Write a story, a paragraph, or a caption about this image. Use the first thing that comes to your mind. Have fun with it!

R.F. Kuang has published roughly a novel a year since her early twenties, and honestly, the more I learn about how she works, the less it looks like magic. ⭐️ Here are 3️⃣ things she's said (or shown, through sheer output) that stuck with me. 1️⃣ Notice everything. Pay attention to the world around you. Fiction feels true when it's built from real, specific detail. A texture of speech, a shape of grief, these are the details that make fiction feel true. ⭐️ Most people walk past the world; writers have to walk through it, taking notes. This isn't about waiting for inspiration to strike. It's a discipline of attention, applied daily, to things that have nothing to do with your current project until suddenly they do 2️⃣ Discipline beats motivation. ⭐️ Motivation is unreliable; a schedule isn't. Kuang's output comes from sitting down whether or not she feels like it, trusting that consistency compounds far more than occasional bursts of energy ever will. 3️⃣ Let yourself be bad in public. This one's the hardest for me. The fear of publishing something imperfect, or being seen revising and getting things wrong, is a fear worth abandoning early. Kuang has published young, publicly, and often provocatively, which means also being publicly wrong, publicly critiqued, and publicly revised. ⭐️ The alternative; polishing everything in private until it's "ready" usually just means never finishing, never learning, and never growing in view of the people who could help you improve. Observe relentlessly, work on a schedule, and let your early drafts stay visible. It's a decent manual for anyone trying to make something real; not just novelists.

Does anyone here write their stories by hand? 🤔 I'd never written a book by hand....until now. I've always been an avid journaler and I love the feeling of putting pen to paper. It feels organic and natural. But this is my first time writing a book this way. And so far, I'm loving it. ⭐️ Here are some of the reasons why. - It feels like I can tap into the magic much more easily and the story comes more naturally. - It's nice not to be staring at a screen (which I do too much of already). - I can't tap around on other tabs and pull up YouTube when I'm feeling stuck. - It stops me from editing as I go along. That last one is a biggie for me. When I'm typing on my laptop I have a tendency to go back and edit as I write, but I'm not supposed to be doing that on a first draft! 👨🏻‍🦳 James Patterson said. "Get your first draft out of you as fast as you can, and don't look back until it's finished." It's kind of crazy, but I think I actually write faster by hand than I do on my laptop. Because I'm not editing myself and I can't get distracted by the internet. I'm only just starting, but so far so freaking good! Do you write by hand✍️ or are you sticking to the keyboard? ⌨️

Sure, this is a writing community; but dedicated writers are always reading. What am I reading? To my daughter (who is almost 6): - First: Doctor Who and the Runaway Tardis - Next: 4 pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban each night - After that: Some combination of Goodnight books (Goodnight Lab, Goodnight Unicorns, and/or Goodnight Moon) For myself? I'm bouncing around. - Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (great ideas for character flaws and uncomfortable emotions) - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (great for tactical thinking and understanding motives) - Various cooking/baking recipes (great for structure and rooting myself in the tangible world) - Dead Space: Martyr by B. K. Evenson (writing genre research; SciFi Horror) Your turn. What are you reading and why, and/or what's your favorite book(s) and why?