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melloncolliegalaxies · 5 days

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melloncolliegalaxies · 20 days

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3.28.24

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melloncolliegalaxies · 27 days

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melloncolliegalaxies · 1 month

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round of applause for the women

who speak their minds like shotgun shells,

with shark skin protecting velvet hearts.

round of applause for the women

as silent and soft as the teddy bears

tumbling off a bed,

who hug like gauze,

giving more than they get.

round of applause for the resilient women,

plowing through chaos like riot shields,

who bottle up their blood

and then model it like makeup.

round of applause for the women we grieve,

radiant in memories,

who remind us how crucial it is

to live and love tenderly.

round of applause for the women

struggling to leave their beds,

the ones waging unwavering wars

inside their heads.

round of applause for petite women,

plump and tall women,

prosperous and poor women, all women

as long as they're kind women.

— round of applause

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melloncolliegalaxies · 1 month

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I sneak into moments of my own reality. The door of my office closes, silence, like something tangible or with a great weight, settles. I try and repeat my name to myself, the hour, the dream I had the night before or the state of my aching body. I ask myself a series of questions: hunger? desire? Loneliness? Fatigue? Boxes are checked off. I say my name again. I open the door -

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melloncolliegalaxies · 1 month

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules For Writers

1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience. “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. Your stuff starts out being just for you, but then it goes out.”

2. Don’t use passive voice. “Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe. The timid fellow writes “The meeting will be held at seven o’clock” because that somehow says to him, ‘Put it this way and people will believe you really know. ‘Purge this quisling thought! Don’t be a muggle! Throw back your shoulders, stick out your chin, and put that meeting in charge! Write ‘The meeting’s at seven.’ There, by God! Don’t you feel better?”

3. Avoid adverbs. “The adverb is not your friend. Consider the sentence “He closed the door firmly.” It’s by no means a terrible sentence, but ask yourself if ‘firmly’ really has to be there. What about context? What about all the enlightening (not to say emotionally moving) prose which came before ‘He closed the door firmly’? Shouldn’t this tell us how he closed the door? And if the foregoing prose does tell us, then isn’t ‘firmly’ an extra word? Isn’t it redundant?”

4. Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said.” “While to write adverbs is human, to write ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ is divine.”

5. But don’t obsess over perfect grammar. “Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story… to make him/her forget, whenever possible, that he/she is reading a story at all. “

6. The magic is in you. “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn’t need the feather; the magic was in him.”

7. Read, read, read. “You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

8. Don’t worry about making other people happy. “Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second to least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”

9. Turn off the TV. “Most exercise facilities are now equipped with TVs, but TV—while working out or anywhere else—really is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs. If you feel you must have the news analyst blowhard on CNN while you exercise, or the stock market blowhards on MSNBC, or the sports blowhards on ESPN, it’s time for you to question how serious you really are about becoming a writer. You must be prepared to do some serious turning inward toward the life of the imagination, and that means, I’m afraid, that Geraldo, Keigh Obermann, and Jay Leno must go. Reading takes time, and the glass teat takes too much of it.”

10. You have three months. “The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season.”

11. There are two secrets to success. “When I’m asked for ‘the secret of my success’ (an absurd idea, that, but impossible to get away from), I sometimes say there are two: I stayed physically healthy, and I stayed married. It’s a good answer because it makes the question go away, and because there is an element of truth in it. The combination of a healthy body and a stable relationship with a self reliant woman who takes zero shit from me or anyone else has made the continuity of my working life possible. And I believe the converse is also true: that my writing and the pleasure I take in it has contributed to the stability of my health and my home life.”

12. Write one word at a time. “A radio talk-show host asked me how I wrote. My reply—’One word at a time’—seemingly left him without a reply. I think he was trying to decide whether or not I was joking. I wasn’t. In the end, it’s always that simple. Whether it’s a vignette of a single page or an epic trilogy like ‘The Lord Of The Rings,’ the work is always accomplished one word at a time.”

13. Eliminate distraction. “There should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with. If there’s a window, draw the curtains or pull down the shades unless it looks out at a blank wall.”

14. Stick to your own style. “One cannot imitate a writer’s approach to a particular genre, no matter how simple what the writer is doing may seem. You can’t aim a book like a cruise missile, in other words. People who decide to make a fortune writing lik John Grisham or Tom Clancy produce nothing but pale imitations, by and large, because vocabulary is not the same thing as feeling and plot is light years from the truth as it is understood by the mind and the heart.”

15. Dig. “When, during the course of an interview for The New Yorker, I told the interviewer (Mark Singer) that I believed stories are found things, like fossils in the ground, he said that he didn’t believe me. I replied that that was fine, as long as he believed that I believe it. And I do. Stories aren’t souvenir tee-shirts or Game Boys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small; a seashell. Sometimes it’s enormous, a Tyrannosaurus Rex with all the gigantic ribs and grinning teeth. Either way, short story or thousand page whopper of a novel, the techniques of excavation remain basically the same.”

16. Take a break. “If you’ve never done it before, you’ll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience. It’s yours, you’ll recognize it as yours, even be able to remember what tune was on the stereo when you wrote certain lines, and yet it will also be like reading the work of someone else, a soul-twin, perhaps. This is the way it should be, the reason you waited. It’s always easier to kill someone else’s darlings that it is to kill your own.”

17. Leave out the boring parts and kill your darlings. “Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggests cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your ecgocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.)”

