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#103: Do You Just Write?

Writing comes with all sorts of pressures—the pressure to produce words regularly, to finish and publish things, to produce better words, to make money by doing that. To read a lot, to keep up with the writing community.

The writing life is exhausting. There’s always more to do — write more words, finish more stories, read more books. It seems that the only way to even hope to make any mark with your words is to dedicate every free second you have to writing.

I’ve been feeling a lot of those pressures myself, and I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit. Is writing the only way how I should spend my free time?

The thing is, I love doing other creative things too. I play the guitar and drums. Sometimes, I take my giant camera and tripod out to the wild to capture some sweeping landscape shots. I used to dabble in digital painting and video making and generative art. Making things makes me happy and learning to make things probably even more. I can’t help it.

However, I’ve always felt a weird sense of guilt about these things. What am I doing here? Shouldn’t I be writing?

In a way, yeah, I should. Somewhere in the world, there’s someone else sitting behind their desk producing words constantly. Oh no, I’m falling behind already!

I’m not saying that’s wrong. If both of our manuscripts land on a publisher’s desk at the same time, theirs will likely to be the better written one. And if the person doing it loves writing and only writing and wants to do that for the rest of their life, that’s cool. But I also know, that I can’t just do one thing, because I’d die of boredom.

Exploring other creative pursuits aside from writing (in case it isn’t a form of avoidance to skip writing sessions) won’t improve your craft, but it will expand the breadth of your experience. You will be able to see the world through a completely different lens—something that the super-focused, heads-down writer will never have.

In the end, writing isn’t about structure, vocabulary or perfect punctuation. Sure, craft is important, but nowhere near as important as what you have to say. It won’t be much if you live your entire life from behind a writing desk.

That gives me solace, that in a way, writing gives even the weirdest of my creative side projects a reason.

Short Stories

I read these short stories this week:

Jean Wants by Alyse Wexler

Molting by Sarah Marie Kosch

Tacky Goblin by T. Sean Steele

Network by Jake Rawdin

Greetings From by Melissa Amstutz

Some Things About Typewriters Cindy Hunter Morgan

Jerry by Miles Greaves

Want More?

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Past Editions

#102: Don’t Break the Chain, August 2019

#101: Writing for Fun or Profit?, July 2019

#100: Thank You For Reading, July 2019

#99: Having Written, July 2019

#98: Daily Writing Routine Tips, July 2019

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Favorite song atm 🙌🏽

all tinted - wolftyla

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SITES FOR WRITERS

Fantasy name generator

Fighter’s block - try to defeat a monster by writing

Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict a child’s appearance 

Child’s Traits Calculator ; predict other traits

Fifty Plot Twist Ideas For Your Work-In-Progress!

Name generator (Character, Baby, Last name, etc.)

Plot generator ; Inspiration for your next novel, film or short story

Character generator ; Generate Rich Characters in Seconds

Writing Exercises ;  This site provides (completely free) writing prompts and exercises to help you get started with creative writing and break through writing blocks. 

Notebook ; create your characters, worlds, objects, places, etc. and save them

Festisite ; Create a fake license, marriage certificate, credit card, ticket and you can find other stuff as well.

The most common last names in the US

Lists of most common surnames

List of most popular given names

List of the least common surnames [last names] in America, rank 16,001-20,000

Fantasy name generator (again)

Random Name Generator (Choose origins, gender, etc.)

Said is dead (Remember that you can use said, don’t use it to less.)

How Much Blood Can The Human Body Lose? 

How Long Can Someone Go Without Breathing?

The 6 Types of Collars Every Man Should Know by Name 

18 Different Types of Sleeves Design Patterns

What are the most widely practiced religions of the world?

Differences Between a Short Story, Novelette, Novella, & a Novel

Hemingway editor ;  It grades your writing by its readability. 

Zen writer ; writing without distractions (Might not be free after a while)

33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters

75+ bad habits for your character

30 SCENE IDEAS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

10 Things Writers Don’t Know About The Woods

British and American terms

Free writing worksheets

Feel free to add more!

[niantionette]

Am I in love with you?

I don’t know what you’re thinking. I wish you’d tell me.

I don’t know what you see in me. I wish you’d show me.

