#i mean. ive BEEN here. i have a really active poetry blog

[cutieeeszn]

Hobby’s to pick up:

Okay, if I’m being honest. I am very inconsistent with my hobbies. I end up dropping them all. But having hobbies and activities really help you in multiple ways. Finding new friends, learning new things, disengaging from electronics. (I see y’all) so here are a few hobbies to look into. Some of them ive tried/been trying to get into. And these are the ones I’m most consistent with. :)))

Crochet

Crochet or knitting is so calming. And really not that expensive. It’s simple to learn. And you can do it over playing some music. Let me know if there’s any crochet tutorial accounts you’d love to know!

Drawing

- ah. This one is simple. Many tutorials available. I’d say, begin with finding out your art style. Experiment. Go crazy. You can trace some drawings first, as practice. Slowly move on to actually drawing. And remember, be creative. Finding your own art style is so important and influences how good your drawing may come out.

Learning a new language

This one is fun. Duolingo…my best friend right now. I’m doing French. It’s a beautiful language, and after a while of learning French. (3 weeks) when I’m listening to songs I can understand some parts. I also find it so entertaining comparing them to English words and how they link. 21 days forms a habit. So, doing duolingo. Kind of an habit now.

Embroidery

Again, calming. It’s beautiful to see how the images end up. And it’s more fun when you draw your own images. Really cheap I believe, varying from where you’re from. But making pillows, frames and little pieces is so lovely with embroidery.

Writing/ Poetry

This one is good and interesting as a hobby, personality trait. And for your mind. Training your brain to express its thoughts in different words, sequences and hidden under other meanings. Is so beautiful.

Digital scrapbooking

My instagram is filled with these. Actually, I only have one post. But it’s a digital scrapbook. Using CANVA and 17v28 to make these scrapbooks are so fun. Not messy, and so easy.

Dancing

Not only does it look snazzy. Dancing has so many health benefits. Hip Hop to ballet to jazz. Now I think about it, I miss being a dancer.

Reading

Be a book warm, have no shame about it. Really. Let me know if you want some book recommendations. Books take you into another world, let you view things. It’s trust beautiful when you find the right kinda book.

Creating a tumblr blog

I just started this. It’s fun though. That’s all I can say.

Fashion Designing

I sewed a shift dress. Well, kind of. It’s so fun making clothes. Although, fashion design was a school subject. It’s very fun to do. You can remake clothes at home. Turn an old skirt into a shirt. Go crazy. (Btw, when you take classes you start noticing fashion design features in your clothes. I noticed seam allowances, overlocking.)

Learning to play an instrument

I’m guilty of picking and dropping instruments. Currently, it’s guitar for me. I was really good at clarinet, and eh and piano. But now, I’m going back to guitar. Learning and instrument has many benefits. Study wise, talent wise, im pretty sure mentally too!

Normal Scrap Booking

Same thing as digitally. Just pulls you away from the screen ;)

Photography.

Capture those moments. Cherish them. Post them. Print them. Annotate them. Write about them. Just capture them.

Sincerely,

bliss5tar.

[kneepain]

erm... hi hello

[this-blog-should-not-exist]

Idek this is just rambling

I mean it doesn't have to be about relationship stuff, like I said in the start its a blog. So blog for blogs sake. It’s a really nice way to just dump whats been on my mind actually. Which makes me laugh because I started this blog as a hidden one so I can just thirst over boys because I who doesn't do that on occasion. I never really intended to just start rambling about my problems on here. But also I couldn’t really do that on my main blog either because of reasons. One of which I have friends that I see a lot following my regular blog and true it’s good to be open about stuff but I don't want them to see me like this I guess. It would alter their perception of me that I have created over the years of knowing them. Its not a front Im putting up, they know the true me very well but this I feel like if I posted stuff like this to them its basically just saying to them “hey give me attention” which isn't when Im doing. Plus like I said it would alter their perception of me which I don't need that.

Ive been told by people that I am outgoing and do things which make it seem like I don't care what people think about me, which in reality I care oh so much about how people see and perceive me. what they think about me or what they say about me when Im not around. Is it good things? Do I make a fool of myself and create a bad image? Am I someone they actually like to be around or do I secretly annoy the shit out of them? Or even now, as I write these posts what do people think of me? The things I write on here I keep the myself 90% of the time and yet I lay them out in the open. Who actually reads these? Do like 15 people or so read my posts but never like or reblog them? Do people relate to my situations? I don't know, but like I said it does seem to help me because it gets it off my mind and physically somewhere else that I can actually see my thoughts and relax about it. 

That’s something else as well, just in general I hate talking about myself. Im afraid that I come off like a self absorbed asshole who only thinks about himself. Like that is not at all what I want to be known as, but it is important to talk about yourself and know who you are. Sometimes I just want to ask my friends questions like that just so I know myself from someone else's perspective. Like I just want to ask like why are you friends with me? What do you like about me, what is it that you tolerate me? What is it that I do that annoys you? Surely there must be something? No one is perfect. What decisions or actions have I made that you didn't agree with. When I went out to Oregon for college everyone seemed so proud like yeah go chase your dreams, we all support you. Do you? Do you support me or are you just saying that because you know I won't change my mind about it? And now that Im back and found out that it was more expensive than I thought it would be is that something you wanted to tell me from the beginning? Did you think it was smart of me to leave or should I have waited? 

