Some of my favorite quotes:
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“It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said– gently– that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born– and that this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” - Anne Lamott

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“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

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“I get up. I fall down. Meanwhile, I dance.” (I wasn’t able to find a source for this one. I’m not sure I’m even quoting correctly. This quote is etched in my memory, so e-mail me if you know where it came from.)

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“Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer’s need to change another writer’s copy.” - Arthur Evans

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“What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working even when he’s staring out the window.” - Burton Rascoe

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“I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I write and I understand.” - Chinese Proverb

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“I have always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library.” - Jorge Luis Borges

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“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers the opportunity to live it.” - John Hersey

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“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” - Mark Twain

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“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” - Oscar Wilde

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“The moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you’ve already stopped loving that person forever.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Diwali was a fun affair in the Khullar household this year. We all had a lot to be happy about and look forward to. I haven’t laughed this hard in years.

Some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mridu/

It’s Diwali today, and I’m so exhausted from eating sweets, watching the fireworks and lighting candles, that I’m taking a break from blogging. I will, however, be sneaky and try to get some good photographs for you fine folks. I’ll post them tomorrow.

Have a great day, and light a lamp for someone you love.

Peace.

Disclaimer: I haven’t taken of these, so can’t vouch for them. But they look interesting, and have been recommended in some of my writing groups.

Happy Learning!

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Life Writing
Instructor: Steven Barnes
“What follows is, in slightly modified form, the complete text of the 9-week writing class I’ve taught for years at UCLA. To my knowledge it is the only completely free program of its depth and scope available on the WWW.”
http://www.lifewrite.com/html/class.htm

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News Sense: The Building Blocks of News
Instructor: Mary Ann Hogan
” All news stories should meet a set of professional standards: fairness, accuracy, context and truthfulness. In the five sections of this course, you’ll learn what makes an event or idea a news story; skills to report and confirm information; techniques for turning jargon into clear writing; and the essentials of writing leads that draw readers into stories. You’ll get a chance to apply what you’ve learned through interactive games and quizzes throughout the course.”
http://www.newsu.org/courses/course_detail.aspx?id=mah_newssense05

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The Writer’s Workbench: 50 Tools You Can Use
Instructor: Roy Peter Clark
“What will I learn? This collection of writing tools will help you strengthen new work and diagnose stories you have already written. The self-directed course groups tools into four sections: nuts and bolts, including word choice and sentence structure; blueprints to create architecture for your stories; special effects to refine your writing voice; and useful habits to help you be a more confident writer. Each tool features exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned. Use the tools to help build your skills or as reference to keep your writing sharp.”
http://www.newsu.org/courses/course_detail.aspx?id=nu_workbench05

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The Open Fiction Project
” This course is an introduction to the craft of writing fiction. You will focus first on the development of a critical vocabulary that will allow the class to discuss elements of fiction writing, such as point of view, character, plot, description, chronology, dialogue, and setting. In addition, you will practice methods of generating first draft material and skills for revising that material once generated. You will be reading the work of published authors, and using your developing critical vocabulary, you will report back to the class your observations of techniques the authors employ.”
http://www.tofp.org/

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Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Instructor: Jeffrey A. Carver
“Have you always harbored a secret (or not so secret) yearning to write? This course is designed to help you learn many of the skills you need to write successful science fiction and fantasy stories. You can use the skills you’ll learn here in other kinds of storytelling, as well.”
http://www.writesf.com/

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How to Write a Screenplay
Instructor: Michael J. Farrand
http://www.empirecontact.com/screenwriting/

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If you know of any more, feel free to add them in the comments. Also post your experiences if you’ve taken them.

I can’t write in silence. Silence threatens to overwhelm me, but since words distract me, I listen to a lot of instrumental music when I’m writing. I used to download guitar riffs from unknown musicians, but lately, I’ve found myself drawn to tribal house.

My music has to be instrumental. If there are words, I tend to stop and listen. Unless it’s Hindi music (because I write in English, the words don’t get muddled).

What about you? What do you listen to when you write?