#because people assuming writers must experience and agree with everything they write probably leads to like | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

likeshipsonthesea · 6 years

Text

Ooby Dooby (1/?)

[1] [2]

Inspired by this because I just couldn’t not. The title is from the Wiggles, because Fruit Salad is my jam.

*~*~*

As he sits on a park bench at eight forty-two in the morning, sipping horrible coffee and watching as two toddlers systemically undress a Barbie doll in a sandbox while their mothers gossip about some woman named Susan five feet away, Nursey regrets every decision he ever made. Okay, not every decision, but one decision specifically; his decision to take Lardo up on her bet during their game of flip cup last week.

See, the problem is that Drunk Nursey (an entity deserving of its own capitals) is far more confident than Regular Nursey is on a daily basis. Which means, unfortunately for Nursey’s general wellbeing, that when Drunk Nursey is in control, it usually leads to a further drunken Nursey and also horribly overconfident decisions. So Nursey accepted Lardo’s challenge to a game of flip cup (horrible decision number one) and then, after losing twice, accepted the bet Lardo proposed; if he won, she’d make the cover art for his next novel, but if she won, he had to write a children’s book for her to illustrate.

Neither of them were particularly invested in children’s literature, but Lardo had been itching to do something new since her last gallery opening. Sadly all of the stories she came up with were fairly unimaginative, the best of them being a story about a little girl losing a shoe and realizing in the end that it wasn’t the shoe she had gained, but the friends she made along the way. So yeah, she wanted help.

And Nursey, of course, lost terribly and then proceeded to sign a napkin stating that he couldn’t reneg on his offer, which Shitty got notarized through some definitely sketchy means, so now Nursey was at a children’s park at eight in the morning on a Saturday because he hadn’t had experience with a child since he was one, and he’s pretty sure the nineties was a hundred years ago, kid-wise, and he has no idea what kind of book a child would like to read.

He was half-expecting some indignant mother to come up to him and accuse him of being a pedo or something when something big and fast hits him in the head and knocks the living beejesus out of him.

His coffee, which was shit to begin with because apparently no one thought to start up a good coffee shop near where exhausted parents hang out (really poor decision making on Starbucks’ part), goes everywhere, including Nursey’s pants, leaving a giant brownish stain surrounding the crotch, which implies a confusing mix of pissing and shitting himself at the same time.

“Shit,” he hears someone say, and he’s about to wholeheartedly agree when he looks up and sees the most beautiful lumberjack he’s ever seen in his life. The man, who Nursey can only assume is the lovechild of Aphrodite and Hephaestus who got the best of both worlds from his parents’ genes, has a grimace on his face, holding a blue rubber ball in one hand and a child in his other.

Oh sweet lord who thought it was okay to give this man a child? Nursey thinks helplessly, watching as the wind blows at the man’s gorgeous, soft looking orange hair, ruffling it prettily. He’s got on a red flannel, a t-shirt on under that, and a tan leather jacket over the whole thing that looks worn and soft and Nursey wants to live inside this man’s jacket, what the fuck.

“Are you okay?” the man asks, and Nursey wants to tell him no, no I am not, I just realized that actual mythical beings live among us and I need to sit down for a second, but he doesn’t say that because he has been walking around and talking to people for about twenty four years now, and if that’s taught him anything, you cannot disclose your belief in the supernatural during a first meeting. (He takes a moment to mourn that one date back in sophomore year of college where he rambled on about ghosts for forty minutes and then, when he asked the girl out again via text, she’d just sent back the ghost emoji and a thumbs down. Nursey shakes his head; so harsh.)

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Nursey says. Then he realizes that no, hot coffee in your nether regions doesn’t really put you in the Fine column, but chooses not to correct himself. Hot Lumberjack Father already looks so upset, and Nursey thinks he’s probably about to be arrested for violating the Geneva Convention just by putting that frown on Hot Lumberjack Father’s face.

“I can reimburse you for the dry-cleaning,” the man says, which Nursey almost laughs at because he’s wearing jeans, not a three-piece suit.

“It’s fine, man, they’re just jeans.” He shrugs, frowning down at himself a little because the coffee’s getting cold. “I’ll just put them in the wash.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Hot Lumberjack Father rubs at the back of his neck, sheepish, as the adorable child in his arms has taken the ball from him. The child, Nursey realizes, is obviously HLF’s son (he decides then that he needs an initialism or he’s just be saying Hot Lumberjack Father in his head, which is too many syllables and will take time away from staring at HLF’s face and sighing) as he’s got the same color hair, the same nose, and the same adorable smattering of freckles all over his face. The kid, it seems, is also three seconds from crying.

“Hurt?” the kid asks, whimpering a little, and HLF curses again, softly.

“No, no, Parker, it’s fine, you didn’t hurt him.” It’s instant, HLF turns all of his attention to his kid, bouncing a little instinctively and murmuring soft noises, and Nursey already wants to marry this man just so he can watch him soothe children on a daily basis.

“It’s fine, little dude,” Nursey says, grinning at the kid, Parker, in a way he hopes is charming and not going to get him arrested. “I needed a shower anyway.”

Parker blinks slowly and he’s got the same pretty eyes as his dad does (which Nursey means in a non-creepy, totally factual way) and his lip wobbles. “Weally?” he asks, and fuck it, both HLF and his son have stolen Nursey’s heart, mind, and soul, he is done, he can lie down on the ground and die now because this is everything he will ever need to see.

“Of course,” Nursey says, brightly despite his inner utter collapse of everything he ever thought he knew. “Look at these jeans, they’ve got holes in them.” Nursey adopts a solemn expression. “You’ve done me a big favor, really. Now I can go buy new ones.”

Parker looks hesitant for a moment before smiling shyly, which makes his father sigh in relief, and Nursey is inordinately proud of himself for causing it. “Shopping good,” he says after a moment. “Spidaman.”

HLF waves his free hand haphazardly. “We went shopping the other day,” he explains, “and he got Spiderman pajamas. I think he loves them more than me.” The man rolls his eyes (and Nursey is like three seconds away from telling HLF that Nursey can love him enough for the whole world which is way too much) and adjusts Parker on his hip.

“I hear that. I got a Captain America t-shirt a few months back and it’s the best thing I’ve ever bought.” Nursey is delighted when Parker, and therefore his father, lights up at the mention of Captain America. Which is how he ends up in a half-hour conversation with a two year old about Civil War, which is mostly the both of them agreeing and raving about Sam Wilson, so that’s awesome.

