Month: April 2020

How To Beat Writer’s Block

Brooke2 Comments

Welcome back everyone!

Have you been sitting down to write with all your newfound free time at home, only to stare at your paper or laptop blankly? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Writer’s block is a threat to writers everywhere, but today I’ll share a few of my favorite ways to shake it.

Method One: Use writing prompts and/or exercises.

This is a pretty standard way to try and help, but I feel like this only works when you’re having mild/moderate writer’s block and are still able to write something. You can look some up on writing-related Instagram accounts, Pinterest, or even just Google images. If you’re trying to finish a specific story or piece but can’t get the words out, it helps get your creative juices flowing if you write about something completely different.

Method Two: Go do something completely unrelated to writing. When you’re done, try to write something about it.

This could be anything depending on how much time to spare and how desperate you are to cure your writer’s block. It could be going for a drive, baking a cake, watching a sad movie, or getting your household chores done. Sometimes, a break is all you need to get some inspiration again. However, if you’re still not ready to return to what you were writing before, try writing about whatever experience you just had. Again, it’s all about getting the creative juices flowing.

Method Three: Try implementing a plot twist.

Depending on what you’re trying to write, you may or may not be willing to do this. If you are, just try taking your piece in a completely different direction and taking it from there. This goes along with using different parts of your brain/getting your footing back, but it’s a more direct approach to your piece. Also, you may end up loving what you write! If not, you can always edit, rework, or completely rewrite.

Method Four: Read something new.

I get a lot of my inspiration for writing from reading different works anyway, so it always helps to take a reading break and observe ways different authors carry their storylines. It’s also just a nice brain break in general, because who doesn’t love to read? You could also read a different genre than you normally do- it might give you a new perspective.

I hope these tips help you beat any case of writer’s block you may encounter! I had a pretty bad period of not being able to write anything I was proud of a couple weeks ago, but these tips helped me a lot. I’m actually working on a bunch of writing right now, so keep an eye out for new content related to my writing if you’re interested 🙂

Brooke

My Blogging Goals

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Welcome back everyone!

I’ve been blogging on here since June of 2019, and I’d like to think that I’ve made a lot of progress, grown my blog a decent amount (not a ton, but more than I expected!) and come up with a lot of interesting content. That being said, I know this is only the beginning and I plan to keep blogging for a long time, so I thought it might be interesting if I shared my blogging goals with you all. Also, by writing them down and sending them out into the universe, hopefully they’ll come true. If you want to hear my goals for this blog or get inspired to set goals for your own blog, keep on reading!

Goal One: Figure out what my main “purpose” of this blog is, or determine some sort of genre/niche.

I’ve explored many different topics on this blog and tend to write about whatever I want or whatever pops into my head that week, which has been wonderful! It’s a great creative outlet, and I’ve enjoyed getting to see how people respond to the different types of content I’ve posted. However, I feel that as I’ve gained more readers, there may be a split in what people followed/came across my blog for. I don’t want to be disappointing people who came to my blog in search of a certain type of content, and then completely shift away from posting that type of content. Also, many expert bloggers suggest you have a specific niche or topic you blog about in order to connect with your audience. Right now, my blog is kind of just me in blog form, offering up any advice I have and discussing my high school adventures (that’s where the name came from!). I don’t want to limit myself to only writing posts centered around one topic, but I’d like to kind of narrow my focus so it’s easier to connect with you guys and help people find the content they’re looking for.

Goal Two: Make blog friends and find blogs similar to mine.

I’ve come across a few really cool blogs, and I tend to check out a lot of the people who end up liking my posts or following me (and I check out everyone who leaves a comment :)), but I haven’t interacted with other bloggers as much as I’d like to. I’d be interested in possibly doing a guest post exchange with people, and just meeting people who like to write about the same things I do, because that would obviously mean we have some things in common and would get along. Blogging is a form of social media, so I want to make my blog a more, well, social experience.

Goal Three: Figure out how to optimize my blog’s SEO/get people to be able to see my blog when they search stuff.

