e-s-willswriting

[e-s-willswriting]

[e-s-willswriting]

Listen to your fellow writers but dont feel like anyone is the be all end all authority on writing advice. Even me. Advice should be people sharing experiences on what works for Them in the hopes that it helps someone else. There is no one right way to write.

[e-s-willswriting]

Good stuff.

[e-s-willswriting]

You need to draw and make art or else all the images will stay in your head and you'll get sick

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i am skeptical you could do that actually, tiktok user

~

eta: this is the last time im explaining this to yall

1. read the little card next to the art piece

2. if there isnt one, ask the gallery staff. thats why theyre there.

3. use the smartphone in your hand to do a 5 second google search instead of using it to film an ignorant tiktok like this

this is not rocket science. goodnight.

#i think people need to embrace curiosity more #like ok it looks simple lets interrogate that #what modes #what mediums #what design philosophies #what techniques #theres no worries to say a piece is deceptively simple #but its always reductive to claim all modern art is bad #especially if you havent taken the time to understand how/why the artist made what they did #curiosity is the spice of life

[e-s-willswriting]

was thinking about why the lack of female characters in lotr and the hobbit dosen't feel like exclusion and it's because they're just dudes being friends, like they are all just a gang of besties wandering about and the three female characters basically go "right we're doing this now" and they all just go "alright we're doing this now :)"

[e-s-willswriting]

Where do you get your writing inspiration from?

Writing inspiration is a deeply personal thing, and everyone will find their inspiration differently. For some, it could be from their personal experiences, from their favourite TV show, or a book they just read, while for others, they might rely solely on their imaginations without looking to outside influences.

That said, there are lots of places you can go to for inspiration that aren't just about the act of writing. Sometimes, it's just about finding something that will spark an idea, or even just get you in a creative headspace. And for that, we've got some tips in the Reading Room today to show you how to use real life to find creative inspiration.

[e-s-willswriting]

#if a society thinks its acceptable to bring snipers to a student protest #if a society fears its students #then i think there's something fundamentally wrong with a society like that

[e-s-willswriting]

I was on a date with Ed Sheeran. For some reason I believed he had bad intensions, so I stole his car and kidnapped him before he could kidnap me. I was definitely driving far past speed limit through the town with a tied and gagged guy in the passenger seat. 

To this day I cannot listen to his music with straight face. 

#Ed sheeran kidnapped be like: When your legs don't work like they used to before

[e-s-willswriting]

THE FLY  1986, dir. David Cronenberg

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[e-s-willswriting]

it's like i am literally never going to own a house or find authentic love or escape the clutches of late stage capitalism so really what am i living for

[e-s-willswriting]

Do you have any preferred notebooks? Anything better than Moleskine which I don't think would be hard (!!??)... The ink bleeding through to the page behind is so distracting. Random question but I figured you'd be perfect to ask!! Thank you

i've been waiting my entire tumblrlife for this, anon. stationery is one of my most persevering special interests.

just to caveat, i still use a moleskine for my personal journal, but i only write in it once or twice a month so they tend to last years. i bought my current journal in 2017 before enshittification and so i haven't had a problem with the paper. i use a felt-tip pen on it mostly, but even the few times i've tried fountain pens, i haven't had any bleed-through. it's really unfortunate they've gone downhill.

and i mean, for context, i beat the shit out of my moleskines. and look how they've held up!

the one on the left i used from 2011 to 2017. it went all around the world with me and i carried it everywhere for 6 years. i taped every stupid scrap of paper i came across into it and that's why it's so beefy. the elastic band has stretched too far is all; i need to find something sturdier to keep it shut.

the one on the right i started in 2017 and i'm about 2/3rds through it. i tape some stuff in but not as much as i used to. at one point it was in my backpack in the overhead compartment of a plane and some guy's water bottle spilled all over it. i was devastated. but it slurped that shit up and kept trucking. you can't even tell it's waterlogged anymore.

my mom bought me a special edition van gogh moleskine for my birthday last year that i was planning to use for my next journal. i just tested the paper against the 2017 journal using a kaweco sport bold tip, and the van gogh paper does indeed bleed significantly more than the 2017 paper. a real shame. i'm probably still going to use it though, because i've kept the proud tradition of "use notebooks people buy me for my birthday as my next journal" since i was 14. also, i'll probably end up starting it when i'm 37, the age van gogh died.

