Writing
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Amsterdam Part Two
My heart is bigger and brighter in walkable cities. Ones with cobblestone streets and gray skies and brick buildings. Even in the cold and wind and mist, it’s full of life. Or maybe that’s just the espresso talking. I’ve loved this city since I was twenty-one. I’ve dreamed of her when I’ve felt lost, and I’ve missed her sparkle when I’m missing the friends I knew there. She is always in my back pocket when I need her. I am so lucky to have been able to meet her again, to reintroduce her to the woman I’ve become since we last saw each other. Somehow I am exactly the same…
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The Most Annoying Writer You Know: A Preliminary, Non-Sponsored Freewrite Alpha Review
Hi!! Writing you this review from my Alpha itself, while I’m watching Groundhog Day. This is a very important day for my college friends and me. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about this very fun writing tool I got for myself in an attempt to become someone who actually finishes her writing projects. Now, many moons ago, in one of my first posts on this website, I wrote about all the things I love about handwriting drafts as opposed to typing them on the computer. I am very much a pro-handwriter. I love it, and it’s really the main reason I have finished as many…
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real or not real?
Today I turned down all the lights, shut the buzzing air conditioning unit off, laid on the white duvet I once found comforting and safe. I used to love the empty promises and quiet monotony of hotel rooms: beige walls and confusing light switches, dry soap bars, and thin carpet. On the inside of the blackout curtains, I could have no idea where in the world I was. It was once my favorite feeling. Long days, short nights, and seeing you in the dimly lit hotel bar, waiting for me. I never knew where it’d be, or how often. The mystery made it fun. I’d come back from a panel…
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Amsterdam
Summer was my season until I turned twenty-one. The warmth of the sun, the freedom of my daylight hours, and time poorly spent sleeping in. I loved the heat and getting sunburnt, lying still, covered in aloe until I could go around and do it all again. August Baby rules say summer is supreme. I’ve seen snowfall before, flurries and iron chill. Footprints marking my path in the powdery ground. Leaning over the back of a couch, getting lost in the swirling snowflakes as they find somewhere to stick themselves. I’ve seen April showers bring a May super bloom, a sea of orange and yellow in middle-of-nowhere California. Sunshine and…
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The Evil Jean Shorts
TW: eating disorder She couldn’t see them. She’d buried them at the bottom of her drawer for a reason. At first because winter had fallen, and she no longer needed them. But now, they just laughed at her. They were once her best friend, through and through, these jean shorts. When every other article of clothing snickered behind her back or threatened their seams, they stood by her. Hugged her in the worst of times. But then last summer came, and she found out that they’d turned on her too. It couldn’t have been that bad of a winter, could it? What had she done to make her trusty favorite…
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In This House, We Love a Good Trope
Tropes. Tears. Tattlestar Galactica–wait, that’s not right. Look, we as writers all want to be edgy. We don’t want to lay into tropes and archetypes and the same old, same old. Things are tired, and they’re not fun because we just feel like copycats. There are so many books and movies and stories and art out there that all feel the same, but there’s still somehow so much that’s new and fresh. Honestly, how do those creators do it? Of course, there’s the whole “subverting” tropes thing. Stories exist without those kinds of things. I suppose it’s not that hard, but also…it is. That being said, you’re lying if you…
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Halfway Through NaNoWriMo Check In
Well, folks, we’re halfway through National Novel Writing Month, and I must say: what a ride it’s been so far. Not to brag but definitely to toot my own horn, I’ve hit 42,000 words as of today. Do you know how wild that is???? I do. Because let me take you on a journey of how long it’s taken me to write my other novels: 1. A little over 3 years. Started my second year of high school and finished some time in my first year of college. 2. About 2 1/2 years. Started my first year of college and finished toward the end of my third year. 3. 2-ish…
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The Purge: Cleansing Old Wounds
Look, I’ll be straightforward here: I just put a little more than half the songs I wrote in middle school in the recycling, and I’m heartbroken. Songs and lyrics that, while not great or profound, I cherished so deeply all these years. Therapeutic diary entries about old crushes, friendships, and depression…all my feelings and thoughts boiled into three-ish verses and a chorus. So why am I tossing them? This morning, I sat down and read through them all, the melodies archived in my brain and the memories deeply rooted in who I became. I look over them whenever I move, to remind myself that I want to keep them, and…
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Pros and Cons: Handwriting First Drafts
There are many different ways to write a book—I think that was clear in my Pantsing vs. Plotting post. That’s more on the process side, but there’s also what kind of devices you use to write with: computers, various programs within computers, handwriting in notebooks, an Alphasmart (thanks, Ally Carter), etc. I’ve started a few stories on my computer, but I’ve only ever finished novels (the first draft) by handwriting them. For me, it’s easier to keep track of certain things, write notes in margins, and quite frankly, it’s pretty therapeutic. I’m not opposed to writing on a computer, of course, but it’s not the long-game for me the first…
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What Taylor Swift Means to Me as a Writer
January 31, 2020. Miss Americana premieres on Netflix. And I’m feeling a whole load of emotions about it. Think what you want about Taylor Swift. I know she can be a polarizing public figure, and most people have very strong opinions, love her or hate her. Despite a very brief period in time where I was tired of the drama that surrounded her (I know, it was brief like I said, and I am SORRY), I have been firmly a lover. She’s been an inspiration for me in a lot of ways, and I think to take what people have said about her and to continue to create art in…