writing

Let’s Talk: Unfinished Pieces and Revising Your Writing

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Welcome back everyone!

Today I want to talk a little bit about leaving writing pieces unfinished and revising your writing. These are two things I’ve struggled with a lot in the past (and still do!) so I thought it might be relevant to others as well. I also recently learned a lot about revision through my time in the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference. If you’re interested in learning more about my experience with these two issues, keep on reading!

I often have an idea for a poem or short story (or even novel if I’m feeling ambitious) that I will start to run with, get stuck, and just kind of leave there. There’s nothing wrong with this, and a lot of great lines or portions of pieces can come out of just putting pen to paper when you have an idea. However, it can be difficult to shape these half-pieces into something you like or something that’s actually meaningful.

In a way, I think having that time away from the piece is really important to preventing writer’s block. However, you want to make sure you don’t take too much time away from the piece to the point where you forget what you were actually thinking about or trying to say when you wrote it. Also, try to spend your time mulling over possible directions to take it once you come back and work on it again.

If you end up just abandoning a piece completely, that’s completely normal and totally fine. I just recommend looking it back over to see if there’s any sentences/lines or whole excerpts you think could be useful for other pieces you’re currently working on or something you might want to write in the future.

I always feel like I’m missing out on something or losing something if I don’t see a piece out to its end, but it’s important to refrain from pressuring yourself. You most likely won’t be happy with what you write if you’re putting pressure on yourself anyways. If a piece isn’t working for you, listen to your inner writing voice and don’t worry about leaving it behind. Like I already mentioned, you can always come back to it later if you’re inspired to do so.

As far as revision goes, I had no clue how to actually revise my work in an effective way until learning more about that in my writing workshop. I would always use spellcheck and edit my grammar as well as sometimes tweak a few words for the sake of diction, but I never knew how to really dig deep and take a piece further.

In the workshop, I learned it’s normal to go through tons of drafts in the revision process, and generate lots of new lines and content to see what sticks. It might take a few drafts to figure out what you’re really trying to say and what made you decide to start your piece. Sometimes we’re not ready to put that into words yet, and that’s when you might find it beneficial to step away from the piece a little bit.

These are just a couple things I learned as a result of my writing workshop and my personal experiences lately, but I hope they prove helpful to you as well. Let me know if you have any questions, and please feel free to leave feedback and/or post requests in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

My Experience At The Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to be talking about the amazing experience I had attending the virtual Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference. Although I’m disappointed I did not get to experience the conference and meet all the lovely faculty and writers in person, I am so thankful to have been a part of it virtually and I still grew a ton as a result. If you can’t already tell, this is going to be somewhat of a gushing post. Keep on reading if you want to find out more about the conference!

For reference, I was in a poetry workshop. Each workshop group had seven young writers and a faculty member, and we were in those individual groups for a few hours a day (the bulk of the workshop). We had joint classes with the other poetry workshops a couple times, and there were activities with all workshop groups such as optional evening classes on more niche topics (love poems, found forms, etc).

I had never workshopped a piece before, so going through the workshop process with my group was really helpful and interesting. We each workshopped a poem that we read in front of the whole conference on the last day, and I felt so empowered throughout the whole process.

Daily workshops consisted of reading poems and essays and discussing them in our groups, with a writing prompt to complete during our lunch break. Similarly, we’d have short homework assignments that were usually just revising our work and/or reading a couple short pieces and annotating them. The selection of authors and works that we read were diverse and really, really amazing in my opinion. I definitely fell in love with a few new writers.

At first I was intimidated by the talent of the other people in the workshop and my group, but as I got more comfortable I realized we were all there to learn and grow. Everyone had their strengths and the things they wanted to work on in the workshop, and it was awesome to see my work grow as well as everyone else’s in such a short period of time.

Even though it’s tough to get to know strangers across the country over Zoom, I feel like we did a pretty good job in connecting. I guess sharing pieces of writing about the most vulnerable parts of yourself and your life will do the trick for that. 🙂 I loved my group. And after listening to everyone at the end-of-conference reading, I knew for sure that these were some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. They’re definitely on track to do big things!

