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Once you get over that one-inch barrier between fiction and non-fiction, your world will broaden drastically. And you'll see rhat those thoughts and feelings you've privately worried are too wierd and unrelatable to tell anyone, well . . . Plenty others have felt it all before.
I also recommend bastardizing cogent thoughts from incredible people.Β
2d ago
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the thing about essays that really frustrated me when i was in k-12 was that they were boring, hard, and no matter what i did there was always some feedback about how my ideas "weren't quite there" or were underdeveloped or how some of them were off-topic to the main point of the essay, etc. etc. etc. β when i got older i realized that the point of essay-writing is that it assesses critical thinking, something i was actively developing at the age i was being assigned those essays, which can't be taught directly and instead needs to be fostered; then, that critical thinking needed to be applied in a very specific way to a kind of writing that was really (maybe overly) structured, and that i was being assessed on both the ideas being presented and the writing communicating those ideas. the way i got over this (definitely over years and years, not all at once) was realizing that the point of an essay (and the kind of unspoken process of thinking critically) was:
1. deciding / finding what i actually think β usually starting with a question about the subject, and then trying to answer it myself (which meant picking a sufficiently interesting question)
2. proving / demonstrating what i actually think β this is the breaking down; what can i extract from a source that agrees or disagrees with my thoughts, what are some secondary sources that can further elaborate on or contextualize my thoughts, and laying all those pieces out
3. putting those pieces in order on the page so that the person reading them can follow the train of thought and (hopefully) arrive at the same conclusion β this is the putting back together
it can feel like other folks know what they're going for but really it's either knowing the audience (i.e. [teacher / reader] is probably looking for this kind of question or this kind of answer) and then applying that process, or they're just really in touch with their creative and critical faculties such that they can identify an interesting question and a thoughtful answer
that stuff comes with time (or at least it did for me) because critical thinking is an innate human quality; everyone has at one point or another asked a non-empirical question and arrived at their own conclusion to that question, but learning how to structure that thinking and write well enough to effectively express that perspective for a teacher, academic journal, etc. is something that requires you to practice at it and experience more life and have more thoughts that can feed into that process. and the fostering piece is so important because i feel like that requires extra care and investment on the part of the person educating you who at best is wildly under-resourced to do so and at worst has decided that's just not a part of their job description and therefore something they won't touch with a ten-foot pole
all this to say i do relate, i think that doesn't feel like it's the case for me anymore necessarily and i'm sure at some point it won't for you β and even if essays never end up being your bag, there are so many other forms and mediums to communicate complex ideas that can often be much more resonant and beautiful for people, essays are not the end-all-be-all way to communicate big thoughts
Feb 12, 2025
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Like those weird, out-of-place lines that pop into your head when youβre trying to write a thing.
Write them down! Sometimes they lead somewhere or grow into something incredible and you just donβt know that in the moment. Like David Lynch & the opening line for Lost Highway popping into his head, completely out of context at the time.
It takes some work to trust yourself on these things, but it's damn worth it.
Feb 16, 2025
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As James Baldwin said writing needs to arrive "to the bone": don't overthink it, don't overcomplicate it. You need to have something to say and for me it's essential to have a genealogy of cultural references to draw on from.
Lastly stop thinking to write a masterpiece no one has ever said b4 because I do think that's impossible. Stop worrying.
Oct 1, 2024
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Don't act immediately upon the desire to do something life altering like chopping off our hair, getting bangs, or a tattoo, or faking your death!
Wait 30 days. Is the temptation still there? If no, then you've saved yourself some trouble. If yes, the obviously it's a Canon event and you have to π€·πΎββοΈ
Nov 15, 2024
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Idk if you mean hatred of your like material conditions or hatred of yourself but both were mixed together for me.
I had no idea I hated my life so much until I had to sit back last year and realize a lot of the dumb decisions I made that ruined my life as I knew it were . . . More rooted in hatred than I realized. I mean, yeah economic factors and capitalist bullshit was also a major factor but boy I could have avoided a quarter of the pain I endured if I'd just not hated myself so fucking bad.
So there I was, moved back into my childhood home with my sorta toxic family, no job, no prospects on the horizon. Everything I told myself I'd end up being because I fulfilled my own prophecy in an attempt to be someone I didn't even think I deserved to be. And I couldn't change the economy, and I couldn't change the past. But I could change me. I could appreciate what I still had left after spiraling, and appreciate the chance to grow again in the future. Started a Substack, got a hobby, learned to enjoy reading books again, etc.
So it's gonna take a lot of unflinching introspection, maybe Journaling if you're into that, and learning what your bad coping methods are so you can slowly change it . . . But it can be done. Β You just gotta change one little habit st a time. And it might take longer than you want, but it'll feel better when you do.
Dec 3, 2024
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Even just once in your life. You got a Fandom you absolutely adore, it keeps you going and fills your life with something positive and meaningful? Give writing for it a try! Even just a 500 word dribble you plop on to Tumblr and never touch again. It's quite nice.Β
Nov 21, 2024