Splattered Ink

Something nobody prepares you for is that the better you get at writing the harder it becomes. beginners write freely because they don't know enough to know what's wrong. then you learn. and suddenly you can see every single flaw in real time as you're making it and you have to write anyway while your own brain is in the corner going "that's a weak verb. that transition is lazy. you've used that word three times." getting good at this is mostly just getting better at ignoring yourself.

Then after a while, catching your weaknesses and improving them in real time becomes the real fun part of writing. When you first start writing, it feels great and important to just be putting your ideas and aesthetics out there. Then it gets hard and feels like you suck at getting yourself put there, and that's not as fun. It's where a lot of people give up or simply stop trying to improve. But if you keep going, the craftsmanship of writing itself becomes a pleasure. You begin to meld the pleasure of getting yourself out there with the pleasure of doing it well. You're becoming a master craftsperson, with skills ready to deploy any time. Writing becomes easy and less personal. The final product is an expression of yourself but also a product that stands alone and holds up in evaluation against similar products. You're now an artisan, not an amateur with self-indulgent and inconsistent product. People may like it or hate it, but you've done what you set out to do and done it well.

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be a part of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.

this is the official pokemon tumblr account posting the origin of shocked pikachu

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The godless beast, with its wretched meal, provided gladly by god herself