jujusometimeswritesthings

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

my fave writing reminder

honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

me, having deeply fallen out of the practice of writing poetry: I can’t write any more, I am now a Talentless Hack

the voice of my 11th grade journalism/12th grade creative writing teacher who rly did know everything: if you stop writing for a while the words will build up and stagnate. to clear the water, you will have to open the dam completely, and accept the fact that what initially comes out will not be palatable

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

If you're a writer you're supposed to write a lot of bullshit. It's part of the gig. You have to write a lot of absolute garbage in order to get to the good bits. Every once in a while you'll be like "Oh, I wish I hadn't wasted all that time writing bullshit," but that's dumb. That's exactly the same as an Olympic runner being like "Oh, I wish I hadn't wasted all that time running all those practice laps"

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

Dorothy Allison, from Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature, 1994

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.’ 

Jim Jarmusch, Five Golden Rules of Cinema

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

writing sounds so awesome. i wish i knew more than three words though

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

I hope every writer who sees this writes LOADS the next few months. Like freetime opens up, no writers block, the ability to focus, etc etc you're able to write loads & make lots of progress <3

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

see also: is your writing “bad” or “boring” or are you so inhibited and paralyzed by shame that putting any concrete details down will open them up to toxic criticism and you can’t bear that

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

"So you're just….. here forever?" Veris asks them.

"You make it sound so boring. " They reply.  "We're in this beautiful place where the sky and the sea you stand on are inseparable from each other. Where I have pulled back my veil and drawn you in for a little chat before sending you back on your way."

They are right in that regard, the place the two of them currently stand in is beautiful. The sky above them is decorated in stars and multi colored aurora borealis. The ground the two of them stand on look nearly identical to the sky above. But when they walk, the ground under them ripples like when you skip stones across its surface. 

"I'm dead! " She exclaims in near hysterics, her eyes flashing emerald green. "And you have deigned to reveal yourself now of all times?"

"Time is relative." They say with a nonchalant shrug. "I've watched you die millions of times. Known you from far before your parents parents were born."

"Another god to watch over my every action and tell me of my responsibilities to the star. Lovely. "

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

Day 1: Cross

She realizes that she's tired of her constant, nagging presence. She is always there, just within reach. Sometimes she can feel her, a hand on her shoulder meant to be reassuring, or a weight pressed against her side like someone sitting next to her.

It feels like she’s being haunted by a mirror image of herself.

Aether, with all of the years of research and study dedicated to it, is an odd thing. It manifests in ways both ordinary and inexplicable; from an inadvertent change of hair color to manifesting another version of yourself. She sighs with the malaise of someone who takes on the problems of the world. 

On second thought, she shouldn’t have named her. It gave her even more of a reason to stay and ‘help.’ Her incessant streams of advice that were always too close to personal, her offers to take up arms beside her, to be the ear that would listen to her woes, to be the thing that stood between her and the world she works to save.

Unfortunately, Sharlayan curiosity is an impossible thing to stamp out.

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

me in planning stages of writing: this fucks. this is gonna be so fun.

me the minute i sit down to write: language is an unwieldy cudgel we use to beat the human experience to death in an attempt at ever communicating fully with another being. i wish intelligent life had never evolved. i want to go back to the cell stage like in spore

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

rereading my own writing is just a constant fluctuation between "damn, girl, you wrote this? (affectionate)" and "damn, girl, you wrote this? (derogatory)"

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

I think, when it comes to fantasy settings, you really can't go wrong with having a giant tree

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

Some writers will understand

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

Every now and then I'll be describing a character's emotions about a certain situation and I'll just stop and go "Oh. Oh. Oh this? Yeah, it's all self projection," and then I'll just keep writing.

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

getting over the fear of being bad is so fucking hard… like, it’s literally a super power if you can start something and say ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s bad, it just matters that it exists’

‘bad’ is so terrifying, ‘bad’ is wrecking, and the ability to apply self-compassion to things deemed ‘bad’ is beyond amazing, to understand not everything in life will be ‘good’ and that’s okay

essays, art, novels, school, relationships, anyone out there starting things when they are terrified of the arbitrary metric of the result… I am so fucking proud of you, you are so brave and strong

keep starting new things, even if ‘bad’ is a possibility 

[jujusometimeswritesthings]

When you first start writing—and I think it’s true for a lot of beginning writers—you’re scared to death that if you don’t get that sentence right that minute it’s never going to show up again. And it isn’t. But it doesn’t matter—another one will, and it’ll probably be better. And I don’t mind writing badly for a couple of days because I know I can fix it—and fix it again and again and again, and it will be better. I don’t have the hysteria that used to accompany some of the dazzling passages that I thought the world was just dying for me to remember. I’m a little more sanguine about it now. Because the best part of it all, the absolutely most delicious part, is finishing it and then doing it over. That’s the thrill of a lifetime for me: if I can just get done with that first phrase and then have infinite time to fix it and change it. I rewrite a lot, over and over again, so that it looks like I never did. I try to make it look like I never touched it, and that takes a lot of time and sweat.

Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard