#decided to bring this to liffe

[snug-gyu]

not my bias, not my bias wrecker, but a secret third thing

[skz-candy]

late night live

1:23 am

Candy wasn't paying attention. Not because she didn't care about the way music spoke to Chan, but because she had a lot more on her mind than what music did to her soul. The last three weeks or so were beyond confusing for her. She couldn't pay much attention to anything if left alone. She was grateful someone never left her alone.

Candy watched Chan, letting her thoughts drift unto her leader. She smiled to herself at the fact she had once been quite taken with him. Since he had started doing these Late Night Lives, as she liked to call them, she found herself wanting to be more like him and less with him. Her heart had beat a certain way for him and she knew that it was only as an older brother now.

Candy sighed softly, her thoughts going straight back to Jeongin. Her first boyfriend. As she saw it, he would probably be her only boyfriend ever. She didn't see herself as unlovable, but she knew how hard being an idol was and now new the pressure of what dating an idol could do to the mental state of someone. Jeongin had been insecure and scared, she knew that, but he handled it wrong. She didn't want to put that pressure on anyone else. She knew her worth and wouldn't dare let any man decide that for her, no matter how happy he made her.

"Hey Chan and Candy, I just got out of a relationship and I need some advice on how to move on. I see him a lot and I want to know the best way to get a step out, thank you!" Chan read, drawing Candy's attention to the live once again.   Candy went to open her mouth, but Chan beat her to it.

"I think the best way to deal with a break up, at first anyway, is to focus on yourself. A lot of people really worry on how the other person will respond to anything and everything you do - especially if you see them all the time. Take a deep breath, realize why it didn't work out, and pursue the things that make you happy. Surround yourself with people who always know how to make you feel better - even if your ex may not approve. You're broken up. They have no say.

"As for a few weeks later or maybe even a month or two, I suggest making sure you're happy. I don't mean like just in that moment, but over all. Break ups can hurt like heck, especially if the person meant so much to you. You deserve to not have them cliuding your thoughts all the time and prohibiting your life. Specifically, if you see them a lot, don't let that make yoy change any plans. See who you want, do what you want, et cetera. You are your own person, do what makes you happy.

"I think, after any break up, refinding what makes you happy and brings you joy is so important. Being yourself and having such an innate confidence when doing so will draw the right person, or no person if you prefer. Just do you, be you, and have fun," Chan concluded, looking back at Candy. "Anything you want to add?"

Candy was, for lack of a better word, shook.

"Uhm, the things of theirs that you have. If you really want to jump start the moving on, all you need to do is grt rid of their stuff. It'll hurt as you do it, but once it's gone there's no memories left laying around," Candy nodded, sighing softly. Chan smiled at her and went on, leaving her to think about what he said. It didn't last long before her phone vibrated.

Jisung: i was watching the live and wanted to check up on you?

Jisung: it really hit you, i can tell

Jisung: i'll quit blowing up your phone now :) just know i'm always here to talk!

Candy: wanna come join us?

Candy: it'd make me feel a lot better

Jisung: omw!!

-

Candy felt weirdly excited to see Jisung.  Although Jeongin claimed he had feelings for her, she never noticed the difference between friendly Jisung and in-love Jisung. She wondered, briefly, if there was a difference. That was shook away as Jisung entered the room. She knew without a doubt the resr of the live would be spectacular.

"Hey," Jisung mumbled, taking a seat on the other side of Chan. He shot Candy a smile, reminding her she was the reason he was here.

"Were you spying and decided to jump in?" Chan asked.

"Something like that," Jisung shrugged. "But what happened to the music? You played some a while ago."

"Can I play something?" Candy spoke up, clearly exciting the two boys. She moved to the computer and carefully thought about her choice for less than five seconds. Immediately, Jisung's face lit up.

"You're playing this?" He asked, laughing slightly.

"Is this something I shoukd know?" Chan mumbled, leaning forward.

"I felt I had to," Candy shrugged, laughing softly.

"Tribulation by Matt Maeson?" Chan looked at the two. "Why are you guys smiling like that?"

