Over the past few years, I have a turned into a monster. What kind of monster you may ask? A monster that starts books and doesn’t end up finishing them.
*distant horrified gasps*
Oh yes, a bookworm’s worst nightmare!
Within the first seven seconds of meeting someone, the average person will already have formed a first impression. Now, this could be due to a variety of reasons such as body language, tone or appearance. On the other hand, when it comes to writing, first impressions are formed differently. The first couple of pages give the reader a fairly good idea of whether they would like to continue or not. Here are a couple of tricks to keep the writer engaged.
“’Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.’” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“Writer’s block.” Two dreaded words for any student, first year undergrads and PhD candidates alike. Most other problematic writing habits stem from writer’s block; procrastination is when you’ve convinced yourself that you will write something, just not yet. The timing isn’t right, or you don’t have enough time to get enough of your thoughts down, or you need to perform your pre-writing rituals like binge-watching The Wire or cleaning the kitchen. Everyone is different, but the problem remains the same. Where to begin?
In high school, I took visual arts every year, and I loved it. Weirdly enough, I’ve always had one art teacher (hi, Mr. Simpson!). I loved the amount of freedom I had with my projects, and the exercises we did every week; the class was liberating (especially compared to the AP STEM courses I took).
I’m hungry (I’m always hungry), so I think about the options I have. It’s a bit overwhelming: Should I cook or should I buy? Should I eat a lot or should I just snack? Is there even food in the fridge (and by this, I mean is there anything I want in the fridge)?
(My hair is too long, I need a haircut)
Valentine’s Day is coming up and I’ve been thinking about my relationship
There’s this weird bittersweet feeling we tend to get when something is coming to an end. It doesn’t matter whether the ending is a good or bad thing: it’s just somewhat sad every single time! This isn’t a question of reverse-schadenfreude either. I have no answer for you. I’m sure there’s research on the web that can explain this but to avoid having to create a Works Cited list, here’s how I've always dealt with change.
Going to school for the first time was wild
Long, long ago when I was young and dependent, my parents would nag about the state of my bedroom: it rarely met their standards of tidy. I would challenge their unrealistic ideals by questioning them. When this failed to help my cause I would shove everything under the bed.
Why do my clothes need to be put away? I’m going to wear them eventually; why must the bed be made? I’ll be sleeping in it again, tonight; who am I hurting? Why does this “who” care?
I ate too much turkey and fell asleep this weekend instead of coming up with a blog post, so here is a drawing of me at 3 years old. And maybe again at 20.
Unleash your superpower, Warriors! #WritingUnleashed