mj-is-writing

[mj-is-writing]

Just giving everyone a heads up that this account and all of my side blogs are going to be inactive from now on. Maybe I’ll be back on this side of tumblr at some point but not on this blog.

[mj-is-writing]

there needs to be more content specifically aimed at people who grew up in the middle of rural bumfuck nowhere who love the shitty worn down rusty pickup truck unclean gas station bigfoot sighting 200 degree weather dirt-eating redneck vibe of it all without the whole homophobic white christianity thing

#*sighs and adds ideas to my list of wips* #but like Actually. very correct post.

[mj-is-writing]

this is so so important to me and mine, and I'm asking you to Do Something so I'll respect your time and keep it brief

in the UK, if 100k sign a a government petition it will be brought to Parliament and debated. y'all know this country is suffering from some 80s-style bigotry right now, and this is one symptom: almost 200k fuckholes have come together to force the government to discuss whether it is 'appropriate' to tell children that queer people exist. this is a big symbolic victory for them. and i am burning with fury.

please, if you're from the UK, sign this counter-petition so they can at least see how much of a minority they are. simply put, the attempt to put these bastards in their place isn't gathering enough steam. there are barely 2000 more signatures now than there were this morning, and that isn't enough. i refuse to let these people feel even a moment of victory or satisfaction. please help.

[mj-is-writing]

hey if you're a UK resident can you sign this petition and if not please rb to spread the word

this is an official UK government petition that they have to respond to if it reaches 10,000 signatures

[mj-is-writing]

On one hand I understand not teaching cursive in school anymore, because it actually is slower than regular handwriting and almost everything is typed on a keyboard now anyways.

On the other hand, so much of our (even recent!) history was written in cursive, and having a whole generation of kids who can't read letters written by their grandparents, momentos saved by their great-grandparents, or even photo albums from theur immediate family seems like a dangerously quick way to detach us from previous generations.

And on the third, related but slightly malformed hand, I feel bad that yet another form of small, everyday art that brings joy in the middle of mundane tasks, which celebrates personality and individual style and self-expression, is about to fade into obscurity because it wasn't efficient enough for today's world to put up with.

Like... if we continue to whittle away the small arts out of every day life, what's going to be left except stark, ruthless pragmatism?

Maybe writing a grocery list is less mundane when you get to feel elegant for a moment. Maybe you're a little more proud of what you write when you see it flow together like a painting

#i did learn cursive but I stopped using it in about sixth grade just because of like. #it not being required. #like my fourth and fifth grade teachers made us write in cursive but by sixth we could choose #and then by eighth and ninth all of my note taking was digital anyway #so If i were asked to write in cursive rn I’d struggle with it. I know like 80 percent of the alphabet. #i should start using it again. #i get that it’s not seen is ‘necessary’ in our world anymore but op is right #at the Very least kids need to learn to read it and actually practice reading it #and someone in the comments pointed out fine motor skills #what about signatures?? what do these people who don’t know cursive do when signing stuff?

[mj-is-writing]

i spent $32 on this fucking bowl at the moma and at first i felt bad buying it bc it was so expensive but ive had a terrible day today and every time i look at my lil bowl im like :o) you know what. i can get through anything with this bowl by my side

[mj-is-writing]

before you see something and recoil at the price, be it handmade items, services, art, whatever. when you see something and you think, "i wouldnt pay more than $15 for that," you seriously have to ask yourself: if i were offered that same $15, would i make this object? would i spend the time to teach myself this skill to get this done, for $15? would i do this service for that same $15? would that be worth my time and effort?

yeah, that handmade necklace is $140. you might only be willing to pay $40 for that same necklace, but would you make it for $40 if someone asked you to?

you want to pay the babysitter fifteen bucks for the three hours she's watching your child. but would you honestly do that for $15? would you go into a stranger's house and change their baby's diaper and care for its needs, for $15?

you think its ridiculous that this artist is charging $30 for an icon commission. would you spend years catching up to their skill level to make that same drawing, start using your skill to make some extra cash, and then spend three hours on a drawing just to get $15?

would you be willing to work for $5 an hour?

no?

then don't be angry when someone else won't.

you don't have buy the service, it's okay if some things aren't within your budget or comfort zone, and it's also okay if the product isn't worth that much money to you. but do not be angry. be glad, because you know of another person out there who isn't being exploited for their time.