I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend a workshop like this and work on my writing on a more serious level. It opened me up to different types of writing and exploring different themes in my work, digging deep within myself. I had so much fun meeting new people and listening to their work, and discovering and reading works by writers I hadn’t been exposed to before.

I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote about my experience! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have– I know I didn’t go superrrr into detail about everything. I encourage you to apply next year, whether it ends up being virtual again or in person! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Let’s Talk: My Opinion On My Writing

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to give a quick update on how everything related to my writing is currently going and my opinion on the work I’ve been doing lately. If you’re interested in learning more about what I’m up to lately, keep on reading!

This blog has grown a significant amount in the past couple months since I’ve shifted it to mainly focusing on sharing my poetry, and I’m so happy and thankful for that. I’m glad you guys are enjoying the content. I know that it’s 100% normal to have some posts do better than others and some weeks with higher view counts than others, but I have noticed something a bit odd.

Some of the poems that I’m most excited about posting on here/pretty proud of tend to not be viewed by as many people as a lot of my cheesier, just for fun poems. This is totally fine and again I’m not trying to complain– I just want to know if this means you guys would like to see more cheesy/silly and fun poems over other types of poetry. Please let me know if you have an opinion on this and would like to share your thoughts!

Outside of this blog, I’m currently participating in the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference. I was intimidated upon the start of the conference since everyone seemed so smart and insightful and I was worried I’d be the dumbest/least experienced of the group, but it has been such a valuable and wonderful experience thus far. Everyone is so nice and willing to help with work and share their own.

If you remember my post a couple months ago about working on a book, you might be wondering how I’m doing with that. I actually took a break from working on it around AP testing and have had trouble getting back into the swing of things. I’m hovering around 30,000 words right now, and I’m hoping the skills I’m picking up in the writing conference will help me return to it full steam ahead. I’ve let myself have a longer break than I would’ve liked to, but I don’t want to force anything and end up writing half-hearted scenes I’ll have to scrap later. It’s also been a busy few months even after AP testing, believe it or not!

I recently submitted a batch of poems out to various publications and entered a couple contests, so hopefully I will hear back from some of those soon. I will definitely post updates when I do!

I’ve also gotten into experimenting with all types of writing more. I used to strictly write poetry and then I got into my book, but now I’ll write short stories sometimes and even some creative nonfiction. It’s been really nice to experiment and I suspect I’ll be playing around with different genres a lot more in the rest of the Sewanee workshop as well.

That’s basically all for now! Please let me know your thoughts or if you have any suggestions for where to take this blog/my writing in the future based on what you want to see. Thanks for sticking around 🙂 Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Let’s Talk: Receiving Feedback On Your Writing

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

So, you’ve posted a piece of writing (not necessarily creative writing, we’re talking about anything here) or submitted it for publication, and you get some feedback. Even if the piece is jaw-droppingly amazing, there’s probably still going to be some critiques in any feedback you receive. Today I’m going to give you a little overview of how to respond to feedback, how to get better at reacting to it, and how to actually take it into account. If you’re interested, keep on reading!

There are a couple different ways and places I receive feedback on my writing: comments on this blog, responses from literary magazines I submit my pieces to (Polyphony Lit specifically is an international teen lit mag that gives every submission 3 rounds of feedback sent back to the author), and just simply sharing my pieces with other people for peer review. I don’t get many comments on my work here on this blog, so I’m able to respond to every one that I get and think deeply about the feedback given. Most literary magazines/publications don’t give you too much feedback other than acceptance/rejection, but in the case of the ones that do, I try to comb through the feedback for points I may not have thought about before and am willing to actually rework and change in my piece.

As far as sharing my pieces with others for peer review, I’m very weird about sharing my writing (I made a post about this not too long ago) and I don’t do this as often as I should. I know it’s one of the most helpful things you can do to get feedback on your work in a more gentle manner, but I’m still working up the confidence to do so. I will actually be doing a lot of peer review very soon in the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference these coming weeks, and I will surely give an update on how that goes.

When someone provides you with feedback, no matter the case, make sure to thank them!! This is crucial because you want to show that you are gracious for their time in reading over your piece and telling you how to make it even better. Please do not get discouraged by a lot of criticism or negative-seeming feedback. It is all in your best interest to hear the perspectives of others and how they may have interpreted your work.

