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idolizerp · 6 years

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[ LOADING INFORMATION ON GALAXY’S MAIN VOCALIST HWAN…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 20 DEBUT AGE: 17 SKILL POINTS: 13 VOCAL | 07 DANCE | 00 RAP | 10 PERFORMANCE

INTERVIEW

the little prince.

now, really, midas media couldn’t have come up with a better brand even if they had tried. the little prince was a household name: shot straight out of the stars, wide-eyed, cradling his beating, tender heart. dropped on this earth to question a world of grown-ups, who had all forgotten what was truly important in their every day lives. "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” so the novel had said. “what is essential is invisible to the eye.“

and what did the heart see?

midas’ heart set its sights on the one and only lee hwan. lee hwan, the poster child for Everything An Idol Should Be. lee hwan, the veteran trainee. lee hwan, the resident baby genius. cut from only the best cloth, hwan had always been destined for greatness – and, even before galaxy’s debut, he would go on to carry the title of midas media’s ‘little prince’ with pride and unabashed confidence. he was the trainee with his own fanclub, after all. the highly anticipated galaxy’s very own golden boy.

( so where had it all gone wrong? )

galaxy debuts in 2014. during the months prior, marketing had worked hard to keep his fans fed. it was hwan’s face that would pop up first in that green search engine and antoine de saint-exupéry’s novel would take home that loss. the public knew his face, the public knew his name. the public knew lee hwan, the little prince – …but who the hell was galaxy anyway?

the group’s debut was underwhelming at most. the ball was slow to start and it took more effort than they had ever anticipated to get it rolling. galaxy’s golden boy could only get them so far. and with the fanbase that did bloom, fans gushing over their little prince ( “he’s too pure! he’s too good for this world!” ), so grew his critics, as well ( “man, midas favors him. look at that line distribution. he can’t even sing that well?” ). lee hwan, the poster child for all idols. lee hwan, with his angelic face and tender voice. lee hwan, who had always been told that he had enough stage charisma to swallow up an entire audience whole –

yeah. no. lee hwan, the little prince, was pretty fucking disappointed.

and, needless to say, midas media was too.

( but hwan hadn’t given up everything for this. he hadn’t sacrificed his time, his effort, and his life for this. five years as a trainee. transplanted from masan, changwon-si, separated from his mother and his father and everything he had ever known. denied a normal childhood in the hopes of a legacy. promised greatness but shoved into the backseat at the first sign of mediocrity. no, hwan hadn’t signed up for this. and he wasn’t about to go down without a fight. )

hwan worked hard. carried the weight of his title like a shroud and worked really, really – really – fucking hard. weathered the negative feedback on his vocals, endured the company’s sudden reluctance to have him involved in album production. smiled like an angel for the cameras and jumped in with clever one-liners for the variety crowds. he fought tooth and nail, with that perfect, perfect face of his, to make a name for himself. to salvage his group. to endorse his members. to survive in an industry that worked like a goddamn revolving door.

because, let’s face it, if midas wasn’t going to save galaxy’s supposed golden boy, then lee hwan would do it himself. the little prince was his title – and he’d protect that goddamn crown until the very, bitter end.

BIOGRAPHY

circa 2009.

“is this really what you want to do, hwan-ah?”

hwan stares up at the gleaming building before him and swallows around the lump in his throat. his mother’s hand is too cold in his and he can feel his father’s gaze prickling at the nape of his neck. questioning him. doubting him.

hwan squares his shoulders. stands up as tall as he can.

“yes. i love music. i love singing,” he answers firmly. fake bravado saves him and he prays that his hand isn’t shaking in hers. “yes!”

three hours later, he presses a shaky, ink-stained thumb to a paper filled with too many words he does not understand. his father’s gaze is unreadable. his mother’s mouth twists as if she might cry. hwan drags his ink-stained thumb along the curve of her mouth and smiles when he stains her bottom lip red.

“please don’t cry,” is all that he says.

this is what i want, is what he hopes she hears, instead. i promise.

ii.

circa 2010.

he rolls his ankle first. his shoulder injury comes the week after.

most injuries could be brushed off – but the shoulder turns out to be tricky. hwan cannot wear it like the other bruises he hides beneath his hoodies and it refuses to be fixed by a trusty salon pas patch from the convenience store down the street – and so, finally, he relents on the seventh day.

the doctor sets his shoulder in a matter of minutes. eyes his ankle and leaves to update his medical chart. his aunt watches, teary-eyed, from the foot of the hospital bed – but hwan is no stranger to pain and manages to smile shakily by the end of it all. the nurse offers him a small sticker for his efforts.

