bamfsincardigans-blog - Tumblr blog

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THEY’RE BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!! 

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Hockey is back, baby!

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Writers: You Can Have as Many Fucking WIPs as You Want

Hey friends. I just wanted to throw this out there because I see a lot of posts from writers lamenting that they’re starting new WIPs without finishing the old ones. Some of this is in the form of memes and jokes, some of it is in the form of updates or confessionals, but there’s always this implication that writers are doing something wrong by starting something new before the old thing is finished, hopping from project to project, or working on multiple WIPs at once. So I just want to say this:

The writing process is not linear.

Bouncing between multiple WIPs is totally okay.

Abandoning old WIPs that you’re no longer interested in is totally okay.

Starting 10 or 20 or 30 stories for every 1 story that you finish is totally okay.

Only wanting to work on something that’s exciting to you (a new thing) and not something you’ve burned out on (an old thing) is totally okay.

I get that feeling like you’re always starting and never finishing anything is a big bummer. But it may help to remember that despite years of capitalist indoctrination, the creative process is not an assembly line.

Sometimes it takes writing 100 pages to realize that your idea is untenable, or that you’re not actually that interested in it, or that you want to take things in a completely different direction with a totally new story.

I’m a published writer and I average at least 10-15 WIPs for each one that I actually finish. It may take me two sentences to abandon it, or 200 pages. And sometimes I come back to them and finish them in the future. But after 20 years of writing my computer is full of barely-started stories that were destined, for whatever reason, to die.

If you’re turning your back on a story that really excites you and you deeply wish you could complete because you’re scared or blocked, that’s a frustrating pattern that’s totally worth trying to fix (I’ll be addressing this problem in detail in a new book I’m working on!). But for the most part, having a ton more WIPs that you actually finish is a completely normal part of the creative process and you don’t need to be so hard on yourself about it. You’re doing great, and I’m cheering for you.

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why you should keep writing your story

because it’s a puzzle no one else will ever arrange the same way as you.

because there are ideas that simply won’t come to you until you write down the wrong words.

because all the bad scenes are the bones of the wonderful scenes.

because someone will love it: someone will read it once, and twice, and thrice; someone will ramble to you about the complexity of it; someone will doodle your characters out of love; someone will find it in exactly what they were looking for with or without knowing it.

because they have things to say, your characters. they’ve told you all those secrets and they have more to tell you, if you will listen.

because you love it even when you don’t; even when it drives you mad or when it accidentally turns into apathy; even when you think you’re doing it all wrong; you love it, and it loves you back.

because you can get a treasure even from things that go wrong; because if a story crumbles down you can build a shinier one on the same spot; because you won’t know where it will take you until it takes you there.

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One of my favorite Leverage scenes: Eliot and Hardison singing together in Lucille :) 

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I made a thing.

I didn't need to call myself out like this .

But I did.

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Going into this restart

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when you’re in denial that you’re an adult

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Pro tip: if you wake up at 230 in the morning and can’t fall back asleep, go to the gym, even if you haven’t been in months and everything hurts and I’m dying.

Not a pro tip: do this on 4 hours sleep, when you need to be functional for a full work day, you didn’t eat breakfast and/or protein before leaving the house, your shoes haven’t been worn in months, and it’s dark and grey and rainy.

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my favorite ships + parallel scenes: 2/?

parker x hardison | penelope x schneider “i like you”

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Do businesses have the right to tell them they’re not allowed to enter with guns? Because if I see that, I’m leaving the restaurant, club, store, whatever - without paying.

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