Eventually, as toddlers are wont to do, Parker gets distracted and toddles off towards the sandbox, leaving Nursey alone with HLF (who introduced himself as Dex when there was a break in the conversation. “Hockey nickname,” he’d explained, and Nursey wondered where he could get an engagement ring close by.)

“He doesn’t usually like strangers,” Dex says, watching his son with a practiced ease while still kind of looking at Nursey. He smiles, though, and looks at Nursey fully for a full moment. “You must be special.”

“I like kids,” Nursey manages to get out between internally combusting and thanking Drunk Nursey for getting him into this situation. He doesn’t give Drunk Nursey nearly enough credit sometimes.

Dex’s eyebrows go up just slightly. “You have any?” he asks, and Nursey realizes that sitting on a park bench on a Saturday morning, watching children play, is so exceedingly creepy when you don’t actually have a kid of your own. And he can’t just explain that he’s only here because his drunk self makes horrible decisions, not if he doesn’t want Dex to pick up his son and run away horrified, and Nursey is just about to panic when his mouth somehow gains control without his knowing and answers for him.

“Yeah, he’s about Parker’s age.” What the fuck.

“Oh.” Dex smiles and looks towards the playground. “Which one is yours?”

“He’s not here,” Nursey gets out quickly before his mouth can fuck him over again and point to any random kid out here to claim as his own. He doesn’t care how gorgeous Dex is, he isn’t going to go pick up a random child and risk getting his name on some list just to earn Dex’s affection. “He’s with his mom,” he says, thanking the Lord that he is a writer and can make up fairly good bullshit on the spot. “It’s her weekend.” As an afterthought, he adds, “I missed the noise.”

Dex’s expression goes soft and understanding, and holy fuck Nursey is taking advantage of a young father almost exclusively because he can actually see Dex’s arm definition through three layers of fabric. He is going to hell. “Yeah, I get that.” He looks over at Parker, who is now smiling happily at a handful of sand. “Whenever he stays with my parents I go out of my mind missing him.”

“His mom doesn’t keep you company?” Nursey thought he was hella smooth, inquiring after Dex’s singleness like that, but then Dex’s expression kind of crumbles and Nursey hisses idiot silently to himself.

“Parker’s mom doesn’t really want anything to do with us,” he says, his eyes darkening.

Nursey panics, trying to think of a way to salvage this (which, he’s already fucked, he made up a fictitious child, he isn’t going to save this unless can impregnate a woman like two years ago and/or steal a child, which, nah) and he says, “Her loss, then,” with as much earnest emphasis as he can manage.

Dex looks back at him, his expression turning lighter, considering, as he looks at Nursey. Nursey hopes he’s thinking something along the lines of “You’re really cute and good with my son and I’ll totally forgive you for making up the existence of a human being because I can tell you give good head” but is probably actually “This guy is weird and I should probably get Parker out of here before we end up on the news”.

Dex surprises him, however, because he says, “We have to get going- I have a shift I can’t miss and I need to drop him off at my sister’s beforehand- but we should meet up sometime. Maybe have a playdate?” Dex looks so beautiful, so carefully hopeful like he knows Nursey is going to turn him down, and, look. Really, Nursey is about to turn him down, something about being too busy or how his kid is allergic to the sun (he doesn’t fucking know) but then Dex says, “Parker doesn’t really have any friends his age and it’d be nice if- well, it’d be nice.” And then he smiles, soft and kind and all gorgeous and shit, and come on, you can’t expect Nursey to have that much self control (see: how he got in this situation in the first place).

So he says yes. He gives Dex his number and Dex texts him and then Dex is in his phone, beautifully, godlike, lumberjack, hockey-playing Dex, and Nursey only just manages to keep himself from caressing the screen in front of Dex. Dex calls Parker back over and picks him up again, and they both wave bye with the best matching grins on their faces, and Nursey watches them leave, sighing, because he hadn’t even been thinking about his future beyond this stupid children’s book an hour ago but now he knows, knows, that Dex and Parker are all he wants in his life.

When father and son are finally out of his sight, Nursey makes a group chat on his phone with everyone his knows and trusts (so, like, Shitty, Lardo, and Ransom and Holster, and then he adds Jack for good measure). He sends one message

Nursey to All

anyone know where I can get a toddler?

#nurseydex #dexnursey #derek nurse #nursey #check please #william poindexter #dex #kid fic #ficlet #my writing #i love that tweet okay #and i guess i'm in a writing mood lately #it's better than homework at least

161 notes · View notes

sheikah · 7 years

Note

In the books wasn’t there 3 treasons, and one of them was a treason of love or something? Maybe daario will be danys final treason? I guess it could happen but honestly daario and Cersei just sounds odd to me. Even if he’s bitter and wants revenge, he knows exactly what dany is capable of and knows he’d be on the losing end.

Hey, anon. I’m going to use this ask to make a post about all of these “leaks” in general. Hope you don’t mind. The supposed leaks can be read here. More of my answer under the cut.

Yes–in Dany’s book visit to HOTU she is warned of three treasons and one is “for love.”

Because of that, I agree that the idea of Daario working against her to be possible. But if I’m really analyzing it, I think that Daario leading the Golden Company would be the betrayal for gold–because he would be getting paid by Cersei/Euron/The Iron Bank, and I don’t think he would fight Dany “for love” of Cersei. It doesn’t add up. And I also don’t believe Daario was genuinely in love with Dany, so I can’t see his alliance with Cersei as like a spurned lover’s revenge.

So to answer your question, Daario could be the final treason. But I think he fits better into the treason for gold than for love.

Anyway, I also agree that it seems odd for this Daario plotline to be legitimate at all. So I’m going to address first the reasons I think the “leaks” are suspect.

1. Tyrion and Varys are not mentioned. To be fair to OP, OP claims to only know details of episode 1 via a conversation with a source, and a few scattered details about the rest of the season thereafter. So possibly episode 1 is not heavy on Tyrion or Varys activity. However, OP didn’t mention this (at least not at the time that I read the leaks. He/she could have edited. I haven’t checked) which tells me Tyrion and Varys slipped their mind, which tells me that they just made up this episode plot and left them out. Say what you will about D&D and their flaws this past season, but Tyrion would be part of an episode they wrote in which everyone gets to Winterfell. He’s a mediator and would certainly be involved in the Jon parentage conflict, as well as some sort of interaction with Sansa at the very least. Tyrion is one of the big 5. He’s going to be around.

