Same Nonsense Different Font

okay. writers of tumblr. i’ve compiled a list of things i desperately wish someone had sat me down and said before i started writing, not that i would’ve listened, because i was 14 and powered entirely by hubris, iced coffee, and my wattpad era.

anyway. here we go:

1. stop rewriting chapter one. i know you think it’ll fix everything. it won’t. it’s a hydra. you cut one head off, two Google Docs appear.

2. your first draft is not a treaty with god. it can be messy. it can be unhinged. it can have 47 placeholders named “idk something happens.” it’s fine.

3. perfectionism is just fear wearing a blazer. write badly on purpose. humiliate your draft. it builds character (yours).

4. word count culture is a scam. you are allowed to write 200 words and call it a day. you are allowed to write 5k and then disappear into the void for three business weeks.

5. google docs autosave WILL betray you. download backups. then back up your backups. then sacrifice a pen to the writing gods idk.

6. description is not pretty synonyms. it’s specificity. the torn movie ticket in their pocket. the buzzing light in the hallway. the chipped nail polish on their thumb. write the thing not the aesthetics around the thing.

7. dialogue isn’t two Shakespeare ghosts monologuing at each other. interruptions. trailing off. people lying. people avoiding the truth. people saying “whatever man.” let it get messy.

8. you don’t need a whole map before you start. sometimes you just need one character with one problem and the stupidest idea imaginable.

9. reading your old writing will make you cringe but also cry a little because wow you cared so much. keep that version of you alive.

10. don’t wait to ‘be good.’ you get good by writing the stuff you think is embarrassing.

11. also: nine out of ten times, your “bad” idea is actually the one that goes feral and grows teeth and becomes your WIP.

12. hydrate. no further explanation.

ok that’s it because if i keep going i’ll start confessing things about the time i wrote a whole novel in 2017 that will never see daylight again.

Li Jun is one of the most obvious examples, he is saved by (and saves) Carl multiple times, and it doesn't matter because he dies on the ninth floor, right before the chance for freedom. What did it mean for Li Jun to struggle so much, only to die? Does the extra time with his sister and best friend outweigh all the pain and suffering he went through? Would it have been kinder to let him and his family die?

Annie's the other obvious one, the tragedy wasn't that Annie was sick and dying it's that she was denied the comfort of dying with someone who loved her! She was never going to live but the love that Katia gave her was real! Does it matter if it couldn't change anything? If Annie was only ever going to break Katia's heart should she have loved her in the first place?

The crawlers on the fifth floor as well, especially Langley and company, was it worth it to fight so hard to get off the fifth floor only to die early on the sixth? What does it mean if the second they gain confidence and purpose they just die? Was it worth it? Was it worth the struggle and pain?

If all of Signet's memories of her family are fake, if her whole family is fake, does her love still matter? Does her pain? Her hatred? Should she still fight for them?

Was Donut's love for Bea wasted? Do the moments of love and companionship between them mean nothing now because of Bea's betrayal? Were the moments between them fake even? If Bea had never taken Donut, Dount would never have met Carl, but is that they only thing she would lose?

What of Yvette? A girl born into a shitty family, who struggled and suffered to grow up only to die horribly and painfully and young. Would it have been kinder if she just died in the collapse?

Would it be better if Carl's mom never took him to the circus? Is it tarnished by the heartbreak that came after? Was suicide really the only way?

That man stashes EVERYTHING and then spends the next hundred chapters randomly pulling something out he snatched like two books ago.