For Christmas, I got myself a new journal, since new journals solve all writing problems (sarcasm).

To be super transparent, here are the days I’ve written in it: Dec 29, 2024; Jan 1, 2025; Jan 2; March 28; May 7; May 9.

I’ve written some quotes to start out some entries, and I wanted to share that practice with you, as well as some of the quotes.

One of my major blocks in writing this work in progress is that it’s a drama that is not fun to write because it is, frankly, traumatic and not happy, and I am very depressed. It’s not a place I want to be in. So many of these quotes are persisting in spite of doubt or darkness. They might not be encouraging to you as they are to me while I’m in this mindset, trying to write this particular thing.

Some of these come from Tolkien when WWII was raging on. Some from The Lord of the Rings. Some from General Iroh as the Fire Nation was raging war on the other nations. One comes from Star Wars (and I think a lot could come from Andor if I actually wrote any of those down). Some quotes just come from writers. Still, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most encouraging quotes come from times of unrest, when inside me is nothing but conflict, and I look at the state of the world and am constantly wondering why I should even try writing.

The answer is because it is precisely others’ writing that keeps me going. What if my words could help someone else get through a tough time?

All of this rambling aside, here are the quotes I’ve been writing in my journal, saving in my Notes app, and scribbling on Post-It notes…

From WWII

“No idea is too outlandish that it should not be considered.” —Winston Churchill

“Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, from a letter to Stanley Unwin, March 1945

From The Lord of the Rings:

“It’s the job that never gets started that takes the longest to finish.” —Samwise

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” —Gandalf

“You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point, ‘Shut the book now, Dad; we don’t want to read anymore.'”
“Maybe,” said Sam, “but I wouldn’t be one to say that. Things done and over and made into part of the great tales are different.”

“Forth, and fear no darkness!”—Theoden

“Though here at journey’s end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars forever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell.”
—Sam’s song, which had better appear at my funeral someday, I’ve told my husband and sons.

“Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day’s rising he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.” —from Theoden’s funeral

“Faithless is he who says farewell when the road darkens.” —Gimli

“We must do without hope.” —Aragorn

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for its glory. I love only that which they defend.” —Faramir

“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, / A light from the shadows shall spring; / Renewed shall be blade that was broken, / The crownless again shall be king.” —Prophecy about Aragorn. In this case, my WIP is the blade, and the crownless is the writer who isn’t currently writing

From Avatar: The Last Airbender

“In the darkest times, hope is something that you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.”—General Iroh

From Star Wars: The Last Jedi

“We’re gonna win. Not by fighting what we hate—saving what we love.”—Rose Tico

What quotes help inspire you when the writing comes with difficulty, or when it’s hard for you to see hope in the darkness? I hope you’ll share, and in so doing, inspire all of us here.