2. The way OP described certain parts of the plot sounds “fanficy.” For example, they are vague and not very detailed when it comes to several plotlines, but they described in great detail how Jon supposedly kisses the tears away from Dany’s face when she cries about the Night King taking over Viserion.

It also sounds overly cheesy and oddly detailed that Jon tells Arya that seeing her again feels better than coming back from the dead. Not to mention that Jon didn’t seem to enjoy the feeling of coming back from the dead at all.

3. Certain parts of this don’t make sense considering what we know of last season. My understanding of the final shots of 7.07 is that Bran used ravens to spy on the Night King again, and that he was able to see the Night King riding Viserion and blowing a hole in The Wall near Eastwatch. You can see the scene again here.

Based on this, the leaker’s claim that the season opens with Bran seeing this seems a little odd. We should believe that Bran already saw it, and instead begin the season by dealing with the aftermath. With only 6 episodes left, I can’t see a re-hash of this scene, a scene which already delivered its emotional payload and would be a weak opening for the final season imo.

Furthermore, the leaker claims this revelation disturbs Bran and that he is so bothered by it, he is distracted and doesn’t address Jon’s parentage with him right away when Jon returns to Winterfell. I can see why from a writing perspective they would hold off on this revelation for tension, but it shouldn’t be because of Bran’s supposed emotional turmoil. Season 7 did its best to convince us that Bran no longer experiences emotional turmoil. This would be very inconsistent.

4. Why would Jaime swear his sword to Dany upon arriving at Winterfell? We already know that Dany has abandoned the mentality of demanding oaths of fealty considering all that is going on, so we must assume Jaime does this of his own volition. But it doesn’t make sense. Jaime is disillusioned about Cersei, yes. But disliking Cersei does not equal respect for Dany. Jaime tried to murder her in 7.04. I’m not sure he’s going to be kneeling to her any time soon. His oath is to help in the war against the WW. That doesn’t require an oath to Dany personally.

5. Speaking of Jaime, I think his death is more likely than Brienne’s. I see Jaime finally redeeming himself as “Kingslayer” by possibly slaying the Night King himself and maybe dying in the process. I know this is a long shot but I would love for him to be the one to deliver the final blow to NK as the true Kingslayer and one the realm would remember fondly forever. I do think it’s likely the Jaime/Brienne romance will proceed and that one of them will die. I just think it’s more likely to be Jaime than Brienne.

6. Daario leading the Golden Company seems odd to me. How would he become the leader of this group when last we heard, he was maintaining peace and freedom in the former slave cities? When Daario was a mercenary, he was a Second Sun, not a member of the Golden Company. This seems strange to me.

7. OP claims to know nothing of the ending. I think this is awfully convenient. OP claims to know that Jon and Dany stay together despite Jon’s angst over parentage reveal. OP claims to know the ending of Jaime/Brienne storyline. OP claims to know that Jon and Dany are likely to survive because Melisandre dies to save them. But OP doesn’t know specifics of Night King’s death? Doesn’t know for sure who survives the series? What kind of scenario exists where OP is told all of these super specific details but doesn’t actually know the ending? It seems like OP just didn’t want to write that part because their “tidbits” remain easier to swallow without the finality of the series’ end there as part of them. The other “leaks” presented ludicrous endings and were immediately shut down for it. Without presenting an ending at all, OP seems more credible in some ways. But it also makes me doubt them.

8. OP never mentions Dany’s pregnancy plot until prompted in the comments. Again, just like Tyrion and Varys, this strikes me as odd. If there is indeed a Targaryen baby, which OP says there is, this would be a huge plot point. So for OP to know this, as they claim to in the comments, but leave it out of their description of the plot in the post itself, makes no sense. This tells me again that OP is making all of this up, forgot about the Targ baby, and had to cover their ass when it was brought up in the comments.

All that being said, of all the leaks so far, these were some I was most inclined to believe. Full disclosure: that might be because these leaks are the only ones so far that don’t give us a sadistically horrible ending for Jonerys. So maybe I was ready to accept these simply because of my Jonerys obsession. But I do think there are other reasons to give these a little more credit than other “leaks” we’ve seen thus far.

1. The Greyjoy plot makes sense. I’ve seen other fake leaks that present Euron as the real threat and villain of season 8, as the last man standing after Night King and Cersei fall. In these theories, Euron is some sort of evil mastermind that manages to kill many principle characters. I just don’t see that. So this leak sounds closer to the mark. We can already see that Cersei’s agreement with Euron is fragile and that she is using him. When he discovers that, he might very well go back to the Iron Islands to protect what’s his or gather his forces to retaliate.

We’ve also now seen the beginnings of Theon’s redemption arc that I personally believe will culminate in saving Yara. Theon saving Yara wouldn’t be that significant if Euron is still in King’s Landing with Cersei instead of at Pike posing a threat to Theon’s rescue mission. So all of what the leaker presents in this regard sounds right to me.

I also think that Yara ultimately dying despite Theon’s efforts is in keeping with the tone of the series. We can’t have everything we want and I would be sad but not surprised if Yara is killed. It would also be the final straw to shake Theon out of his indecisiveness and inaction–his rage over this could believably compel him to kill Euron, providing a fitting and satisfying end to that subplot.

2. I’ve always thought that Arya would admire Dany, and the leaker says as much. Arya is canonically aware of Visenya Targaryen and even the name of her sword. It’s not a stretch to think that Arya would look at Dany–a Targaryen woman who is brave enough to ride into battle alongside her men, a woman who tamed three dragons–and see her childhood hero, Visenya Targaryen, a warrior queen. It also fits with Arya’s character to trust someone based on Jon’s opinion, and according to OP, Jon still defends Dany to the Northerners, and Arya would see that.

3. Even though I question it above, I don’t think the Daario plot is as crazy as others seem to think. Everyone is happy to constantly remind that there are only 6 episodes left. That being the case, I would be very surprised to see a host of new characters introduced as the captains of the Golden Company, because no matter who the writers choose, they will be a new character to show!canon. Having Daario lead the Company doesn’t make sense, especially to more invested fans like us. But the GA would probably enjoy the angst of him landing on Westeros to oppose Dany, and would also like a familiar face instead of a new character as the leader of the GC who only shows up briefly to likely be killed off a couple of episodes later.

