elisabeth-forbes

[elisabeth-forbes]

Writers: It’s Okay to Experiment and Be Weird As Fuck

With so much writing advice out there telling you what to do and not do, it can be easy to forget that writing is an art, and there are no rules in art.

Yes, learning about different writing techniques is great. Developing a language to talk and think about writing is important. Absorb everything you can. Reading, studying, and practicing are integral to improving your writing. Obviously, I run a writing blog, so I believe in the power of increasing your knowledge about writing and literature.

But don’t forget that, in the end, you can do whatever the hell you want to. Experiment. Have fun. Play. Follow your instincts. Break the “rules.” And don’t listen to anyone who says that no one wants to read weird, nontraditional writing. They do.

For most of my writing life, I’ve kept my crazy, experimental stories hidden away, because it seemed like anything I wrote that wasn’t a straightforward, traditionally-structured story with a main character and a plot wasn’t appreciated by readers. But guess what? One of my weird-as-fuck stories won second prize in a contest this fall, and when I asked the editors why they chose it, they said they liked it because it wasn’t like every other story in the submissions pile. It was different. It was weird. It took a risk. And for that reason it stood out from everything else they read.

It took me years to quiet the chorus of conformity and embrace my weird side. Don’t let that happen to you. Get wild. Write whatever you want. Do it now. We need freaks like you, or we’re all going to whither and die of boredom. Give us everything you’ve got. We need it. We need YOU.

[elisabeth-forbes]

My hair is fine, but I'm not 😬

[elisabeth-forbes]

iris by goo goo dolls really is insane though. I'd give up forever to touch you? you're the closest to heaven I'll ever be? all I can breathe is your life? and I don't want the world to see me cause I don't think they'd understand? when everything's meant to be broken I just want you to know who I am? does anyone hear me.

[elisabeth-forbes]

not sure if this will make sense to anyone besides me but: the antidote to negativity is not positivity, its warmth

[elisabeth-forbes]

Every time a woman makes a pink job or girl math or girl dinner or I'm just a girl joke I unfortunately have to kill a random man on the streets. And you may think this is cruel or unjust but in reality that's just the way the cookie crumbles

[elisabeth-forbes]

this little glamorized misogyny "joke" has run its course right. can we leave this corny demonic shit in 2023. it is done now. we've had enough.

[elisabeth-forbes]

Hey btw, here's a piece of life advice:

If you know what you'd have to do to solve a problem, but you just don't want to do it, your main problem isn't the problem itself. Your problem is figuring out how to get yourself to do the solution.

If your problem is not eating enough vegetables, the problem you should be solving is "how do I make vegetables stop being yucky". If your problem is not getting enough exercise, the problem you should be solving is "how do I make exercise stop sucking ass". You're not supposed to just be doing things that are awful and suck all the time forever, you're supposed to figure out how to make it stop being so awful all the time.

I used to hate wearing sunscreen because it's sticky and slimy and disgusting and it feels bad and it smells bad, so I neglected to wear it even if I needed to. Then I found one that isn't like that, and doesn't smell and feel gross. Problem solved.

There is no correct way to live that's just supposed to suck and feel bad all the time. You're allowed to figure out how to make it not suck so bad.

[elisabeth-forbes]

You can be talking to someone and she'll be like, "Oh I made a silly mistake. Women don't deserve voting rights teehee." And you'll be like, "What." And she'll be like, "Oh I'm sorry! That must sound so bad out of context. No it's this Tiktok meme where, if you're a girl and you do something dumb, you say 'Women don't deserve voting rights teehee.'"

And you'll be like, "That sounds bad." And she'll be like, "No no. It's totally not that bad. It's just a meme. Men say it too. Like if a man does something silly he'll be like, 'I am like those women who do not deserve to vote.'" And you'll be like, "Does that make it better?" And she'll be like, "Well there was one guy who tried to make 'Men shouldn't vote' a popular meme. But it never caught on and also he got yelled at a lot."

And then you drop it there because like, you're harshing the vibe.

[elisabeth-forbes]

Recently discovered, fully by accident, that the trick to feeling like you have more time in the day is to actually do shit with the time that's there, which seems fake and wrong and it's frankly infuriating that it works >:|

[elisabeth-forbes]

saw this very [ben affleck depressed smoking image] comment and thought why does blue job / pink job sound like an established concept so I looked it up.....

what's next?? having a bank account is a blue job 💙🏦☺️ not being legally recognised as a person in your own right is a pink job 🩷🥰💅

[elisabeth-forbes]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you let something slide because you were too shocked to react in the moment, you can bring it up the next time you talk to that person, you can text them, you can let them know it won’t slide again in the future. you don’t have to just accept that behavior indefinitely because you couldn’t gather your thoughts to say it made you uncomfortable when it first happened. you’re not making anything awkward, you are giving someone an opportunity to show care for you, and telling them you trust them enough to change their behavior. there is literally nothing wrong or bad with voicing discomfort even if the moment has already passed.

[elisabeth-forbes]

[elisabeth-forbes]

ever since i was a little girl i’ve been awkward and embarrassing

[elisabeth-forbes]

Unironically when it comes to things you’re insecure about a lot of the time people don’t give a fuck if you don’t give a fuck however if they do you just have to treat them like they’re stupid as fuck and insane for caring. Which they are. This is called the youre stupid as fuck and insane for caring method it’s highly effective

[elisabeth-forbes]

The way everything is so expensive and it's not even good 😐

[elisabeth-forbes]

congratulations to people who are good at performing conversations and social interactions. did you take a class or is it just like genetics or whatever

[elisabeth-forbes]

me being so normal when there’s only vague plans to hang out for the day nobody is texting back with specific times or what we’re doing