“you were very brave,” she praises him warmly.

hwan returns the smile. wide and crooked.

“it didn’t even hurt!” he lies. “i’m used to worse!”

this earns him a curious smile. his aunt clears her throat.

“he’s a trainee,” she clarifies. “a trainee at midas media. he’s in his first – no, his second year. injuries… are common. he – he dances a lot.”

“ah,” the nurse clicks her tongue, peeling off another sticker from her roll. she presses it onto hwan’s cheek, now, with a grin. “then here’s one more for you. please don’t forget me when you become a big superstar, hwan-gun!”

“i won’t!” he laughs brightly, rubbing at the sticker on his face. “you and my aunt can join my fanclub as soon as it opens! i’ll make sure you’re the first ones! i’ll even sing for you two when you join!”

the nurse nearly presses her entire roll of stickers into his palms after.

iii.

circa 2011.

“you wrote this?”

hwan can’t tell if he’s in trouble or not. he tucks his hands behind his back respectfully and straightens up just in case.

“yes. yes, i did.”

yongguk stares at the tattered notebook in his hands, hwan’s headphones still dangling from one of the pages. he itches to reach for it but holds himself back. wills himself to stay put, hands politely folded, his expression schooled into the closest thing to neutral as he can make it.

“this…” yongguk starts, voice unbelieving. “hwan-ah, this is…”

he finally looks up from the notebook and meets the young trainee’s gaze. hwan isn’t sure what exactly the producer is looking for but yongguk searches his face like he’s looking for the path to enlightenment in hwan’s crooked wire-rimmed glasses.

“this is really… really… really – good,” he finally breathes out. he slowly sits down. steals hwan’s usual spot against the bookcase but doesn’t even seem to notice. his eyes are already back on the notebook, thumb smoothing over half-finished lyrics, written in hwan’s messy scrawl. “how long have you been writing your own music, kid?”

hwan (he’s pretty sure, now, that he isn’t in trouble. probably. hopefully.) takes an uncertain seat down beside the older man. rubs at the back of his neck and wrinkles his nose.

“i don’t know?” he replies truthfully. “since the beginning? before i came here. before i started. i don’t know. i can’t remember the first song i made. i think i’m just always making music. i’m always listening to something. i always wanna listen to something. i’ve never… i never thought someone else would wanna hear it too.”

yongguk’s voice turns reverent and he reaches out eagerly for the boy’s wrist. pulls him in closer. motions towards the mp3 player and the dangling earbuds.

“let me listen again,” he asks earnestly. sincerely. hwan feels something swell in his chest that he can’t quite place his finger on. it feels like pride. pride in being praised? pride in being heard? his head swims and he feels lightheaded with emotion when yongguk tugs at his wrist again. “let me listen one more time?”

yes, i love music! i love singing!

the memory echoes in his ears and, as yongguk eagerly hits play, hwan suddenly realizes that he wants to add one more thing to that list.

i love music. i love singing.

but i think i might love making music – and letting people listen to it – even more.

iv.

circa 2012.

"is that lee hwan?”

“the lee hwan? midas’ lee hwan?”

“oh my god, he’s even better looking in person.”

“kinda short though, don’t you think? i read in a daum cafe that he’s not even 160cm! maybe that’s why he still hasn’t debuted. they’re waiting for him to grow a few more centimeters, kekeke.”

“shh, what if he hears you?”

“he can’t hear anything, he has headphones in –”

hwan rolls his eyes and sits up straighter. taller. his shoulder aches at the sudden movement and he rests his head against the bus’ glass windowpane for support. the city is speeding by, the sun melting into the concrete horizon up ahead. the school girls to his left fall away and he tilts his chin up, letting the light kiss his face.

he forgets about practice, he forgets about his shoulder. he forgets about the questioning, prying, curious eyes to his left and to his right – maybe that’s why he still hasn’t debuted yet? kekeke – and simply lets the sunset swallow him up whole.

circa 2013.

“is that the best you can do?”

jungah ssaem’s gaze is unforgiving and hwan bristles beneath it. yesterday, this had been enough. yesterday, jungah ssaem had praised him for being great.

“did i do something wrong?” he counters, meeting her glare with his own. if he was older, he would’ve resisted. if he was smarter, he wouldn’t have started at all. but lee hwan is sixteen years old with an ego that barely makes it through the front door and he isn’t about to take shit from a vocal trainer who had failed out of a girl group seven years prior. “i thought i sounded fine.”

jungah’s eyes narrow.