I also don’t think it’s that surprising that Daario could sleep with Cersei. One of the things that Dany always lamented about Daario in the books is that he clearly loved her for what she was, not who she was. Daario is arrogant and enjoys a challenge. He loved Dany because she was an impressive conquest–the Mother of Dragons, the Queen of Meereen. She was formidable in every way. He admired her power as much as her beauty.

Dany on the other hand, was taken in by Daario’s persistence and charm. In other words, he’s good with women.

Now take Cersei. Despite her inability to truly oppose Dany’s and Jon’s forces, she is still Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She is still a beautiful woman, the Light of the West. She is exactly Daario’s type. She is also no prude. Cersei has slept with inappropriate men besides Jaime before, and in the book she even subtly propositioned Ned Stark in an attempt to save herself when he revealed that he knew the truth about twincest and the illegitimacy of her children. So sleeping with a man casually, or with a seemingly unlikely man, is not OOC for Cersei. I don’t think that after suffering the loss of Jaime and the miscarriage of their last child, that Cersei would be in a position of confidence. She might crave the attention and comfort of a man like Daario who is 1. attractive 2. charming and 3. (assuming he really is the leader of the GC) a powerful ally.

And of course, these two sleeping together would explain why Euron ditches Cersei, which I fully expect to happen.

4. The Melisandre story works. Sort of. I don’t really know what “army” she could pull together from Volantis but we know she’s leaving Westeros, we know there must be a reason. We know she knows about the WW and wants to prevent their destruction of humanity. We also know that according to what she told Varys in 7.03, she will return to Westeros and die there.

Considering all of this, her dying in some way to save Jon and Dany after bringing aid doesn’t strike me as crazy. I think it’s fitting, actually. She’s another dynamic character who has changed a lot over the seasons and who has seen the error of her prophecies and her assumptions, but I think her belief in Jon and Dany and what they could do for the realm is genuine. She also said she had been ready to die for a long time. So her dying to save them makes sense.

And of course, no one is kinder or a better judge of character than Dadvos. I am totally on board with him forgiving her in the end, after seeing that she gave her life to try and right her mistakes.

5. As I said above, it does make sense to me to hold off on Jon’s parentage reveal immediately upon seeing Bran, so that part sounds in keeping with a good plot structure for the final season.

OP’s descriptions of Jon’s reaction are also in line with what I’ve been saying–that Jon will handle this revelation the way he advised Theon to handle his own identity crisis. I think it sounds very in-character for Jon to accept his heritage from both families and to ultimately embrace Dany and their love despite the complications. Overall, I don’t believe this is a true leak. But parts of it sound okay, and we need to keep that in mind if we are interested in a potential real leak in the future. Because if one were to come about, it’s entirely possible that some of this information might overlap. After all, some fan theories have been correct in the past.

So we can disregard this leak and we should. But I’m not going to dismiss the whole thing outright because to do so might be to dismiss or overlook a future, genuine leak the way many people did with Lads. After all, the wight hunt sounded ridiculous–and imo it kind of was. But it was real. Who knows what D&D are capable of lol?

#leak spoilers #answered

63 notes · View notes

realtalk-princeton · 4 years

Note

I have a paper due on dean's date and I'm really scared because I've never written a paper like this before (I have writing sem next semester and I never really did anything like this in high school)?? Is there any advice you can give on how to start the actual writing process (I think I've found some good sources but idk man this is all so scary!!!)?

Response from Sulpicia:

I’ve written somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 papers and formal written assignments of various lengths, and I will say that things get much easier as you get practice. Don’t expect things to be perfect the first time! This is my personal writing process, so feel free to adapt as necessary.

Step 1: Understand the question. How long should it be? Are you supposed to be close reading a passage, bringing together research from different readings/areas in class, or conducting original research? Often, it’s a combination of a few things. For this example, I’m going to assume you’re doing a research paper with a fairly open-ended prompt. Page count matters a lot too; a 5-7 page paper will be much smaller in scope than a 10-12 page paper, which will in turn be smaller than a 15-20 page paper. I’m going to assume you’re doing a 10-12 page paper but most of the same tips apply.

Step 2: Develop a topic. It seems like you’re already mostly there! I find this to be the hardest part of the writing process. I usually like to start by going through class readings that I can draw upon for the paper (for some classes that’s all of it, for others that’s a subset) and rereading them, looking to see if there are any questions that were left unanswered in class. If you have a more structured prompt, then it might be useful to reread the material and see how much you can develop an answer through that. At this stage, I like to make a lot of notes on paper, and if I’m using a lot of sources I might make a web or chart to figure out how the concepts relate. Personally, I find it helpful to center my research papers around one “lead” concept and one “supporting” concept. By that I mean that you can focus on reading one piece of text through multiple theoretical lenses/the broader themes of the class, or you can apply one theoretical lens to multiple pieces of text/the broader themes of the class. The key is to focus on one specific thing.

For example, in my Fall JP my “lead” concept was a group of poems, where I narrowly focused on the treatment of slavery. In addition to my own close reading, I researched some theoretical sources and then used those sources to help understand this particular area of the text. Even though I was critiquing and quoting these scholarly sources, they were the “supporting” concept because they were helping me (and the reader) understand the main thing I was writing about.

I actually like to brainstorm term paper topics all semester and write them down when inspiration strikes. Good term papers are typically about something that, when you’re reading it, makes you think “That’s weird” or “You’re wrong, [insert scholar/author name]”, or “This contradicts with [other reading]”. Academic paper writing, just like good storytelling, requires conflict; it’s not useful to anyone to write papers that just go along and agree with everything in a source. Going back to primary sources or comparing secondary sources is how you find these conflicts and bring them to light.

The last thing you should do in this step is write a clear, specific question you want to answer. For example, I once wrote a paper where the question was “Based on manifestos from Italian Futurist writers, how was clothing incorporated into the Futurist movement, and how was this similar to and different than other Futurist art forms?”

Step 3: Brainstorm Solutions. Once you have a topic, you probably have some sources already. At this time, it’s helpful to go to the library and look for some research on your topic. Sometimes I go to the library to get ideas for topics, while other times I have specific questions I want answered and look for those answers in an existing text. In addition to our amazing library, you can look on Jstor, which is freely accessible to Princeton students, as well as Google Scholar, which has a lot of links to useful books and articles. This stage of research will help you start developing answers to your questions.

