Renowned Chilean writer Isabel Allende once said, “You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.” If you will treat your life like a story, a novel or any piece of literature, how then do you write a good one?

Perhaps, it would be best to consult more of the world’s respected writers. Many of them have gifted us not just with award-winning books, plays and other works of art, but also with witty, inspiring and thought-provoking quotes.

Discovering Your Passion and What Drives You

Legendary novelist and poet Murasaki Shikibu, famous for her 3-part classic The Tale of Genji, wrote, “The art of the novel happens because the storyteller’s own experience of men and things, whether good or ill – not only what he has passed through himself, but even events which he has only witnessed or been told of – has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart.”

Indeed, if you’ll think about it, life wouldn’t be fulfilling if there is no passion. You might not have realized it yet, but that zeal might have been lying inside you all along, waiting to be triggered. Discover where your passion is and the best chapters of a great novel, that is your life, will begin.

“How do I do that?” you’d say.

Well, as the 20th century American journalist and dramatist Gene Fowler said, “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Starting to write a good work, just like starting to consciously live a good life, is never easy. You might need to crumple and throw away sheets of paper and waste some ink before you can get all the words flowing from your already bleeding brain and emotions. But the beauty of it is that you’ll never know that in the end you might have been writing a masterpiece.

Of Inspiration and Self-Discovery

If the time comes when you’d feel desperate in starting to liven up your life, you might begin to wonder if it would be bad to take inspiration from someone and somehow imitate what they’ve accomplished.

The answer is no.

You might want to take it from Francois Rene de Chateaubriand, said to be the founder of Romanticism in French literature. He said, “The original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.” However, do not fall into the trap of simply copying everything that isn’t even applicable to you that everything in your life will go back to being something that is devoid of passion or any excitement at all. Don’t let American novelist and playwright Truman Capote whisper in your ear, “It isn’t writing at all — it’s typing.” It wouldn’t be bad to try and follow someone’s footsteps, but, let your own self also shine through and your life will be one unique work of art.

A Life Lived With Wisdom

A good life, though, isn’t just about living with what you have inside you. You should, of course, see what’s around you – the people, the environment, the situation and everything else. You need to look around, deal with relationships, and explore new things.

Wisdom plays a big part in having a fulfilled life. You might want to remind yourself of this through a quote from bestselling author of Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, when he talked about the classic novel Don Quixote: “The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. When Don Quixote went out into the world, that world turned into a mystery before his eyes.”

So, start living your life now. If you’re still at a loss as to how you’d do it, maybe it’s you that Sir Philip Sidney, a 16th century English poet and soldier, would like to correspond to when he wrote: “’Fool!’ my muse said to me, ‘look into thy heart, and write.’”

And in the end, may you have a life that’s like a well-written novel. “’Only a novel’… in short, only some in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language,” as the great romantic fiction writer Jane Austen would say.

 

Postscript: I would love to hear your thoughts on the direction of this website. I believe in great ideas coming together and creating something powerful. This is my home now, and the readers of PluginID are more than friends in my book, and I value what you think. Please let me know in the comments.