reminders from anne lamott, or remembering to write my own SFDs:

"writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. that thing you had to force yourself to do–the actual act of writing–turns out to be the best part. it's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really need was the tea ceremony. the act of writing turns out to be its own reward."

"remember that you own what happened to you. if your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point at you, while a chilling voice thundered, "we told you not to tell." but that was then. just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on." 

"because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. what a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. they show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. they are full of all the things that you don't get in real life–wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. and quality of attention: we may notice amazing details during the course of a day but we rarely let ourselves stop and really pay attention. an author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. my gratitude for good writing is unbounded; i'm grateful for it the way i'm grateful for the ocean."

"E.L. Doctorow once said that 'writing a novel is like driving a car at night. you can only see as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way.' you don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see you destination or everything you will pass along the way. you just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. this is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, i have ever heard."

"writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong. it is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously."

"almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. you need to start somewhere. start by getting something–anything–down on paper. a friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft–you just get it down. the second draft is the up draft–you fix it up. you try to say what you have to say more accurately. and the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy."

"quieting the voices is at least half the battle i fight daily. but this is better than it used to be. it used to be 87 percent. left to its own devices, my mind spends much of its time having conversations with people who aren't there. i walk along defending myself to people, or exchanging repartee with them, or rationalizing my behavior, or seducing them with gossip, or pretending i'm on their TV talk show or whatever. i speed or run an aging yellow light or don't come to a full stop, and one nanosecond later am explaining to imaginary cops exactly why i had to do what i did, or insisting that i did not in fact do it." 

"if you don't believe in God, it may help to remember this great line of Geneen Roth's: that awareness is learning to keep yourself company. and then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage. i doubt that you would read a close friend's early efforts and, in his or her presence, roll your eyes and snicker."

"what people somehow (inadvertently, i'm sure) forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here–and, by extension, what we're supposed to be writing." 

all excerpts taken from bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life.