"We were listening to it when we met," Jisung started.

"Well, before you introduced us," Candy added.

"What was it? June? May?" Jisung hummed aloud.

"Late May, early June-ish," Candy nodded. " The monthly evaluation was approaching and I wanted to sing this time instead of dance. I was struggling to find a song so I was browsing through all the songs I had ever listened to - even just once - while also pacing the hallway."

"I, on the other hand, needed some inspiration for a song you desperately wanted me and Changbin to get a headstart on. I had this song in mind, but I couldn't remember the title. I turned the corner, head down to look at my phone, but quickly-"

"We collided," Candy finished, laughing.

"You guys met before I introduced you?" Chan frowned. "Why haven't you ever mentioned it?"

"It never seemed that important," Jisung stated. "Besides, you wouldn't have believed either of us at that point."

"That's true! It took him forever to believe I just couldn't rap. He thought because I could mumble syllables at a fast rate meant I could rap. I could barely breathe each time he made me do it," Candy shook her head. 'We should leave the rapping where it is."

"Wait, how exactly did you two know it was this song playing?" Chan questioned.

"Candy is a clutz," Jisung immediately said.

"Hey! You walked into me, remember?"

"No, I definitely stopped and you backed into me."

"Backed into you?? How!"

"Oh, as if you don't know. You were there!"

"Han Jisung, I swear," her tone was harsh, but she was smiling. Jisung could always make her smile, and she knew Chan wouldn't let it go.

"Okay, okay," Jisung laughed. " I turned the corner and we collided. We both dropped our phones and her headphones came out or she upped the volume or something. I immediately froze in my spot as she tried to gather her things. I was listening to that song."

"I didn't know who he was," Candy returned to the conversation. "But I was new and didn't want to cause any trouble. As I grabbed my things, I accidentally grabbed his phone and realized we were both playing the same song."

"She literally tossed me my phone and then sprinted away. The end," Jisung clasped his hands together.

"That was wild start to finish," Chan hummed, turning away from the two younger members.

Candy watched in silence as Jisung continued to interrupt Chan reading out comments. Jisung's smile was wide and bright. She liked seeing it, she knew that. She enjoyed having Jisung as her friend. She wouldn't trade him for the world.

-

"Thanks for joining the live," Candy said, sitting on the couch in the dorm with her juice box. Felix had gotten them so she knew he wouldn't mind.

"Of course! I'm your knight in shining armor, remember?" Jisung winked.

"I thougt we all called you Hero for a month?"

"Knight in shining armor sounds more elegant."

"What about hero in shining armor?"

"Beautiful."

"It's like three in the morning. We should head to bed."

"You don't seem as tired as me though."

"That's okay, goodnight Jisung."

"G'night Candy."

-

Candy laid in bed, eyes focused on the ceiling. She had been weirdly sleeping good since the breakup while it was clear Jeongin was not. Now it seemed the tables had flipped. She didn't like it.

Candy seemed to have even more things on her mind. Did Jisung actually love her? Was she over Jeongin? Could she really go perform love songs that held no meaning to her liffe anymore? Did she close the fridge door?

Candy rolled over and let out a sigh.

If only her mother was here.

[juliethebibliophile]

HEAD OVER HEELS APPRECIATION POST

I got to see the new musical Head Over Heels last night via Broadway Roulette last night and I was so pleasantly surprised? I didn’t really know anything about the show before that point, and when I heard what it was about I thought it would be fun but I didn’t know how much I’d absolutely love it! Now you could say I’m head over heels for Head Over Heels! So I’ve decided to compile a list of things I love about the show-my favorite moments, why I think everyone should love it, general thoughts, etc.

(SPOILERS BELOW-and a long post)

Okay so first of all the entire show was worth my money just for the opening number if nothing else because holy shit

As soon as the curtain started rising and I heard the opening notes to “We Got the Beat” I immediately knew I was about to be living my best life

The concept was so amazingly ridiculous? Arcadia set to the music of the Go-Gos? The Kingdom of Arcadia was gifted by the Gods with their sacred “beat”?

