I Asked Someone At The Village Recently If The Dairy Co-op Sold [specific Cheese] And She Said Yes They

I asked someone at the village recently if the dairy co-op sold [specific cheese] and she said yes they do, and I said oh I’ll pop by then, I haven’t seen that cheese at the grocery shop for a while, apparently their local supplier is giving them trouble, and the woman I was talking to scowled and said, “the dairy co-op is their supplier and my son works there and yes they’ve suspended deliveries but they’re not the problem” in a combative tone, clearly assuming I had sworn allegiance to the enemy in this dispute I didn’t know existed. It reminded me of how last spring I was saying that I’d seen a really cute foal while driving by [specific farm] and the person I was talking to scowled and said this foal’s mother was a terrible aggressive horse who shouldn’t have been allowed to reproduce and once again I just stood there awkwardly

There are mysterious and antagonistic connections between everyone in rural communities and the only way to be safe is to never mention anyone to anyone else. You say something about a sweet baby goat you can’t discount the possibility that this goat’s great-grandmother kicked your interlocutor’s third cousin in the leg in 1996 and now you’ve unwittingly taken a side in this longstanding feud

If you dont have anything strange to say, dont say anything at all

Gotta love a nice weighty set of DnD dice. Perfect for not only your next campaign, but also for writing (decide what score your main character needs to succeed, then roll: it certainly helps you keep your stories interesting, and writing failed attempts at different actions is a guaranteed way to build your skills and have fun).

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Green Dungeons and Dragons Dice Set for Magic the Gathering - Etsy Canada

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Do you have any writing tips for newbies?

i only have one, and that's to change your perception of a project. nearly all writers approach their work with the goal to Complete A Thing. and for fiction writers, that makes sense: a completed narrative is one with an inciting incident, rising and falling action, a resolution, and a denouement. when the story is over, the project is over.

but that's not what a project is, and if you approach writing with the attitude of, "i'm going to write a novel," you'll struggle at best or outright fail at worst. finishing a story is an intermediate skill. finishing a story well is an advanced one. don't worry about completing anything until you come across a story that forces you to finish it.

you'll improve most by creating studies in discrete craft concepts. approach a piece of writing as a study in developing character, a study in setting, a study in the style of your favorite author. and when you focus on that thing, give up everything else. if you're studying character, fuck conflict. if you're learning how to build setting, feel free to begin every sentence with "there was." the focus is setting, not style.

every successful thing i've written began as a study in something. the story i wrote that got me into a bunch of residencies and a PhD program began as a study in similes. my first published piece began as a study in modernizing a short story i read that had been published in the 80s. my most recent successful story began as a study in widening narrative access. the novel i just finished began as a simple character study, because i'd never really allowed myself to do that before.

when you're drawing in a sketchbook, the goal isn't usually to make a whole-ass picture. the goal is to draw a hundred eyes, or hands in different positions, or your own face over and over again. when you're learning to dance or fight or any other athletic thing, you have to practice the steps and basic skills first. we take writing for granted in that we conflate basic literacy with writing skill, and because storytelling is one of the most innate aspects of being a human, many people tend to approach it from the wrong direction.

but by approaching writing as a series of studies in specific craft elements, you approach it with questions rather than answers. the stakes remain low--the goal is no longer to make something good, but to learn a skill that you can take with you to your next, hopefully even better, piece.

i'm all the people i've ever loved

loseness lines over time by olivia de recat, @i-wrotethisforme, Kaveh Akbar, Olivie Blake

we all have that one homie who volunteers to take first watch that they might contemplate the heavens in solitude