The more I write, the more I find that there is much beauty in the world, if only we might stop to observe. There are stories behind every person, and street, and building, and even if we find ourselves stuck in a room devoid of all senses, we will always have ourselves left to discover.

The task that fiction writers must embark on is showcasing their world to the reader through nothing but words. For without a scene, there is no story, and a great scene can sell a book by itself, just as a bad scene can ruin one entirely. The great difficulty, and what separates the novice from the great, is how well they can share their world to others.

From Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place. And even if you were in some prison the walls of which let none of the sounds of the world come to your senses—would you not then still have your childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that treasure-house of memories? Turn your attention thither.”