Please, Please, Please Don’t Ever Let Yourself Believe That You Don’t Matter Or That The People In

“WRITE IT BADLY. Write it badly, write it badly, write it badly, write it badly. Stop what you’re doing, open a Word document, put a pencil on some paper, just get the idea out of your head. Let it be good later. Write it down now. Otherwise it will die in there.”

— Brandon Sanderson on overcoming writer’s block to create a first draft as a professional author

i will steady your hand when you’re losing your grip

Pairing: Bill/Eddie

Rating: T

Word Count: 13,720

Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, High School, Childhood Trauma, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Crying, Kissing, Sad Bill Denbrough, Bisexual Bill Denbrough, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Bad Parenting, Best Friends, Bullying, Period-Typical Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Blood And Injury, Growing Up Together, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Child Neglect, The World Is A Big Bad Scary Place But We’ll Survive It If We Love Each Other

“Okay,” Eddie says, slapping Bill on the back as they arrive at the end of Eddie’s driveway. “You gonna be okay going the last couple blocks by yourself?”

The question is routine by now, asked every single day since 1989. The answer is too, Bill waving away Eddie’s concern with a smile that crinkles his eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. You know m-m-m-me.”

That’s the problem, Eddie thinks, watching him go. I do know you.

Bill’s in a bad way and Eddie loves him through it.

Read @ AO3

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) dir. Peter Jackson

note to self: just because someone did the thing you were thinking about doing, and did it way better than you could ever hope to do, doesn’t mean it would be stupid or pointless to go ahead and try to still do the thing anyway. 

Do you ever suddenly remember something you wholeheartedly believed as a child that just makes your skin shrivel up like a prune

Do you have any tips to stop cringing at/hating your own writing? Thanks!

yeah actually: write cringe shit on purpose

do you know what so fucking cringe? superheroes. most people irl associate them with five year old boys and gamer bros who like excluding people based on whether they know how many Robins there are. you MIGHT get lucky and have them associate you with shippers and fandom folks. when my brand new housemate said to me ‘oh so I hear you like superheroes?’ I felt my soul fucking evacuate my body.

anyway so I took my favourite cringe genre and made it more cringe. I stripped out most of the action and made it about melodrama. about romance. about three line prompts centred on feelings. and I filled a whole blog with it. thousands of prompts, tens of thousands of words of nothing but the most cringe-inducing, self-indulgent, emotional twaddle. I write it fast, on the fly--for most of this blog’s lifespan I was producing two prompts a day, and there was no time to edit out the yikes or the badly placed commas or the overwrought betrayal. I’ve written cancel-worthy smut prompts and twee little tooth-aching cuteness. I’ve written so much junk that no one in their right mind would show another living soul, and published it in front of more than EIGHT THOUSAND PEOPLE. 

it’s an inoculation process (get your flu shot, kids). if you write cringe shit on purpose, you mind a lot less when you write cringe shit by accident. in fact, sometimes you start to enjoy the cringe even in your serious work, because you start to recognise a fundamental truth: everything is cringe. purple prose is cringe. romances are cringe. redemption arcs are cringe. em dashes are cringe. superheroes are cringe. 

you will always be writing something cringe. always. even when you’re a bestselling author, you’ll write something and think ‘oh god that’s so fucking cringe’. the difference between you now and you in that future is that you in the future has written so much more cringe shit. you will be (semi) cringe immune. you have survived the cringe before and you will survive the cringe again. 

so keep writing. keep cringing too, but most importantly: just keep writing. it’s the only surefire cure. 

hope this helps!

some sites for when you’re bored and looking for new music

spotalike creates a playlist based on a song

magicplaylist  creates a playlist based on a song

dubolt  creates a playlist based on an artist

boilthefrog creates a playlist between any two artists 

predominant suggests you albums based on cover art color   

music-map  suggests similar artists

gnoosic  suggests similar artists and songs

So, um, from time to time, I just suddenly get really motivated to create something, a flash of creativity, but only for a few hours. Naturally, I think on writing, but I can't put my thoughts on paper, my head seems to be going crazy, it's a really weird feeling and mostly confusing, so I was thinking if you could help me on this, giving me some tips to start writing?

Oh, this is a fun one, because this is something I think everyone struggles with. What happens when creativity is high, but motivation or ideas are low? I’ve got a few tricks that I use for myself:

1) Store writing prompts in drafts

I do this all the time. If at any point I’m scrolling through tumblr and see a prompt I like, or think I could use later, I store it in my drafts. Then, when inspiration hits, I’ll scroll through my drafts and see if any of them pique my interest. This is also a good way just to start writing, even if you veer away from the original prompt. Some of my favorite prompt blogs include @gingerly-writing @corvidprompts @deepwaterwritingprompts and @promptsforthestrugglingauthor

2) Free write

While similar to using prompts like above, allow yourself to just write anything. It doesn’t have to be on a specific WIP, or even with specific characters. Write literally whatever comes to mind. I like to use this especially when paired with music. Put your music player on shuffle and write in accordance to what comes on. Or better yet, put on music without words–video game music is great for this, because it’s meant to hold your focus. I created a pandora station for myself feeding from video game and movie OSTs that I use for writing all the time.

3) Writing sprints

If you are competitive like I am, writing sprints are a great way to get words on the paper. These can be done with other writing groups, or on your own. Set yourself a timer, and if you want, set yourself a word count goal as well. Either way, I usually do 10 or 15 minute “sprints.” During this time, I write and do nothing else. Then break for about the same amount of time to let yourself recover, and think about what comes next, get a snack, whatever else. Usually I’ll end up sprinting 3-4 times like this, and sometimes I don’t end up breaking in between because I’ve finally found my groove. The days during NaNoWriMo when I wrote 5k-7k in one day was almost always done in sprints like this. I like using the program Write or Die, but there are plenty of others out there too. Find what works for your reward system, and feel free to experiment!

4) Allow yourself to do something else creative

Maybe the words just aren’t coming. That’s okay! Sketch out character designs, make yourself a cover, put together a playlist, write a poem, write a song, or just work on your outline. Brainstorm ideas and color code them. We can’t be actively writing all the time, but that doesn’t mean the work you’re doing won’t help you later.

5) Look for root causes of this restlessness

I don’t know about you, but I have anxiety issues, and sometimes that comes through as restlessness, or an inability to focus. A lot of times, I just need to settle myself down to allow my brain some space to think and plot. Try doing something with your hands, and give yourself a sense of order or space. Wash the dishes, clean your work space, walk around the house to burn off some excess energy, or even take a hot shower or a bath. Let your hands and body focus on something else, to give your mind a chance to breathe and process what you’re trying to accomplish. Also, check yourself: Have you had enough water? Food? Sleep? All of these things can put a block on the writing process. Your mind and body are your instruments, and you have to keep those running smoothly as well. As much as we would love to be able to pluck the words from the air, it’s a more complicated process than that.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

legend says that if you go to a mirror and say “beep beep richie” three times richie tozier will appear behind you and make a slightly offensive joke about your mother

Why must my feelings be "rational"? Is it not enough to sit quietly in my hawaiian shirt, deranged?