Another thing to consider is you don’t have to take all feedback into account when revising your piece. Definitely read it all, but if changes are suggested that would alter your piece in a way you’re not willing to or would take away from your intended meaning, then don’t make those changes. It’s completely okay to listen to parts of someone’s feedback and not all. That being said, if the source of the feedback is someone you trust and/or someone with a lot of writing experience and knowledge, you might reconsider ignoring what they say. I know it probably sounds like I’m contradicting myself, but I promise I’m not! This is just how it goes– as a writer, you’re probably already used to looking at everything from both sides and all the angles in between.

You may be wondering, how do I actually implement the changes suggested in the feedback I’ve gotten? I would first comb through all the feedback and highlight the points that you agree with most/want to rework in your piece. If these are more specific, I would just start attacking those parts of your piece and implementing a first round of change. If the feedback was more general, you could read through your piece and highlight portions that relate to what you’re trying to change. After you’ve done that throughout the whole piece, start working on those.

When you’re done with that first round of reworking, take a break. Come back and look at the piece later, and see if it reflects the changes suggested in the feedback and the changes you wanted to make. If so, pass it on somewhere else for feedback again. If not, go through another round of reworking yourself. Repeat. This is what I do, and it tends to move the revision process along pretty quick.

I hope this helped you with anything related to feedback on your writing! Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to leave some feedback on this piece 🙂 Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

A Letter to the Class of 2020

BrookeLeave a comment

Dear Seniors,

I am so sorry for the loss of your senior year second semester, graduation, and all the activities and celebrations that were supposed to commemorate your hard work leading up to this point. I understand this is a time of mourning and yet a time of excitement at the same time; the unfortunate situation does not strip away these accomplishments and the fact that you have committed to colleges, or that you are, in fact, still graduating.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in your position. This COVID-19 crisis has affected the whole world in different ways, but the class of 2020 is all experiencing similar emotions in terms of grieving the loss of finishing the rat race that is high school in its traditional form. As a current sophomore, I’ve looked up to you guys the past year. Observing the seniors and eagerly awaiting the time when you’ll get to be in their shoes is commonplace for underclassmen, but this year is clearly different.

This experience may be defining of this year, but it does not define your high school experience. I’ve seen articles about people trying to organize “redemption proms” at their respective colleges they will be attending, and I hope you are able to achieve this chance at “redemption” in some capacity. Regardless of the eventual outcome, whether your graduation is online, postponed, or cancelled altogether, just know that you are still on the path to bigger and better things in life.

I realize this may sound annoying coming from a sophomore and I know I don’t understand exactly what you’re going through because I’m not in your place, but I want any seniors out there to know that we are here for you. You might be about to enter the next stage of life, but as someone in high school looking forward to being a senior, I do have some idea of what you’ve lost.

Best of luck in all your future endeavors! There will hopefully be opportunities to make your own celebrations and try to make the best of this situation, no matter how difficult it is. Congratulations- regardless of the situation, you still made it.

Brooke

(Another) Summer Writing Program Update

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I have an exciting post to share with you all. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I applied to a few summer writing programs this year. I applied to the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program, and the CSPA Cal Poly journalism program. If you’re interested in hearing my final results and how these programs are being impacted by COVID-19, keep on reading!

I want to get out the good news first. I am so happy and excited to say that I was accepted off of the waitlist to the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference! I will be attending, and I got accepted into my first choice genre (poetry). The program has been moved online, so we will be having Zoom classes with breaks between classes to work on reading and writing assignments, as well as evening assignments. There are a couple works we’re supposed to read before the conference starts, and I believe they’ll be holding extra Zoom conferences before the program officially starts so we can get to know people and the amazing staff members. I am so, so grateful to get this opportunity to work on my writing.

I also got accepted into the CSPA journalism program held at Cal Poly. They were unsure of their plans regarding cancelling the conference or moving it online; at the time of acceptance, they were being optimistic and saying at the moment the plan was still to hold the conference in person as normal. They gave us the option to wait until May to send in our deposit, or to defer our acceptance to next year. I chose to defer my acceptance as I was still waiting to hear back about the Sewanee waitlist and the Adroit mentorship at that point, and it’s nice to know I already have a possible summer plan for next year!

