The sleeping writer

I’m incredibly disappointed with the trend in stories (especially ‘edgy’ YA novels) to bombard the reader with traumatic situations, angry characters, and relationship drama without ever first giving them a reason to root for a better future. As a reader…

I might care that the main siblings are fighting if they had first been shown to have at least one happy, healthy conversation. 

I might cry and rage with the protagonist if I knew they actually had the capacity to laugh and smile and be happy.

I might be hit by heavy and dark situations if there was some notion that it was possible for this world to have light and hope and joy to begin with.

Writers seem to forget that their reader’s eyes adjust to the dark. If you want to give your reader a truly bleak situation in a continually dim setting, you have to put them in pitch blackness. But if you just shine a light first, the sudden change makes the contrast appear substantial.

Show your readers what light means to your character before taking it away. Let the reader bond with the characters in their happy moments before (and in between) tearing them apart. Give readers a future to root for by putting sparks of that future into the past and the present. Make your character’s tears and anger mean something.

Not only will this give your dark and emotional scenes more impact, but it says something that we as humans desperately, desperately need to hear. 

Books with light amidst the darkness tell us that while things are hard and hurt, that we’re still allowed to breathe and hope and live and even laugh within the darkness.

We as humans need to hear this more often, because acting it out is the only way we stop from suffocating long enough to make a difference.

So write angst, and darkness, and gritty, painful stories, full of treacherous morally grey characters if you want to. But don’t forget to turn the light on occasionally.

Me to me: Come on do it. I know you want to.

Me: *sigh* *searches for more fanfiction*

Ravenclaw: What do you mean it's August already? Wasn't it just March?

Hufflepuff: Uhh..

Ravenclaw: Time is going by too quickly and what have I accomplished? Nothing! We are all dying and we can't slow things down.

Hufflepuff: Uh, Slytherin can you help me calm down Ravenclaw?

“You know they’ll fight us for this right?”

“I know, but it’s worth the risk. We don’t have much time anyway.”

“Hey hey, don’t say that, you’re gonna make it. I know that. I’ll hold them off.”

“Why did you even fight anyway. They hated me, you should’ve let me die.”

“The world turned against you. I have to defend you. Defend us.”

“If the world turned against you too, you know I’ll fight back right?”

“Yeah. I know.”

“They’re coming…”

“Let go of the wound, let the blood flow.”

“It hurts. Dying hurts.”

“I know. I felt it too, I’m right here.”

“I just wish I could die by your side…”

“You already saw me die, I think it’s time I see you.”

“I love you, wait for me in afterlife ok?”

Person A: *runs to B* Hey, I need you to hold my hand.

Person B: Why?

Person A: I’m scared.

Person B: Scared of what?

Person A: The dark.

Person B: It’s daytime…

Person A: The darkness of my soul.

I take his hand, tracing the lines of his palm. He relaxes under my touch. His rough skin calms me, too, the little dark spots distracting from darker thoughts.

“What are they from?” I ask, pointing to a large speckle.

His brow lifts and his lips quirk. “They’re freckles, made by the sun.”

“Humans are weird.”

A laugh rolls out of him. “I guess we are, yes. But so are sirens!” He leans, running his fingers over the short rays on my head. “What’s this supposed to be? Hair? A fin?”

“Watch what you’re calling hair!” I snap, but a grin scrunches my cheeks and I flick water at him.

“my characters have a mind of their own!” - no i’m not mad and yes i know i made them up but i have no idea what’s happening anymore please save me

“i’m going to write today!” - i’d actually rather wash the garden path but the house is already pristine and i’ve run out of excuses

 “this is still a rough draft so go easy on me!” - i have spent what feels like forever pouring my very soul into this but i worry it’s terrible and if you’re mean i may just cry

“i’ll update soon!” - this is utterly killing me, i don’t know how to read anymore, what are words, help 

“i just had this idea and had to share it with you guys!” - this has taken me three weeks and countless hours please love and appreciate it

The word ‘calmly’ can hold different meanings in different circumstances. If you were to pass someone a bucket of water calmly when their house was burning down, it could suggest that you were the sort of brave individual who was always prepared to combat the sources of arson when they occur. If you were to ask a nervous bank teller to fill a sack with money while calmly pointing a gun at their head, it might mean that you were the kind of villainous person who practiced such odious and criminal activities on a regular basis. Or if, like me, you were to sit calmly typing the next chapter of your chronicle in the lives of some unfortunate young children, while all around you the kitchen of the reputable restaurant that you were hiding in was slowly filling with sand, it would indicate that you have a life that is often filled with peril and misfortune, and that you were bound by duty to complete your task, no matter how miserable.

Of course, the word ‘calmly’ is never used to indicate a person flying into a rage and shouting your words angrily. 'Angrily’ is in fact an antonym of 'calmly’, an antonym being a word with entirely the opposite meaning of the original, such as 'villain’ and 'volunteer’, 'birthday party’ and 'tragic fire’, or 'author’ and 'happy person’.

So a few people asked me to write stuff down during the charity stream so they could get it tattooed. Here are the ones I wrote down and promised to do.