I have no idea if I worded this correctly or how to do this, but I know WordPress has tools that can help. I just want this blog to get more exposure since I work really hard on it and have enjoyed the slow, steady growth so far. I’m definitely not doing this to make money or to get famous as I know how unlikely that is and that wasn’t my intention in making a blog; I’ve created this blog as a safe, creative space to share my thoughts and hopefully some helpful advice. That being said, I want to make sure my thoughts and advice get seen, especially by people who are searching for content like mine! I have to figure out how to do this, but I’m sure some online research will do the trick.

Goal Four: Make my blog more aesthetically pleasing and organized, formatting-wise.

I have a basic layout and I haven’t experimented much with the things I can do with my blog page. I’d like to make it represent me and my content a little more. I’d also like to organize the different categories of posts I make better so it’s easier to navigate in case anyone’s confused (I know I would be) by all the different types of content I have on my page. Again, this is something I could probably figure out easily by doing some online research or just reading WordPress’s guides, but I’ve held off just because even once I know how to edit these things, I’m not sure where I want to go with it/how I want to customize my site.

Those are my four main blogging goals at the moment. I hope they inspire you fellow small (or medium, or large!) bloggers out there, or just gave you some insight into what I hope I can do with this blog in the near future. I highly recommend starting a blog even if you don’t know what you want to do with it- that’s what I did at first, and now it’s something I look forward to working on every week.

Brooke

Is It Even Possible to Be 100% Stress Free?

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Hello everyone!

I realized I hadn’t done one of these types of posts where I analyze a broad question about mental health/life in a while, so today I decided to write my thoughts on this particular question that had been sitting in my drafts. I will be dissecting the question posed in the title of this post: is it even possible to be 100% stress free? The short answer is no, as most of you probably suspected, or even knew from your own experiences with stress. But why? Let’s talk about it.

So first of all, even if you don’t know the science behind this or much about how our brains work/bodies respond to stuff, I bet you could infer based off of your own life that there’s always going to be some stress. Driving creates a lot of stress for some people, being late to events, having a lot to work, worrying about the current COVID-19 pandemic… there’s always things going on in your life that are going to cause some stress. Some people are way better handling this than others (hint: I’m horrible at handling stress so not me), but even the most relaxed people or disciplined people in managing stress will have that first response of worry before they use their coping tools to calm themselves down.

As far as the science behind it, stress is a natural bodily response to scary/intense/worrisome situations and our attempts to face them. Stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn triggers our body’s fight-or-flight response. In fact, this Psychology Today article by F. Diane Barth discusses how we even stress about relaxing or stress about our current stress because of the body’s responses to the initial stress. It’s a really interesting article, and Psychology Today is a great place in general to look up answers to any psychology-related questions you may have, so you should check that out if you’re interested; I used it a ton as a resource for random questions when I was taking AP Psych online.

Based on both general intuition and scientific principles of the brain and our responses to stress, we know that it’s impossible to eliminate stress completely. But what about the people who get really close, and don’t seem to experience much (if any) stress in their lives? Well, as cheesy at it sounds, I think it’s all in your perception of things. First of all, people may be freaking out internally, but keeping a calm front as not to alarm others; we’ve all done that at least once before, right? I know I do it with my family members if I’ve accidentally messed up or made a mess that I need help cleaning up. Second, even if people are more laid-back, it’s usually just in their nature based on the household they grew up in, or they’ve worked very hard to make themselves better at coping with stressful situations.

For example, if you work under high-stress conditions at a corporate job, you’ll probably end up adapting after a few years and more trivial tasks won’t stress you out as much. As far as the home environment thing goes, some people grow up in families where their parents were laid-back people as well, so they grow up holding onto that lifestyle. My dad has apparently always been someone who barely ever gets stressed out, and I’m guessing he always will be.

Other times, it takes a ton of discipline to develop the coping tools some people need to deal with stress in a healthier, more manageable way. I’ve been trying my best to do this since I was in my later years of elementary school, as I’ve always been an anxious person who gets stressed when there’s not even much to be worried about. Here I’ll include a short list of some things/tools that help you get better at dealing with stress, and things that have worked for me.

