Le Hros Romantique

Le héros romantique

I happen to still be alive, apparently. The past week has been a little challenging, I managed to once again contract some virus which caused me to go through quite a tumultous fever. Currently I am mostly recovered, though I have a lingering cough that seems quite fitting for the current weather.

The first month of second year is finished. I feel tired, from the illness, but energized. I think for the first time I am truly considering the fact that what were once my future plans, is my current daily reality. I am working on shifting my priorities around, being more intentional with how I spend my time and ripping away any distractions. That is not to say I spend every living moment working, I do not dream of work.

I have taken to only digesting news from newspapers and I feel a lot lighter. I don't take pride in my limited knowledge of current events, but I know that it is the healthier approach for me to digest all my news in a set format that cannot be added to or changed. On top of that I feel as though the scope of news I receive is much broader now. Honestly, I would recommend everyone buy a newspaper once in a while. If not to support journalism, then just to have a little slow ritual for yourself. Which reminds me, this is a post on a social media site, not a column.

2022.08.05

Finished my reading challenge a little early this year. I'm really happy reading more and I think I find 52 books a nice number as a yearly goal. I'll still be reading for the rest of the year, I do think I'll try to change some things up mostly length.

Honestly the kindle was the most vital part to all of this, it just makes reading so much more convenient, that goes for any e-reading with e-ink. I understand the romanticism of reading a paper book but unlike, say with writing on paper, having a physical book doesn't add anything to my experience of reading.

My last note on this all would be is that I'm looking for something different to track my reading. I quite like the story graph but I think I may actually prefer just using an excel sheet so I can really completely make it my own and track the things I think of as important. I'll probably still keep recording it in the app as well since I do use it to share my reading with friends.

tl:dr read books, it's fun.

Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

—The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

16, 68, 80 & 133 for the book recs ask

Books recs ask

16. a book you'd recommend to your younger self

A little life, I am happy that I read it when I did but I think a younger version of myself would have found great comfort in it and be moved more than I was. Not to diminish the value it has, when I read it I found it very reflective and it put my life into a certain perspective, one of growth.

68. your favourite piece of classic literature

Currently, Crime and Punishment. I do think this tends to switch around a lot, but this is one I read recently and I read whilst I was enduring a fever. It made for a very curious reading period.

80. a book that reminds you of a loved one

The Solitude of prime numbers by Paolo Giordano, it reminds me a lot of a relationship I once had with someone whom I still care about although we have not spoken to each other for years.

133. a book that you came across randomly and fell in love with

The Makioka sisters by Junchiro Tanizaki, I have the poor habit of buying the thickest books I see in a bookstore to get the most out of my money. I picked this up as it was reduced, I had never heard of the author and knew very little of what to expect. The book is very far out of what I usually read (my normal preferences range from unreliable narrators, murder conspiracies and endless suffering of the protagonist), it was a bit hard to get into but in the end I couldn't put it down.

Bonus: A man called Ove, I had only seen the cover of this book and had no idea what exactly to expect but it stunned me. Needless to say it's a book I highly recommend, it's a very human story that I believe most people will enjoy.¨NBSP;