The Kenyon Review Young Writers’ Workshop was completely canceled, and they did so before ever announcing decisions. I guess I’ll never know whether I would’ve gotten in or not, which is okay but kind of disappointing. I might end up applying again next year, as it’s such an amazing program and I would’ve loved to go. They offered a discount code on a subscription to the Kenyon Review literary magazine though, so I was happy to take advantage of that.

I got rejected from The Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program, but that was not exactly a surprise. Their program will continue to go on as normal since it’s always been completely remote/online and flexible, which was one of the things that drew me to it. They had a huge spike in applications this year- around 650 last year to over 1000 this year, and I believe the acceptance rate was around 5% or less as a result. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed to get rejected, but I knew that this would be the biggest stretch to try and get into. I’ll most likely try again next year for this one as well! I’ll definitely be looking out for the work that emerges from the no-doubt extremely talented writers who did make it into the program!

That pretty much sums up my experience with summer programs this year. As a sophomore, this was my first year trying to apply to programs like this, and I’m grateful I did. I cannot wait for Sewanee, and I will most definitely be blogging about the experience. If you applied to any summer programs, I hope you got in and are still able to participate somehow even with COVID-19 going on; I assume it’s pretty half-and-half between programs cancelling and programs moving to online instruction.

Let me know if you have any questions about these programs or anything else in the summer program/writing summer program realm! It’s not a guarantee that I’ll know the answer since I’m not an expert, but I’ll try my best to help. Stay safe and healthy!

Brooke

New Writing Projects & Challenging Myself

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I’ve mentioned a lot lately how with all the extra time I’ve had to myself during quarantine, I’ve been trying to experiment with my writing and produce more work than I normally would have time for. It’s been a little bit of a struggle due to some bouts of writer’s block and lack of motivation/structure in my routine, but I’ve gotten to a place where I’m settling into a rhythm and realizing what I’m currently inspired to write about. If you want to learn more about what I’m working on right now and how it’s different from what I normally write about, keep on reading!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might’ve noticed that I mainly post poetry, and poetry has been my writing genre of choice for a while. I love to read and write poetry, but I think my heavy focus on it has left me sort of lopsided in my writing abilities, making dabbling in fiction, prose, or creative nonfiction a lot more difficult. However, when I was suffering writer’s block most recently, I turned to my “writing ideas” list that I always keep handy and am adding onto, and found most of my unused ideas were for fiction pieces. I decided to take the plunge and run with one of my ideas from that list, and I am now working on a novel??? I’m not sure if I will end up finishing it or how long it will actually be, but I’m about 13,000 words in and it’s been really fun to experiment with dialogue and all the other elements I’m not used to because of my poetry focus.

I know it probably seems pretty peculiar to jump head-first into attempting to write a novel- almost like I’m setting myself up for failure. I’m trying to stay away from that mindset, because I do have tons of extra time because of quarantine, and I’ve always wanted to try and work on a book. The final thing that made me take the plunge and just start writing it was the email I got from NaNoWriMo that because of quarantine/COVID-19 they would have an April novel writing month challenge. I definitely won’t be finishing in April, but I took that as a sign that now was the time to get started.

I haven’t really been editing any of the book thus far since I’m still in such a beginning stage and I want to just keep writing, then edit when I’m done. I won’t say too much about the plot or even the genre since I think there’s a few major plot points from my original outline that need to be reworked, but I’m figuring out more as I go along. If you have any tips for sticking with a novel idea and writing it out all the way through, I’d love to hear them!

Besides that very ambitious new project, I’ve also been venturing into trying some creative nonfiction. I finally got around to reading all of the works in the latest Polyphony Lit issue (the teen lit publication I edit for, check it out- a new issue is coming out soon!) and a good portion of the pieces that stood out to me were creative nonfiction. The main reason I haven’t gotten into it is just because I think it’s hard for me to write about myself in an actual creative and good-quality piece, since I often end up going into blogging mode and being more informal. I’m still not sure how to make my experiences connect to others in a way that would make people want to read my creative nonfiction piece, but I’m trying to figure it out.

