Change Your Stars

I was reminded of the cult film 'A Knight's Tale' starring Heath Ledger the other day. As I drove through one of the Meon Valley villages, there was a chocolate-box cottage having a new roof laid, with a hand painted sign reading 'Master Thatcher' propped up by the road. Maybe you are the same - each family has its favourite corny lines from movies that get quoted again and again. One of ours is 'Change your stars Maaaaster Thatcher' - the line Christopher Cazenove calls out as he leaves his young son to what he hopes will be a better future. There are other hilarious motivational lines from films - who can forget Kevin Costner's 'If you build it, they will come'?

Are there any equivalent lines for writers I wonder ('If you write it, they will read it' doesn't have quite the same ring to it)? When I was working in a gallery preparing to travel and focus on writing, I had Goethe's famous quote pinned by my computer:

'Whatever you can do, or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.'

and this one from William Hutchinson Murray:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

For a while, as mentioned yesterday, it felt like my Goethe had got up and gone. It always comes back though - the dreams have never gone, you just need the spirit to go with them. It was Annie Dillard I think who called it 'burning new lines in your palm' - the determination to change your stars and do something amazing with your life. Countless times as an art consultant I've gone back to a job we had hung to find the office workers had relegated the expensive modern art their company had foisted on them to a back office, replacing their tacky motivational posters in pride of place. People like their touchstones. Have you ever worked in an office where they had 'You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here But It Helps!' pinned on the wall? I have - my first temping job on a building site (this was the office where the boss' pregnant wife 'didn't understand him', and grown men who should have known better chased one another around giggling about the new teenage temp, and regularly asked me to 'get something from the bottom filing cabinet'). Now they call it sexual harassment - then I just thought they were a bunch of idiots and got on with doing a good job. Temps and sheep grow up fast in Devon as they say - it was only for six months before university but changing workplaces every couple of weeks I learnt more about life through glimpsing other people's worlds than in all my cloistered years at school. Offices are like microcosms of real life - if you work, or worked in one it's a great way to study characters at close quarters from the mad professor and alcoholic banker to the sleazy boss who thinks he is catnip to the ladies.

TODAY'S PROMPT: If you are still cringing from The Office and David Brent's dance, why not use this feeling and have a think about some of the people you had to work with over the years. Try sketching down a few character outlines - as we've said before, nothing is wasted as a writer. What are your favourite motivational quotes or lines? If you're feeling uninspired, why not have a kitsch moment with the children and make your own poster for your work space complete with sunsets, waterfalls or happy dolphins?