“you sound the same as you did yesterday,” she replies curtly. “did you even practice the points i told you to review?”

hwan is unimpressed and unfazed. he flops back down onto the piano bench and rolls his shoulders back, rubbing at an aching spot with a frown.

“i don’t agree with the points you wanted me to practice,” he answers simply. “if i add in the adlib you want, it makes me sound old. this way is trendier. it sounds better like this.”

“lee hwan, are you really that–”

“good?” hwan lifts his gaze to meet the older woman’s. levels it steadily and yawns once. “yes. i am. i know what sounds good. yongguk hyung already approved, too. i’m keeping it this way. i sound better this way.”

if looks could kill, jungah ssaem would’ve murdered him, right then and there.

luckily, she can’t. obviously, she won’t. not if she wants to keep this job. not as long as lee hwan fucking sits on his stupid throne.

hwan yawns again and reaches for his headphones.

“are we done here?”

vi.

circa 2014.

“i’m proud of you, hwan-ah.”

his mother is shaking and hwan moves to pull her closer. gathers her in his arms and presses his cheek to the top of her head. his limbs are clumsy. he hasn’t held her (she hasn’t held him) since he was a child and he isn’t sure what to do with his elbows. she leans into him anyway.

“you looked so good up there on stage, honey,” she whispers into the collar of his shirt. he can hear his members hollering behind him. “i’m so, so proud of you.”

the words smooth over his heart like a balm.

like a sunset on a bus in june, it warms him from the inside out. fills out the cracked, broken parts of himself. soothes the ache in his shoulder that burns more from bitterness than injury, better than any medication could. i’m so proud of you. he thinks it might make up for the years lost, too. the graduation he missed, the friends he hasn’t seen. i’m so proud of you. does it make up for his father’s absence? does it make up for the years he spent sweating, crying, bleeding alone, in practice rooms meant for five but could only allow one? the disappointment, the hope, the gossip, the hate. his crippling pride and the soul-crushing competition. is it enough to make up for it all? is it enough for him?

i’m so proud of you.

yes, hwan thinks with a slow exhale. yes, it is.

i love music, i love singing!

“this is what i always wanted, remember?” hwan breathes in his mother’s perfume. tightens his grip around her and tries to hold his broken family together in his arms. “this is what i want. this is what i’ve always wanted.”

i’m so proud of you, lee hwan.

vii.

circa 2015.

the first headline reads: much-awaited galaxy debut! overshadowed by produce 101′s breakout season finale?

the second: midas media speaks out on declining record sales. olympus will save the kpop wave!

hwan drops the third ( who is galaxy – ) without even bothering finishing reading the title. his drink is sour and the sunset has been long finished.

he stares outside the black, empty window, regardless.

viii.

circa 2016.

(he didn’t fucking sign up for this.)

ix.

circa 2017.

“lee hwan,” jungah smiles coolly, raising her coffee cup to him from across the hall.

hwan grits his teeth and forces himself to stop, dipping his head in a brief, uncomfortable bow. her smile only grows.

“i heard this unit doesn’t include you?” she taps a finger against the cardboard cup and hums, sing-song. “what’s yongguk doing – not including you on this track? seems strange not to include the main vocalist, don’t you think?”

“this concept isn’t–” hwan suddenly snaps his mouth shut. swallows down the words. the defensive retort that had threatened to tumble out. it burns down his throat like the very coffee in jungah’s hands.

“what? cat got your tongue?” her mouth is twisted in a pleased, unnatural smile. she nods her head towards him dismissively. motioning for him to leave. motioning for him to keep fucking going.

“don’t worry,” she laughs down the hall as she heads towards the elevator. “…we’re done here, lee hwan.”

ix.

circa 2018.

“hwan, i didn’t know you were so clever!”

“your face is a gift from the heavens, to be honest.”

“your recent unit project was done so well, hwan. i heard you’re interested in participating in the actual production for the next one? fascinating!”

“i saw you on that variety show yesterday! you did great, honey.”

“hwan! lee hwan! can i please have your autograph!”

“my son actually told me the other day that he wants to become a singer because of you. he saw you and told me he wanted to become an idol, just like you, bless his heart. can you believe it?”

“hwan – lee hwan!”

i love music! i love singing!

this is what he wants.

whether he’s twelve, or fifteen, or twenty fucking years old.

this is what he wants!

even when he’s loved. even when he’s cast aside.

this is what he wants?