I’m working on two creative nonfiction pieces right now. One is about my background/family tree and my lack of knowledge about such making it feel like my family’s a mystery, and one’s about how the tension in my family has escalated since my grandmother moved into our house in January. I feel like most of the creative nonfiction pieces I’ve enjoyed have focused on people’s families or cultures and the influence those things have on them, so it only seemed natural to think about those topics in the context of my life.

That being said, I’m still in love with poetry and I’ve written a couple new poems while sitting outside and observing nature. We had a few days of beautiful, summer-like weather here and it gave me a chance to write a poem about a hummingbird that I think could have some potential. I’ll always find poetry a little bit more natural since it’s always seemed the most approachable form of creative writing to me and it’s easier for me to write a poem in a short amount of time if I just have a tiny spark of inspiration, but I definitely want to continue venturing out of my comfort zone.

Honestly, another main reason I pushed myself out of my comfort zone is just because I’ve been reading so many books lately and creative pieces that aren’t necessarily poems online, but I haven’t read any new poetry that resonates with me in a while. Whenever I’m reading a certain type of writing or genre, I automatically start thinking about how I can make it work for me and express my ideas in that form of writing. I reread the Harry Potter series for the first time in years (LOTS of tears were shed, I forgot how insanely amazing J.K. Rowling is at storytelling) and it had me itching to write a book or experiment with magic and the fantastical in my writing.

That’s what I love about writing and any creative discipline in general. It’s so easy to shift your perspective and see the limitless ways to craft your art and hone your skills by seeking a new source of inspiration. I hope my fellow writers out there are also taking advantage of this time to work on something new and expand your horizons. Let me know if you have any author/book recommendations or any writing challenges for me to try out 🙂

Brooke

Why You Should Read and Write Often

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

While we’re in quarantine and have nothing to do, there’s no better time to pick up a good book or write the story you’ve always wanted to read. I know in this day and age with hustle culture and all the pressure to constantly be busy and productive, people often push pastimes like reading and writing to the side unless it’s their absolute passion. I happen to love reading and writing and always have, but I think it’s important for everyone to read and write, especially now while they have the extra time. Why exactly is this so important? Keep on reading to find out!

Reason #1: It expands your vocabulary.

I know, I know. You’ve probably heard this before from your teachers, parents, and other adults, but it’s true! You pick up new words and phrases from reading (which you can use in your writing) and you’ll tend to start using them in real life. If you’re in high school and starting to prepare for standardized tests like the ACT and SAT, being well-read can cut down on the amount of vocabulary words you need to study or be familiar with. You’ll be able to interpret the passages on the tests better as well.

Reason #2: It’s an escape and a way to explore new worlds and ideas.

If you’ve always wanted to travel somewhere but can’t for whatever reason, read a book about that place! If you’re obsessed with the fantastical, read fantasy books filled with witches and goblins. If you can’t find a story that suits the world you want to explore, do some research and start writing it. I’m sure there’s a million-dollar book idea floating around in everyone’s heads somewhere- you just have to do some digging. On the more realistic side of the spectrum, writing is also just a way to get out your thoughts. Journaling or making a story out of your life can be therapeutic in so many ways.

Reason #3: You’ll learn random tidbits of information and be smarter because of it.

Sometimes the most random things will be slipped into books, and all of a sudden you’ll be invested in niche disciplines or topics you’d never given thought to before. After reading a couple kids’ books that mentioned synesthesia when I was younger (A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass and The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch in case you’re wondering), I became fascinated with it. That’s not exactly a common thing that people talk about a lot and I don’t personally know anyone with synesthesia, but I learned so many random facts throughout those few books I read. You never know what you’ll learn from a book, and often it’s not the most obvious things that will stick with you.

Reason #4: It helps you learn more about yourself.

I know this sounds cheesy, but it’s held true for me. When you write a lot, you’ll notice what sorts of subjects appear over and over again in your work. As you develop your voice in your work, that voice reflects who you are and what you want others to see you as. It’s kind of crazy what kind of magic can happen when you put pen to paper, and a lot of it happens subconsciously as you’re just thinking and going through the motions of making your ideas concrete.

Reason #5: It’s a good skill to have no matter what your future plans are or what you do for a living.

