nighthawks
You think of a framed painting hung up against a gray backdrop, seared into your memory like stale coffee and warm apple pie; like your brother’s laugh and your father’s faint humming over the roaring engine of your car. You think of how, somehow, you need this man, Cas, to see it.
*
When Castiel reveals his plan to take down the archangels, Dean offers to help him.
Set during S05E18. A Dean Winchester character study.
(AO3)
nighthawks
You think of a framed painting hung up against a gray backdrop, seared into your memory like stale coffee and warm apple pie; like your brother’s laugh and your father’s faint humming over the roaring engine of your car. You think of how, somehow, you need this man, Cas, to see it.
*
When Castiel reveals his plan to take down the archangels, Dean offers to help him.
Set during S05E18. A Dean Winchester character study.
(AO3)
I once received a DM comprised of just that sentence. Nothing else. No constructive criticism or any reason as to why this person clearly agreed with my own view of myself.
For someone who has never told anyone in their real life that they write anything, reading something like this from an anonymous user only solidified in my mind the fact that this person was right.
I’m not a good writer.
After an embarrassing amount of minutes passed, in which I thought about deleting every story I ever posted, I decided to delete the message instead. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I could delete the feelings it caused or change the fact that I’m not a good writer.
Two weeks went by and I didn’t write anything, let alone post. Then I received a comment on a story I had posted three years prior, one I’d written after a death in our family. The comment read, “Thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. I really needed this. I just lost my mom and this really got me today.”
I stopped thinking about being a good writer after that. I thought instead, “what if I had deleted my stories and that one person three years later hadn’t read it that day?”
Here’s what I realized: no one is a good writer.
Good means to be approved of, but stories aren’t created from approval. They’re built from life experiences, feelings, and emotions Therefore, the impact of anyone’s story isn’t good or bad. It’s a million other things.
Heartfelt.
Sad.
Funny.
Inspiring.
Romantic.
So to all the story writers out there, hold your head up, write what is in your heart, and never doubt that there isn’t at least one person out there that needs to read your story.
So, no.
We’re not good writers, but why would we want to be?
Holy shit did I need to read this today
And if that person is just yourself, that’s okay too. I mean it, literally the only reason I started writing is that no one was writing what I wanted to read, and let me tell you, my writing may be a mess, but it’s a lot of fun for me to read. :)
“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”
— ERIN BOW
my dad–also a writer–came to visit, and i mentioned that the best thing to come out of the layoff is that i’m writing again. he asked what i was writing about, and i said what i always do: “oh, just fanfic,” which is code for “let’s not look at this too deeply because i’m basically just making action figures kiss in text form” and “this awkward follow-up question is exactly why i don’t call myself a writer in public.”
he said, “you have to stop doing that.”
“i know, i know,” because it’s even more embarrassing to be embarrassed about writing fanfic, considering how many posts i’ve reblogged in its defense.
but i misunderstood his original question: “fanfic is just the genre. i asked what you’re writing about.”
i did the conversational equivalent of a spinning wheel cursor for at least a minute. i started peeling back the setting and the characters, the fic challenge and the specific episode the story jumps off from, and it was one of those slow-dawning light bulb moments. “i’m writing about loneliness, and who we are in the absence of purpose.”
as, i imagine, are a lot of people right now, who probably also don’t realize they’re writing an existential diary in the guise of getting television characters to fuck.
“that’s what you’re writing. the rest is just how you get there, and how you get it out into the world. was richard iii really about richard the third? would shakespeare have gotten as many people to see it if it wasn’t a story they knew?”
so, my friends: what are you writing about?
… How you live with a problem that has no solution. And how you rebuild after everything around you has been destroyed.
well…..shit
Coping with change, trauma, and the upheaval of a life.
Demanding a happy ending from a world that has been unfair.
What it means to be real.
What it means to choose happiness and to choose to be better.
How to move on from a painful past and prevent yourself from sabotaging the present while learning to accept the happiness you deserve.
What it means to love someone even though they’ve stopped loving you.