Once again, I like to make paper notes because I think it’s easier to think non-linearly on paper. Write anything down; all ideas are good ideas at this stage! I also like to make scans and print out passages from books so I can annotate them. After you’ve done this for a while, look at what you’ve written and see if there are any common themes. If you had to answer your question in one sentence, what would you say? Try to avoid the “three-pronged” thesis; this kind of roadmapping can be helpful for you and a grader if you’re writing a timed essay for a test, but isn’t really helpful for college-level writing, where you want to give more room for your ideas to breathe. The prompt that I learned in Writing Sem for writing a thesis statement goes like this: “By looking at [lead concept,] we can see that [answer to your question], which is important because [connection to broader concept/theme of class]”. If you can it’s good to not use these exact words, but it’s also okay to have some sort of structure, especially at this stage. Here’s the thesis statement from my Futurism paper, which was not my best thesis statement ever, tbh:

“I argue that Futurist fashion, as exemplified by Volt and Balla’s manifestoes, creates a realizable posthuman experience characterized by the destruction of traditional boundaries of the human condition.“

That was for a paper that was about 10 pages long. If your paper is shorter then you’ll probably need a more specific thesis statement, and if it’s longer you’ll need one that is broader or has more details.

Step 4: Develop a structure. Writer/editor Yung In Chae ‘15 wrote a really great piece about writing (which I’ll link below) in which she said that “ If the sections of your article are completely interchangeable, then you have not figured out the structure.” This is the same with your essay. Think about the first thing you need to prove for someone to buy your thesis statement, then the next thing that builds on that, then the next thing that builds on that. If I’m writing about a text, I often find it helpful to begin at the beginning and progress roughly chronologically, although you should feel free to jump around as sometimes you need to present a later piece of evidence for someone to understand the earlier one. I’ll make a rough outline either on a piece of paper or on a Word document, making bullet points with pieces of evidence and things I want to cover. Some people like to outline so heavily the process of writing is just stringing the outline together with transition words. I don’t do this, but think it’s helpful to include usable sentences in your outline so that way you make easy spots for yourself when writing. Then I print out my outline and keep it next to me.

Step 5: Write a rough draft. I lied. This is the hardest part of a paper. The blank page is like a speed bump; if you’ve done a lot of prewriting/acceleration it’s easier to sail over, but if you’ve done nothing, it feels daunting and impossible. I like to start at the beginning with my writing, but some people prefer to jump into the middle and write the introduction later. I find the introduction helps orient me, but you can see what works best for you. I’m a huge fan of what writer Ann Lamott calls “shitty rough drafts” in her book on writing, “Bird By Bird.” While the aim isn’t for the draft to be garbage, telling yourself that you will revise (and giving yourself time to revise) helps liberate you from the feeling that you have to make perfect prose every time. Just start writing and see what your paper looks like; I have never written a paper where I didn’t find more evidence while writing, or where my structure hasn’t changed in ways I could have predicted by doing anything but writing the paper.

Don’t get too stuck on a perfect first sentence. I find it helpful to open with something we discussed in lecture, or the weird, incongruous thing that led me to write the paper in the first place. Here are some first sentences I’ve written in the past:

1. “At its core, elementary education is a concise synthesis of a society’s core values, biases, and contradictions; the “basic” concepts which make up the first years of learning become the foundation upon which all later thought must necessarily rest, both in and outside of the classroom. “ (JP)

2. “A man wanders through city streets alone, buys his groceries, and returns home unharassed, noting that in his solitude he is more fortunate than even a famous senator” (JP)

3. “In his 1920 “Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion,” Vincenzo Fani (using the pseudonym “Volt”) writes that Futurist thinkers will “transform the elegant lady into a real, three-dimensional complex,”[1] encouraging the use of “one hundred new revolutionary materials”[2] in the making of women’s clothing, including “paper, cardboard, glass, tinfoil. . .gas, growing plants, and living animals.”[3] Readers a century later will find striking comparisons to the daring and subversive ensembles worn by celebrities on contemporary red carpets, such as the singer Lady Gaga’s infamous “meat dress.”” (Term paper I’ve been using as an example)

As you can see, in (1) I started off with a broad generality meant to orient my reader which I, in my intro, narrowed into my specific topic. In (2), I used a narrative opening which I then expanded to get inside my topic. In (3), I introduced my source right away and then compared it to a contemporary source. I’m not saying any of these are the best writing ever, but there’s no “one way” to do an opening, even within one writer’s style.

Your intro can be as many paragraphs as you want and should end with your thesis statement. I like to think of this as the first part of a rollercoaster; you’re bringing your audience up a hill, slowly dragging them along as you introduce all of the major ideas of your paper (as well as any assumptions you may be making) before seamlessly placing your thesis statement at the top of the big hill and letting the argument run its course. The rest of the paper should be like a roller coaster as well; just like a rollercoaster pretty much zips along on its own force, you should aim for paragraphs and evidence to smoothly follow each other, with each sentence contributing to the last. Follow a pattern of evidence and analysis, and try to incorporate little chunks of evidence into your sentences rather than dumping them into sentences. Try to end your paragraphs on analytical points rather than evidence dumps.

Finally, you have to write a conclusion. My sixth-grade English teacher explained that the conclusion is where you “go beyond,” and this is what I think is key to a really successful essay. Yes, it’s awesome that you’ve proven your thesis, but why does it matter? How does it connect to broader course themes, the scholarly conversation, or even just life in general? Don’t be too trite, but try to think about how you, in 4-5 sentences, can summarize your argument and also make the meta-argument about why the world is smarter with your paper in it.

Step 6: Cite, Cite, Cite! Do this while you are writing your rough draft. Make a works cited page and add to it as you go, and also add in your in-text citations as you go to save yourself a world of stress. If your professor doesn’t specify you can use any style. I personally prefer Chicago style but I know APA is standard for sciences/social sciences. There are loads of resources online like EasyBib and Purdue Owl which are helpful for figuring out how to write citations, but the writing center is also helpful and you can always ask a research librarian as well (check your email for the “personal librarian” contact info). I brought both my JPs to my department’s subject librarian to double-check my citations.

Step 7: Revise! This is where your paper really takes shape. I revise like this. First, I print out my paper. Then, I sit down with it with a pen and write notes all over it, marking places where I need more information/evidence, where my argumentation is weak, where I’ve made typos, etc. Then, I open a new document and retype the whole thing from my revised copy. This helps me because I get overwhelmed by lots of text, and it also forces me to make all the revisions. Once I’ve got a clean non-rough draft, I also like to read my papers out loud, since that’s a good way to make sure you don’t have endless run on sentences or awkward prose. When I came to Princeton, I was usually doing 4-5 revisions of my papers, and I did about 5 complete drafts of my JP (with the biggest changes happening between my rough and first drafts). Now I typically only do 1-2 revisions, but that’s because I put the time in early as a self-editor and developed the skills to write better first drafts. I also find it helpful to have a patient friend read a draft, although it’s important to be conscious of their time.

