Tag: writing

Why I Write Family Lore

gallusrostromegalus:

I’m really, really, REALLY lucky.  I have a family that loves me, I’m pretty good at words, and for some inexplicable reason hordes of you want to hear all the weird stories that keep happening to us.  And I’m extremely lucky that I’ve made lots of good friends here, and met people who were willing to support me through what has, honestly, been a tough couple years for me.

The thing is, this is very much a journey of discovery for me too.

When I was 19, during my first semester away from home at college, I got sick.  Very sick.  I had a high fever, popping up to 103 at times, for at least two weeks. I was bedridden for close to a month. I lost 16 lbs at a time when I didn’t have 16lbs to lose.  I was “officially” diagnosed with Mono by an over worked school clinic nurse who shooed me out of the office without even a physical exam.  I don’t actually know what I had, but since then my memory has been. Terrible.  

Most of my childhood is a blur. I completely forgot that branches of my family tree existed. I didn’t actually recognize my own mother at the airport when I flew home for christmas. I still have trouble recalling events from 2008 through about 2013. Both my long-tern recall and my short-term memory have been effected.  I’ve been on and off medications, had my brain scanned, been to therapists and specialists and I’ve only seen minor improvements in the last decade.

Until This January.

On January 14th of 2018, I published The 1969 Easter Mass Incident, which turned out to be an amazing success. Not only in terms of notes and the tip jar, but in that the comments and my askbox were FULL of people telling me how much they enjoyed that story, how they read it to thier families, even people telling me it helped them through the death of a loved one.

And that was deeply moving, and so I decided I was going to actively start researching the old family stories.  And in doing so, not only has my depression really improved, so has my memory.  It also helped me stay close to my family while I was on the other side of the state, and support myself with your generous donations.

So here I am almost a year later, at almost 30,000 people who think I’m worth paying attention to, and with a wildly sucessful first month on Patreon, and I am actually For Real Publishing A Book, something I never thought I’d do.

More Importantly, I am able to remember more than I have in years, and no longer feel like I’m Not Real.

So Thank you, all of you who read or liked or reblogged or donated ot the tip jar or took the time to tell me that you enjoyed the story,

You guys gave me my life back, and for that I am eternally grateful.

kimmyparfait:

So close, but it feels so far!

Confrontation and Transformation

Many of us have been hard at work for days, weeks or months with hectic schedules, project deadlines, and general busy-bodying to progress towards our goals. With the holidays coming up, semesters are about to end, breaks are about to begin and we’re starting to feel as though we’re ready to wind down but the year isn’t quite over yet. It may be starting to get harder and harder to push ourselves, to find the motivation and energy we had earlier to keep ourselves feeling and being productive: burn-out. This can be particularly frustrating, especially if we know we’re so incredibly close to seeing our hard work pay off.

When we’re feeling this way, it becomes easier to take that frustration out on ourselves and those around us. This can look like negative self-talk, irritability, guilty procrastination, or neglecting our most basic and important needs. If we find ourselves getting to the point where we’re doing more harm than good in the name of productivity, it may be time to confront this, be honest with ourselves and step away to nurture ourselves and see what we need in order to transform these feelings and behaviors. It can be as simple as taking a cozy shower, eating a whole meal, taking a good nap, whatever feels personal and allows us a moment of quiet, of peace.

These simple moments, which are often dismissed as an undeserved luxury or waste of time (I’m guilty of this), play an integral role in our productive lives. They allow us to give ourselves the space we need from our challenges to breathe, to re-assess our priorities and to come back with fresh perspectives and a clearer head. After days, weeks or months of doing, of problem solving and building, it can be surprising how a small withdraw from it all can steady us, get us back on our feet and get us across our finish lines.

Could I possibly get your advice on something? (Also please keep anonymous if anon doesn’t work.) See, I’ve been writing a P&P fic where Darcy’s a butch lesbian for a while now. For me this was essentially a fun writing/editing exercise – how little of the plot needs to change for Darcy to be a butch lesbian in the original time period? As such, the fic has ended up being literally 70% Jane Austen’s own words, with the tense changed, some bits deleted, and a few added in. (Continued.)

janeaustentextposts:

Anyway, as I said, this was just a bit of fun. But unexpectedly it’s
gained a bit of a readership. And despite my repeated reminders that I’m
basically just editing the original text, people keep complimenting my
writing in a way which makes me wonder if they realise just how much of
the original text is presented as is. I’m not sure all of these people
have read the original text and would therefore recognise it. On top of
this … I did receive one comment implying that I shouldn’t bother to continue
writing as it is so similar to the original and they were disappointed
by the fic. Is it worth continuing this fic? People keep asking for more
but I feel really embarrassed by it now, like it’s false advertising,
even though I keep telling people it’s just the original text edited.
It’s in the public domain so I don’t really care about that … I’m just
embarrassed. What to do?