The ways in which we live on after we’re gone, and the legacies we leave behind.
The stories we sometimes tell ourselves; re-examining pieces of the past and putting the present into context.
“Writing is hard” I say as I continue to browse the internet, not attempting to write at all.
writers be like “i know a place” and then take you to a wip and then another wip and then another wip and then-
I changed the font and spacing to reread my first draft and it’s a totally legit trick but also it’s so funny how much of writing is just playing mind games with yourself. Stuck on the blank page? Write a grocery list! Words won’t come? Switch to writing on a yellow legal pad! Having trouble working consistently? Create a daily writing ritual! Is everything just Bad? Write in Comic Sans! Set a timer! Set a weird deadline! Write 1000 words EXACTLY, no more and no less! Mess with the font colors! Get up early! Stay up late! Dress up to do your writing! Or write naked!
the writer’s brain is just a puzzle toy that we have to turn over and over in every direction to get the Creativity to fall out
I made a helpful infographic to explain
The strangely unsettling feeling of getting an email from a “white blank page,” only to realise that it’s from Mumford & Sons and not the ghost of your WIP fic having gained sentience and coming to haunt you.
LOVE YOURSELF CHALLENGE
RULES: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!
Tagged by the very nice @illgetmerope! What a fun way to reflect on all the stuff I’ve been up to in the past year. Because I’ve both been writing and trying to grow my design skills, here’s a grab bag of things that are a mix of both, I guess.
1. white blank page (Chapter 8) More than 100,000 words and I’m still out here writing this monstrosity. But in the year since, I’ve had a bit of a creative break through with it, and I’m super happy about what’s going to happen in this next part. Sometimes you find yourself spinning your wheels because something isn’t right and you’re not sure what. But now I know, and that is gratifying. (Also, there’s a brief sense of pride that Past Me did a great job of setting me up, and I’m not always proud of them, but I am here.)
READ HERE
2. The Aftershocks Trailer I really wanted to do Anna’s fic justice, and while I was happy with the images and news stories I made to accompany it, I really wanted to push myself to make something that I felt actually encapsulated the whole fic and the feelings I felt when I read those words. The result was this trailer. I’m very, very proud of the work I did on it because not only did I actually design things within this set palette, but I also pushed myself to learn a whole new program and develop a brand new skillset within a few days. I’m so proud of what I accomplished.
3. already brushing off the dust I love Poe and Leia so much and I wanted to make something that I felt spoke to their relationship and how she must have felt during the course of The Force Awakens, while also capturing what Poe might have gone through to get off Jakku. I’m so happy I got to plumb the feelings of a character I love so much, while also sowing the seeds of an eventual romance.
READ HERE
4. The Masriel Holiday Exchange Gif Set I don’t gif much or often, but I knew I wanted to make a gif set when it came to this holiday exchange. It was really fun finding all the footage and scenes I could maybe use to make what looked like actual scenes between Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter, a couple of I’ve been enamoured with since I was a child. (The new His Dark Materials show has certainly helped that along!) I wanted something that captured what their first meeting could have looked like, as well as all the tension and chemistry.
SEE HERE
5. The BB-8 Star Wars Day Animation I haven’t been practicing my animation skills in a while, but after I finished illustrating this BB-8 as part of my Star Wars Day post, I thought it might be fun to make him move, because he’s a droid and that’s the best part of them isn’t it? (Not to mention he’s a tiny little ball. He should 1000% be movable!) I really enjoyed adding some sound to the whole production. Here it is below:
TAGGING: @whatdiknow @spamela-hamderson @dobrien @dingletragedy @thompsonconnors @fireangel5683 @nooneelsecomesclose17 @amandaj718 @jonny-versace and anyone else who feels like doing this!
Hard same.
must a fic writer actually write? is it not enough to plan fics for four hours and write nothing bc you cannot solidify an idea that feels completely satisfying?
okay I’m v curious about this so fanfic writers reblog and put in the tags whether you title your fic before or after you write it
Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in
true editor mood is going “god i really hate this lol” and then posting it anyway because you spent two hours on it