…right?

#id.bio #id.galaxy #id.midas #id.park jihoon

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alayne-stonecoldfox · 7 years

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20 book questions, tagged by @petyrbaelishs thank you!

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

A couple of Rupert childrens books. They were published in 1956 and 1958 and belonged to my dad when he was little and then he kept them for me, and I still have them.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

Current read: Transactions by Ali Alizadeh, last read: Harry potter and the prisoner of askaban, book ill read next: one from the huge pile I bought but have yet to get to eep

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

Idk, maybe the Hobbit? couldnt stand that book, had to read it for school. I think i read it with my eyes closed because I can’t remember a thing that happened, I was not engaged.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

Gone with the wind. I have a lovely hard bound cloth copy I got dirt cheap at a used book sale, but...its so...big...

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

Counte of Monte Cristo. Loved the movie. the books the size of a inner city rental. ill get there one day.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Im awful, I read the end first or i flip and start somewhere and get sucked in at that point and realise ive read 50 pages out of context, im the worst. Im to nosy, I want to know what happens . right. now

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

I dont really read them often but its the authors book, they can put in what they want

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

I probably sound mad, but Sansa. I KNOW all shes gone through but I just love her, and want to wear a pretty gown with my long red hair and run through castle halls, the fairest maid

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

The curious incident of a dog in the nighttime. I read it non-stop till i was done in a couple days, sneaking it into my year 7 class under the table, i read it while walking home, everything else was just secondary to wanting to read. Thinking of that book takes me back to the time in my live when I just loved reading that much.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

I have a few books from when my mum worked at a publishing house, and I would get to go to book signings and meet authors and get signed copies.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I've given books away to my little second cousins. Actually, just a couple months ago, they were having a big book clear out and were ready to throw away two old ones, a bugs bunny annual which again I think belonged to my dad and was printed around the 60′s, and another one, which i was like...well...Ill just take these back then lmao. I’m sure they enjoyed them for a time.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

everything on my kindle?

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

as said before, I hated the hobbit, but maybe i wouldn’t hate it now? Idk, not too tempted to try again really. I don’t want to read looking for alibrandi again either. I only took general english, I wasnt smart enough for Literature, so we didn’t get as good a books.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

a squished silverfish.

15. Used or brand new?

Used because they’re cheeeappeeer

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

I’ve not read a stephen king book

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

does sex and the city count?

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

The other Boleyn girl. Bye scarjo. I adore that book.

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Its grim, but maybe mao’s last dancer. The chapters of him and his family starving from poverty its just like...jesus i need to go and appreciate food.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

My heaux friends who know exactly the types of tropes I like, because we’re all the same brand of gnasty

I tag @baelishv @ariannenymerosmartell @dubiousruffian @catladyofthecanals @pettyr @selmagravys

#ask meme #me #I should be...working on an assignment...#oops

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ten-and-donna · 7 years

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ALL 53 :V

OH GOD HERE WE GO :V

1. What do you put on hotdogs? Just ketchup and mustard. This gal doesn’t have the patience or the will to attempt to handle an overladen hot dog.

2. Do you say “anticlimatic” or “anticlimactic”? “Anticlimactic”, and it genuinely pained me to write “anticlimatic”.

3. Do you check flyers before grocery shopping? No, I don’t, but honestly, I probably should.

4. Blue, black, or some other color pen ink? Black usually, but blue if it’s the only one available.

5. Do you use your parking brake? YES. I have seen what happens when that thing isn’t used. Not pretty. Not fun. Parking brake for me, please.

6. Look to your left. How many framed pictures are there on the wall? On the wall, none. There’s one sitting on top of a bin, though. (signed picture of Orlando Bloom as Legolas. I had a crush.)

7. Do you know how to play chess? Yes. The real question is “Can I play well?” to which the answer is a resounding NOOOOOOOOOO.

8. How often do you clean the interior of your car? Not often at all, seeing as I don’t have one anymore.

9. Do you ever read the last few pages first? Never on purpose, but I leaf through pages idly and sometimes spoil things for myself like a NOOB.

10. Ever fallen in the shower? YES, and lemme tell you, THAT SHIT HURTS.

11. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to swear at other drivers? PRETTY FUCKIN’ LIKELY, ‘SPECIALLY IF THEY DON’T USE THEIR GODDAMN BLINKERS!