last august marked my 20th anniversary of my journaling habit, btw. i was going to write a newsletter about it but it started spiraling into a whole-ass book and i had to set it down.

a close and higher quality alternative to moleskine, much beloved by bullet journalers, is leuchtturm. their A5 hardcover is very similar to the classic moleskine pictured above. i don't use one because i have no use for lie-flat notebooks for anything other than a personal journal (which is covered for the next decade or so), but i love buying them as gifts.

my commonplace notebook is the A4 rhodia top spiral, which i've mentioned in my newsletter before. there is something truly magical about this notebook. when i bought it, i carried it around with me everywhere even though i had no idea what to write in it. i started commonplacing before i even knew what that was, simply because the tactile and aesthetic sensation of filling each page was so satisfying. i go through 1-2 per year.

this isn't a notebook proper, but my research binders are B5 maruman clartes with their corresponding loose leaf paper. again, like the rhodia A4 top spiral, the sensation of writing on the paper and organizing the binder is very satisfying and so it encourages me to take a lot of notes.

maruman also makes the famously amazing mnemosyne series of notebooks. i haven't used one before but i really like them, and as soon as i need a high quality top spiral notebook that the A4 rhodia can't fulfill, that's what i'll be moving to.

my purse notebook is a field notes reporter's notebook. these are new so they haven't stood the test of time the way the others have, but i love the size and the binding, and afaik field notes is one of the few american stationery brands that hasn't fallen prey to a quality drop in paper. i also love field notes classic pocket notebook but have never been able to make a pocket notebook habit stick. it took me a long time to realize tiny notebooks don't encourage me to write in them, because a lot of my notebooking is about the thrill and aesthetic pleasure of seeing an overwhelming amount of text on a page.

my planner is a hobonichi techo weeks, which is the same size as the reporter's notebook and also goes in my purse. this is my first year using a hobonichi planner and i really love it. like the others, its quality encourages me to use it. i've found hobonichi overall is a really good notebook brand.

my sketchbook (which i don't use very much) is a strathmore 500 series mixed media softcover. i bought it before i realized how deterring i find lie-flat books and i think i would be more motivated to draw by investing in one of their wirebound ones, even though all the artists i follow on youtube tell you not to do that. i keep meaning to change it into a collage notebook instead, i just haven't had the time or desk space to do it.

and an honorable mention: before the pandemic, back when i did things and went places, i used a grand voyageur traveler's notebook from paper republic. i'm actually very sad i don't have much of a use for it anymore, but maybe one day i'll do stuff again and return to it. it's weird that i don't see paper republic mentioned often (ever) in bujo spheres, when i think their products are better than traveler's company (although i haven't tested one for a significant period of time; people swear by them though).

hopefully one or two of these stand out to you!

[e-s-willswriting]

#I wanna go back so bad

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I hate reading slumps 🫠🫠🫠🫠

#writing blog #think my current one is entirely due to Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow

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You know, that Mythbusters post legitimately changed my life. Before seeing it, I had exponentially more guilt and stress about not being able to sleep, which of course, further exacerbated my inability to sleep.

Now, every time I wake up about three am, knowing I have to get up at 6.45, instead of stressing and panicking about how my day is going to be sleep deprived and miserable, I just tell myself 'Time to activate Mythbusters Protocol' and lie there with my eyes closed safe in the knowledge that I am measurably reducing later feelings of exhaustion.

And when this happens, about 70% of the time the reduction of guilt and stress means I actually do fall back asleep, so all in all instead of getting only three or four hours sleep, I get five to six and a half.

Which y'know, major improvement in health and energy.

#WAIT IT WORKS FOR NAPS TOO??? #tbh i dont have issues falling asleep what i do steuggle with is napping then feeling all groggy after #lying down for an hour just brainstorming sounds pretty neat.

[e-s-willswriting]

Congratulations! You are now a Magic-User!!

#give me the ash #i will be very normal about this and not use it to cosplay Vessel from Sleep Token