I don’t know what you want from me. I wish you’d figure it out.

From the looks of things, I don’t think you know how it feels to be played with. Having someone toy with your emotions, forcing different potions down your throat with the tip of their tongue.

How sad, you’ve not only bruised my lips, but my heart too. A modern love story.

I wish I could talk to you. Well... I wish you’d talk back.

My patience is running low, trying to hold conversations with a brick wall knowing damn well you’re only one phone call away.

But you haven’t made things very clear. And now I’m stuck here with no other option than to believe the conclusions I’ve made in my head.

You don’t even know what you’re thinking. You don’t know what you see in me. Nor do you know what you want from me.

I was happy with you. When we were together I felt like I had it all. And now that you’re gone, I’m forced to see I have nothing.

You were my everything, something we both doubted. But now doubt turned to drought and I can’t take this emptiness anymore.

I never knew such pain existed, even after I’ve had my heart broken. Who would’ve known there could be something much worse.

For all I know, you’re a figment of my imagination. But then again, if that was the case, we’d be together right now.

Sitting in a parking lot, distant from anyone else, windows rolled up, butterflies in our stomachs trying to figure out who’s gonna kiss who first. Innocent ambition.

But love stories don’t work that way. 

While I lay on my pillow at night, thinking of nothing but you, you don’t know what you’re thinking. 

While I think back to every time I saw my future in your eyes, you don’t know what you see in me.

While I am stuck waiting for you, willing to give you everything I have, it’s odd that you still don’t know what you want from me.

Am I in love with you? I guess we’ll never know.

I wish you’d tell me.

I wish you’d show me.

I wish you’d figure it out.

[niantionette]

Own Your Craft

I once read a quote...

Scratch that, let's be real. I once read a tweet that changed how hard I pushed myself.

For the first time ever, I had created a twitter account based on my hopefully-one-day-hella-successful business, Pnk Lemonade. My first tweet was something... awkward. I think it said something like "Hey guys, it's me, Ni, just a pnk diamond in the rough." Something like that, plus a ton of unnecessary emoticons. I closed the app and went on with my day, and when I got home that night, deleted the tweet because it had no impressions whatsoever. Zero comments, zero likes, zero retweets.

The next morning, the thought of reaching out to no one weighed heavy on my mind. I knew that I had some work to do to be seen on twitter. But for some reason, I had aimed a little too high and got my hopes up, somehow believing that people would see the tweet and automatically follow me or like it, as if it had promised them something that can impact their life. However, the world doesn't work like that, and it upset me.

Still laying in bed, I logged back on to twitter, this time with full intention to delete the account. Fortunately, someone I had followed retweeted something that caught my eye. It read:

"Your first podcast will be awful.

Your first video will be awful.

Your first article will be awful.

Your first art will be awful.

Your first game will be awful.

But you can't make your 50th without making your first.

So get it over with, and make it."

I took it as a sign. Your first time for everything isn't even half as good as you expect it to be, and the only way it can become successful, is if you own up to it and embrace it, knowing deep down that one day, after time spent on working on yourself, you will look back at your first step and be grateful that you were even brave enough to make a start in the first place.

You may delete your beginnings, people do it all the time. Just don't forget where you started and always keep in mind of where you want to end up. There's beauty in progress, but progress can't exist if you don't start somewhere, anywhere.

There's no such thing as the right time. Start here. Start now. Own your craft.

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What’s In A Brand ?

She stared out the wet windows, legs to her chest, tears heavily falling in sync with the raindrops.

She had never been more confused about herself, about life in general.

What did she want to become?

Where did she want to go?

Where did she dream to be?

She was scared to answer, she felt so stuck.

All she knew... it wasn't where she sat the days it rained.

Sitting against the wall watching drops of her dreams drip from the sky, wishing she was allowed to go and embrace them.

Little does she know, one day she'll have had enough.

She will storm into the storm, with no tears, no security, and embrace all that she's capable of.

She will help millions of others who are stuck the same way she was, using her voice to fight for what they've all wanted all along.

She will create a platform where anyone can own their craft and be who they want to be, leaving all their past fears and insecurities behind.

But for now she sits, and stares out that window.

Hoping and wishing her magical fear of the rain will end when she makes PNK LEMONADE.