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@arijensineink
Getting to write at your own pace usually speeds up the writing process as a whole, I find. You spend less time burned out, less time having to rewrite plot beats you didn’t give yourself time to think through, and less time pressuring yourself about how bad it is that you haven’t written enough.
Yes I Am Still (Mostly) Alive
Phew, I took a small break last week from newsletties, but managed to churn one out today!
Considering how uh human garbage I feel, I'm happy with how this one turned out.
I'd really like to hear other folks thoughts on this subject, especially about giving your brain and thoughts the space they need to expand and move into some deep thinking. So let me know your thoughts!
Whether or not you're not churning out chapters, it's important to feed your creativity.
Hope everyone is hanging in there :3
-Ari
niiloi
Happy (?) Monday D:
It's snowing like crazy outside ya'll 🥲
I've been wicked beat down the last week or so with an ongoing headache/migraine, so I'm taking a break from newsletters this week. Hopefully will be back in action by next weekend!
Despite that, I've been able to read quite a bit! Mostly listening to audiobooks, but also making some headway in The Jasmine Throne and a reading some short stories on the side.
How are you all holding up?
Literally my dream to see these in person lol <3
never want to hear "but hamas!!1" again. palestinians released from israeli prisons recount routine torture, brutality, abuse, deliberate mistreatment & neglect, and murder. a 14 year old child that was released from israeli prison has half of his skull missing. for every "prisoner" israel releases because of the truce they kidnap more. the iof steals organs from murdered palestinians. they withhold the bodies of the dead from their families. they have robbed the very homes of the people they've spent over 50 days bombing.
and hamas? testimonies from israeli hostages have been consistent from the start: they are not harmed, mistreated, or tortured. food and medical attention was provided as their captors were able to provide it (the lack of food is directly a consequence of the blockade on gaza). they are returned from 50+ days of being held hostage - a harrowing, traumatizing ordeal, obviously - but they've returned in good form, flying in the face of (and frankly upstaging) every piece of israeli, american, and western propaganda churned out.
This was what we feared the most in the past few days when the so called truce would come so close to its expiration time at 7 am Gaza time
Every morning for the past few days everyone would hold their breath as the clock approached 7 am, only for the truce to be renewed 10 or 15 minutes before the deadline, and that's when people went back to stand in line for gas and food
Today, however, was the worst case scenario we all feared and the clock kept ticking towards 7 am - and no announcement was made that Gaza can have at least one extra night's sleep
We all heard Israeli scum officials say that they intend to go back in full force. 7:01 Israel's shelling starts hailing down and 6 people are already killed within the first hour.
Absolutely sickening and heartbreaking. Keep advocating for Palestine please, this is nowhere near over.
Tag the OC has far, far too many responsibilities
End of year writing reminders:
💖 Writing should bring you joy or fulfillment
💖 Writing is challenging—it’s okay to feel frustrated
💖 It’s okay to take breaks, whether that’s 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 years!
💖 Your story is worth telling
💖 Your voice as a writer and creator is unique
💖 Your value as a writer is not based in how productive you are
💖 You’re still a writer, even if you only wrote one sentence this year.
Wrapping up November with some gentle encouragement and ideas.
This week, we'll need to keep our eye out for anything that might try to sabotage our creativity.
A little delayed this week but here is your esoteric dose of tarot-based writing advice for the week :3
i went to temple recently because my mom died and literally every single jew there agreed that the nation of israel is conducting a genocide against Palestine and needs to be stopped. every single one of us. there had to be forty of us there, a chunk of us mourning my mom, and the service was entirely prayers for palestinian safety and justice. do you know how insane it is to have forty jews agree on something? to speak in absolute unison? to shelve our grief for our personal losses in the face of such an inarguable atrocity? to speak of nothing but the need for action?
it's hard to articulate the scope and weight of this horror. it's imperative to communicate, though, the burning intensity of american jews who have turned irrevocably against zionism and the mandate of israel to provide us with a homeland.
Question!!! But how do I integrate subtlety into my writing? Like I have a hard time picking up on it and I annoyingly have a tendency to tell not show, so I wanted to know if you have any advice!
Writing with More Subtlety
-- Getting the hang of "showing vs telling" is a great place to start if you want to integrate subtlety into your writing. Saying, "Moonlight glinted off the lake," is more subtle than, "The moon was shining."
Guide: Showing vs Telling
-- Learning to evoke emotion and ambiance with sensory description is another way to write with more subtlety. After all, saying, "The house was scary looking," is not as subtle as, "Thick fog curled around the decaying timbers of the once grand Victorian home."
Horror by Darkness Horror by Daylight
-- Knowing what internal and external cues can be used to illustrate your characters' feelings is also helpful, because, "Sarah was sad," is not as subtle as, "Tears pooled in the corners of Sarah's eyes, and she bit her upper lip to keep it from quivering."