12. What’s the worst thing you’ve called someone you cared about? I hate to admit it, but I have called an ex (who I was dating at the time) a bitch, though in recent years I have made sure to check my emotions at the door in very tense moments, so I thankfully have avoided that kind of insult.

13. Do you have a Snuggie? A Snuggie? In this economy? Lol nope.

14. Are you allergic to anything? OH LORDY AM I! Three types of grass, two types of tree, latex, codeine, and POSSIBLY FRICKLE-FRACKIN’ GLUTEN.

15. Do you have any TV shows on DVD? I have the first season of Criminal Minds, which I still count among the greatest seasons of television ever created.

16. How many times do you hit the snooze button before getting out of bed? Out? of? bed? What is this “out of bed” you speak of? No but seriously, I hit that shit at least twice.

17. Ever driven away in anger? Can’t say for sure, but I’m an angry person, so probably.

18. What’s your favorite freezie color? BLUE ALL THE WAY

19. Are you a vegetarian? Vegan, in fact, about five-and-a-half years running.

20. Do you have a garbage receptacle beside you? What’s on top? not directly beside, but a couple feet away, and nothing but the lid.

21. Do you cross out your mistakes or erase/whiteout them? It depends. If I’m using pen, I’ll cross them out. Pencil, I’ll erase. If it’s important though, like a card or a letter, I’ll usually start all the way over on a sheet/card.

22. Ever torn something up that you instantly knew was too important for such treatment? Almost guaranteed, but I don’t recall any instance in particular.

23. Do you think that things will get better? Okay well that’s an interesting thing to ask, because yes and no. I’ve dealt with depression all my life, and am struggling particularly recently, so my instant answer is “no are you kidding?” but the fact that I’m able to nail that down as a symptom of my depression means that logically I am able to say “yes, absolutely, in time”.

24. Do you have an unpopular opinion? Oh shit, an unpopular opinion? On Tumblr? Do you want me to be banished? No but seriously, “unpopular” is so subjective, and honestly, I’ve stopped giving two flying fucks what’s a “popular opinion”, which I wholeheartedly encourage amongst all my followers. Don’t care what’s “popular”. Care what’s right. But if I must: “health days” at businesses, where they shut down elevators for the day to “promote exercise” should be illegal, period, end of sentence.

25. What’s your favorite quote? I honestly have so many quotes that I love. So many. If I really gotta choose, it’s actually a pretty simple one, from my favorite book of all time, The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. ““Yes, I suppose I am,” Kvothe said, and his voice had iron in it.” I won’t say any more on the context. It just sticks with me even all these years later, “and his voice had iron in it” LIKE HOW AWESOME IS THAT WORD CHOICE?

26. Did you/are you going to prom? Yes, I did, three years, actually. I was dating someone one year ahead of me and was able to go to her junior prom when I was a sophomore. Not nearly all it’s cracked up to be.

27. What’s the most physically painful thing you’ve ever experienced? One night, a few years ago, I was lying in bed, and literally all of a sudden, I had the sharpest pain in my stomach. I was doubled over. I was cursing at my mom in pain. I was in tears. Went to the emergency room. NO ONE EVER KNEW WHAT WAS WRONG. Never happened again. Freaks me out to this day.

28. What’s the most emotionally/mentally painful thing you’ve ever experienced? Falling in love with someone who didn’t fall in love with me.

29. Have you ever legitimately saved a person’s life? Well, I played a part in the saving of one life, but I wouldn’t put it so directly.

30. What’s your favorite book genre? FANTASYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

31. Did you like “Gigli”? Be honest. Honestly, never saw it. Don’t care. If I don’t ever see it, I won’t count it a loss.

32. Have you ever walked out of a movie at the theatre? Walked? No. Wheeled? Yes. I mean, that is how one leaves a movie, is it not? Otherwise, I’d still be in the theatre for Lion King. Have I ever wheeled out in the middle of the movie? Probably, but I don’t recall (do you notice something about me? I don’t remember shit well)

33. Do you peek between your fingers during the scary scenes? NOPE! I’m either glued to it or muh eyes are SHUT TIGHT.

34. What was your reaction to Tatum getting killed whilst stuck in the pet door in Scream? Never saw it, not gonna.

35. Do dogs like you? They’re often scared of my wheelchair, especially small ones, but if they can get past it, they love me.

36. Would you say you project an air of authority? Not even close, y’all. Not even close.

37. Do people listen when you speak? The people I keep around do.

38. How are your elbows? Are they okay? Dry as hell in summer and anxious for the return of Stranger Things, but otherwise fine.

