— Roach-works

The most frustrating experience as a writer is having a clear vision in your mind of the story you want to tell but being too afraid to put pen to paper for fear of failing to do the story justice. I’m so scared that my actual execution will fail to meet my expectations that I’m paralysed to even start.

Leila Chatti, from "Postcard from Gone"

sometimes it's as simple

as waking up

and realizing it's not

sometimes, anndroanon

Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary, August 1921

so the shortest day came, and the year died. and everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world came people singing, dancing, to drive the dark away. —Susan Cooper

There is a garden in my heart where you can sleep safely.

His heart hurt with the wanting of it, the hurt no less painful for being difficult to explain.

If your theme doesn’t scare you a little, it’s not deep enough.

Look, surface-level themes are cute and all “love conquers all,” “good always wins,” “believe in yourself”...but they don’t hit the jugular. The best themes crack you open. They dig into the uncomfortable, unresolved questions you’ve been avoiding. 

Why do we stay loyal to people who hurt us?

Is forgiveness selfish or selfless?

What does it mean to feel safe in your own skin?

If you’re writing something that makes you squirm a little, like something you wouldn’t casually bring up at brunch—that’s probably the real story you need to tell. And that’s also the story your readers need to hear. Vulnerability isn't a weakness; it's the damn foundation.

You will be too raw for some. You will be too loud, too big, too fierce, too quiet, too deep. These are not your people.

S.C. Lourie