And yet, as ridiculous in an an enjoyable way it was, it was so well done that I enjoyed the story as a story, not just as a comedy

I saw the audience reacting this way as well, and that is an indicator of great storytelling in a show for me: the audience was so engaged

For example, every time Pamela and Mopsa would kiss, confess attraction, etc., the audience would cheer, and it happened at least once for the other couples as well

THE CHOREOGRAPHY

THE CHOREOGRAAAAPHYYYYYYYYYY

SPENCER LIFF HAS MY HEART

THE ENSEMBLE COSTUMES AND HOW THEY WERE ALL MADE OF A FABRIC PRINTED WITH A SHEET-MUSIC PATTERN I WAS IN LOVE

In terms of the scoring, the songs were woven very well into the plot. There was the occasional plot point that felt forced just for the sake of putting the song in(see Mopsa going to Lesbos just to sing “Vacation” and then immediately come back-and even in that case I can’t be mad cause I got to jam to “Vacation”) but for the most part it was done really well especially considering they were working with a pre-existing story

Some of the best examples of that I would say are “Good Girl” and “Our Lips are Sealed”

Also the continued use of “Mad About You” like not only was it done so well but it destroyed my emotions

Speaking of destroying my emotions, let’s talk about “this heartbeat I won’t unremember” because wow

EVERYTHING MOPSA AND PAMELA DID AND SAID

NAMELY WHEN PAMELA SINGS THE REPRISE OF “BEAUTIFUL” EXCEPT IT’S ABOUT MOPSA I DIED

“I’M MAD ABOUT THEM”

That brings me to the fact that there is a canon nonbinary character and that term is used as are they/them pronouns

And I loved how it was handled? Like they joked about it, because it’s a comedy, but the gender itself wasn’t the joke. Like they didn’t make fun of it. They made fun of Basilius being rude about it, and then just utilized the lightheartedness of Dametas singing “I’m mad about them” and even then the joke was more about how “Mad About You” was being sung yet again

And in the end Musidorus/Cleophila is not cis either it’s all so wonderfully diverse

And there was no plotline or jokes about others not accepting Pamela and Mopsa. Everyone was shocked at first, and there was the joke about Dametas not understanding it until the kissed, but no one rejected it. Philoclea and Musidorus/Cleophila accept it right away and celebrate with them, Basilius and Gynecia’s immediate reactions are “I have 3 daughters now” I loved it

On that note it made me so fucking happy that everyone in the musical got a happy ending, and it was just lighthearted

Like there was no edge, or darkness, or anything. Musidorus came back to life, they were able to save Arcadia despite not defeating the prophecies, and even the two broken relationships reconciled.

And in those former two cases, the men who were the reason for the relationships’ ruin fully admitted their mistakes and fully acknowledged the fact that they didn’t deserve or accept forgiveness

To the point where Basilius just started leaving without even asking Gynecia to give him a chance

But both Gynecia and Pythio basically said “you made these mistakes, but you’re trying and willing to learn and change and we love each other and we shouldn’t stop that.”

And through all that, even with a pure, practically drama-free, happy ending, there was this deep message about how love and acceptance and understanding will ultimately be out salvation in the end.

Like with the trend towards edgy and depressing in storytelling lately, in all mediums, it made me so happy to see a classic, fairytale-like “Happily Ever After” for everyone, while still remaining modern and progressive and not promoting any toxic ideas about relationships. It was done so. well.

On that note

“Here lies our theatre troupe, starved for lack of serious message.”

I ABOUT DIED

I GUESS WE’RE NOT EVEN BEING SUBTLE IN THAT DEPARTMENT ANYMORE

JUST @ THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING DIRECTLY NEXT TIME

Every time Mopsa and Pamela harmonized I added ten years to my life; Bonnie Milligan and Taylor Iman Jones are amazing

Also I loved the fact that because it was a Go-Gos musical they had an all female pit? And then the reveal of the pit in the finale? The audience went NUTS

Um in general I love this show with all my heart and soul

And there’s so much to love that I probably forgot a lot of things here

Please feel free to add on and thanks for coming to my TED Talk

[bern33chaser]

11 Writing Exercises to Inspire You and Strengthen Your Writing

Whether you’re writing just for fun, for school, or with professional goals in mind, these exercises can all help you to improve your writing. Some will give you inspiration, others will help you avoid editing as you write, and many of them will help you pay closer attention to your word choices.

