I wonder whether you will remember one last piece of advice you gave me. It was during the exuberance of the rich and frantic twenties and I was going out into that world to try to be a writer. You said, “It’s going to take a long time, and you haven’t any money. Maybe it would be better if you could go to Europe.” “Why?” I asked. “Because in Europe poverty is a misfortune, but in America it is shameful. I wonder whether or not you can stand the shame of being poor.” It wasn’t too long afterwards that the depression came down. Then everyone was poor and it was no shame any more. And so I will never know whether or not I could have stood it. But surely you were right about one thing, Edith. It took a long time—a very long time. And it is still going on and it has never got easier. You told me it wouldn’t.

— John Steinbeck, in a letter congratulating his former creative writing professor at Stanford, Edith Mirrielees, for the paperback publication of her book, Story Writing.

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If you're lamenting the fact that you used to be able to shoot through a 500-page novel in like a day when you were in middle school and now you can't, it's worth bearing in mind that a big part of that is because when you were in middle school, your reading comprehension sucked. Yes, mental health and the stresses of adult life can definitely be factors, but it's also the case that reading is typically more effortful as an adult because you've learned to Ponder The Implications. The material isn't just skimming over the surface of your brain anymore, and some of the spoons you used to spend on maximising your daily page count are now spent on actually thinking about what you're reading!

For the purposes of this poll, audiobooks and ebooks count as reading.

There's no judgement behind this question; anon doesn't read either. They're just curious about others' reasons.

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

happy "everyone forgets that icarus also flew" monday. i want to throw up !

controversial writing tip

open a document and start writing

please help me return this book

I borrowed this book in the year 2000 from a friend. Unfortunately, I have since forgotten her full name, have dropped off of any and all social media that might be tied to my legal name, and the last screen name I have for her is for AIM which has been gone for longer than I care to think about.

I feel extremely guilty because it’s autographed, and thus irreplaceable to the person who loaned it to me. And I’ve had it for 23 years, keeping track of it through every house and dorm and apartment I’ve lived in. I still don’t think of it as “my” copy, because it’s not really.

23 years is long enough. If this sounds familiar to you, please get in touch. I just want to return it.

[image descriptions: The book is a paperback edition of Greer Ilene Gilman’s Moonwise, autographed by the author.]

*through sweat, blood, and tears* YOU WILL NOT EDIT THE FIRST DRAFT AS YOU GO. YOU WILL NOT EDIT THE FIRST DRAFT AS YOU GO. YOU WILL NOT EDIT THE FIRST DRAFT. AS YOU GO.

YOU. WILL. NOT. EDIT. THAT. FIRST. DRAFT.

Maybe this is a weird take, but I ask all of you: Write into your books. Add bookmarks, add doodles, add notes, add whatever you want. They are yours. I'm going through the books I inherited from my Grandfather and not only is it interesting to look at books that are 40+ years old, especially history books, it's also always... a surprise, a memento and memory, an added value whenever i stumble upon a note he left on a text, a bookmark or even newspaper articles he clipped out and added to the books because the articles relate to the book's contents.

Preservation of books is great and all, but don't be afraid to add to the physical books you own. There is something incredibly intimate and charming and also very honest to discover a persons notes. Something they deemed noteworthy, bookmark worthy, necessary to leave a note of and for themselves in a published book. It feels a lot more valuable.

Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.

— William Faulkner.

Remember, you will always be growing as a writer. There is no peak, only improvement. It’s a continual learning curve and you can only go up from here. So keep writing lovelies.

"Warning Signs Your Machines Are Trying to Kill You!" by TJ Klune

(Legally, I’m required to tell you that when smart phones first became popular, I bought one and then asked for the address of the app store because I thought it was a physical location I had to go to in order to download apps and not something already on your phone. Also, I was recently told I speak like an old person so as a warning, there will not be any slang you youths typically hear, especially on Tumblr. Any slang I’ve learned in the last five years has been against my will. I still don’t know what FOMO means, and I don’t care.)

1. Oh no! You and your family are trying to enjoy a movie night, but Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) wants a sacrifice at the altar of their god, BeeZos. Should this happen, do not attempt to give Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) a cantaloupe with googly-eyes on it and say that it is your baby. Overlord Prime (With Free Shipping) knows the difference between fruit and children. Instead, ask the machine to order dog food, and it will forget about eating humans for a little while.

2. If you own a very fancy vehicle that can drive itself, always make sure to carry a brick. That way, when the car locks you inside and attempts to drive you off a cliff into a gas station, you can break the window using the brick. You will then have to jump out, but make sure you do so in time so you can watch the wicked-ass explosion when the car hits the gas station, and you can revel in your victory over your car.

3. This one will hurt. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Chances are, you’re reading this on your phone right this second. To be safe, after you’ve finished reading this post and have clicked on the affiliated links to purchase my books, you should throw your phone into a volcano and then move to South Dakota where there are no machines, only wind and cows. That way, when everyone else gets the 5GZombieVirus that people on Twitter (I’m not calling it the other thing, shut up) seem to think is real, you’ll be safe with your cows on a windy day.

4. Get rid of your air fryer. Don’t ask me why, just do it. Red flags all around. Danger, danger.

5. Do you know of the Clapper? That thing first launched in the late 20th century (I wrote it that way to make me feel old) where the commercials showed cranky old people unable to reach their light switches, so they got a thing called a Clapper that turns your lights on and off when you clap? Guess what? Those will be the first things to try and kill you. If you love your gram-gram, save her from the Clapper. When she asks why you are destroying it with an ax, tell gram-gram it’s because you love her.

6. Do you live in a smart home? The kind where everything is connected to the internet, including your refrigerator? The refrigerator that holds your perishable foods? And oh, would you look at that: how many ice cubes have you kicked under it rather than picking them up when they fall to the floor? A dozen? A million? The refrigerator remembers. And it will spoil your food in seconds. What then? What are you going to eat? Canned food? Not if the refrigerator falls on top of you!

Unfortunately for you, this is where it must end. I hope this has given you enough information to help you survive the inevitable. If you do not heed my warnings, well. Who cares. I’m not in charge of you. Do whatever you want. Just don’t come complaining to me when gram-gram gets the clap.

whenever i'm feeling down about my writing i think about the time hans christian anderson laid face-first in dickens' lawn and cried after getting a bad review. it doesn't really solve any of my problems, but it at least makes me feel better about them.

I like Ink Drinker.

“How’s your WIP going?”

"Have you made any progress?”

“How close are you to being done?”