Literature has always been an escape for many, including me. Along with creating magical fantasies for one to escape the disappointing realities, it also has such a powerful impact.
Literature is nothing without the authors. It is their words that create an ocean of emotions in our hearts and mind. Without them, we might as well be living a dull, dreary life without any inspiration.
However, there is nothing easy about being an author. Anyone can write, but not everyone can inspire. Having a great story in mind is not the real task, giving it life is.
Being an author and breathing soul into literature is not a piece of cake. You cannot just write a story once and assume it to be a hit right away.
Literature has its power in these inspiring authors whose life started poorly. They were buried in rejections, yet they managed to leave a mark all over the world.
Let’s have a quick look at some of these astounding literary personalities.
J.K Rowling
“You don’t have to be a fan of literature to know the name, J.K Rowling.”
I think this statement itself reflects the power she and her worlds have over the world.
Known as the beloved creator of the magical world of Harry Potter, J.K Rowling’s story is ever so inspiring for young striving hearts. Rowling was as poor as one could be in modern Britain without being homeless.
She was a single mother with no job and struggling with acute clinical depression, but that never stood in her way. Despite everything, Rowling was determined to put the magic in her mind out on paper. She would take her infant to coffee shops and keep writing until she finished the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone.
No, it didn’t get published right away. It was rejected twelve times before Bloomsbury finally accepted and published it.
The rest is history no one is unaware of.
Famous Quotes by her
- “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
- “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.”
- “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”
- “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.”
Helen Keller
Helen Keller is one of my favorite inspirational authors. Her life, struggle and story are so inspirational and powerful.
This influential Author went from virtually having no language whatsoever as a child to writing 12 bestselling books.
During infancy, an illness left her deaf and blind, but she was never the one to be defeated. She had no idea how to communicate. Only after she turned 7, she was taught how to do so.
Keller published her first autobiography at the age of just twenty-two and told the world what courage looks like.
She was immediately an internationally known author, lecturer, and political activist.
Quotes by her
- “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
- “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
Octavia.E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler is one of those incredible people who proved to the world that no disorder, no disability, no disease can drag you down.
She knew her power, and she stood firm for it.
Her life was not a pursuit of happiness, rather was a pile of struggles. Among many other temporary jobs, this renowned author used to work as a telemarketer, a dishwasher, and a potato chip inspector just to make ends meet.
Finances were not her only hurdle to success; rather, she was also diagnosed with Dyslexia and several years of rejection. Still, nothing could lessen her love for writing.
She would constantly scribble down success mantras to motivate her, which paid off when she sold her first story to author Harlan Ellison.
Today, she is the most successful and ground-breaking Sci-FI writer of all time.
Quotes by her
- “When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing.”
- “To rise from its ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.”
- “Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of “wrong” ideas.”
Maya Angelou
There is a light in mere hopelessness; the light is within you, from you, it is you.
Known for a very moving book; I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing, Maya Angelou has lived a life full of agony and pain.
Her life struggles can make even the most ungrateful heart the most grateful. As a child, Maya Angelou felt nothing but abuse. She was briefly homeless, and on top of that, she gave birth to her son only at the age of seventeen.
At such a naïve and young age, she was forced to work as a sex worker briefly as she struggled to raise her son. She also worked as a singer and dancer before she finally found her peace in the gift of writing.
She ended up publishing seven acclaimed memoirs and several books of poetry, essays, and prose that the world seeks inspiration from.
Quotes by Her
- “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
- “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
- “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
- “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
So next time you want to give up on yourself, just sit back, close your eyes and let these powerful stories inspire you.
You are bigger than you think you are.
