“We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”
— Maya Angelou
See, the thing is, as a writer you are free. You are about the freest person that ever was. Your freedom is what you have bought with your solitude, your loneliness. You are in the country where you make up the rules, the laws. You are both dictator and obedient populace. It is a country nobody has ever explored before. It is up to you to make the maps, to build the cities. Nobody else in the world can do it, or ever could do it, or ever will be able to do it again.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night.
Anaïs Nin, from a diary entry featured in The Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume 1 1931-1934
🎉 Write characters that you find interesting and compelling.
🎉 Don't worry about making characters too over the top, or 'too much'.
🎉 Write characters who want big things.
🎉 Write characters with conflict between what they want and what they need.
🎉 Write characters who don't realize they are doing harm.
🎉 Write characters who don't know how to communicate well.
🎉 Write characters with people they love in the way of what they want.
🎉 Write characters with amazing abilities who use them in ways that unintentionally fuck them over.
🎉 Write messy characters!
strawberry thieves: you're a basic bitch and there's nothing wrong with that. those little fuckers are cute
tree of life: you think we all moved on from the whimsigoth trend way too soon
pimpernel: you're going to put an Alphonse Mucha print on top of this and you know it
voysey: you're a massive goth. you've probably watched Bram Stoker's Dracula a lot
blackthorn: you're a massive goth who doesn't like making things too hard on yourself
willow boughs: you say "timeless" "classic" and "modern twist" a lot when decorating your house
owl and willow: admit it- you really just want mid-19th century panoramic wallpaper
melsetter: admit it- you really just want 15th-century Gobelin tapestries
lodden: you genuinely believe, deep down, that you will decode the Voynich Manuscript someday
marigold: you enjoy versatility. you probably own the same shirt in four colors- and why shouldn't you?
balmoral: your ringtone is Rule, Brittania
I don't have a favorite Morris print because I prefer [insert another late 19th century textile/wallpaper designer here]: you are a hipster
I don't have a favorite Morris print because I don't know any: you have a social life
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who love their daughters dearly despite not liking them all that much. My mother has never liked me as a person (or at least, not since I’ve become the person I currently am) - my personality is in many ways at odds with her’s. Where she is strategic and deliberate I am impulsive and passionate. We are both incredibly emotional but in distinct and clashing ways. That said, my mother has showed up as my greatest ally when it’s mattered and has given me all that I need to thrive. She may not particularly enjoy my presence - and, quite frankly, may never have hoped for a daughter like me - but she’s stuck by me regardless. I think that’s an incredibly pure form of love - endurance and tolerance in the face of contradiction and misunderstanding.
“My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be loved as I am.”
— Anaïs Nin
The secret to adulting is this:
Learn how to reduce your resistance against the things you know you have to do.
You don’t have to like it or enjoy it. You just need to stop avoiding, delaying, or ignoring what you know to be in your best interest.
With repeated experience of the benefits, you will learn a new kind of appreciation for the practice we call “adulting.”