“be stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods.” the best advice I’ve ever received.
Tag: advice
my grandpa who basically raised me told me this story about living through the war when I was three years old about how most people hid under tables or stairs during air raids but he and my mom would stand in the doorway to watch the planes because they absolutely logically knew that if their house was bombed they would die no matter where they were and they preferred to not die under the stairs anyway. I like can’t think of a childhood memory that has defined the way I live my life more than that.
I’m going to tell this story forever.
Lemony Snicket’s Advice on Writing a Nice Thank-You Note
1. Do not start with the thank you.
2. Start with any other
sentence. If you first say, “Thank you for the nice sweater,” you can’t
imagine what to write next. Say, “It was so wonderful to come home from
school to find this nice sweater. Thank you for thinking of me on Arbor
Day.”3. Then you’re done.
I recommend learning how to write a very good thank-you note. A child
who can write a nice thank-you note can turn into a cocaine dealer five
years later and be remembered as the child who wrote nice thank-you notes.
pro tip for bad body image days: look at yourself the way you’d look at a cat. average-sized cat? awww. itty bitty cat? so cute. big fat cat? mcfreakin’ adorable. cat with chubby cheeks? AMAZING. cat with a big soft belly? LOVE IT. cat with scars? MY CHILD. so go out there and strut your stuff like the cool cat you are !!
this is very useful for days when I am feeling unkind toward my body
Hello! Would you mind doing an example of not using filter words in a first person point of view? While I know that you can just switch out the pronouns for I/me/my, I just want to see it in action and when you should (and shouldn’t) use the filter words. Thank you!
the-writers-society-deactivated:
Hi there! I would love to! I think I’ll start out with an example with filter words and then cut out the filter words to show you the difference.
For those of you who haven’t seen my post on Filter Words.
Now, for the example:
I felt a hand tap my shoulder as I realized I had made a huge mistake. I knew the consequences would be unsettling, but I had no other choice. I saw the light of my desk lamp bounce off of the officer’s badge before I had even turned around. It seemed like I always found my way into trouble.
It was the first thing off the top of my head, so it’s a bit rough sounding….
Now for without filter words (And a bit of revision):
A hand tapped my shoulder as it dawned on me: I had just made a huge mistake. The consequences would be unsettling if I didn’t get out of this mess, but I had no other choice. The light of my desk lamp bounced off of the officer’s badge. I always found my way into trouble.
By taking out filter words, you get right to the point.
I’d also like to add a few more notes that I didn’t have the chance to post previously.
Some Examples of Filtering:
- I heard a noise in the hallway.
- She felt embarrassed when she tripped.
- I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
- I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
- He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
- She remembered dancing at his wedding.
- I think people should be kinder to one another.
How can you apply this?
Read your work to see how many of these filtering words you might be leaning on. Microsoft Word has a great Find and Highlight feature that I love to use when I’m editing. See how you can get rid of these filtering words and take your sentences to the next level by making stronger word choices. Take the above examples, and see how they can be reworked.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: I heard a noise in the hallway.
- DESCRIBE THE SOUND: Heels tapped a staccato rhythm in the hallway.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: She felt embarrassed after she tripped.
- DESCRIBE WHAT THE FEELING LOOKS LIKE: Her cheeks flushed and her shoulders hunched after she tripped.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
- DESCRIBE THE SIGHT: A light bounced through the trees.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
- DESCRIBE THE TASTE: The sour tang of raspberries burst on my tongue.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
- DESCRIBE THE SMELL: His teammate’s BO wafted through the locker room.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: She remembered dancing at his wedding.
- DESCRIBE THE MEMORY: She had danced at his wedding.
- FILTERING EXAMPLE: I think people should be kinder to one another.
- DESCRIBE THE THOUGHT: People should be kinder to one another.
See what a difference it makes when you get rid of the filter? It’s simply not necessary to use them. By ditching them, you avoid “telling,” your voice is more active, and your pacing is helped along.
The above list is not comprehensive as there are many examples of filtering words. The idea is to be aware of the concept so that you can recognize instances of it happening in your work. Be aware of where you want to place the energy and power in your sentences. Let your observations flow through your characters with immediacy.
Ok, sorry for the lengthy answer, I know you just wanted an example…. sorry!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask at my ask box
THIS IS SO GREAT. I dind’t even know there was a term for this (I should have figured, right, because writers have words for everything), but it’s one of those things that being aware when you’re doing it (and editing it right the fuck out) will improve your writing SO MUCH. Removing the filtering helps to draw your readers more intimately into the action of your story, and as the text above says, adds power and immediacy to every sentence. THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT TIP I WANT TO SCREAM ABOUT IT.
Study tip
Don’t be afraid to make your notes be funny. If writing stuff like “Priests weren’t supposed to have side hoes because God was their main hoe” helps you remember that Priests were banned from having concubines, then go ahead and write that shit. Live your life.
The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.
Richard Price (via mithtransdir)
This is some advice I got from a priest mentor of mine years back. He said: ‘Here’s the rule, the airtight rule. Criticize somebody precisely in the measure that you are willing to help him or her deal with the problem you’re raising.’
The point is that if you are 100% willing to commit yourself to helping the person deal with the problem you’re raising, off you go. Critique ‘til the cows come home.
If you’re totally unwilling to take even one little step to help the person deal with the problem, then keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything.
Maybe a little bit of commitment? Maybe a little bit of critique.
That has never left my mind, that little piece of advice. When I feel the urge to criticize someone, ‘alright Barron, are you willing to commit yourself to helping him deal with his problems?’ If not, keep your mouth shut.
Father Robert Barron (via themushroomkiller)
writers of the world: please stop using epithets in your writing, trust me “the blonde army doctor”, “the curly haired detective”, “the blue-eyed man” etc. do not sound as good in writing as they may sound in your head
instead, use the characters’ names, they’re there for a reason and it’ll make your writing much more crisp, tight, to the point, and still entertaining
Names, along with common words like “said” and “asked”, become invisible. The more invisible your words, the deeper your reader will fall into your writing, to the point where the reader will forget that there are words at all and just become part of the story.
When your words aren’t invisible, there’s the unfortunate potential that people will turn them into a drinking game instead of reading the story.
Just about the only time that epithets work instead of using a name is when the POV character doesn’t know the other character, and so the physical description is pretty much all the POV character has to go on. You don’t think of people you know as “the tall man” or “the blonde woman”. Your POV character shouldn’t, either.
Yo I actually wanted to make this post a while back and I think a lot of this stems from when you have two characters who use the same pronouns interacting (which happens in fanfic). There’s this fear that the reader will confuse who the characters are referring to, so that’s why epithets are used. Instead of using epithets, use syntax, which is word order, and carry your subject through multiple sentences and actions. So, Imma teach you how to do this under the cut. (It’s a bit of a grammar lesson tbh)
Zynn's Exodus 