  • Meditation – When I’m really overwhelmed, this is the only thing that quiets my mind. I like to use the Headspace app, but I only do the free ones- I haven’t gotten a subscription yet. I’ve also heard the Calm app is good, but I’ve never tried it.
  • Reframing – This helps you get out of your head in “worry-land” and brings you back to reality. Remember when you get stressed, you’re usually only focusing on the bad in a situation, so you’re not looking at the full picture. Reframe your perspective to find the silver lining and/or assure yourself everything will eventually be okay, because it will!
  • Being positive/using the Law of Attraction – If you keep telling yourself positive things, you’ll start to believe them, and then they’ll come true. I’ve mentioned the Law of Attraction a few times on this blog before, and I highly recommend at least giving it a try.
  • Reading self-help books – Honestly, this isn’t a direct link to lowering your stress, but I always feel so organized and put-together in my life when I’m reading a book about how to be just those things. I highly recommend finding some reading material, particularly related to whatever areas of your life you’re stressing over.

I hope this little list helps anyone in need of some ideas to reduce stress, and I hope you’re all doing okay under the stressful conditions at the moment. Just remember you will be fine as long as you wash your hands and make smart decisions as far as following government orders, and try to make the most of your time at home. Let me know what you do to reduce your stress if you have any helpful tips as well 🙂

Brooke

A Stream of Consciousness – Prose

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Hello everyone!

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, so I figured I would share my thoughts with you guys in a different form of creative writing than usual. Surprise, I’m sharing writing that’s not poetry! I guess I would just consider this prose- it definitely doesn’t have any real structure to it. I hope you enjoy 🙂

something’s waiting inside of me. i can feel it; it’s brewing, bubbling, growing, shaking, expanding, and soon it will come out. a breakthrough’s been a long time coming, and you never know what’s around the corner. i feel trapped inside this house, but we’re all trapped in different ways, in our own little bubbles. all of a sudden, we know what we’ve always wanted to do and the things we enjoy and how much we love to go outside. but we can’t do any of it. our minds erase any awareness of the things we’ve always wanted to do around the house if we only had more time, and our creative juices get blocked. or maybe they don’t- my sweat is in the form of words trickling down my forehead. they drip down my pale cheeks, taunting me until i write them down. i get more done than ever but i get nothing done. i read more than i’ve ever read but see less words than i ever have. //

// time alone is time with your mind. my mind and i have been stirring up plenty. whenever i become conscious of my inner monologue and the elaborate plans being created, they vanish with an anti-climatic poof, as easily and silently as they materialized in the first place. the wheels never stop turning, but can you see them?

I hope you enjoyed this little mind-dump. It was clearly inspired by being stuck in the house, but it definitely has a few layers, which I’ll leave you all to interpret for yourselves. Let me know if you’d like to see more of these in the future, because I can definitely make that happen. As you all know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, I’m happy to experiment with new things, writing being a huge part of that.

Brooke

Inevitable – Poem by Me

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i always loved tilt-a-whirl rides
even when the people next to me threw up as they stumbled out 

life is an amusement park 
(have you ever felt more alive anywhere else?) 

but i'm afraid of going on the gleaming steel rollercoasters making loop-di-loops, seemingly defying gravity (actually adhering to it) 

fluffy cotton candy, the rickety benches on the brick roads, watching others have the time of their lives is sometimes more my speed 

but when you go to an amusement park, you've come along for the ride and that means you go on the giant rollercoaster

This is a sillier poem, but I suddenly had the inspiration to write it and decided to go for it. I normally keep a running list of ideas for poems to write, but I lost that mega-list recently and I’ve been really upset about it, so I’ve been coming up with random, more cheerful writing ideas. I hope you enjoyed it- feel free to leave feedback or writing challenges/topic suggestions in the comments.

