#but like. i do

[aritany]

hi alex! I’ve always been in awe of your ability to write and finish first drafts at such good speed while having so much going on in your life. any tips for being able to write so prolifically?

hi anon! this is such a sweet message—thank you!

i do think it comes down to a few things in my nature (i LOVE to write and having an unfinished draft feels like having an open tab in my brain that drives me nuts) but there are definitely some external choices and strategies that help.

above all else, i write daily regardless of inspiration. i almost never sit down at the keyboard because i got inspired or motivated to, i sit down because that’s a part of every day. like any habit, this becomes easier with time.

secondly, it’s essential for me to remember that first drafts don’t have to be great. sometimes they are, and that’s cool. sometimes they’re severely lacking, and that’s also fine. a first draft’s only job is to exist and to be a skeleton that gets the story out and the baseline personalities onto the page. anything else is a bonus. the more you do it, the better your first drafts get. except for sometimes. but that’s what editing is for!

thirdly, but by far most importantly, i have an excellent cheerleading team. this doesn’t feel like something i do on purpose anymore, but i did work hard to build a community of close friends who also write and who have become incredible sources of inspiration. just last month @reininginthefirewriting came down for a writing retreat and helped crack open a huge mess in my brain that had become a mental block. @unlicensedmortician lives in my house (because we bonded so hard over what i’d been writing) and not only feeds me so i don’t have to worry about the meat suit, but also makes the impossible possible when i start getting weird in the brain. @ghostcasket is my partner both in writing and in life. another friend of mine helped me recover my voice after tradpub stripped it, and i got to hire them to be my paid editor for IWYW. (i met all four of them here on writeblr! go message that writer you like—it pays off) and that’s just to name a few. the last 4 years have brought incredible people into my life, and there would be many less drafts without them. (hi discord pocket family! love you guys)

i’ll also note: my familial obligations are much less than the average person. this is not for fun reasons, but it does help that within my own home writing mostly doesn’t have to bid for my attention against my immediate family.

also READ. read lots. nobody is joking when they tell you that helps. it’s so important. read in your genre and out of it. read EVERYTHING.

so: write when you don’t feel like it. let your first drafts be messy. invest in your writer friends. cut off your bigoted family i mean don’t do that. (or do.) READ.

i hope that helps!

[everythingwasnormalhere]

pls rb if you think cuddling doesn't have to be s3xual

im tryna prove a point to my bf's mother help me out

[soupevil]

Video of me trying to write the number 3 in professor layton game for 1 minute

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[just-spacetrash]

the 'what if you played it a little risky' post literally Changed my life but i cant fujkign find it in my blog because its. a tiktok screenshot

[cemeterything]

stuck between "psychological horror statement" and "objectively the funniest thing you could say to your real flesh and blood dad" in the father's day card aisle

[evidently-endless]

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

[thelaurenshippen]

watching bridgerton and obviously there were a lot of things wrong with the way socializing has worked in the past, but honestly the idea of a "calling hour" is so appealing. office hours for friendship. you can show up unannounced at my home between 1 and 3pm. you must leave by 3pm. I may give you a pastry. lets bring that back

[opiumvampire]

fuck w me

[cadaverkeys]

You guys rlly don't realise how much knowledge is still not committed to the internet. I find books all the time with stuff that is impossible to find through a search engine- most people do not put their magnum opus research online for free and the more niche a skill is the less likely you are to have people who will leak those books online. (Nevermind all the books written prior to the internet that have knowledge that is not considered "relevant" enough to digitise).

Whenever people say that we r growing up with all the world's knowledge at our fingertips...it's not necessarily true. Is the amount of knowledge online potentially infinite? Yes. Is it all knowledge? No. You will be surprised at the niche things you can discover at a local archive or library.

[etakeh]

[haunted-xander]

If you skip a meal Senshi will materialize next to you w/ food at the ready

[trudlejack]

(+part 2)

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[yakityyaku]

very funny (irritating) to me that everyone whined and yelled about stupid rainbow capitalism and how performative wokeness/allyship is a net bad we should all refuse to support and now like.

tumblr is doing nothing for pride and target isn't selling much (if any) of their pride collection offline except at certain stores (in democratic areas, basically) and build a bear has a much tinier collection than normal and all the actual pride stuff is on their "adult" website (not sure if it's in stores, but pride = adult is a hell of a message)

there are genuinely good criticisms for performative allyship in all its applications. it shouldn't be the only thing we expect from people and companies. but if all the shit I see being called performative stopped tomorrow then in terms of the LGBTQ+ community especially we just. wouldn't talk about queerness or queer issues or celebrate pride or do anything.

open your fucking eyes. we are very close politically to having gay marriage rolled back. now companies are basically being let off the hook to even make a miniscule effort (which matters to the people who don't have access to any other kind of support in their communities! which normalizes the community in public spaces!) because the only reaction they have gotten over the last few years are negative ones from BOTH sides.

we are so entrenched in discourse at all times for the sake of our OWN performance of who is the wokest and who is REALLY an ally or a good community member that we have basically handed over all the work of activists of the last several decades to the other side because we'd rather scream at each other over fucking chicken restaurants and shit than the real life backsliding that's happening.

and this goes for other shit too. feminism, poc rights, all of it.

also. trans rights aren't discourse and aren't just culture war arguments. in case any terfs think they can spin this to be antitrans.

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

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