—

Keep writing it. If Seth Grahame-Smith can get a MOVIE deal for his stitched-together reworking of the text with zombies, I do not hesitate to insist that your variation has at LEAST equal merit (and very likely more.)

Interactions with text and fandom are vast and varied, and your reworking sounds like a refreshing perspective on a much-loved dynamic and story. Austen fans will re-read the original novels countless times, and there are sequels upon sequels and almost as many retellings out there, both traditionally published and among fan works.

If yours has gained a readership–there is a reason for that. If readers wished to re-read the original novel, it’s everywhere and nobody is stopping them. There is enough in your retelling which is original and interesting to draw an appreciative audience, and God knows queer representation in historical fiction (particuarly involving love stories which end happily,) is not something we can afford to pooh-pooh just yet. The market is so far from saturated it’s really more like that sponge in the back of the cleaning-cupboard that fell behind some other stuff and hasn’t been touched for five years. Which is to say–KEEP THE LESBIANS COMING. (So to speak.)

You received one comment, which, may I say…is not reasonable feedback.

You know what I do when I’m disappointed in something I’ve read? I close the tab and move on with my day. Unless there’s legitimate cause for particular outrage in some error, what possible purpose could such milquetoast criticism serve? You’ve been nothing but upfront about the structure of your retelling, and yet this person seems to have read the label on the tin which said SAUSAGE RAVIOLI and then opened it and now is stomping back to where they got it saying “How dare you sell me ravioli!? I want this business closed immediately!”

Call me paranoid after recent events on this blog, but my homophobe-senses are tingling, and it seems to me like perhaps someone who maybe isn’t entirely comfortable going the full Westboro still has enough of a bee in their bigot-bonnet to try and shut you down any way they can without quite coming out (you’ll pardon the term) and saying they want you to quit because they don’t want anything queer in their Austen.

You sound far too thoughtful in even your brief message to me here, anon, that I could imagine your version of P&P to be anything so slapdash as to be unenjoyable. People (plural) are longing for you to continue. One has been needlessly over-reactive to something which simply wasn’t for them.

You are not taking up anyone else’s space with your work (and it IS work, and it IS art. I’m no defender of the flaws in the text of P&P&Zombies but the worldbuilding is there, I don’t doubt it was a fond effort, and that means something.) You’re not holding anyone hostage, nor scribbling screeds of damaging text, nor wasting anybody’s time. You are creating your own part in something you love, using elements you’ve never seen incorporated before, and that is no small thing. Moreover, it moves readers to positive enthusiasm–likely because they’ve never seen such a thing before, either. I won’t say “you’d better finish your fic, because representation!” because it’s your own fic and your own choice and heavily pressuring fandom creators to create is never a healthy thing; and you already know all about representation’s importance, no doubt…but I will reassure you as many times as I need to that you and what you create with love for your fandom experience are entirely deserving of a seat at the table and having your story seen.

The place you are occupying already belongs to you, and it always did.

Do you ever get the problem that you don’t have enough spoons to write in your Book of Shadows? Cause I get this problem quite often (writing uses so many spoons for me) and if so do you have any advice or tips that tou think could help? (Ps. Love your blog! ❤)

spooniewitches:

Bonjour!

Yes I totally have this problem. Also when I’m in a low mood, I’m totally apathetic so that’s an issue too. It’s deffo still something I’m working on, but here’s some tips:

Only work on your journal when you want to (don’t feel like you have to or should do because you’re a witch. If it takes you longer to work on your journal that’s fine! If you try to work on it when you’re not in the mood for it, you’ll just frustrate yourself and that’s not the point, it’s meant to be fun.)

Make notes in a scrap or rough notebook, where you can use shorthand and have messy handwriting. Then you can transfer notes over to your journal on high spoons days. You can also make notes on your phone or laptop if you find hand writing uses up spoons. Similarly, you can make voice notes. This way you can work on an entry a little bit at a time, rater than all at once.

Make a to do or could do list for things you want to include in your journal, so for high spoons days you can pick and choose which things you want to write down.

Buy a kids handwriting pen or triangular shaped pen because they’re easier to write with.

Print out and stick in things rather than copying things out or drawing yourself – as long as you remember to properly credit authors and artists.

support @spooniewitches​: buy me a coffee!