You can be a writer at any stage in your life, there are many different types of writing you can do, and it’s something you can take up as a side hustle. It’s a valuable skill to have, and good writing can even shine through in something as mundane as business emails. It’s definitely important in school no matter what class you’re in/your major in college and teachers will definitely be impressed by someone who has solid writing skills no matter what they’re writing about. In most industries/jobs, it’s important that you can communicate eloquently, and writing is a huge part of that; if you can write formally, you can definitely speak formally, as writing requires a lot more editing and thinking.

I hope this convinces any of you out there who need to force yourself to crack open a book. There are always going to be reasons not to, and it definitely can take a good amount of time to finish a book or write a story, but it’s so worth it and I guarantee you’ll learn something throughout the process. I continue to learn about both the world and myself every time I read or write something. Stay safe and healthy!

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

How to Fit Reading and Writing Into Your Life

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I used to think I simply “didn’t have time” to read or write often, even though it was what I enjoyed. Obviously I worked on my time management skills and tried to free up my schedule so I had more free time to do so, but I think it’s even more about your attitude and your love for reading/writing that will make it a bigger part of your life than your actual schedule. If you’ve been trying to get yourself motivated to read and/or write more often, keep on reading!

It sounds silly, but just like with anything you’re trying to make time for in your life, the first and most important step is to truly make it a priority in your head and tell yourself you need to read and write. Obviously not in a way where it puts pressure on yourself, but in a way where you’re making time for it just like any of your other “needs”, like eating and showering. When I first started this blog, I decided I would work on my posts every Saturday morning, and that would dribble into Sunday morning if I didn’t finish. That became a part of my schedule; it’s my sacred time for blogging.

I think reading also helps with motivating you to write, and vice versa; if you’re doing one, you’ll be more inclined and inspired to do the other. Once I started writing more often, I realized being more well-read would improve my writing, and then I dove into whatever books and reading material I could find in my spare time. If you already do one a lot, eventually I think you’ll find yourself doing the other. In this case, try to balance the two- if you’re trying to read a really long book, maybe don’t set a goal of writing a novel at the same time- that sort of thing.

Also, with the quarantine in many states/countries because of the coronavirus, a lot of you probably have a lot more free time on your hands. If reading and writing more has always been a goal of yours, now you can dive straight into it, without having to worry about as strict of time constraints. If you’re still busy working from home/doing online school, you can incorporate a reading hour/half-hour before bed. During my busiest times of the school year, I know I don’t usually end up reading or writing that much either beyond this blog, but it’s all about making the most of the time you do have.

Here’s a few little suggestions I have that are more specific:

  • Sign up for the Poem-A-Day email newsletter here! I did this when someone recommended it to me, and it cheers me up to see a new poem in my email inbox everyday. If you don’t get them right away- check your spam, as sometimes mine get directed to there.
  • Sneak in some reading time by reading on your phone. There’s always reading material online. Whether it’s checking the news and staying informed that way, or reading a blog (hint, hint), you can easily have a few minutes of reading here and there.
  • Read books you’ve already read before. This is nostalgic and usually makes you feel good (I read a bunch of my old childhood favorite books recently and made a post on it that you should go check it out!), and I find it’s also less time-consuming because you already understand everything and it’s more about remembering the story than actually diving into it.
  • Make an informal book club with your friends. It doesn’t have to be an actual book club, but just an agreement that you and some/one of your friends are going to read the same book and discuss it at some point. This holds you accountable in a low-pressure way, and gives you a book buddy so you can motivate each other to read!
  • Write in the notes section of your phone. When I don’t have time to sit down with pen and paper, sometimes I’ll jot the beginnings of poems in my notes, and finish them later. This can also be interesting because once you sit down and think about the idea with fresh eyes, you may take it in a completely different direction.
  • Write a poem every day. This is basically the same thing as reading the Poem-A-Day newsletter but in writing form. It helps you get a feel for your voice and what you like to write about.

I hope this inspires and motivates you to go read a book or write something. Also, remember that writing and reading are supposed to be fun, relaxing pastimes, and it should be something you can look forward to doing, not force yourself to do or dread. I truly believe there’s a type of book/writing for everyone, and I challenge you to find yours.

Brooke