I really can’t emphasize enough how much doing proper revising helps you stand out; most people here do not revise their work substantially, but that’s the space where you’re thinking critically about your work and enriching it. Unfortunately, our best ideas don’t come all at once but in stages, so editing is just as much about allowing your thinking to progress as anything else.

Step 7: Polish. Once your paper is edited, take this time to check for typos, add page numbers (with your name in the header), double-check citations, add a title (it doesn’t need to be art, but should be a real title and not “ENG 101 Term Paper”), and either cut down the paper to length or elaborate on a point to get it to the minimum length.

And you’re done! At this point, it takes me about 1hr/page to write a paper once I’ve done all my research, but I would allocate about 2hrs/page if you’re starting out. My #1 advice would be to not be afraid; the wonderful thing about writing is that your early drafts can be as bad as you want and nobody will ever know because you can revise, so liberate yourself. Also, you’re probably a really good writer already, so don’t be nervous :)

Here’s the link to the article which has much better writing advice than me, and write if you have more specific questions: https://eidolon.pub/ten-things-i-learned-about-writing-by-editing-68f3f93e45ef

0 notes

hardword-blog · 7 years

Text

Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?

Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller? Nicholas Kristof DEC. 23, 2016

What does it mean to be a Christian in the 21st century? Can one be a Christian and yet doubt the virgin birth or the Resurrection? I put these questions to the Rev. Timothy Keller, an evangelical Christian pastor and best-selling author who is among the most prominent evangelical thinkers today. Our conversation has been edited for space and clarity.

KRISTOF: Tim, I deeply admire Jesus and his message, but am also skeptical of themes that have been integral to Christianity — the virgin birth, the Resurrection, the miracles and so on. Since this is the Christmas season, let’s start with the virgin birth. Is that an essential belief, or can I mix and match?

KELLER: If something is truly integral to a body of thought, you can’t remove it without destabilizing the whole thing. A religion can’t be whatever we desire it to be. If I’m a member of the board of Greenpeace and I come out and say climate change is a hoax, they will ask me to resign. I could call them narrow-minded, but they would rightly say that there have to be some boundaries for dissent or you couldn’t have a cohesive, integrated organization. And they’d be right. It’s the same with any religious faith.

KRISTOF: But the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life, like the Gospel of Mark and Paul’s letter to the Galatians, don’t even mention the virgin birth. And the reference in Luke to the virgin birth was written in a different kind of Greek and was probably added later. So isn’t there room for skepticism?

KELLER: If it were simply a legend that could be dismissed, it would damage the fabric of the Christian message. Luc Ferry, looking at the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus’ birth into the world, said this taught that the power behind the whole universe was not just an impersonal cosmic principle but a real person who could be known and loved. That scandalized Greek and Roman philosophers but was revolutionary in the history of human thought. It led to a new emphasis on the importance of the individual person and on love as the supreme virtue, because Jesus was not just a great human being, but the pre-existing Creator God, miraculously come to earth as a human being.

KRISTOF: And the Resurrection? Must it really be taken literally?

KELLER: Jesus’ teaching was not the main point of his mission. He came to save people through his death for sin and his resurrection. So his important ethical teaching only makes sense when you don’t separate it from these historic doctrines. If the Resurrection is a genuine reality, it explains why Jesus can say that the poor and the meek will “inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). St. Paul said without a real resurrection, Christianity is useless (1 Corinthians 15:19).

KRISTOF: But let me push back. As you know better than I, the Scriptures themselves indicate that the Resurrection wasn’t so clear cut. Mary Magdalene didn’t initially recognize the risen Jesus, nor did some disciples, and the gospels are fuzzy about Jesus’ literal presence — especially Mark, the first gospel to be written. So if you take these passages as meaning that Jesus literally rose from the dead, why the fuzziness?

KELLER: I wouldn’t characterize the New Testament descriptions of the risen Jesus as fuzzy. They are very concrete in their details. Yes, Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus at first, but then she does. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) also don’t recognize Jesus at first. Their experience was analogous to meeting someone you last saw as a child 20 years ago. Many historians have argued that this has the ring of eyewitness authenticity. If you were making up a story about the Resurrection, would you have imagined that Jesus was altered enough to not be identified immediately but not so much that he couldn’t be recognized after a few moments? As for Mark’s gospel, yes, it ends very abruptly without getting to the Resurrection, but most scholars believe that the last part of the book or scroll was lost to us.

Skeptics should consider another surprising aspect of these accounts. Mary Magdalene is named as the first eyewitness of the risen Christ, and other women are mentioned as the earliest eyewitnesses in the other gospels, too. This was a time in which the testimony of women was not admissible evidence in courts because of their low social status. The early pagan critics of Christianity latched on to this and dismissed the Resurrection as the word of “hysterical females.” If the gospel writers were inventing these narratives, they would never have put women in them. So they didn’t invent them.

The Christian Church is pretty much inexplicable if we don’t believe in a physical resurrection. N.T. Wright has argued in “The Resurrection of the Son of God” that it is difficult to come up with any historically plausible alternate explanation for the birth of the Christian movement. It is hard to account for thousands of Jews virtually overnight worshiping a human being as divine when everything about their religion and culture conditioned them to believe that was not only impossible, but deeply heretical. The best explanation for the change was that many hundreds of them had actually seen Jesus with their own eyes.

KRISTOF: So where does that leave people like me? Am I a Christian? A Jesus follower? A secular Christian? Can I be a Christian while doubting the Resurrection?

KELLER: I wouldn’t draw any conclusion about an individual without talking to him or her at length. But, in general, if you don’t accept the Resurrection or other foundational beliefs as defined by the Apostles’ Creed, I’d say you are on the outside of the boundary.

KRISTOF: Tim, people sometimes say that the answer is faith. But, as a journalist, I’ve found skepticism useful. If I hear something that sounds superstitious, I want eyewitnesses and evidence. That’s the attitude we take toward Islam and Hinduism and Taoism, so why suspend skepticism in our own faith tradition?