39. What is one thing that you do exceptionally well? Be honest. Writing. I love it, and when I have the spoons, it’s all I wanna do, so I’ve gotten pretty dern talented if I do say so myself.

40. Do you use torrents? HOW DARE YOU INSINUATE SUCH DISHONOR UPON MY NAME?

41. When was the last time you paid for music? Technically, this month, when my Spotify subscription was renewed.

42. Are you addicted to technology? I’ve never been diagnosed with it officially, but I don’t like to rule things like that out. Anything is possible.

43. Pick a person (you don't need to give their name). How do you feel about them? Be as honest as you can get yourself to be. Okay so I got this friendo I met on here (super specific, I know) but like, they’re an incredible badass, and honestly every time they post anything, it makes me smile and idk I love them so much and they’re an incredible listener, and adorable, and kind, and always inspiring me to push through. They go through a lot of shit, but they’re always looking forward, and I think that is an amazing way to be.

44. Do you check your computer's dictionary for the definition of words you'd otherwise feel confident about using during in-person interactions? Just to be sure? Oh god, not nearly as often as I should.

45. How heavily do you rely on spellcheck and autocorrect? When typing on a computer, not much. on my phone, a helluva lot.

46. Have you ever gotten into an argument on the internet? Did you win? I don’t go into arguments looking for “wins”. I look to stick to what I know to be true, try to open myself to the possibility that I’m not, and being as close to true as possible by the end of the encounter.

47. Do you pause movies/TV shows if you have to go to the bathroom or the kitchen, or do you just let them keep playing? It depends on whether I’ve seen it before. If so, I’ll probably let it run. If not, you bet your ass I’m pausing.

48. If you use a regular alarm clock, do you have it set to music or that obnoxious beeping? I have it set to music from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

49. Peter Pan? Yes? What about him? He’s an overrated character in an overrated story.

50. How often do you fall up the stairs? Seeing as I almost never encounter stairs, not very often.

51. Do you pronounce "anti" as ant-eye or ant-ee? (Example: "That scene was very anticlimactic.") Both, depending on the moment. I’m not a prescriptivist when it comes to most pronunciations. (don’t you dare get me started on “gif” though)

52. Do you pronounce "via" as vee-uh or vie-uh? (Example: "We can get there via Tremont Street.") Vee-uh. Not sure why that one’s so consistent.

53. How often do you forget to close your parentheses? More often than I care to admit.

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writingguide003-blog · 5 years

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44 Writing Hacks From Some of the Greatest Writers Who Ever Lived

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/44-writing-hacks-from-some-of-the-greatest-writers-who-ever-lived/

44 Writing Hacks From Some of the Greatest Writers Who Ever Lived

Writing looks fun, but doing it professionally is hard. Like really hard. Why on earth am I doing this?-hard.

Which is probably why so many people want to write, yet so few actually do. But there are ways to make it easier, as many writers can tell you. Tricks that have been discovered over the centuries to help with this difficult craft.

In another industry, these tricks would be considered trade secrets. But writers are generous and they love to share (often in books about writing). They explain their own strategies for how to deal with writers block to how to make sure your computer never eats your manuscript. They give away this hard-won knowledge so that other aspiring writers wont have to struggle in the same way. Over my career, Ive tried to collect these little bits of wisdom in my commonplace book (also a writers trick which I picked up from Montaigne) and am grateful for the guidance theyve provided.

Below, Ive shared a collection of writing hacks from some amazing writers like Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Stephen King, Elizabeth Gilbert, Anne Lamott, and Raymond Chandler. I hope its not too presumptuous but I snuck in a few of my own too (not that I think Im anywhere near as good as them).

Anyway, heres to making this tough job a tiny bit easier!

[*] When you have an idea for an article or a bookwrite it down. Dont let it float around in your head. Thats a recipe for losing it. As Beethoven is reported to have said, If I don’t write it down immediately I forget it right away. If I put it into a sketchbook I never forget it, and I never have to look it up again.

[*] The important thing is to start. At the end of John Fantes book Dreams from Bunker Hill, the character, a writer, reminds himself that if he can write one great line, he can write two and if he can write two he can write three, and if he can write three, he can write forever. He pauses. Even that seemed insurmountable. So he types out four lines from one of his favorite poems. What the hell, he says, a man has to start someplace.