Brooke

Four Walls – Poem by Me

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four walls makes a house, but it doesn't make a home
and there's more walls between us than there are in 
this house that's not a home

hearing the birds chirp and peck at our windows,
looking out to see dreamy blue skies with white puffy clouds-
reminders of how much prettier the world is 
                    on the outside.

there's always crumbs on the floor. every door is
tightly shut, not unlike us. i used to want things to get
better; to laugh, to play, to load up the car and go 
be a family

now all i wish for is semi-peaceful co-existence 
because even though i reside within the same four walls
as you, you've put up another four
i'm not interested in tearing down your fortress

I hope you enjoyed this poem! Feel free to leave feedback or requests for certain topics to write about in the comments below 🙂

Brooke

My Childhood Favorite Books

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Welcome back everyone!

When I was younger, I used to devour books. I would get ten at a time from the library, and read them all within a weekend- I lived and breathed to read. I still love to read, but I definitely can’t keep up with my younger self’s dedication to seeking out new books and series to binge-read (Is binge-reading a term? If binge-watching is, it should be…). As I mentioned in a recent post, I recently re-read a bunch of my old favorite books as I was figuring out which I was ready to part with and pass on to the next generation of young readers. If you’re interested in my list of the best kids’ books, keep on reading!

I would like to clarify that these vary in age-range. I read most of them between second grade and seventh grade, but I read at a higher reading level throughout elementary school, so the books I read in elementary school aren’t very different from what I read in middle school. Some of these recommendations are very basic, but I included them anyway if they were truly some of my favorites, since that’s the topic of this list.

  • Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – What would this list be without the Harry Potter books? I read them starting at the end of first grade, but didn’t finish the later and longer books in the series until second grade. These rocked my world and made me fall in love with the fantasy genre, and every time I go back to read them again I’m reminded of the magic they held in that first read. My personal favorite has always been the Goblet of Fire.
  • Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This is another classic series that I started in first grade but didn’t finish until later in elementary school. My grandmother adored these books and bought me a box set of the first few for Christmas one year, and I remember being fascinated by them, wanting to experience prairie life for myself. My grandmother has now passed away, and although I haven’t read these in quite a few years, I know that when I eventually revisit them I will be reminded of her.
  • The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch – I forget how I stumbled upon this series, but all I know is I loved every minute of it. The humor (especially coming from the narrator) and the mystery are perfectly intertwined, and each book actually gets better rather than worse as in some kids’ book sequels. It’s a fairly intricate storyline in terms of trying to sum it up, but the reveals towards the end of the series are worth waiting for and actually not predictable (I’m bad at predicting events though, so maybe find out for yourself on that one).
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – I actually didn’t like this book at first. I’m still not the biggest fan of the other books in the series, but I will say this book grew on me more than I ever thought it would. The world Madeleine L’Engle creates is mind-boggling yet completely realistic (funny how that works) and made me appreciate science and theoretical thinking more. I love how the Murry family is relatable in some ways, yet incredibly special in their talent and intellect- it’s the perfect balance and makes you want to root for Meg and Charles Wallace even more.
  • Inkheart by Cornelia Funk/e – I got this book in a random store in upstate New York the summer after second grade, looking for a book to read during long car rides on that trip visiting my grandparents. I wish I had the same ability to make words come to life that Meggie does, but reading this book was magical enough. However, I didn’t enjoy the other two books in the trio (Inkspell, Inkdeath) nearly as much.
  • The Winnie Years series by Lauren Myracle – This book series isn’t a classic or a series with a complicated plot, but it meant a lot to me as an anxious pre-teen awaiting middle school. It’s a fairly accurate portrayal of late elementary school and middle school, and I went through a lot of the same things that Winnie did. I recommend it for girls who are in the pre-teen age range and just need something light and fluffy to relate to.
  • Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech – My mom loved the plot of this book so she read it out loud to me in early elementary school. I think it teaches some important life lessons with a creative manner of events unfolding, and the twist at the end was both unexpectedly beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s a sad one, but the ending only shows how great the beginning of the book/everything leading up to the end is.
  • Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass – As someone who’s been having an existential crisis since forever, it made sense I would love this book. When I re-read it a few weeks ago, I cried just as much as I did the first time. I saw a lot of myself in Jeremy, and you’ll enjoy following his journey- it’s a really beautiful storyline.
  • A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass – This book is another sad one, but it’s just as beautiful. It follows the story of Mia, an eighth grader with synesthesia (someone in The Secret Series also has synesthesia!) and her discovering what exactly that is and how it relates to her self-identity. I found this book fascinating as it introduced me to something new, but it also managed to be relatable just because everyone struggles with their identity in some way. It perfectly captures those growing pains.
  • A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin – Another heartbreakingly beautiful book my mom read to me when I was younger, this story is set in a 1960s summer where a small-town-girl meets her mentally-ill uncle that was previously hidden from her. The ending is abrupt and sad, but twelve-year-old Hattie was all too relatable to me at the time of reading this, and her growth throughout the story is inspiring.
  • A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler –
  • Strawberry Hill by Mary Ann Hoberman – I remember liking this book a lot, but I didn’t even realize how wonderful the plot and the protagonist’s journey was until I re-read it a couple weeks ago. It follows ten-year-old Allie moving cities (to a street named Strawberry Hill) and experiencing the struggles of making true friends as well as anti-Semitism. It clarifies what a true friend is, and it also has a couple cute pictures in my version of the book.
  • The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall – I LOVED this series when my second-grade teacher first introduced me to it. I always wanted sisters (I just have a younger brother) and I envied the Penderwicks’ tight-knit family. It’s a fun read that still touches on life lessons and serious issues like most kids’ books do.