I hope you’ll enjoy giving them a go!

#1: Cover Your Screen While You Write

If you find yourself doing more editing than actual writing, then try covering up (or, on a laptop, turning down) your screen while you draft.

If, like me, you can touch-type – try closing your eyes instead. I find it surprisingly relaxing! (Though I tend to stop every sentence or two to make sure I’ve hit the keys I thought I was hitting…)

At first, it might seem odd not to be able to see the words that you’re typing – but you might well find that you write faster and express your thoughts more freely this way.

#2: Set a Daily Writing Goal and Track Your Progress

Writing, as most other crafts, only gets better with practice. If you want to improve, therefore, you will need to write pretty much every single day.

The best strategy to achieve this objective is to set a goal of how many words you want to write per day, and then to track your progress over time. A simple notebook or spreadsheet should be enough for you to record your daily statistics.

The Prolifiko blog has a great piece with more tips to set writing goals and resolutions and to make sure you achieve them.

#3: Use a Writing Prompt to Get You Going

If you want to write, but you don’t know what you want to write, try using a writing prompt. This could be anything from a story scenario (“write about someone who gets caught in a lie”) to a blog post title (“Ten Things I Wish I Could Tell My 15-Year-Old Self”).

Here are a couple of sources of prompts to keep you busy for a while:

25 creative writing prompts, a list of prompts you can use to start writing a simple story or even a novel.

365 Creative Writing Prompts, from Think Written – a mixed bag of prompts, with some for stories and some for poems; many would also work for blogging.

Even if you’re working on a longer piece, like a novel, prompts can be helpful. A line of dialogue, for instance, might give you just the inspiration you need for your next scene.

#4: Don’t Start at the Beginning … Start at the End

There’s no writing rule that says you need to begin at the beginning. In fact, many writers find it more effective to start at the end.

You can do this in a couple of different ways:

Start your story (or blog post, etc) close to the chronological end – e.g. you might begin with “As I stared down the mountain, I couldn’t believe I was actually here…” You can then jump back in time and narrate the events that led up to that point.

Write the end of your blog post (or story, etc) first. Once you’ve written your concluding paragraphs or final scenes, you’ll know what you’re leading up to. If you prefer not to write it out in full, you could make notes.

#5: Rewrite a Masterpiece or a Famous Story

Choose a famous masterpiece or classic novel (like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) and write your own version.

This is a great exercise because you can do it at almost any level: you could write a short story for children, or you could write a whole novel or screenplay. (Bridget Jones’s Diary, for instance, borrowed heavily from Pride and Prejudice; the children’s movie Gnomeo and Juliet is based, as you might guess, on Romeo and Juliet.)

You can do this with fairytales, too, like the story of Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood. You might decide to bring the stories into the modern world – or you might switch to a completely different genre, like a Western version of Little Red Riding Hood or a sci-fi version of Cinderella.

Hopefully, you’ll think of some interesting ways to present an old story in a new way – great practice for avoiding clichés and stereotypes in your own writing.

#6: Create a Found Poem from Your Spam Folder

A “found poem” is one created from text that already exists – and some writers enjoy repurposing spam emails for this!

Check your spam folder. I’m sure that, like mine, it’s full of emails with some strange wording and dubious promises like:

I did not need to find a winning product. he gave it to me…

Just drinking 1 cup of this delicious hot beverage in the morning sets you up to burn more fat than 45 exhausting minutes on the treadmill.

Hello %E-mail_address%, I know your very love Engineer Jobs and want have T-Shirt for Engineer Jobs.

