Monthly Archives: October 2016

When I came up with the “not writing advice” series, I had one idea in mind for it. I want to talk about the things no one really tells you about writing. And, this is probably one of the biggest things no one ever brings up. No one talks about it. Some don’t even acknowledge it. Writing isolates you. It doesn’t sound that bad until you start to consider relationships. And, I don’t mean just romantic ones. Yes, those probably take the biggest hits, but all relationships take a hit. Friends, family, and acquaintances, writing compromises all of these relationships because it forces the person into a relationship with the page. It’s as if all writers had a jealous and clingy lover that snared them into a small room with them all the time. This reaps all of the writer’s free time and can push people away. Ultimately, this can […]

Not Writing Advice: Isolation

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It was as if he lost all of his body heat through his eyes. A sight? As one of the leading researchers in the medical field, he never expected that a mere display could freeze him on the spot. Rows. Racks. Cattle had it better. At least, the animals were dead as they hung from their hooks. It seemed they were not as kind to humans as humans were to animals. “Get your shit together, doctor!” the single soldier sent to accompany him said. The doctor blinked quickly, as he snapped back to reality. That was true. He was here for a reason, not just to be shocked by the image of laboratory human experiments. They were supposed to find out why they had suddenly left earth and opened the doors to their special quarantined floor. “I’m sorry. Let’s go,” the doctor said. Leading, the doctor walked across the main […]

Eyes

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Some time ago, I posted on the idea that “someone would always dislike your writing.” And although that is pretty true considering how varied the world is, the reverse is also true. Someone out there will find your writing interesting, so there’s no reason to give up if there isn’t an audience yet. Though not universal, writing is a collection of shared experiences. Maybe you’re writing about an alien who is unlike the other aliens, so they’re cast aside. Someone will connect to that, maybe even identify. See, that’s the thing about stories that are told from the heart. They tend to be real in one way or another. So, maybe the story will not be the next American novel, but it will help someone. Maybe it teaches people that they’re not alone. That’s the real point to writing. So as long as the story is honest and sincere from […]

Audience

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Some of the people I know hate to go to the theater with me because, in their words, “you don’t like anything.” I find the claim ridiculous. I mean, I love a lot of movies…right? I guess my issue is that I don’t hold my punches back. I loved the new Star Wars movie. Sure, but I had a lot of issues with some of the characters and some of the plot. I won’t go into that film’s issues, but I do this for a lot of movies, whether I like them or not. And it’s all because, and I really do believe this, writers are horrible as critics. They just know way too much about storytelling for their own sake. One way that I’ve always seen this as bad, especially if you’re sharing your work with a fellow writer, is that writers tend to over-analyze. Within writing, there’s just […]

Critical

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Every time I write, I think, “this sucks. When the hell am I going to get better?” Over the years, that question has just gotten underlined and highlighted. I think I’ll ask it once or twice a writing session, especially more when I am revising or editing. It drives me insane. But, the thing is, writers are blind to progress. Writers, artists, and people in general improve over time. The worst part is that it’s exponential when it’s a skill. So, when a writer looks at their writing, sometimes it’s literally impossible to see the improvement that has happened over time. This happens to me all the time. The thing is, it’s because our visions tend to be very narrow. We don’t have minds that keep years in scope. We look at the now. Maybe we look a day ahead or a day behind. The rest are memories, but never […]

Blinded

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Probably the best advice, and the most obvious one, that I ever received in my writing program was: “you can’t please everyone.” I got it because after workshop, I’d revise my work and attempt to make the story good for everyone. But, the more I worked it to appease one person, another one found that “fix” problematic. The idea of a universally love product is simply insane. If you really think about it, everything out there always has a naysayer. Even some of the best things on earth have hater. Like pizza. I think everyone could agree that pizza is simply the best food. There’s not competition. Yet, there’s always some jerk who hate’s life and disagrees with me. It’s the same with writing. Someone will always hate something in the work. Maybe they hate a character or a particular scene. You can’t somehow edit everything in a story to […]

Pleasing the Crowd

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I think writers at one point ask, “how do you write a novel?” It’s almost as if people hoped that there was a secret. Sure, it would be awesome if say, I could travel to the future, grab the novel I wrote, and bring it back. I could then copy it and publish it (you know, ignoring the time paradox). Sadly, novels are not written overnight. I mean, I wish I could write a novel in a single day, and I know some people can write like 25k words in one go, but that’s not how it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can already hear someone say, “I can write it in one day!” My answer to that is either that the novel probably sucks, or that the person is lying to themselves. The only way to really finish a long project is to write a little every day. There’s […]

Being Consistent

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Give up. There’s no point to your work. No one is going to read it anyway. These are all thoughts that cross my mind all the time as I write, and I know they attack everyone at one point, especially all the writers trying to make it out there. But no one should listen to them. No one should give up. It’s hard for me to admit it, but recognition, especially online nowadays, is not easy to get. People can spend a lot of time working on a project that only one person will see. And that reality sometimes gets to me. I want that recognition. I want people to read my work. I want people to comment on it. But that really isn’t what matters. What really matters is that I do it—my writing, my blog, and anything else—for me. It is my own personal recognition that should be […]

On Persistence

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Gunshots. The men scream. Her heartbeat. It rings in her ears. Her breath, shallow and quick as she runs, burns her throat. Her nostrils flare up, and her eyes tear up. The bundle she holds against her chest moves a little, reassuring her that he’s still alive. She stops momentarily, her back against one of the many pine trees around her house, and checks on him. The boy holds his hands up against his face, as if to complain about being woken up. He doesn’t cry though. He’s been such a good boy so far. He needs to be quiet or the creature will pursue. She glances back at her house. Through the windows, she sees the shadows move haphazardly. More gun blasts. Windows shatter. The men scream again. “She’s too fucking fast!” “Just distract her long enough for Jean to run away!” More gunshots. A screech follows. It breaks […]

Vinegar

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“Did you really write this?” my teacher said. He held my story in his hand, pinning it from the bottom with his finger and thumb. I nod. “I swear.” “I hope you’re not lying and someone else wrote it for you,” he says as he hands it to me. I grab it and see the grade on the top of the paper, a 100% followed by a comment, literally the words he just said. *** This is probably a weird story to bring up because it’s a back-handed compliment, but the comment meant a lot to me. Why? Because it wasn’t blind praise, which I think it’s extremely dangerous. Throughout my life, some of the people close to me praised me a lot, especially when it came to my writing. They’d say things like, “you’re talented” or “your work is the best thing I’ve ever read.” It makes sense to […]

Blind Praise

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