I hope this list helps anyone out who’s looking for good kids’ books! Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or just someone who likes to read and was curious on if we shared the same favorite kids’ books, this list should have something for everyone. Honestly, I enjoy most of the books I read, and I’ll dabble in pretty much any genre if someone encourages me to read a certain book or I’m gifted one. I could’ve included more, but these are the ones that I would re-read again and again and that really stuck out to me. Let me know what your favorite children’s books are/were!

Brooke

My Poetry Writing Process

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Hello everyone!

Today I will be sharing how I write my poems and basically my whole writing process. I will admit it’s nothing special or anything that can’t easily be replicated- it’s mainly based on how I’m feeling or what I’m inspired to write about. That being said, I’ve seen and heard other writers talk about what works for them and what their writing processes are, so I figured I would share. Keep on reading if you want to know what I do when I’m ready to write a poem!

Obviously I don’t go through the same process every time I write something. Occasionally, ideas will pop into my head and I’ll quickly jot them down in my phone’s Notes, but this is for when I’m churning out a lot of writing in one sitting, or I’m feeling particularly inspired. I decided it would be best to outline it step-by-step, so here are the main points I wanted to hit.

  1. Gather my materials. I’m not super picky about what pen I’m writing with, but I do have one spiral notebook that I tend to write all my handwritten poetry in/lists of inspiration for my writing. I sometimes type rather than writing since I can get my thoughts out quicker, so if I already have an idea of what I want to write about or I’m planning to write a poem about a specific experience/topic for my blog, I’ll just start typing my poem in a Word document. However, if I’m just feeling like writing or using poetry to cope with a stressful, emotional day, I’ll usually choose to write it in the aforementioned spiral and determine whether or not I’ll share it somewhere later on.
  2. Find the right environment/position. Again, this varies on what I’m feeling/what level of inspiration I’m at/what purpose I have in writing at the time, but I have three main places I write. If I’m just writing for fun and myself, I’ll usually spread out on my bedroom floor. If I’m trying to write something for this blog or a different purpose that’s more structured but I’m not quite sure what I want to write about yet, I’ll go and sit outside in my backyard for a while to think while I write and draw inspiration from nature. If I’m writing for a structured purpose and already have an idea of what to write about, I usually sit at my desk and write there.
  3. Start writing and get my thoughts out. I don’t edit myself while writing or stop to think about what words are actually going on the page. I just try to express my ideas before I lose my train of thought, and I stop when that train of thought comes to an end. I think it’s important to remember that you can always edit later, but you can’t always retrieve a lost thought from your memory.
  4. Title the poem. This is a personal preference, but I like to title my poems right after I finish them, unless I really can’t think of a title and feel it fits better to leave the piece without one. I’m not sure how other people come up with titles, but for me they’ll usually just pop in my brain as I reread the poem I’ve just written, or I’ll pull from the general subject matter of the poem. It helps to ask yourself, what do I want people to think this poem is about?
  5. Self-edit and/or restructure the poem. Honestly, a lot of times I don’t edit my poems until long after I’ve written them, if I’m planning to submit them for publication or something. I do a light edit on the poems I post here before I schedule the post to go up just to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes, but I don’t really polish my work too much unless I’m sending it in somewhere. However, sometimes I will restructure my stanzas/lines if I think the structure of the poem looks a bit odd or uneven/lopsided in an unintentional way. It’s all about personal preference, so I just eyeball it.
  6. Save it/type it/decide what to do with it. Like I said, I write all the time, often with different purposes in mind. There are a lot of poems I’ve just written to get myself through hard times and express my emotions; I prefer doing so through poetry rather than journaling or something similar. A lot of the poems I write myself are quite short, random, and frankly, I don’t think anyone would be interested in reading them or publishing them. However, for poems that I share on my blog, I usually know that a poem will go on here as I write it. Any other poems that I don’t share on here and that I think are good enough to make their way out into the world, I research a good place to submit them for possible publication in contests or teen publications. I really haven’t submitted many of my poems anywhere (besides my huge writing sample for summer program applications) so as you would guess, I haven’t had much success with getting published. I had my first poem published this fall in the Just Poetry National High School Poetry contest fall anthology, which was an awesome honor.