I can't really talk about myself if I don't know myself which I feel like I don’t. What can I even say? I feel like I'm pretty humble. I don't like to cause conflict, confrontation makes me anxious. I just want everyone to be happy or just content, I hate it when someone Im close to is upset. I guess Ive got that happy go lucky attitude, at least thats what I've been told. My grandma used to call me her little smile child because there was never a time i didnt have a smile on my face. Even now as I type there are things that I don't know how to explain and or don't want to sound conceded. The gist is I like to believe that I have just the biggest heart. I just want people to be happy and smile, for everything to be alright. To be in the best mood. It makes me happy to see people laugh and smile. If a choice comes up I will do whatever to make a friend happy even at my own expense, just so they enjoy themselves and smile. Its a fun time when they ask me like what do you want to do? Well sometimes I have something in mind but I don't want to say for fear that they don't want to or they don't enjoy it. When family or friends try to pay me or give me money I just feel awful. Especially from my mom’s side of the family or any grandparents. Like please no, you may need that more than me please, I’ll be fine. I like to think that Im pretty creative, I take pride in being a little strange. Mom would always say that how I think or make things makes her head hurt i.e. saying that I thought around the box in a different and unique way. I’m also 19 and 5′11.5″ yet I feel like Im still a small child. I will curl up in a ball and feel absolutely adorable and cosy. The things I enjoy and what I find pleasure and entertainment in can be child like sometimes. The video games I play, the TV shows and movies I watch, the activities that I do. Playing on playgrounds, on the swings, running around playing games like tag or hide and seek. Riding on those little toy cars or motorized jeeps. Using imagination acting out awesome adventures. Idk just a lot. Even when it comes to interacting with people, going into somewhere new with new people I sometimes find an older woman be that in her 20s or older who knows and just she in my mind becomes my mom of that area or workplace. I have a “mom” in Oregon at my old college, she was the admissions counselor that told me about the school in the first place, she helped me so much. Loved talking with me about whatever, I came to her when I needed help. I still text her every now and then to just catch up. Then again now at Starbucks one of my shift managers she's just the sweetest, always there to help and talks in the nicest tone. Never angry when I ask a million questions or when I mess up. And yet still funny and entertaining to work with. I sometimes need someone just to lead me, to help me step by step sometimes. Not because I can't figure it out on my own, but because of my fears and anxiety I believe, Im not sure really why I do this, nominate these women in my mind as my “moms” away from home. 

Haha Its been about maybe an hour of me thinking and writing, just rambling from one idea or topic into or off another one. I wanted to write tonight because I just felt like it, no real point but to write for writing sake. I started also doing like blackout poetry with this book that a lot of us got when we were out in Oregon. They were just handing them out for free outside of the college and one of my friends had the idea first but then I wanted one of my own as well so I finally got to it today. I did two pages. I may do another one or two tomorrow who knows, its just fun. Ive also been house sitting for one of my close friends dad this whole month and I've been writing these on my laptop so once November rolls around I won't have internet because Im going back to moms. We used to have internet but she just hasn't paid the bill in forever so that’ll be fun. I could try and type it all on my phone but idk, Im so much faster on my laptop. Who knows, I’ll figure something out. 

[char27martin]

7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Angelica Baker

“7 Things I’ve Learned So Far” (this installment written by Angelica Baker, author of OUR LITTLE RACKET) is a recurring column where writers at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction, as well as how they possibly got their literary agent—by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

Angelica Baker’s debut novel, OUR LITTLE RACKET, was published by Ecco in June 2017. She has written essays and reviews for The Los Angeles Review of Books, Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art, The Rumpus, and Tin House’s “The Open Bar.” Her fiction has appeared in Violet and One Teen Story. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. She currently teaches at Manhattanville College.

  1. You should write every single day that you can…

During the year or so before I started writing my book, I solicited writing advice from every possible source. I was preparing for graduate school, starting to imagine what my writing life was going to look like once I’d been untethered from the “normal” confines of an office job, and I greedily sought out any potentially useful nugget of wisdom from every single writer I’d ever admired.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten (or at least flagrantly ignored) many of those maxims, but the one I find myself revisiting on an almost daily basis is this: it’s essential that you write every day because there’s no way to know, in advance, when inspiration is going to strike. Fruitful writing days, for me, often start out feeling almost exactly like useless writing days. If I’m not at my desk when a knotty problem works its way loose in my head, then there’s no chance that solution will ever make it onto the page.