[*] In fact, a lot of writers use that last technique. In Tobias Wolffs autobiographical novel Old School, the character types the passages from his favorite books just to know what it feels like to have those words flow through his fingertips. Hunter S. Thompson often did the same thing. This is another reason why technologies like ebooks and Evernote are inferior to physical interaction. Just highlighting something and saving it to a computer? Theres no tactile memory there.

[*] The greatest part of a writers time is spent in reading; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. Samuel Johnson

[*] Tim Ferriss has said that the goal for a productive writing life is two crappy pages a day. Just enough to make progress, not too ambitious to be intimidating.

[*] They say breakfast (protein) in the morning helps brain function. But in my experience, thats a trade-off with waking up and getting started right away. Apparently Kurt Vonnegut only ate after he worked for 2 hours. Maybe he felt like after that hed earned food.

[*] Michael Malice has advised dont edit while you write. I think this is good advice.

[*] In addition to making a distinction between editing and writing, Robert Greene advises to make an equally important distinction between research and writing. Trying to find where youre going while youre doing it is begging to get horribly lost. Writing is easier when the research is done and the framework has been laid out.

[*] Nassim Taleb wrote in Antifragile that every sentence in the book was a derivation, an application or an interpretation of the short maxim he opened with. THAT is why you want to get your thesis down and perfect. It makes the whole book/essay easier.

[*] Break big projects down into small, discrete chunks. As I am writing a book, I create a separate document for each chapter, as I am writing them. Its only later when I have gotten to the end that these chapters are combined into a single file. Why? The same reason it feels easier to swim seven sets of ten laps, than to swim a mile. Breaking it up into pieces makes it seem more achievable. The other benefit in writing? It creates a sense that each piece must stand on its own.

[*] Embrace what the strategist and theorist John Boyd called the draw-down period. Take a break right before you start. To think, to reflect, to doubt.

[*] On being a writer: All the days of his life he should be reading as faithfully as his partaking of food; reading, watching, listening. John Fante

[*] Dont get caught up with pesky details. When I am writing a draft, I try not to be concerned with exact dates, facts or figures. If I remember that a study conducted by INSERT UNIVERSITY found that XX% of businesses fail in the first FIVE/SIX? months, thats what I write (exactly like that). If I am writing that on June XX, 19XX Ronald Reagan gave his famous Tear Down This Wall speech in Berlin in front of XX,XXX people, thats how its going to look. Momentum is the most important thing in writing, so Ill fill the details in later. I just need to get the sentences down first. “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” is how Joshua Wolf Shenk put it.

[*] Raymond Chandler had a trick of using small pieces of paper so he would never be afraid to start over. Also with only 12-15 lines per page, it forced economy of thought and actionwhich is why his stuff is so readable.

[*] In The Artists Way, Julia Cameron reminds us that our morning pages and our journaling dont count as writing. Just as walking doesnt count as exercise, this is just priming the pumpits a meditative experience. Make sure you treat it as such.

[*] Steven Pressfield said that he used to save each one of his manuscripts on a disk that hed keep in the glovebox of his car. Robert Greene told me he sometimes puts a copy of his manuscript in the trunk of his car just in case. I bought a fireproof gun safe and keep my stuff in therejust in case.

[*] My editor Niki Papadopoulos at Penguin: Its not what a book is. Its what a book does.

[*] While you are writing, read things totally unrelated to what youre writing. Youll be amazed at the totally unexpected connections youll make or strange things youll discover. As Shelby Foote put it in an interview with The Paris Review: I cant begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else.

[*] Writing requires what Cal Newport calls deep workperiods of long, uninterrupted focus and creativity. If you dont give yourself enough of this time, your work suffers. He recommends recording your deep work time each dayso you actually know if youre budgeting properly.

[*] Software does not make you a better writer. Fuck Evernote. Fuck Scrivner. You dont need to get fancy. If classics were created with quill and ink, youll probably be fine with a Word Document. Or a blank piece of paper. Dont let technology distract you. As Joyce Carol Oates put it in an interview, Every writer has written by hand until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming this is the process that results in writing, rather than the way in which the writing is recorded.

[*] Talk about the ideas in the work everywhere. Talk about the work itself nowhere. Dont be the person who tweets Im working on my novel. Be too busy writing for that. Helen Simpson has Faire et se taire from Flaubert on a Post-it near her desk, which she translates as Shut up and get on with it.

[*] Why cant you talk about the work? Its not because someone might steal it. Its because the validation you get on social media has a perverse effect. Youll less likely to put in the hard work to complete something that youve already been patted (or patted yourself) on the back for.