18. The research shouldn’t overshadow the story. “If you do need to do research because parts of your story deal with things about which you know little or nothing, remember that word back. That’s where research belongs: as far in the background and the back story as you can get it. You may be entranced with what you’re learning about the flesh-eating bacteria, the sewer system of New York, or the I.Q. potential of collie pups, but your readers are probably going to care a lot more about your characters and your story.”

19. You become a writer simply by reading and writing. “You don’t need writing classes or seminars any more than you need this or any other book on writing. Faulkner learned his trade while working in the Oxford, Mississippi post office. Other writers have learned the basics while serving in the Navy, working in steel mills or doing time in America’s finer crossbar hotels. I learned the most valuable (and commercial) part of my life’s work while washing motel sheets and restaurant tablecloths at the New Franklin Laundry in Bangor. You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”

20. Writing is about getting happy. “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink.”

(Via Barnes and Noble)

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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"He remembered that day with her like it was yesterday. But it wasn’t yesterday.

It was one year ago.

And a lot can change in a year, like the fact that Blair was alive on October 3rd and then on October 4th, she just … wasn't. Now, their photograph feels more like a souvenir snatched from a beautiful place—a place he can remember so vividly but can never return to.

He'd do anything to relive that day with her, to jump into that memory and experience it all over again. But pictures aren't portals, and the beautiful place that Blair Melendez once was is now lost to the universe.

Finn descended further into the cushions, hoping by some miracle the furniture would swallow him whole."

— excerpt from "Strangers," available for purchase here!

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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— specks of titanium, melancholy galaxies (t.e.t.)

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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if my skin must bear witness to pain and be crossed with old scars know that the best part of that, of any of it is your fingertips upon them

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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morphing, shifting

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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big little things

1. "how are you feeling?"

2. the sky—night or day. blue skies, gray skies, sunsets, sunrise. stars. cotton candy clouds. the moon.

3. "i miss you."

4. petting a cat, feeling the vibrations as they pur. listen to it, they're saying "i feel safe here. with you."

5. someone creating something for you—a drawing, a piece of music, a poem, a sweater. a meal. anything.

6. that one song you listen to (over and over again) when you just need to feel understood.

7. "you make me happy."

8. having dinner with people who can make a bad day feel even slightly better.

9. when someone remembers you—your birthday, your fears, your heartaches. your favorite things. your dreams.

10. "i appreciate you."

11. listening to the rain in a cozy spot—snuggled in a comfy bed, or on a couch, or in someone's arms.

12. watching someone's face light up when you lock eyes.

13. feeling someone you love kiss your forehead when they think you're sleeping.

14. watching someone you love sleep, taking in their peaceful expression until you fall asleep too.

15. belly-laughing with loved ones.

16. inside jokes.

17. flowers on your birthday. flowers any day. flowers, flowers, flowers.

18. Christmas lights.

19. feeling comfortable enough with someone to let them touch you, hug you, high-five you, hold your hand, trace your face and body with their fingers, kiss you.

20. giving someone a gift they really wanted. observing and absorbing their glee.

21. someone doing something kind for you without you having to ask.

22. someone taking the time to (respectfully) teach you something new.

23. pleasant aromas—vanilla, the perfume or cologne or deodorant your lover wears, whatever's cooking in the kitchen, and that very specific scent wafting in the air, you know, the one that reminds you of a happier time.

24. doing something, anything during a very bad depressive episode. you brushed your teeth? fed yourself? showered? did laundry? fantastic.

25. "i can't wait to see you."

26. being preserved in someone's spaces—your pictures are on their desk, their walls, their lockscreen, in a pendent, in photo albums.

27. feeling comfortable enough to undress in front of someone, to present your natural self to them—no clothes, no makeup, messy hair.

28. "i'm here for you" and they actually are. they're at your doorstep. they're texting you through it. they call, they listen.

29. the scene in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when Clementine and Joel's first memory together collapses. "Meet me in Montauk…"

30. someone asking you to listen to their favorite song. please listen to it—all of it.

31. "you make me so proud."

32. Ellie and Carl's "married-life" montage in Up

33. jinx. saying something at the same time as someone else and then grinning at each other.

34. when someone watches or reads the things you recommend. bonus points if they wind up loving it.

35. when Joel tells Ellie "i struggled for a long time with surviving. and, no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for," in The Last of Us

36. "i was just thinking about you."

37. that thing you accomplished that no one knows about.

38. someone supporting your work—buying your painting, sharing your novel with their friends, watching your streams.

39. the cutscene in The Last of Us Part 2 where Ellie expresses her frustration toward Joel for saving her life over sacrificing her for the cure, and he firmly tells her, "i would do it all over again."

40. "you make my life better." i met you and my smile is so big it hurts my cheeks. the sun seems brighter, this chocolate chip cookie tastes sweeter. i'm looking forward to tomorrow because you'll be there. your birthday is one of the best days of my life. oh my God, oh my God, this is terrifying—oh wait, there you are. it's not so bad anymore, actually. thank you for being here—for choosing to be here—with little old me in this brief moment in time when you could share it with anyone, anywhere in this very beautiful, very daunting, very big world.

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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I hope someday

The words I say

Will be the first time

Any have ever said them,

A pure and original thought

That is unique to me,

That proves I am someone

Separate from others,

That I too

Can be an individual

In this great world

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melloncolliegalaxies · 2 months

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i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that's considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls

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melloncolliegalaxies · 6 months

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“How someone reacts to your sadness says a lot about how long they’re going to be in your life.”

— blossomfully

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