2. …although if you don’t write every day, that’s fine!…

When I say that you should write every single day that you can, I mean that you should build up a habit, establish a routine, and make it feel as much like work—the kind of work where you have a boss who keeps you motivated and honest—as possible. But the unvarnished truth is that you won’t be able to write every day. Aside from days that were set aside for practical concerns, like making the money to pay my rent, there were many days during the four years I worked on my novel that were duds. Sometimes you fiddle with an open Word document for a few minutes before it becomes clear that your mind is sludge that particular day; sometimes, hopefully, you have an hour or so of productive note-taking or editing before you hit a wall. But always, always, there are days when nothing gets done, despite your best and most frantic intentions. And when you have a run of several days like that, despair can creep in. It begins to feel like you’re a delusional fraud, like you’ve let your brain go so soft that it will be impossible ever to whip it back into shape. That self-loathing begins to spiral, feeding on itself with every passing minute of non-writing.

I lost almost an entire year to a severe spiral like that; for months, it felt like I’d made zero progress on my novel. And then I gave some pages to a reader, and when we met for coffee to discuss them, she looked at me with sympathy and a little confusion as I described how useless these months of my life had been. But you are getting something done, she told me. These are obviously moving in the right direction. Why are you being so hard on yourself?

It’s hard to know when “taking the day off” from writing is self-indulgence and when it’s a smart way to avoid one of those spirals. But I’ve learned that I’m never going to be someone who writes every day, starting at nine o’clock on the dot and clocking out at five. My friend was right, when she intuited that I was inwardly berating myself and, as a result, stunting my own progress even further. She was right that I needed to be nicer to myself.

3. …but you should absolutely read every day.

And what’s the one thing that has, all my life, always made me feel better? Reading a book. So while I’ve learned that I’m not the kind of writer who can write every single day, I would be willing to bet that there hasn’t been a single day of my life when I’m not reading the fruits of someone else’s more successful labors. Ironically, reading a book I love almost never makes me feel jealous or petty, not even on my worst writing day. It reminds me of what it felt like to read when I was small, when the question of whether I’d finish writing a book was far less important to me than the question of which book I’d pick up next.

4. Be smart about who gets to read your writing and when you show it to them.

One of my biggest motivations in choosing to attend a graduate writing program was a desire to find a group of readers. My classmates are still doing this for me years later; whether it’s a quick read of a specific passage of my novel that was a struggle, or a deeper opinion on a draft of an essay that doesn’t really seem to be about anything yet, I rely on them on a regular basis (and return the favor whenever I’m asked).

But I knew them well by the time I trusted them to read my novel, and I learned the hard way that giving your work to someone you don’t yet have reason to trust can be a huge mistake. Negative criticism from a trusted reader can be useful because you know you can’t entirely discount his or her opinion. Negative criticism from someone whose tastes and critical eye are more mysterious to you doesn’t necessarily mean much; that person might be someone who would never, ever choose to pick up a book like yours in a bookstore. But here’s the catch: that doesn’t mean they can’t still hurt your feelings or make you doubt yourself. I’ve learned that I’m not yet tough enough—although I’m working on it!—to completely shrug off a nasty or ill-informed comment from anyone, even a reader I don’t necessarily respect. I’ve learned to protect myself, and more importantly my work, by choosing readers carefully.

5. Treat it like a job, even if people around you don’t.

Friends of mine who work in more linear fields have a hard time picturing exactly what it is I do during a day spent “writing.” This seems totally reasonable to me. It’s hard to explain to them exactly how the hours get filled, and I’d be humiliated if they could actually see my endless bouts of crying, pacing, flopping onto my bed in despair, and—yes—cruising through Twitter. But I’ve learned that this fuzziness from other people about what I do makes it all the more essential that I block off my writing time, treating it as something that cannot be interrupted. For years, I’ve worked multiple jobs to make my writing life possible, so there’s always going to be some juggling of schedules. But I try to establish my other commitments in advance and treat the time I plan to spend writing at home as somewhat inviolable. It’s not a free morning or afternoon that I’ll spend writing since I have nothing more pressing to do; it’s work, and I have to show up. There’s no one who would care if I didn’t.

6. Always start with something small.

It’s very rare that I sit down and dive directly into whatever project I hope to spend the day with. Generally, I begin with some sort of small writing or editing exercise that feels like it’s somewhere between “task” and “inspiration.” Sometimes, this can be a small thing I want to read instead, especially poetry. Whatever it is, it opens up the part of my brain that knows that it’s time to settle down, stop flitting from one Twitter link to the next, and work.

7. Don’t read the reviews!

It’s a bit of a cheat to include this on a list of things I’ve learned. It would be much more accurate to put it on a list of things I aspire to learn some time soon. I had a professor who told us once that she hadn’t read any reviews of her work since a particularly savage one for her second novel devastated her; she knew that there was no point. This makes logical sense to me. I understand completely that reading someone’s capsule review on Goodreads, in which my book is criticized because some of the characters in its pages aren’t good parents (according to the reviewer), is an activity that’s at best futile and at worst damaging. And yet, I’ve been reading reviews of my novel. I’ll probably keep reading them for now, much to my boyfriend’s dismay. But I hope, I really do hope, that I’m learning to ignore them.

If you’re an agent looking to update your information or an author interested in contributing to the GLA blog or the next edition of the book, contact Writer’s Digest Books Managing Editor Cris Freese at cris.freese@fwmedia.com.

The post 7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Angelica Baker appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/7-things-ive-learned-far-angelica-baker