KELLER: I agree. We should require evidence and good reasoning, and we should not write off other religions as ‘superstitious’ and then fail to question our more familiar Jewish or Christian faith tradition.

But I don’t want to contrast faith with skepticism so sharply that they are seen to be opposites. They aren’t. I think we all base our lives on both reason and faith. For example, my faith is to some degree based on reasoning that the existence of God makes the most sense of what we see in nature, history and experience. Thomas Nagel recently wrote that the thoroughly materialistic view of nature can’t account for human consciousness, cognition and moral values. That’s part of the reasoning behind my faith. So my faith is based on logic and argument.

In the end, however, no one can demonstrably prove the primary things human beings base their lives on, whether we are talking about the existence of God or the importance of human rights and equality. Nietzsche argued that the humanistic values of most secular people, such as the importance of the individual, human rights and responsibility for the poor, have no place in a completely materialistic universe. He even accused people holding humanistic values as being “covert Christians” because it required a leap of faith to hold to them. We must all live by faith.

KRISTOF: I’ll grudgingly concede your point: My belief in human rights and morality may be more about faith than logic. But is it really analogous to believe in things that seem consistent with science and modernity, like human rights, and those that seem inconsistent, like a virgin birth or resurrection?

KELLER: I don’t see why faith should be seen as inconsistent with science. There is nothing illogical about miracles if a Creator God exists. If a God exists who is big enough to create the universe in all its complexity and vastness, why should a mere miracle be such a mental stretch? To prove that miracles could not happen, you would have to know beyond a doubt that God does not exist. But that is not something anyone can prove.

Science must always assume that an effect has a repeatable, natural cause. That is its methodology. Imagine, then, for the sake of argument that a miracle actually occurred. Science would have no way to confirm a nonrepeatable, supernatural cause. Alvin Plantinga argued that to say that there must be a scientific cause for any apparently miraculous phenomenon is like insisting that your lost keys must be under the streetlight because that’s the only place you can see.

KRISTOF: Can I ask: Do you ever have doubts? Do most people of faith struggle at times over these kinds of questions?

KELLER: Yes and yes. In the Bible, the Book of Jude (Chapter 1, verse 22) tells Christians to “be merciful to those who doubt.” We should not encourage people to simply stifle all doubts. Doubts force us to think things out and re-examine our reasons, and that can, in the end, lead to stronger faith.

I’d also encourage doubters of religious teachings to doubt the faith assumptions that often drive their skepticism. While Christians should be open to questioning their faith assumptions, I would hope that secular skeptics would also question their own. Neither statement — “There is no supernatural reality beyond this world” and “There is a transcendent reality beyond this material world” — can be proven empirically, nor is either self-evident to most people. So they both entail faith. Secular people should be as open to questions and doubts about their positions as religious people.

KRISTOF: What I admire most about Christianity is the amazing good work it inspires people to do around the world. But I’m troubled by the evangelical notion that people go to heaven only if they have a direct relationship with Jesus. Doesn’t that imply that billions of people — Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus — are consigned to hell because they grew up in nonChristian families around the world? That Gandhi is in hell?

KELLER: The Bible makes categorical statements that you can’t be saved except through faith in Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12). I’m very sympathetic to your concerns, however, because this seems so exclusive and unfair. There are many views of this issue, so my thoughts on this cannot be considered the Christian response. But here they are:

You imply that really good people (e.g., Gandhi) should also be saved, not just Christians. The problem is that Christians do not believe anyone can be saved by being good. If you don’t come to God through faith in what Christ has done, you would be approaching on the basis of your own goodness. This would, ironically, actually be more exclusive and unfair, since so often those that we tend to think of as “bad” — the abusers, the haters, the feckless and selfish — have themselves often had abusive and brutal backgrounds.

Christians believe that it is those who admit their weakness and need for a savior who get salvation. If access to God is through the grace of Jesus, then anyone can receive eternal life instantly. This is why “born again” Christianity will always give hope and spread among the “wretched of the earth.”

I can imagine someone saying, “Well, why can’t God just accept everyone — universal salvation?” Then you create a different problem with fairness. It means God wouldn’t really care about injustice and evil.

There is still the question of fairness regarding people who have grown up away from any real exposure to Christianity. The Bible is clear about two things — that salvation must be through grace and faith in Christ, and that God is always fair and just in all his dealings. What it doesn’t directly tell us is exactly how both of those things can be true together. I don’t think it is insurmountable. Just because I can’t see a way doesn’t prove there cannot be any such way. If we have a God big enough to deserve being called God, then we have a God big enough to reconcile both justice and love.

KRISTOF: Tim, thanks for a great conversation. And, whatever my doubts, this I believe in: Merry Christmas!

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/sunday/pastor-am-i-a-christian.html?_r=0

#tim keller #christianity

0 notes

writefromthevoid · 7 years

Text

Hey, hey!

A lot of you know me as the chick online who writes about ghosts and service dogs and, well, writing. If I were a character, my blog would probably make me look pretty two-dimensional. Maybe not even equipped to be a supporting role. But of course, there’s a lot more to me than that. (I would imagine there’s a lot more to your supporting characters, too, but that’s a topic for another post.)

Consider this a little bit character sheet meets a little bit about page. Plus, it’s in list format. I’m a sucker for list format. Maybe that’s thing #1.

1.My best friend has 4 legs.

My dog, Pippin, is a saving grace. When I adopted him, he was obviously too young to be taken from his mother. My mom and I had to soak his puppy kibble in warm milk in order to make it soft enough for him to chew. Growing up, he loved to ride around in the hood of my coat. Now, he’s much too big to do that, but he’s just about as attached to me.

Except when he’s stealing Dad’s chair, that is.

Pip was originally supposed to be my dog for 4H, but I absolutely detested it. The meetings were difficult for me, having started right after an invasive knee surgery, and I lost all interest after I found out I wouldn’t be able to go to the county fair my first year. I’m glad I tried it, though. Lots of people find 4H to be a fun and fulfilling experience. Frankly, I loved it when I was working with guinea pigs and sewing. Dogs just didn’t do it for me. Pip didn’t like it either. He spent meetings barking at other dogs and cowering behind my legs. My mother agreed with me that the competition was too fierce and the culture too judgmental. It wasn’t any fun.

