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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The writer, a rare and unusual creature, sits at their desk. They stare at a blank page, the tip of their thumb on their lips. They’re ready to write, but something’s wrong. It’s as if the idea well, that magical place where stories come from, has dried. The void on the computer pulses a blinding white, sending the writer into a catatonic state. A few minutes later, the writer collapses and passes out on the floor from despair. In some cases, the writers will sing along to “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel (I like the Disturbed cover though). So, that dumb thing aside, I want to bring up the quote I used the other day and I’m going to twist it positively this time around. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work” – Stephen King (I’m going […]

The Writing Ritual

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I’m just going to put this out there: I’m afraid of writing a main character who happens to be a person of color. As a matter of fact, I’m afraid of writing anyone who is not a straight white dude. And no, it’s not because I’m afraid that the story is not going to be popular if it’s not about a white male. No, it’s not because I’m afraid people are going to hate on the story because of the main character. It’s a different issue. See, I’m pretty white, and I’m super pale too. In fact, if you put me next to Edward Cullen, he looks full of life and color. And then there’s this, a thought—one that grows with each passing day: only a person of color can write about a person of color. This kills me. But, I read the idea online all the time: “why aren’t […]

Author’s Rant – Who Can I Write About

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If I had to choose one of my favorite parts of writing, I would pick revision. No, I’m not being sarcastic. It that may sound surprising since writers usually hate revision, but it really is my favorite part of the process. And, I think, the main reason is because I separate revision from editing, which I think is essential in the process. Take any writing course and you’ll hear it: revision is not editing, and editing is not revision. And I really do mean any writing course. They say it in freshman composition courses in college, and they say it in graduate creative writing courses. The main idea is simple. Editing is fixing grammar and style, pretty much anything that does not change the story. That’s why you can pay people to edit work. They won’t actually change the story. At least, a good editor will not change the story. […]

The Writing Process – Revision

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Source: The Page Never Forgets – Revising a Story A few days ago I mentioned that I’ve been wanting to work on a web novel, but to get to it would depend on how fast I finish my current project(s). Well, I’m not going to talk about that web novel…But I wanted to talk a little about my current project… About two…or maybe three…years at this point, I wrote The Page Never Forgets, a short story about a stalker and the power they had over another person’s mind through a journal. I remember liking that story quite a bit. A few months after finishing it, I got accepted into a writing program. There, the professor announced that we could submit something up to 50 pages long. I decided to go with this one. Workshop…did not respond to well. And the teacher? Well let’s say that the teacher and I had our […]

The Page Never Forgets – Revising a Story

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