[*] When you find yourself stuck with writers block, pick up the phone and call someone smart and talk to them about whatever the specific area youre stuck with is. Not that youre stuck, but about the topic. By the time you put your phone down, youll have plenty to write. (As Seth Godin put it, nobody gets talkers block.)

[*] Keep a commonplace book with anecdotes, stories and quotes you can always usefrom inspiration to directly using in your writing. And these can be anything. H.L. Mencken for example, would methodically fill a notebook with incidents, recording scraps of dialogue and slang, columns from the New York Sun.

[*] As you write down quotes and observations in your commonplace book, make sure to do it by hand. As Raymond Chandler wrote, when you have to use your energy to put words down, you are more apt to make them count.

[*] Elizabeth Gilbert has a good trick for cutting: As you go along, Ask yourself if this sentence, paragraph, or chapter truly furthers the narrative. If not, chuck it. And as Stephen King famously put it, kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribblers heart, kill your darlings.

[*] Strenuous exercise everyday. For me, and for a lot of other writers, its running. Novelist Don DeLillo told The Paris Review how after writing for four hours, he goes running to shake off one world and enter another. Joyce Carol Oates, in her ode to running, said that the twin activities of running and writing keep the writer reasonably sane and with the hope, however illusory and temporary, of control.

[*] Ask yourself these four questions from George Orwell: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? Then finish with these final two questions: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

[*] As a writer you need to make use of everything that happens around you and use it as material. Make use of Seinfelds question: Im never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I am thinking, Can I do something with that?

[*] Airplanes with no wifi are a great place to write and even better for editing. Because there is nowhere to go and nothing else to do.

[*] Print and put a couple of important quotes up on the wall to help guide you (either generally, or for a specific project). Heres a quote from a scholar describing why Ciceros speeches were so effective which I put on my wall while I was writing my first book. At his best [Cicero] offered a sustained interest, a constant variety, a consummate blend of humour and pathos, of narrative and argument, of description and declamation; while every part is subordinated to the purpose of the whole, and combines, despite its intricacy of detail, to form a dramatic and coherent unit. (emphasis mine)

[*] Focus on what youre saying, worry less about how. As William March wrote in The Bad Seed, A great novelist with something to say has no concern with style or oddity of presentation.

[*] A little trick I came up with. After every day of work, I save my manuscript as a new file (for example: EgoIsTheEnemy2-26.docx) which is saved on my computer and in Dropbox (before Dropbox, I just emailed it to myself). This way I keep a running record of the evolution of book. It comforts me that I can always go back if I mess something up or if I have to turn back around.

[*] Famous ad-man David Ogilvy put it bluntly: Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

[*] Envision who you are writing this for. Like really picture them. Dont go off in a cave and do this solely for yourself. As Kurt Vonnegut put it in his interview with The Paris Review: …every successful creative person creates with an audience of one in mind. Thats the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind.

[*] Do not chase exotic locations to do some writing. Budd Schulbergs novel The Disenchanted about his time with F. Scott Fitzgerald expresses the dangers well: It was a time everyone was pressing wonderful houses on us. I have a perfectly marvelous house for you to write in, theyd say. Of course no one needs marvelous houses to write in. I still knew that much. All you needed was one room. But somehow the next house always beckoned.”

[*] True enough, though John Fante said that when you get stuck writing, hit the road.

[*] Commitments (at the micro-level) are important too. An article a week? An article a month? A book a year? A script every six weeks? Pick something, but commit to itpublicly or contractually. Quantity produces quality, as Ray Bradbury put it.

[*] Dont ever write anything you dont like yourself and if you do like it, dont take anyones advice about changing it. They just dont know. Raymond Chandler

[*] Neil Strauss and Tucker Max gave me another helpful iteration of that idea (which I later learned is from Neil Gaiman): When someone tells you something is wrong with your writing, theyre usually right. When they tell you how to fix it, theyre almost always wrong.

[*] Ogilvy had another good rule: Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

[*] Print out the work and edit it by hand as often as possible. It gives you the readers point of view.

[*] Hemingway advised fellow writer Thomas Wolfe to break off work when you ‘are going good.’Then you can rest easily and on the next day easily resume. Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Billions) has referred to this as stopping on wet edge. It staves off the despair the next day.

[*] Keep the momentum: Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether. Jeanette Winterson

That taps me out for now. But every time I read I compile a few more notecards. Ill update you when Ive got another round to share.

In the meantime, stop reading stuff on the internet and get back to writing!

But if you have a second…share your own tips below.