#To a young poet

[the-strangest-color]

[exactlyhow]

"You won’t disappoint me,

if you distance yourself from others, and from me.

What doesn’t resemble me is more beautiful."

- To a Young Poet, Mahmoud Darwish.

[d-fatimeh]

Gosh this is exactly what I feel like about reading poetry in these trying times

— To a Young Poet, Mahmoud Darwish (translated by Fady Joudah)

[text ID: A poem in a difficult time / is beautiful flowers in a cemetery.]

[liveandbreathemusicals]

Gay people will be like “this is my comfort show!” And then show you the most emotionally devastating, stress-inducing, tragic piece of media you have ever witnessed

[rheas-chaos-motivation]

Questions to ask beta readers

General:

Were you confused at any point of the story?

What genre would you say this book is?

When did you put the story down?

Is the ending satisfying?

If you had to cut 3 scenes what would they be?

When did you feel like the story really began?

What was the last book you read before this story?

Characters:

Do you get any of the characters names confused?

Which character is your favorite?

If you had to remove a character who would you and why? (you don't have to remove the character, just make sure their role is meaningful)

Which character do you relate to the most?

Which character do you relate to the least?

Do the characters feel real?

Are character relationships believable?

Are the goals clear and influence the plot?

Are the characters distinct (voice, motivations, etc)

Setting:

Which setting was clearest to you?

Which setting was the most memorable?

Am including enough/too much detail?

Plot and conflict:

Are the internal and external conflicts well defined for the main characters?

Are the internal conflicts and the external conflicts organic and believable?

Are there enough stakes?

Are the plot twists believable but still unexpected?

[camillamaecaulay]

graves grow no green that you can use.

gwendolyn brooks

[finding-parallels]

The Heart Beats for Two, Fatima Aamer Bilal ( @fatimaamerbilalrbilal ) | A Poem Traveled Down My Arm, Alice Walker ( @randombookquotes ) | Lauren Zuniga ( @beautymyeyes-see ) | To a Young Poet, Mahmoud Darwish tr.  Fady Joudah | Poem Read At Joan Mitchell’s, Frank O'Hara ( @firstfullmoon ) | Upstream, Mary Oliver | (A Poem Is a) Naming Ceremony, Rena Priest

“I learned that the poem was made not just to exist, but to speak—to be company.”

The Heart Beats for Two, Fatima Aamer Bilal ( @fatimaamerbilalrbilal ) | A Poem Traveled Down My Arm, Alice Walker ( @randombookquotes ) | Lauren Zuniga ( @beautymyeyes-see ) | To a Young Poet, Mahmoud Darwish tr.  Fady Joudah | Poem Read At Joan Mitchell’s, Frank O'Hara ( @firstfullmoon ) | Upstream, Mary Oliver | (A Poem Is a) Naming Ceremony, Rena Priest

[propussyslayer]

Flight attendant: Please make sure all your small items are secured.

Sirius: Do you feel safe, buddy?

Regulus: I will murder you

[leighbaylee]

[deeeaahh]

[remusgirlie]

"You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me"

[luthienne]

Most experiences are unsayable; they become real to us in a space no word has entered.

Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet (tr. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

[ptimepoet]

[byoldervine]

Why You Should ‘Make Yourself’ Write (And How To Do It)

Most people who write for a hobby - especially the neurodivergent crowd - will write whenever they’re inspired, and many will be able to get an insane amount of writing done in one go, but then there’s a good while of writer’s block and low motivation/inspiration in between those bursts of creativity. You can see forcing yourself to write as something irrelevant to you; it’s just a hobby, so why burn yourself out forcing yourself to do it until it’s no longer fun?

The reason people say this, even for hobbyists, is so that you have some level of consistent progress; relying on random spikes in creativity or convenient hyperfocus isn’t a sustainable plan when it can either leave you burnt out after or leave you at a creative dead end for weeks or months between actual writing sessions

If you write consistently, you make progress consistently, so it’s good practice to make a habit out of using writing goals to keep you on track. Maybe you work best writing X amount of words, or maybe you prefer to write for X amount of time. Maybe you want to meet this goal every day, or maybe every few days, or maybe every week, or so on. I’m personally on 1000 words per week, and despite my autistic brain that thought I’d never be able to set and keep a consistent goal, I’ve been able to stick to it for nearly six months now. I also know people who are on 10 minutes per day, 100 words per week, 500 words every three days, 5000 words per month, etc

For me, being able to keep track of this not only means I get to see consistent progress being made, but it’s actually been really encouraging to see that word count go up so often and I’ve found that it motivates me to keep up with it. I’ve really enjoyed getting to work on this and having a minimum amount of progress per week really helps me feel like this is something real and something that’s slowly but surely going to be complete soon enough

Give it a try; say to yourself “if I want to achieve this goal, how long do I reasonably need to give myself to do it?” and have a go. After a few cycles it starts to register in your brain that, hey, you’re actually getting something done and being productive and watching that word count going up every day/week/etc! And don’t be afraid to change up your goal and your deadline if you think you’re not being challenged enough or if you’re starting to get burnt out on it - I’d consider it burning out when it’s consistently feeling less like a fun activity and more like a chore you have to do. It should still be fun!

[gnnosis]

“i’m trapped.”

[ dead poets society (1989) / chapter viii, chen chen / young royals 2x04 / the raven boys, maggie stiefvater / “rocks in my shoes” (unreleased), noah kahan / ted lasso 3x11 / welcome to nightvale, joseph fink & jeffrey cranor / “homesick,” noah kahan ]

[a-great-tragedy]

“I love your personality!”

Thanks, I stole it from a fanfic longer than the original piece of work it was based off of on ao3