It is vital to have a telephone system that has all the specific functions

(All of these are taken verbatim from my own spam folder…)

Could you pick out a few lines (they don’t have to be consecutive ones) to create your own found poem? Feel free to add some words if needed. There are some wonderfully odd examples here.

#7: Write Something Inspired By a Piece of Writing, Music or Art

Inspiration can come in all sorts of ways – but if you’re struggling to find an idea, try turning to other people’s creative works. In my blogging, I’ve often been inspired by other people’s post structures, by an idea of theirs that I want to take further – or even by something they’ve written that I disagree with.

You can use music and art in a similar way: they can be particularly potent sources of ideas for stories. If you have a favourite song or artist, what in their work speaks to you? How could you craft a story using some of those themes or thoughts? Alternatively, look through some photos of artworks, and choose one or more to use as the basis for a story.

#8: Interview Your Novel’s Characters

This is a fun exercise that a lot of writers use to dig into who their characters are: the character interview. You can work through a pre-set list of questions, or you can come up with your own in advance, or you can just start typing and go with the flow!

You might do this essentially like a character questionnaire or checklist, or you might want to write it more like a mini-story, with you as the author inviting your character to sit down and talk.

Depending on the sort of fiction you write, the setting for your interview could be almost anything – perhaps you’re enjoying a casual chat over coffee and cake with your character, or maybe you’re interviewing them as a journalist, or even in court. Or, if you’re into rather darker fiction, you might be conducting an interrogation…

However you do this, it’s a great exercise to have fun with, and you might discover a whole backstory to your character that you’d never thought about before.

#9: Use the Alphabet

This is a fun exercise that can work for almost any type of writing: craft a piece where each sentence starts with the next letter of the alphabet. Here’s the start of one to show you what I mean:

At six o’clock, Josie woke up. Before she’d even opened her eyes, she knew what had woken her: she could hear it, just like she’d heard it every Friday morning for months. Cliff, her neighbour, was out in his garden. Despite all the times she’d gone round and asked him, through gritted teeth, to please wait until at least seven, he was mowing the blasted lawn again.

“Excuse me!” she called, over the fence. For a moment, she thought he hadn’t heard her over the sound of the mower.

(Yes, it’s tricky once you get to X! You might find this list helpful, or you might choose to use a sentence-starting word that merely contains an X.)

#10: Write with a Sentence Length Limit in Place

Can you limit every sentence you write to ten words? (Or fewer!) This might be tricky. It’s a great exercise for bloggers and online marketers, though. Short snappy sentences and paragraphs work well online.

You might want to draft as normal, then edit ruthlessly. Or you could count the words as you type. Whatever works for you!

(Yes, the sentences in this section are ten words max…)

#11: Write Without Using Any Adverbs

This is a common exercise advised for fiction writers: write a whole scene without using a single adverb.

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They often (though not always) end with –ly.

Here are a few sentences with the adverbs indicated in bold:

The girl walked quickly to school. (“Quickly” is modifying the verb “walked”.)

Slowly, the fairly tall man stood.  (“Slowly” is modifying the verb “stood”, and “fairly” is modifying the adjective “tall”)

On the bus, the baby cried dismayingly loudly. (“Dismayingly” is modifying the adverb “loudly”, and “loudly” is modifying the verb “cried”.)

Writing without adverbs forces you to write crisper, clearer (and shorter!) sentences, which often have more impact. In particular, you’ll find yourself choosing stronger verbs.

All of these sentences could replace “The girl walked quickly to school” – and each has a slightly different nuance:

The girl strode to school.

The girl hurried to school.

The girl power-walked to school.

Of course, adverbs aren’t bad in themselves – so I don’t recommend avoiding them in all your writing! This exercise can help you, though, to be more aware of when you’re using adverbs unnecessarily.

—

Pick one of the above exercises to try out during your writing time this week. (If you’re feeling up for it, pick two and combine them – how about rewriting a classic without using any adverbs?) Have fun!

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Original post: 11 Writing Exercises to Inspire You and Strengthen Your Writing from Daily Writing Tips https://www.dailywritingtips.com/11-writing-exercises/