I quit 4H a couple months after I joined. Pip and I almost instantly relaxed and became much closer. He’d curl up by me when I did homework and ride in my coat hood until he got too big. As I got older and I started displaying more and more symptoms of a frustrating “mystery illness,” Pip started learning how to help me in my day to day life. Through careful training and praise for his natural helpfulness, Pip has grown into a friend I truly depend on.

I’m a pyrotech.

When I was 15, I was green with envy. I had called my father on the fourth of July, and he didn’t pick up the phone. I assumed he must be at work and tried again a few hours later. Still no answer. Finally, the next day, he called to apologize and tell me he’d been without a cell phone for the day because he’d been blasting off fireworks the size of the average human skull.

A few years went by. Every year around the fourth, he’d disappear for a couple days and come back covered in a thin layer of black powder and a tan for the ages. The jealousy grew. Finally, when I was nineteen, I boarded a plane on July 1st to light up the sky with him and the rest of the crew.

Photo cred: Amy Webster

I was the youngest face among the dozen or so pyrotechs, but I was quickly accepted into the fold. Many of them teased about how I’m essentially a female version of my father, with humor even dryer (if that’s even possible). Within hours, those people felt like family. They taught me the tricks of the trade, watched me like a hawk, and threw me water bottles so my Pacific Northwest body didn’t dry out like a strip of jerky under the Texas sun.

That sun is awful. It always is.

The next year, when I was twenty, our head Pyrotech assigned me and my now-fiance to the mini show that would coordinate with the main fireworks. Alex and I loaded up my dad’s car with boxes upon boxes of explosives and carefully marked the field, matched the cakes, and ran the wires. Come showtime, we flipped the switches to detonate our own showers of sparks.

Last year, my vacation request was denied and my dad ran the coordinated show. He told me it was a bit intimidating to live up to my standard. This year, though, nothing is stopping me from going back out to my Fireworks Family.

My first short story was about a guinea pig who traveled the world.

As I mentioned before, I was in 4H as a kid. When I was in fourth grade, my mom and I made a trek across Clark County every other week with a small animal carrier in the back seat. Inside was a tiny ball of white fur I’d been so original as to name Snowball. (In reality, we called her Snowy ninety percent of the time.) She was a long-haired silkie himalayan guinea pig. For nine-year-old me, she was the best thing since sliced bread. I competed with her in cavy shows (yes, those are a thing) and learned a lot about animal husbandry during that time.

That was also about the time I started getting sick. I was plagued with migraines so severe, I would come home from school screaming. My mother begged the school to keep Tylenol on hand for me, to let me go to the library during lunch if I didn’t feel well, to do anything other than force me to sit quietly in the sun and try to endure. No one listened to her. Doctors weren’t sure what to do with me other than write out prescriptions for Topamax and subject me to brain scan after brain scan. All were normal. It was hell.

This is far too familiar to me.

I ended up missing out on a lot of what made childhood “normal” because of those headaches. I missed a lot of playdates. I stayed home from school a lot, even up through high school. The solution for nine-year-old me was to write. And I wrote a lot. A lot. To the point that my childhood bedroom was littered with papers outlining short stories I’d never finished, rough outlines of plays I’d forget by the next morning, and one binder I guarded with my life. Inside, there were dozens and dozens of sheets of paper covered in my tiny, meticulous printing. Together, they came together to tell a story of a guinea pig who had floated away on a helium balloon and ended up accidentally travelling the whole world.

Her name was Snow.

I am a certified A level horseback rider.

When I was about 10 years old, the horse bug bit me. Hard.

My mom had horses growing up. I used to flip through her photo albums. Rocky, the quarter horse she leased from her neighbor for $1 a year when she lived in Coos Bay, Oregon, was a beautiful bay with the most patient disposition she’d ever met. She’d had to leave him behind when the military took my grandpa to Florida, though. There, she bought Spirit, a high strung palomino mare. Half of her high school years were spent riding her bike out to the barn and cleaning stalls in exchange for a place for her mare.

At eleven, my mom took me for my very first horseback riding lesson. It was a challenge for me, the awkward, self-conscious, always-sick middle-schooler. Under my instructor’s teachings, though, I flourished. I learned how to clean stalls, tie ropes, and take charge. Within months, I was doing the same trade my mom had-cleaning stalls and tossing hay in exchange for time with the gentle giants. Always looming on the horizon, though, was the thinly-veiled threat of severe injury. Three weeks after I’d started lessons, my knee dislocated for the first time. The next ten days were an agonizing wait until my body recovered enough to let me climb back into the saddle.

Horse fever doesn’t go away.

I leased a couple horses during my time there. The one that stole my heart for keeps was Cisco, a 16.2hh Thoroughbred Paint with an attitude as big as the Northwestern forests. As a sophomore in high school, I memorized my Poetry Out Loud entry on horseback. I worked on my novels sitting on the edge of Cisco’s stall. I studied for my final exams sitting cross-legged on the barn floor at the county fairgrounds while my instructor braided my hair to tuck under my velveteen helmet.

Those years were some of the best years of my life.

I wrote my first novel manuscript at age 16 while I was recovering from my second knee surgery.

During my freshman year of high school, I ended up on crutches a grand total of 27 times. My knees would not stay where they belonged. My ankles sprained constantly. I would feel bone scrape on bone and spend half an hour trying to coax my joints back into place only to run onto the field with the marching band two hours later.

Super familiar setting.

This went on for years. I became a master of maneuvering over gravel on crutches, of leading horse safety classes from a chair, and making things work for me. I was still riding my horse at least three times a week and hitting the football field with the marching band at every game. But when, at 15, I collapsed in my bedroom because my knee didn’t like me getting up from my desk, bringing half a bookshelf down with me, my life came to a screeching halt. Something had to change.

I spent almost the next year in a wheelchair on and off. I had physical therapy a couple times a week and a surgery on each knee. Cisco went back into the lesson circuit because I didn’t have the strength to ride. That broke me. He had been my best friend, and then he was gone. Losing him is what spurred me on to write. Through the haze of painkillers and exhaustion, I wrote 250 pages of jerky, unsure prose about a girl who was being visited by the ghost of her sister and her horse.

Ultimately writing that was what enabled me to write this monster of a document-

Those pages are double sided.

-which later went on to become Nightfall.

I think most writers are interesting characters. It’s just a matter of making it through the perpetually distracted outer shell. We never truly stop writing. Everything is filed away for another time.

Keep that in mind the next time you have lunch with one of us. ;)

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me Hey, hey! A lot of you know me as the chick online who writes about ghosts and service dogs and, well, writing.

0 notes