Strongladysworld - Lovelymiracles

“The office you went to did not exist,” I slapped the book shut, cleared my throat, and put the pen down.

The woman in the turtleneck examined her nails. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

I ran a hand across the brush of my short hair, feeling the stubby ends under my fingertips. “Thank you for your assistance, you may leave now.” The line was well-trodden, and it came across that way, too.

“I didn’t make it up,” she shook her head curtly. “I know you think I’m lying, but I really did go to that office. My dad took me—”

I held up a hand, and the veins popping off its back distracted me for a moment. I didn’t have those when I was young.

“I’m sure you didn’t make it up, miss,” I tried a smile. “It’s just that memories are fickle. Sometimes they’re loyal, sometimes they’re not. I’ve tried to cross-reference your memory with…” I waved a hand at the metre-tall stack of books on my desk. “All these memories. But the office your dad took you to simply does not appear in the mental geography. So what does that mean?”

“What?”

“That it’s a false memory,” I leaned back in my chair. “I’d be happy to lecture you about it, but I really have many, many more people to attend to.”

She pressed her hands on the table and scowled. “So you do think I’m making it up. You think—you think I signed up for this project just to fill it with false data? To fudge your maps?”

I pinched my forehead. “Look, false memories can happen due to trauma, and other reasons. It happens. It’s not your fault. Like I said, I thank you for your assistance—”

“Just because you can’t find it anywhere else?” The woman stood up now, bearing down on my desk. “You’re going to declare my memory invalid just because no one else remembers going to that office? What gives you that right?”

“If only it were that simple,” I lifted a pen and tapped the edge of my lip with it. “In fact, I have several memories attesting to there being a library in the spot you mentioned.”

“Off the market street, past the florist, up the tiny staircase in the building to the—”

I nodded with my hand up. “Yes, yes, I drew the map up. We have all the mental geography ready. Market street, florist, staircase… but at the precise spot you mentioned—at door 34C, there was a library, not an office.”

The woman stood up straight, folding her hands, staring at me as if trying to figure out what to do with an unwanted chicken.

“We respect all memories,” I ran my hand past the spines of the journals. “But sometimes, some memories are just false. We can’t admit them into the maps, or they’d conflict with the other memories. There’s a process.”

“If my dad was alive, you could take his testimony and he’d back me up,” she said.

I nodded. “Maybe. Or maybe, he’d tell you you were wrong.”

“I hope that one day, someone asks you to record your memory of this place, and you remember my face, my clothes, my expression, and you tell them everything just to hear that you made up a false memory.”

With that, the woman stormed out of the room, and I saw the hopeful face of the next volunteer peering for a second through the door before it closed by itself.

I pulled open the notebook I’d closed before, and started a new map. It started with an office off the market street, past the florist, up the tiny staircase in the building to the…

㋡🥀

Some sketches of my dear Hanuman

07.06.21 Morning in the South Park before the lab - some reading with a lovely view of Oxford. Starting The Fifth Season for a book club this Sunday - I'm very much in two minds about what I expect, there is such an unbelievable amount of hype around this series that I'm almost sure to be disappointed; but also I'm hesitant because I've tried reading The City We Became, thinking that I'd be sure to love it based on the reviews, but ended up DNFing it with a shrug. (I know a lot of people love it, but it just wasn't for me.) Well, I'll try to set all that aside and just see what I think of this one!

25 Ways To Become A Better Writer

1. Takes notes of funny or interesting things you hear people say

2. Make lots of lists

3. Write down ideas, even if they don’t really fit into your story. They may be useful later

4. Stay organized

5. Watch an old movie for inspiration

6. Listen to music that fits the mood of your chapter while you write

7. If you remember your dreams, write them down

8. Learn a new word every day

9. Use a thesaurus

10. Take breaks

11. Don’t force yourself to write “2,000 words a day” or whatever. Some days will just be bad writing days. Others will be great

12. Don’t beat yourself up

13. If its a bad chapter, don’t delete it. Take a break, then come back to it and edit it

14. Look at pictures of landscapes or scenes online. It will help you vividly describe what your story looks like

15. Read other’s work for ideas

16. Get feedback from others

17. Bounce plot ideas back and forth with your friends or other writers

18. Write when you feel comfortable, and not rushed

19. If you really like something that others don’t, you should still consider keeping it in your story

20. Write down a few sentences explaining what your chapter is going to be about before you write it

21. Don’t force it

22. Drink something hot while writing

23. Let yourself daydream

24. Stop comparing your work to others

25. Seek another respective

Veth Brenatto - Strength My name is Nott the Brave.

[Caleb] [Fjord] [Jester] [Caduceus] [Beau] [Yasha] [Molly]

“This is not my job! This is the exact opposite of my job!” Screamed the Grim Reaper as the human went into labour.

“I keep thinking about that night. I held you close like a secret, afraid you’d slip right out from between my fingers if I loosened my grip. You looked at me like some people look at the moon, or so I was told. In hindsight, I never felt like you knew me. You never knew me at all. And I think that’s what I’ve come to regret the most - I almost gave you everything and you gave me nothing at all.”

— wasted nights / n.j.