[mj-is-writing]

[mj-is-writing]

today (27 Jan) is International Holocaust Memorial Day, so I've compiled a list of charities you can donate to which help to preserve European Jewish culture as well as supporting living Jewish communities, especially in Eastern Europe, as a way to honour victims of the Holocaust both by preserving their memory and by supporting the European Jewish communities that the Nazis aimed to destroy.

- YIVO [Link] ; founded in Vilne, Lithuania in 1925 and now based in New York, is one of the largest organisations for the preservation and education of Yiddish, as well as hosting the largest archive of Eastern European Jewish materials (23 million items) - including many which were rescued from Nazi book-burning by Jewish resistance. It is the ONLY prewar Jewish library and archive to have survived the Holocaust.

- World Jewish Relief [Link], formed during the Holocaust by the UK Jewish community to aid the evacuation of German Jews. The majority of their modern day work focuses on aiding vulnerable Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. They also provide aid to refugees, disabled and elderly people, and respond to international disasters across the world.

- The Yiddish Book Centre [Link] hosts an online archive of hundreds of digitised Yiddish books (many with translations), as well as a video oral history archive with 1000+ Jewish people of all ages and backgrounds telling their own stories, many in Yiddish (with subtitles). They also train new Yiddish translators and run lectures, education programs, film screenings, music festivals, and the world's first Yiddish museum.

- The Together Plan [Link] supports post-Soviet Jewish communities, especially in Belarus due to the current instability there. As well as supporting Jewish communities with aid, education, and community building; they also record and translate Holocaust testimonies, preserve Jewish graveyards, and run education on Jewish Belarus.

- The European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative [Link] works to preserve and restore Jewish cemeteries, particularly in countries whose Jewish populations were decimated by the Holocaust, which left cemeteries to be vandalised and fall into decay. This is an important act in honouring the dignity of the dead, as well as witnessing and preserving the presence of lost European Jewish life.

If you have no money to spare, consider spending some time browsing the testimony and history hosted on YIVO and the Yiddish Book Centre as an act of memorial instead.

[mj-is-writing]

“I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.”

— Anne Lamott

[mj-is-writing]

I’m trying desperately to find articles, videos, posts, etc. where queer alumni of conservative Christian universities discuss their experiences on campus, but there just isn’t a lot. If anyone has had that experience and feels comfortable sharing, how did you handle it at the time? What was the hardest part of being in that environment? How were you treated on campus? Was remaining closeted even an option?

I think a lot of people don’t understand that not everyone gets a choice in where they go to college. They might end up in a place they don’t belong fue to family pressure or money struggles. And for those of us facing that possibility in the future, it can be a bit paralyzing.

So… is it really as scary as it seems right now? What do you wish you’d known?

[mj-is-writing]

Okay everyone what do y’all think is the biggest difference between writing long form and short form fiction? What’s the important thing to think about? What’s the part of the writing process that is just inherently tied to one or the other for you?

#I’ve always struggled with short form but I want to do more #so if anyone has something to say #let me know #ALSO if you write both serialized and non-serialized stories let me know what that’s like! #writeblr #long form fiction #short form fiction

[mj-is-writing]

It's not an "abandoned" WIP, I didn't intentionally leave it in the forest to die and forget about it, it is a lost wip who wandered into the forest despite my pleas not to. I sit at the edge of the forest every day and hear it calling for help but there is nothing I can do. It is a haunting wip

[mj-is-writing]

Anyone else been feeling very hopeless vis-a-vis the space that the hypercapitalist publishing industry provides for new/emerging writers

Why do even award-winning authors have to have day jobs? Why do some authors make 8 figures while the rest of us struggle to make a couple hundred bucks from commission work or publications? People are always talking about wanting fresh stories from diverse perspectives and all that, but I’m just not seeing the proof…?

This industry and this art form is going to go slowly downhill until it’s genuinely possible to make a modest living as a writer, and until working class, marginalized writers are actually supported enough to be able to write….

We need to be freed from our required, useless labor that only serves to put profit in the pockets of the wealthy. Once that happens, we might see a genuine outpouring of creativity and meaning. But until then, we’re gonna continue to be too anxious and mentally fried to use our scant relaxation time for art/writing–which is, and deserves to be recognized as, work….

[mj-is-writing]

a fun fact about this wacky little writing hobby is that it’s versatile. long car ride? I’m writing. waiting for the bus? I’m just going to type out some snippets of dialogue in my notes really quickly. I’m just thinking about the next writing session and plotting unconsciously all the time. i kinda love the eternal feeling of it. it’s just everywhere.

[mj-is-writing]

[mj-is-writing]

the best story premise by far imo is just "wack ass roadtrip" it never gets old to me