E.L.Mckenzie @elm-ckenzie-blog - Tumblr Blog

Kitty friends

I see photos of random cats all the time and it makes me wonder if my indoor/outdoor cat has made friends with anyone I don’t know. It seems to me that she doesn’t go far away from my neighbourhood. One day I want to put a go-pro on her just to see where she goes.

elm-ckenzie-blog

The paradox of the suicidal.

When I was first diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder I spent a week in the mental health ward due to being at risk of suicide. As would be expected due to the nature of the ward, I was in there with several other women (as the ward was separated by gender) who were in the same position that I was.

The cool thing about the ward is that the reason we’re all in there is that there’s something wrong with us, so we felt no reason to keep our illnesses to ourselves. We weren’t allowed our phones in the ward so we spent a lot of time sitting around, colouring pictures and chatting. This is how we discovered what I call ‘The Paradox of the Suicidal’. The moment one of us said they wished to end their life, we all started telling them how important they were.

And, we all genuinely believed what we were saying. One woman whose drawings were like heaven on earth thought she had no talent, another who always woke up before the rest of us and welcomed the morning with her amazing voice, thought she brought nothing but darkness to the people around her.

It was through these conversations that I started to notice this strange trend. These women and I were so ADAMANT that the others had no reason to want to die. And yet, we were so certain of our own need to end our lives. Why couldn’t we see what the others could see? When I brought this up to the other women I was met with silence as the penny dropped.

The Suicidal Paradox is simple. Even when you yourself are suicidal, you still believe others who feel the same deserve to live.

Why not you? Why not me?

Depression is a liar. I always think of this experience to remind myself of that. I am here because there are people who care about me. Even those in the mental health ward.

hogwartshousefriends

Gryffindor: What are you looking at?

Hufflepuff: Clouds.

Gryffindor: Why?

Hufflepuff: I don’t know.

Hufflepuff: I wasn’t expecting to have to justify my behaviour.

just-shower-thoughts

Being a baby is so difficult. Imagine utilizing all the power to crawl at the end of room and some elder picking you up and leaving you again at your starting point.

just-shower-responses

well maybe if you stopped trying to touch the fucking power outlet like a stupid dumbass idiot we wouldnt be having this problem

harrypotterhousequotes

HUFFLEPUFF:

“So let us create What we need each other to be And I’ll be what you need For me to be”

–Jukebox the Ghost (So Let Us Create)

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

there’s a quarantine going on… no pressure but i KNOW ya’ll have WIPs

headspace-hotel

another proposal for a new genre

Unrealistic Fiction: Like realistic fiction, except everything is super unrealistic. I don’t mean in a “fantasy/speculative fiction” sort of way, I mean things like “characters turn out to be long lost siblings for no reason” and “a side character is wealthy because he won the lottery and also he used to be a circus performer and is the descendant of Thomas Edison.” Characters die of super rare diseases and are born either on February 29th or on the exact stroke of midnight on new year’s eve or something equally unusual. The main character’s mother and father meet when one of them is skydiving and the other one is being attacked by a shark and the skydiver accidentally lands on the shark. Someone gets struck by lightning while photographing the last known specimen of an endangered bird. Two characters have the exact same birthday for no reason. The main characters’ family have an albino crow and albino deer in their backyard that are friends. The long lost siblings’ dogs are also long lost siblings. None of it is anything that couldn’t happen, just something that would sound super unrealistic if it was put in a story, and none of it is remotely relevant to the plot.

brooklyn-etc

sooo I may or may not have spontaneously started a novel today and wrote 3000 words (& my first chapter ever??)

elm-ckenzie-blog

Keep going!!

everythingfox

“So.. I paid for a professional photo shoot of my cat, no regrets”

(Source)

turing-tested

i am dumber than a mouse

turing-tested

i saw a glue trap in a drawer and didn't know what it was (I thought it was an open tray of sauce) and pressed my entire hand into it and now im stuck to. a glue trap

curiousauthor

hal what kind of sauce looks like glue

turing-tested

barbacue sauce ):

the-stabbiest-dragon

I really don’t want to be rude, but hey OP, why the ever-loving heck did you press your entire hand down into what you thought was an open tray of barbecue sauce?

turing-tested

i saw it and it was dark in the drawer and i went 'hehe....sauce time'

kuukrii

op. op... if it did end up being bbq sauce. why would you want to shove your entire hand into it. what is the thought process.

headspace-hotel

When you’re writing and the words are flying past and you stop to google one small detail that has no long-term effect on the story and

crayyola-deactivated20220827

You've heard of "humans being severely injured to reveal mechanical insides" now get ready for a far more horrifying alternative: machines and technology being damaged to reveal meaty, bloody insides

Why is writing difficult?

-slams head on desk- -screams-

#ihatewriting #butihaveto #becauseilovemycharacterstoomuchtostop

suninks-moved

how not to start your story

the beginning of your story is arguably the most important part - it determines if your reader will put it down or keep reading. here are a list of overused, cheesy ways to start your story that you should definitely avoid using.

onomatopoeia!!! god, this one is absolutely terrible. in school, i’ve been taught that this is a good way to “hook” your reader, which is frankly garbage advice. it’s incredibly overused and probably my least favorite way to start a story ever. if anyone ever advises me to do this, i never listen to any other advice they offer.

full names. like “Harry James Potter didn’t know it yet, but he was a famous wizard”. it’s very overused. it’s also especially bad if the other names are never used again, because, well, what was the point of that intro then? none. no point.

extensive descriptions are not only boring in the middle of the book, they are especially bad when placed in the beginning because the reader isn’t looking for the perfect image of a rainy day, they want a hook. they already know what a rainy day, sunset, or a dingy hotel room looks like.

infodumps are ocassionally acceptable in writing, but again, if placed in the beginning, they will bore your reader. give them a little action!

the start of a story needs to be simple, because the reader is new to this world. adding in more than about 4 characters will confuse your reader. if you confuse the reader, they’ll assume the rest of the book is like this as well, and put your book back on the shelf.

that’s all for this post, y’all, good luck and keep working on your wips!

crayonmilkz

Can someone find that tumblr post where people talk in meme images and the last person’s like “gonna need a meme degree to understand that in the future” or something please i can’t find it

elm-ckenzie-blog

The paradox of the suicidal.

When I was first diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder I spent a week in the mental health ward due to being at risk of suicide. As would be expected due to the nature of the ward, I was in there with several other women (as the ward was separated by gender) who were in the same position that I was.

The cool thing about the ward is that the reason we’re all in there is that there’s something wrong with us, so we felt no reason to keep our illnesses to ourselves. We weren’t allowed our phones in the ward so we spent a lot of time sitting around, colouring pictures and chatting. This is how we discovered what I call ‘The Paradox of the Suicidal’. The moment one of us said they wished to end their life, we all started telling them how important they were.

And, we all genuinely believed what we were saying. One woman whose drawings were like heaven on earth thought she had no talent, another who always woke up before the rest of us and welcomed the morning with her amazing voice, thought she brought nothing but darkness to the people around her.

It was through these conversations that I started to notice this strange trend. These women and I were so ADAMANT that the others had no reason to want to die. And yet, we were so certain of our own need to end our lives. Why couldn’t we see what the others could see? When I brought this up to the other women I was met with silence as the penny dropped.

The Suicidal Paradox is simple. Even when you yourself are suicidal, you still believe others who feel the same deserve to live.

Why not you? Why not me?

Depression is a liar. I always think of this experience to remind myself of that. I am here because there are people who care about me. Even those in the mental health ward.