Last night Brian Doyle (author) visited the BYU-Idaho school campus and did a reading for an hour. I went for part of my English class (the one that I'm also doing this blog for) and I really enjoyed it. It was pretty powerful. There was humor and lots of laughing, as well as somber moments of reflection. It's been a while since I've been that inspired by someone, someone who is SO passionate about what they do that it makes me have passion for it as well. I need more people like that in my life. Here are just some notes I jotted down during the reading:
-Stories are GOOD. Give darkness the finger with your stories.
-Don't let your religion be only your religion. Dig deeper to find the true meaning of it.
-Literature is not literature with a capital L.
^This is probably one of my favorite parts, just because a lot of the time I think people think that in order to count as literature it has to be a long, drawn out novel. But that's not the case. Stories, jokes, books, etc. are all literature.
-Stop trying to be cool. Cool is a joke.
-The best writing isn't always about you. Everybody else is more interesting and also stuffed with stories.
-To be a writer we only need to know how to say three words: "Really? Then what?"
"Violence is a failure of the imagination."
"When in doubt, lower your standards."
-"No one talks about the people that nothing happens to, but it does happen to them."
-I got a bigger story than yours.
-There's got to be a better way to end the violence and stop the wars.
-To say thank you all the time is the real prayer.
-We all have the power to CATCH and SHARE stories.
-Stories are huge, don't take them for granted.
"Be tender, everything else is a footnote."
And probably one of my favorite parts of the whole reading was toward the end when he gave us some advice on writing:
"Stop thinking! Don't think when you write. Just see what happens!"
I'm super grateful I could attend last night. It inspired to read and write more, and listen to other's stories more carefully. Really, everyone is stuffed to the brim with stories. Who are we to not listen? I needed that inspiration.
It was great.