I hope this was interesting or somehow helpful; I’m not sure how unique or necessary my specific writing process is, but it is what it is! Feel free to share any essential steps in your writing processes in the comments- I would love to hear about them 🙂

Brooke

Trying to Improve Your Life? Read This!

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Hello everyone!

This is going to be a more random post, as it’s an idea I’ve had in my drafts since October. I figured now was a good time to finally write it, as I knew I (and you guys, too) could use some positivity during these disheartening and crazy times. I’m just going to be sharing with you a few places I’ve found inspiration and helpful words of encouragement, particularly about being successful in certain aspects of life/improving one’s life. If you’re interested, keep on reading!

For general tips:

  • Using the Law of Attraction – I’m not the best person to explain this, but the main principle is that your attitude manifests things into your life because the universe is giving you what aligns with your vibrations. In order to bring good things into your life, you should not only be positive, but think about them as if you already have what you want/being grateful for it. Good resources for learning about the Law of Attraction are thelawofattraction.com, The Secret documentary on Netflix, and YouTube videos if you just look it up (I found Luca Whitaker’s to be simple and helpful).
  • Looking at motivating websites – I’m a sucker for a motivational article. Recently I’ve liked looking at success.com because they have a ton of articles about how to be successful and productive in different areas of your life. Honestly, finding a specific website/publication/magazine that aligns with what you’re currently interested is a great way to improve your current mindset regarding that aspect of your life, whatever it is.
  • Pinterest – I know this seems like a weird thing to recommend, just a straight-out social media platform, but Pinterest is such a good platform when you need motivation or inspiration. I like to look up inspirational quotes and find some that I like, but a lot of people also use the Law of Attraction by making a Pinterest board of things they want to manifest/their dream life.

For improving blogging:

  • The Art of Blogging by Christian Mihai – I don’t have too much experience in seeking out resources for how to blog correctly because I made my blog for fun, but this blog by Christian Mihai here on WordPress taught me a lot about the basics. If you’re looking to turn your blog into a business or trying to get on the track to success, definitely read his posts.

For improving your grades/academic life:

  • ANY book by Cal Newport – I read one of Cal Newport’s books a year ago, and it was so eye opening. He has great, blunt advice about how to succeed in school (both high school and college/grad school) without going insane and burning yourself out, and I just find his advice reassuring in general. I can’t say I’ve put all his advice into practice, but I try to live by most of his advice and it truly is helpful, even if you can’t put it into practice completely either.
  • Studygrams – Looking at YouTubers or Studygram accounts on Instagram (Study for Success is one of my favorites, and she has Instagram and YouTube) motivates me because I see their studying routines and perfect notes, and I want that for myself. You might get some serious handwriting envy 😉 but it’s worth it if it motivates you.
  • Pomodoro method – Get an app that has a Pomodoro timer; it just times your studying/working for 25 minute sections with 5 minute breaks to maximize productivity. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it might work for you!

