come first: at least some part of every day of your life. It is a wonderful blessing if you will use it."

"I want to ensure you with all earnestness that no writing is a waste of time--no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good. It has stretched your understanding. I know that."

Euland helps inspire me to silence the Critic(s) of my writing--all of them internal. Why write WPFW? Who will read it? That's just become a non-question. I write it because "no writing is a waste of time." I will grow from the writing. Similarly, I draw inspiration from my other sources of advice.