being a humanities major who’s friends with stem majors is so funny because you’ll ask your friends what they’re doing today and they’re like “UGH it’s so stressful i have to stabilize the reactor core for my nuclear power midterm and then i have to build the supercomputer from i have no mouth yet i must scream for my electrical engineering homework :/ what about you” and you’re like “oh well i have to read a fun little book and write an essay about gender.” and they still think you have it worse
Being a stem major who's friends with humanities majors is ALSO funny bc you ask what's goin on with them and they're like "oh yeah my day's pretty good! I only have to read 50 pages for this one class today and half a book for another one. It's much better than last week where I read three books and wrote a 10 page paper about their overlapping motifs for one class while also researching a niche period of time that our library doesn't have any resources on. How's it been for you?" and you're like "oh I have a lil packet of fun math puzzles due tomorrow." and they look at you like you're carrying the weight of the universe on your back
This is your reminder that just because something falls within the skillset you've practiced, so you can do it and you don't find it particularly hard or stressful relative to other things, it doesn't mean it isn't actually hard work you should be proud of yourself for accomplishing!
*deep breath*
If the antifascist (esp. American-centered) art you make or consume refuses to acknowledge the truth that framing this time period as the "sudden rise of fascism" along with its supposed volatility (i.e. "it can't last; that's not how its built") is just a comforting construct to keep white Americans from reckoning with their literal centuries of active and passive participation in this country's fascist, genocidal violence against Indigenous and Black people, your art isn't just wrong...it's worthless.
How can you imagine dismantling unjust systems without seeing the blood on your own hands? How do you comprehend the size of the fight for mutual liberation without seeing that the scale of the threat is exponentially larger than your personal experience of the danger of state violence; or is your envisioned win condition only as shallow as the return to your previous sense of safety?
Ignoring the complexities and well-established enmeshment of fascism in Western culture for the sake of simpler stories to inspire rising to this moment in history only builds fair-weather fighters ill-prepared for the rigors of revolutionary action. It also widens the rift between those newly awakened to the struggle and their neighbors that have lived it for generations (and have built and maintained systems of community support and resistance that have protected them for just as long).
If antifascist art doesn't first demand you turn the eye inward, it is only escapist fluff.
okay. so. this is going to feel a little bit like a call-out, but in a “i have done this and will probably do it again” way, not a “you specifically are the problem” way.
because.....:
most writers don’t under-describe.
they don’t.
they over-describe, just… not the parts that actually matter.
and that’s where everything starts to feel off in a way that’s hard to explain but very easy to feel.
like you read a paragraph and go:
“this is technically fine. why am i bored.”
let me show you the pattern.
you will spend:
5 lines describing the curtains
3 lines describing the exact shade of the wallpaper
2 lines describing the way light hits the floorboards
and then when your character is:
about to lie
about to confess something
about to make a decision that will literally alter the trajectory of the story
you give it:
“she hesitated.”
and then you MOVE ON??
be serious for a second.
this is what i mean when i say you’re over-describing the wrong things.
it’s not that description is bad. i love description. i want to eat description. i want to live inside it.
but description has a job.
and its job is not “make the scene look pretty.”
its job is:
direct the reader’s attention to what matters emotionally.
so if you are describing something in detail, i need you to ask:
“why this. why right now.”
because if the answer is:
“i pictured it really clearly in my head”
i regret to inform you that your reader does not care. gently. respectfully. they do not care.
they care about:
what your character wants
what is getting in the way
what this moment means
everything else is background noise unless you make it matter.
here’s where it gets a little uncomfortable:
you are probably avoiding describing the things that feel harder to articulate.
like:
the exact shape of someone’s hesitation
the difference between anger and hurt in a single line of dialogue
the way attraction feels when it’s inconvenient
the moment a character realizes something they don’t want to know
that’s the stuff you skim past.
because it’s messy. and specific. and requires you to make choices.
so instead, you describe the room.
because the room is safe.
the room will not expose you.
the room will not force you to decide what your character is actually feeling.
and i get it. i really do.
but also: that’s why your scenes feel flat.
not because nothing is happening.
but because the important thing is happening off-screen.
let’s fix it. practically. no vague advice. i don’t do vague advice.
next time you’re writing a scene, do this:
pick one moment where something shifts.
not physically. emotionally.
a realization. a decision. a change in power. a crack in composure.
and then instead of writing:
“she hesitated”
you stay there.
you stretch it.
you get uncomfortably specific.
what kind of hesitation?
is it:
the kind where she already knows the answer and is stalling
the kind where she’s hoping someone interrupts
the kind where saying it out loud will make it real
what does it feel like in her body?
what does she notice in the room because she’s hesitating?
(see how now the description has a job. it’s not random anymore. yay)
this is the shift:
description should orbit emotion.
not replace it.
not distract from it.
not hide it.
orbit it.
another thing. and i’m going to say this very gently because i know how attached we get to our sentences:
if you can cut a description and nothing changes about how the reader understands the scene?
it was never doing anything.
it was just sitting there. looking pretty. contributing nothing to the emotional experience.
and we do not keep freeloaders in this house.
this doesn’t mean your writing has to be minimal.
it means your writing has to be intentional.
you can describe everything if you want.
but then everything you describe needs to be pulling weight.
it needs to be revealing character, or building tension, or reinforcing mood in a way that actually connects to what’s happening internally.
otherwise it’s just… decorative.
and decoration is not story.
so next time you feel like your scene is “missing something”
before you add more description
ask yourself:
am i avoiding the part that actually matters?
and then go write that part.
even if it’s harder.
especially if it’s harder.
anyway. that’s your gentle (not gentle) reminder for today.
go make your characters feel things on the page instead of hiding behind the wallpaper.
i’m watching you.
(in a supportive way. mostly.)
I HAVE DIGITAL PRODUCTS!!!
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A gothic prompt pack for writers who love cursed universities, secret societies, and scholarly rot.✎ Write the Darkness ✎A 75-prompt horror
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if you can’t eat a whole meal, eat half. you ate, that’s what is important.
if you can’t get out of bed, try and sit up instead of lying down. it’ll be better for your back and your blood pressure.
if you can’t shower or have a bath today, try and brush your teeth and clean your ears. it’ll keep you a little cleaner, and we often forget those areas.
if you can’t get dressed today, change underwear and use some deoderant. it’ll leave you a little fresher until you have the strength to change fully.
and remember, i’m very proud of you. your best will look different every day, and that’s okay.
Shit man, this Spire war is fucked. I just saw a skeleton clap her hands together and say "End of Days" or some similar shit, and every one around her turned inside out, had their Doom trigger and then got sucked into the underworld. The camera didn't even go onto her, that's how common shit like this is. My ass is casting Strike+ and Furnace. I think I just heard "5 Flankings, use Knife Trap" two groups over. I gotta get the fuck outta here.
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