For improving writing:

  • Keep writing – Yeah, I’m not an expert writer. No one really is. But if you keep doing something, you’re bound to get better at it. Try writing a poem every day, or blocking out a certain amount of time (even if only 15 minutes) everyday to write something.
  • Read – I know, I know, everyone says this. But it’s true! By reading more, I’ve been so inspired to try different things in my writing, and you get to see what works for different genres and styles of writers.
  • Send your writing where it will get feedback – For teens, I recommend submitting your work to Polyphony Lit. You’ll have the chance at getting published, but even if your work is rejected, they have multiple editors (I’m one of them!) whose job is to write a complete set of commentary on each piece, so you’ll get tons of feedback in the end. Otherwise, find fellow writers who are willing to exchange work, or forums (Reddit, maybe?).

I know there are so many aspects of life you might be looking to improve, so I’m sorry that I only specifically addressed a few; however, I thought it made the most sense to just address the 4 main topics I discuss on this blog. I hope this helps you out, and inspires you to try out some of the things I mentioned. Please let me know if any of them end up working out for you.

Brooke

Am I Selfish to Keep Writing?

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Hello everyone!

Today I’m just going to touch on some of my thoughts about blogging amidst the chaos in our world at the moment, and ask once again what you would like to see from me on this blog. I’ve been at a loss for what direction I want to ultimately bring this blog in; I feel a lot of you guys might be here for different types of posts, since I’ve dabbled in so many different categories of posts on here. If you want to see where my head’s at, keep on reading.

First of all, I would like to address the question in the title of the post. Am I selfish to keep writing? The world’s kind of falling apart at the moment, people are shifting their lives to be fully online in order to prevent leaving the house, my school’s now online, and every person/age demographic has been affected at this point. It’s no longer just elderly people being frightened or the few countries like China where the virus first spread being hit really badly- it’s so much more than that now.

When my quarantine first started, I was aware of how serious it was, but I was trying to turn it into a positive thing. I thought I could write a ton of posts for this blog and have tons of new content to churn out, and work on my writing a lot in turn. It’s true that I have had more time to brainstorm ideas and work on posts, but something doesn’t feel write. I feel selfish using this time to make myself better and put my words out when they’re somewhat unrelated to the major issue that’s going on right now; I don’t want to take away or distract from that. Please let me know if you want me to continue sharing my writing/regular posts during this time, or if you would prefer me to adapt my posting to the current world situation.

That brings me to my next issue: I’m not really sure where this blog is going. I’ve always just written about whatever strikes my fancy, and recently that’s been sharing my poetry and other things related to creative writing. I love to write and I’ve been writing poems a lot longer than I’ve been sharing them on here, so I’m completely fine with that; however, I’m not sure if that’s what you guys want to see, or if it is, if that’s the only thing you guys want me to post on here. I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot more traffic on my writing posts/poems, and barely any on posts related to anything else in the past few weeks. However, I’m not sure if that’s due to other things (people not being online, different posting times, me generalizing by just grouping my posts into creative writing vs. not), and I want your guys’ opinions.

I’ve been thinking of eventually transitioning into this blog as mainly for sharing creative writing and focusing on that, but I want to make sure that’s what you guys want to see. When I started this blog, I wasn’t posting anything related to creative writing, and I’m not sure if people that have been reading my blog since then are enjoying the creative writing content. I’ve read from many guides to blogging that blogging should be a conversation (that’s basically a direct quote from Cristian Mihai, The Art of Blogging), so here’s me, starting a conversation with you.

Please let me know what you would like to see from me, and if you’ve been here since the beginning, thank you. I don’t know what’s in store for the future of this blog, but I’m obviously just going to keep writing! I just wanted to open up this conversation to you guys, and hopefully get some more feedback/interaction. As we can see with the coronavirus craziness, things can change in the blink of an eye, and communication is key.

Brooke