Keep Writing CaspianXI • 9mo ago • 100%

📢 Write every day, and win disappointingly mediocre prizes!

Do you struggle to write every day? Come join an accountability team and compete for the prize of most consistent writers! Here's how it works: 1️⃣ Reply to this message seeking an accountability partner, or reply to another user's request. Each team must consist of exactly two members. 2️⃣ This coming week, keep track of the number of days you have spent at least fifteen minutes working on your book, blog, or other writing project. The number of successful days is your score. 3️⃣ Add your score together with your partner's. The maximum number of points a team can earn is 14. 4️⃣ Next week on Sunday, a new announcement will be posted. One member of your team must reply with the team's score. Be honest. If you lie, your pants will spontaneously burst into flames. 5️⃣ The team with the highest score will be declared the winner! In the event of a tie, the winning team will be chosen randomly. Remember, the goal is not to write a million words. Rather, the goal is consistency—writing every day. 🎉 Prizes! 🏆 Bragging rights Becoming a better writer Two links of your choice (one from you and one from your partner) will appear at the top of next week's announcement. This week's competition will run 1/14 - 1/21. Happy writing!

Keep Writing CaspianXI • 1y ago • 92%

"You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it."

> You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. > > -- Octavia E. Butler

Keep Writing CaspianXI • 1y ago • 95%

Easy reading is hard writing

> The easy-looking, and the simple things in all art matters are more difficult than the complex and intricate. It is a rule that easy reading is hard writing, and to construct anything that the mind takes in without effort, and without being puzzled by it, is a triumph of art. > > -- [Charles Allston Collins](http://books.google.com/books?id=UDcNAAAAYAAJ&q=%22hard+writing%22#v=snippet&), 1860

Mental Health CaspianXI • 1y ago • 95%

My name is Wil Wheaton. I Live With Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety. I Am Not Ashamed.

> My life is, by every objective measurement, very very good. > > And in spite of all of that, I struggle every day with my self esteem, my self worth, and my value not only as an actor and writer, but as a human being. > > That’s because I live with Depression and Anxiety, the tag team champions of the World Wrestling With Mental Illness Federation.

Keep Writing CaspianXI • 1y ago • 92%

How Leo Tolstoy Rekindled His Passion for Writing

In 1876, Leo Tolstoy lamented to a friend that the book he was writing had become “sickening to me,” “unbearably repulsive,” “terribly disgusting and nasty,” and “a bore, insipid as a bitter radish.” After nearly two years without making any progress, a concert sparked an intense surge of inspiration. Tolstoy wept as the music surged. Reinvigorated, Tolstoy returned to writing, viewing his characters with newfound empathy. After two uninterrupted weeks of writing, Tolstoy completed what would become his most influential -- "Anna Karenina". [article](https://writingcooperative.com/how-leo-tolstoy-rekindled-his-passion-for-writing-d0d2f262dfc9?sk=6e4d7a4aa9cbe7ebd95cf8d219548772) / [mirror](https://pastebin.com/3Jw0mqDN)

Mildly Interesting CaspianXI • 1y ago • 92%

"I can’t help but feel a pang of inadequacy when I see the accomplishments of my old classmates."

Linda went to an Ivy League university, but, like many others, found that the prestigious education came with its own set of challenges and pitfalls. [article](https://medium.com/better-families/status-update-from-envy-to-eccentricity-in-the-age-of-social-media-499b507a554a?sk=5275294f722b2e875d6332f0ba1e3c4a) / [mirror](https://pastebin.com/JeRYkthv)

Keep Writing CaspianXI • 1y ago • 96%

Write every day, and win a trip to the closest restroom!

Do you struggle to write every day? Come join an accountability team and compete for the prize of most consistent writers! *Last week's contestants: please reply with your score. Everyone else, keep reading!* Here's how it works: 1️⃣ Reply to this message seeking an accountability partner, or reply to another user's request. Each team must consist of exactly two members. 2️⃣ This coming week, keep track of the number of days you have spent at least fifteen minutes working on your book, blog, or other writing project. The number of successful days is your score. 3️⃣ Add your score together with your partner's. The maximum number of points a team can earn is 14. 4️⃣ Next week on Sunday, a new announcement will be posted. One member of your team must reply with the team's score. **Be honest. If you lie, your pants will spontaneously burst into flames.** 5️⃣ The team with the highest score will be declared the winner! In the event of a tie, the winning team will be chosen randomly. _Remember, the goal is not to write a million words. Rather, the goal is consistency—writing every day._ **🎉 Prizes! 🎁🏆** - An all-expense paid trip to your own restroom (toilet paper not included) - Bragging rights - Becoming a better writer - Two links of your choice (one from you and one from your partner) will be pinned in a comment at the top of the following week's announcement. This week's competition will begin once we have at least two teams signed up. Happy writing!

Keep Writing CaspianXI • 1y ago • 91%

Mark Twain's brilliant letter to Hellen Keller about the myth of originality

> The soul—let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances—is plagiarism. > **All ideas are secondhand**, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral caliber and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing. > **When a great orator makes a great speech, you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men**—but we call it his speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it is his. But not enough to signify. It is merely a Waterloo. It is Wellington’s battle, in some degree, and we call it his; but there are others that contributed. **It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone, or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit, and we forget the others. He added his little mite—that is all he did.** -- Mark Twain If you're interested in the context behind this letter, I wrote an [article](https://writingcooperative.com/mark-twains-brilliant-letter-to-helen-keller-about-the-myth-of-originality-61bb11fc43c4?sk=20a35dbc6d2e4a3b08e260ca28c2c990) *([mirror](https://pastebin.com/Z2mXVquZ))* about it.