Hhhhhh. That Feeling When You Know You're Still Improving And Haven't Gotten Fully Skilled Yet But The

i will defend to the grave that literary analysis IS enjoyable and a valid hobby but it's amazing how a hyperfixation on The Character will have you writing essays for fun

yeah man this strain is called ‘final girl’ it’ll have you backing away precariously wielding a kitchen knife and shaking uncontrollably

Yusef Komunyakaa, from "Jasmine", Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems [ID in ALT]

they literally created a place where you can go and learn about something that really interests you and they fucked it up by inventing ASSIGNMENTS

Writing advice that changed my sentence

When I was a young writer, I was told that I often started my sentences with "there is/there was/there are." I was told to eliminate those as much as possible.

I couldn't believe how often I used them. My first novel was completely littered with them.

I learned to diversify and grow my use of verbs. Instead of the state-of-being verbs, like "is" which isn't very descriptive at all, I started using stronger verbs.

Instead of writing "There were a bunch of trees on the hill" I wrote "A cluster of trees towered over the hill."

"Towered" is a much stronger verb than "Is"

Use the state-of-being words, but if you can, try replacing them with more active verbs. You might be surprised how much your writing improves.

i hate loving characters bc im so bad at talking about them so i just scream for 12 hours straight having said nothing of substance.