@Raretodd
Todd Wiese
@Raretodd · 3:28

Advice for a (semi-)former writer?

Maybe it wasn't very deep, so I guess I'm frightened of what will happen if I do tackle something deep like I used to because I looked back at some of my old short stories, and most of them are depressing. I want to write something funny. I want to write something amusing and write again. And I realized the only way to do that is to just sit down and do it

#writing #fiction #shortstories #depression

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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 3:05

Some thoughts

I've written screenplays and I've written two novels and I've written 40 songs. I'm a writer, and as I live and breathe, I swear to God, the less I think about myself as a writer and more as a person trying to work out the meaning of life, the better I write
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 4:07

https://s.swell.life/SSp9s9QqVksuUTl

I see writing like any other work where sometimes you have good days and it's flowing and you're in it and other days you're distracted or you're tired or you need to rest and take care of your mental and physical health first and foremost. And for me, that's taken a lot of pressure off of it and has also made it a practice that I do like any other in my life, whether it's exercise or staying in touch with friends or meditating. Whatever comparison works for you
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@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@Marconorth
Marco North
@Marconorth · 4:54

Hang in there !

I could be funny at a party, but I don't think I can ever write anything funny. And that's okay. I feel like you're assuming that a writer can do anything. Well, I'm just Rambling. I really hear what you're saying and just know that was the last thing I wanted to say. I had one wonderful professor who said, We're not going to write short stories. We're going to write sentences. We're going to write sentences for an entire semester
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@Raretodd
Todd Wiese
@Raretodd · 3:15
And then I get all frustrated and I stop. But I didn't do that this time. I started out kind of free writing. And then I started talking about the pandemic and talked about a couple of festivals I went to and things like that. So thanks, everybody. I really appreciate it. And I think I have the story that I wrote back in March online somewhere. I'll have to figure out where that is and then maybe I'll link to it. But maybe not
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@Tim
Tim Ereneta
@Tim · 1:59
I used to just on the train or on the bus, take out my Journal and just start. I'm also an artist drawing, so I would doodle. And then sometimes I would doodle with words, not making word pictures, but just start writing. A lot of times. The topic was I haven't written in a while, but a lot of times the topic was just random voices in my head and seeing if that would turn into a monologue. Or I would often use a quote
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@Raretodd
Todd Wiese
@Raretodd · 0:50
Thanks, Tim. I appreciate it. Yeah. It is nice to have the faucet running again. And like you said, it's not really important. What is on the paper? Voices in your head, which which have written about as well. And that's a good idea. Taking something from a magazine and cutting and pasting it into your Journal and then doodling and writing and doodle writing around it. That's pretty cool. I might try that. Thanks, everybody
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:39

@Tim the process!

Tim, I love what you had to say about that. Just that regular practice of journaling, because I've been so surprised at how much ends up emerging from journaling that maybe I'm not aware of at the time. But looking back, I can see, oh, that story or that poem or that audio piece started in my Journal without me even realizing it, or going back to certain things in my Journal and then using them as a springboard for certain pieces has always been really useful
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:38

@Raretodd Julia Cameron & Lynda Barry

Todd, I really related to what you had to say about journaling, about wanting to write more or being frustrated that you're not writing more. And it made me think about Juliet A. Cameron's thing about the artist pages where, like starting your day off by just writing journaling, three pages of just whatever comes to mind. And it's a practice I don't always use
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