Video Games and the Art of Storytelling

I remember a time when I laughed at people who thought video games were art. Then I played a couple that proved me wrong. I remember playing a point-and-click game at age twelve that sent me spiraling down the crazy thought process of nihilism. (I know some people could handle that better than me, but…

Read More

Looking at Old Writing

It’s a bit like staring at old photographs in a scrapbook (or selfies from a couple years ago for those who never lived through the scrapbooking era). You see the subtle shifts, or the not-so-subtle changes. Maybe you started working out. Maybe you cut your hair, dyed in, then grew it out again. Maybe you…

Read More

How Not to Get Jealous as a Creator

It’s difficult. You work and work and work and somebody ALWAYS seems to be winning more awards than you. Their writing isn’t even that good… You think, mumbling incoherently to yourself as you stare into your mug of coffee, simultaneously scrolling through Twitter feeds. Feeds filled with people discussing how they got signed. How they’re…

Read More

Sometimes, I Just Don’t Want to Write

Every week, I force myself to write a blog post for Tumblr by Monday night. Then, I need to send in 2-3 articles for my digital media magazine by Saturday. THEN, I need to update a 1,500 word chapter for Wattpad by Friday. Sometimes, like this week, I end up postponing to Tuesday instead of…

Read More

A Call to Love

Shalom. Salaam. Peace. In a world where it seems we open the news and everyday see it. Hate, death, destruction. Remember this. That we treasure the time to love instead of the time to hate that hate only brings Anger, chaos, calamity. But love is: Healing. Love is: Fixing. Love is: Saving. And love is anything…

Read More

On Writing Villains

I remember my first villains. I made them extremely evil. In my stories, written fondly at age eleven, they had fangs and darkness in their eyes. Their souls were full of mud, and they made the Grinch look like a sweetheart. Originally posted by tigerlilykisses As I grew older, wrote more stories, I realized that…

Read More

Killing Your (Darling) Characters

So, when it comes to killing off characters, nobody knows the struggle better than a writer. (Notice I said characters, not people. Please ensure that I mean FICTIONAL people of IMAGINARY worlds. Murder is a big no-no IRL!) Writers search up these weird things all the time: how people act at funerals, what happens to…

Read More

Forgiveness

It was the most difficult thing for me to learn. If somebody gossiped about me behind my back, yelled at me, or otherwise slighted me, I’d get angry. As any human would. But it just made me feel worse. I was mad at the world, mad at myself for not fighting back. Heroes fought, didn’t…

Read More

I Forgot How to Read Like I Used To

Bookwyrm????Problems Originally posted by youaremyyheavenn I forgot how to read for fun. I’m not sure when it happened. I must have been pretty young. When I first pulled out a book and thought—- “So this is where the magic went.” When I pretended to fight with tiny monsters in my backyard. When I vowed to…

Read More

How to Write with a Strong Character Voice

Okay, bear with me. I’m always learning as a writer. It’s part of the writing process, really. But I learned something crucial. There’s a difference between “just writing” and then writing with character voice. 1. For example, this is JUST WRITING: “I went to the grocery store and saw my co-worker, Timothy, reloading plastic bags behind…

Read More