Brenda Euland, personal friend of Irving Stone, was a creative writing teacher for over 70 years. She loved the art and craft of writing. But, especially, she loved to guide writers into avenues of honesty, where real feelings rose above superficial phraseology.
“I have read all of Chekhov, now. He is so great, and his letters and his life and what people remember of him are even greater. Yet, it is consoling that if he did not know all about cruelty, gluttony, cowardice, and coldness in himself, he could not have written about them. Great men feel and know everything that mean men feel, even more clearly, but they seem to have made some kind of an ascension, and these evil feelings, though they still understand them sympathetically, no longer exert any power over them.
“Gradually, by writing, you will learn more and more to be free, to say all you think; and at the same time you will learn never to lie to yourself, never to pretend and attitudinize. But only by writing and by long, patient, serious work will you find your true self.
“And, why find it? Because it is, I think, the immortal soul and the life of the Spirit…”
I agree with Brenda Euland. The greatest power on earth is the Spirit. Connecting with yours influences and empowers, especially when you open your heart to embrace it. The light it sheds upon our inner creative worlds is as brilliant as the sunlight that rises and sets on our planet. We have power to know ourselves, truly, completely. Such honesty honors the soul as much as creativity drives it.
Write truly. Write powerfully. Write from the core of your heart with a goal to say what you know needs to be said. Only then will your efforts make life more pure, more strong. Only then shall your talent, regardless of what critics may say, make this world a better place.
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