Showing a Character's Feelings The Subtle Signs of Romantic Interest and Love
-- Learning to weave details into your story is also helpful, as it's more subtle to work details in naturally than to do a big info dump.
Weaving Details into the Story
-- Finally, learn to drop hints rather than declare something outright.
Dropping Hints without Giving Everything Away
I hope that helps!
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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!
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Little mini-snippet from the scene I'm currently editing! This is a favorite passage. 🖤
For the writers living with chronic illness and physical disability
I'm going to get into writing and posting this while my brain is still half asleep and before I change my mind because it feels too personal and I don't do that online. Please excuse any typos.
Comments on a recent post of mine about wanting to write but not being able to got me thinking. I'm chronically ill and physically disabled. I have been for most of my adult life (I'm 42 now). It's been progressing slowly throughout that time and more rapidly over the last few years. It is what it is.
I don't talk about it in detail on the internet because it's impossible for me (not saying other people can't do this) to accurately represent the full experience in a way I feel comfortable with while still engaging enjoyably with an interest-based community, which is what I'd rather be doing here.
Also, people get fucking weird about it. I have no patience for *pat on the head* "well done for existing" consolation-prize pity bullshit or inspirational cripple bullshit. Equally, I have no patience for being dragged into a who-has-it-worse competition that I'm never going to take part in because I don't see the world that way or a what-about-me-ism-fuelled derailment session.
This shit is complicated. I'm on Tumblr to write and to talk about writing. But if I'm also quietly dealing with all that other stuff alongside making up some guys (gender non-specific) in my head and putting them in situations, I know some of you are too.
And you know what? It's hard. I know it is. We live in an inaccessible world and so many parts of that world and so many people in it can be brutally hostile towards chronic illness and physical disability in ways that still shake me to my core when I encounter them. It no longer surprises me, but it still fucks me up on the regular.
But listen. YOU ARE CREATING. You're doing something huge and worthy and valuable and fucking difficult. You're carrying the weight of all that other shit and YOU ARE STILL CREATING. It might take you longer than you'd like and you might be doing it in ways that are far from ideal, but you are still doing it.
You might feel excluded from communities and events and conversations, not necessarily because anyone is intentionally excluding you, but because you have no option other than to do the sick-person version of things and it's impossible not to feel like you're on the outside looking in sometimes when that's your experience.
The point of all this is that I want you to know with my whole heart that YOU ARE SEEN. Your strength and your determination and your sadness and your rage and your pain and your more-able days and your rock-bottom days are all seen.
Your challenges and your messiness and your perfectionism and your complexity and your dichotomies and the unrealistic standards and demands you have internalised from existing in an ableist society are witnessed and felt, widely and deeply, and with a solidarity unshakable enough to hang bridges from.
I'm not going to tell you that you're good enough, because it should go without saying. I am going to tell you that you're not alone, because that does need to be said. You are so much more than a conditionally-acceptable exception and you deserve to reach and exist beyond the boundaries of the small boxes you get shoved into without your consent or permission. YOU ARE SO MUCH MORE.
Alright? Alright. Keep going 💜
In case this gains any sort of traction and people start replying to it or reblogging it, I want to make something very clear. I am also neurodivergent. That is not what this post is about. I also have lifelong experience of mental illness and trauma. That is not what this post is about. This post is about chronic illness and physical disability and it's for people who are living with those specific things, whether or not they're also living with the other things.
So, in the most loving way, if you have something to say that isn't about that, this isn't the place to say it. Thanks.
another cool thing is when you devour a book over the course of a handful of hours and it fucks you up and you just have to lie on the couch feeling like your brain went swimming for too long & only just came up from under the water. art is so good
Things I Wish I'd Known About Improving My Writing
People weren't kidding when they say that it's hard. Not only is writing generally pretty tedious and hard, but it's hard to learn a new skill period. So when you add the facts together, it makes me almost want to quit sometimes.
Reading really does help you become a better writer. Especially a good audiobook. I don't know what it is but somehow the flow and the word choice of the author seeps into my brain. It rubs off on me in a really great way.
It's better than I think it is. My writing isn't disgusting or impossible to consume. We're our own worst critics.
If you’re an anti Zionist outside of Palestine, you should also be working to make your country safe for Jews so they don’t have a reason to move to israel. This includes being anti fascist, which includes working to deplatform fascists and their friends.
This also means not targeting synagogues and not shouting “free Palestine” at someone just because they’re visibly Jewish.
This also means not to say anything that includes an antisemitic trope like that Jews control Hollywood or the banks
This also means not cheering on people targeting Israelis at an airport outside of Israel, because guess what? That’s only going to tell them that they’re unsafe outside of their own settler ethnostate.
