daydreamingofbutterflies

Just a student, fangirl, and writer existing in this world

[daydreamingofbutterflies]

"I am haunted by humans"

The quote from Markus Zusak's, The Book Thief, remains so eerily relevant no matter how much time has passed since the horrors of WW2 or even the publication of the work.

It has been 76 years since the end of WW2 and 16 years since the publication of the Book Thief. But its message remains as relevant as ever, it's story unforgettable.

But even as years will pass and I will surely forget the plot of one of the few books that made me sob, leaving me in shock with an empty feeling in my chest as I finished the last few pages, I know that I will never forget this quote.

As every day when I open social media or look at the news, my hope for the world and for the future decreases a little bit more. Everything that is wrong with our world is because of people. Any problem in our world that you can name as been caused by humans. No matter how many individuals are good, there are just the same amount that are bad. And in that kind of world, it is impossible for the world to truly be good and for me to have faith in the human race. In those moments as I read headlines and hear people's stories, the quote rings through my head and I can't help but identify with it. Everyday, I am haunted by humans.

[daydreamingofbutterflies]

Pros and cons of writing multiple books at a time:

Pros:

- getting to jump between books when you get bored of writing one

- able to pursue different tropes, character arcs and plotlines

- can daydream about scenes from multiple books while in public as you try to decide how to work out a scene

Cons:

- writing half of each book but not being able to finish it

- constantly having new book ideas instead of writing the ones you already have

- writing half of a book only to notice that some of your themes and scenes are wayyyy too similar to the other book

- following the above realization, having to decide whether to:

1. leave them both how they are and hope no one will notice

2. rewrite one of the books

3. stop writing both and wait for someone else to come around and magically write them overnight, fixing all of the plot holes and common themes so that they are their own distinct books

- being sad because of a character's death despite you being the one who decided they needed to die

[daydreamingofbutterflies]

Healing

There’s something oddly comforting about writing characters who go through trauma and find a way to heal. Sometimes by themselves, sometimes through others and sometimes using unhealthy coping mechanisms, but no matter what they go through, they need to heal. That’s something I always ensure because it’s so important. By the time the story ends, you may not see the end result, but you know it gets better. That all the damage and the trauma is over with, that where we left the characters at the end of the novel is in peace and with some semblance of happiness. 

It’s a good reminder to myself that no matter what I go through, no matter what I experience, that there will always be a way to heal. That everything will always be okay.