There are times when thoughts of failure drain me like a leech that won’t ease up. Sometimes life as a creator feels as if you’re knee-deep in sludge and you’re chasing an inspiration that is flying away from you. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the frustration. As creators, we naturally strive to be more than we are, but I’m starting to see that sometimes we just aren’t ready for what we want immediately. This could look like having a vision but lacking the skills and

I have not read a book since high school. Before you throw your pitchforks and tomatoes at me, hear me out on what I’m saying. Though I haven’t read a book in a while (mostly just due to lack of motivation), I have kept up with my reading, in a way, through a little website called TVTropes. For the uninitiated, TVTropes is a website dedicated to defining narrative features and conventions across various fiction mediums. It’s like Wikipedia, but for all the little patterns yo

Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes, it strikes in times and places we don’t expect. However, I’ve noticed a pattern of where I’m more creative and motivated: not at home or at school, but in third spaces. Why is this? I think third spaces are motivating. For example, when I’m in a library, the environment is quiet. Everyone is working on something, whether that be homework, reading, tutoring, or creative writing. Sitting in the library, without all the comforts and dist

It’s a question many of us ask ourselves at some point in our lives, whether we write recreationally or out of obligation. For some, writing comes easily; these people have ideas—frequently—and have no issues with pouring them all out onto a page or a notes app or a word doc. For many, however, writing isn’t something that comes naturally. It is something to be done on rare occasions, like when your professor assigns you an essay and leaves the topic more open ended. Even I,

As a writer who is constantly engaged in an academic setting, I sometimes find myself burnt out. Now, that doesn’t mean I lose my passion for writing—rather, I take these opportunities and search elsewhere for inspiration besides just on the page. When summer rolled around, I noticed that a few of my favorite artists were set to release new albums over the next few months. Now that it's fall, these releases have allowed me to explore the perfect dynamic that storytelling has

Ah, young love. Not the kind that leaves you flustered, fretting over your outfit. I’m talking about books. The ones that strike you as genius, in a, “I can’t believe someone, alive or dead, wrote this,” kind of way. You forgo sleep and work to finish them. Once you do, you can’t shut up about them. You annoy your family and friends with your endless praise. And if you’re a writer like me, you cling to those books that inspired you. That not only taught you what good writing

Ecology, the relationship between an organism and its environment, is not something the average person pays much mind to when they’re sitting down for a movie or playing a video game. You don’t think about the social structures of the giant monster chasing our weirdly beautiful protagonists, nor what month their breeding season is in. …Okay, maybe some of you are thinking about the breeding season thing… But the fact is that the ecology of the creatures in your stories is not

I’ve found that even in literature written by queer authors, there are seldom happy endings for the queer characters. The history of queer characters being buried for censorship or cheap affect has created a norm in media, a norm that all authors seem to feel the need to adhere to. Adding queerness is often treated like adding a terminal diagnosis that’ll drive the rest of their character arcs into the nearest lake. Straight characters, on the contrary, get closure at the end

In the humanities field, it’s pretty common for people to be multidisciplinary. I am no exception to this. This past weekend, April 17-18, I had the opportunity to present my own research poster that I’ve been constructing all semester to other colleagues and scholars of anthropology. For those who aren’t familiar, ethnography refers to a research method of anthropology that involves immersion and combines traditional field work with writing. Perfect for a writer like me. I h

Self-insert main characters in fiction have been around for ages. A certain stigma surrounds them that implies this method of writing is juvenile and amateur, when in reality this concept has historically been incredibly abundant in literature that we consider classic. Vonnegut, Salinger, and King have all created widely celebrated characters that directly reflect themselves. This poses the question: Where does this negative connotation stem from? When I hear other writers di

In an age where everyone is consuming the same media, individuality is more important now than ever. Writing acts as a powerful voice, and can be used to uplift those whose voices may be marginalized or prone to erasure. Just like voices in real life, someone’s writing voice can have its own distinguishing characteristics. Your voice in writing can include something of the linguistic nature, such as using vernacular language, or perhaps code switching in your words. Dis

Image by Colton Sturgeon via Unsplash I primarily write short speculative fiction and dabble in personal essays, but when I came across a quote from Ursula K. Le Guin's talk at Portland Arts & Lectures program of Literary Arts on my Instagram feed, it made me pause: "Beneath memory and experience, beneath imagination and invention, beneath words, there are rhythm to which memory and imagination and words all move. The writer's job is to go down deep enough to feel that rhythm

Image by Paul Hanaoka via Unsplash I am in the snack aisle at the grocery store staring at the varieties of granola bars. I check my hand-written list and wonder if there is such a thing as too many snacks to bring on a trip. This is one of many questions I am thinking about as I prepare to attend the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference in Baltimore next week. Prior to becoming an intern for Singularity Press, I had only been to one conference for scre

Photo by Alex Litvin via Unsplash I think everyone gets a little surge of joy when they hear one of their favorite novels is being adapted into a movie or television series. Getting to see a story they love so much brought to life, letting others see the wonders of it, can be a great thing. That is, when it’s done right. Now, there’s a lot of adaptations I’m a fan of. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the show NOT the movies, is amazing. The Hunger Games are truly unrivaled,

Language is the ultimate gift in this life. It is the aspect of our culture that sets us apart from other species. It's what makes us evolve. It's what makes us sophisticated. It's what makes us the smartest species on Earth. Somehow, we take it for granted everyday. Some of us have the gift of being able to communicate and express ourselves in more than one language. We can say what we need to say, and we have more pretty words to choose from. Learning another language be

Image Source: MeisterDrucke There is a lot of value in art that is inspired by other art. Many common examples of this include spinoff TV shows or movies, songs that sample other songs, and remixes of songs. I am most familiar with writing that is inspired by works of art, specifically paintings and architecture. My favorite place in the entire world is the Medieval to Early Renaissance European Art gallery at the Philadelphia Art Museum. I heavily resonate with the crea

Image Source: Shutterstock When you think of traditional vampire teeth, what comes to mind? This was not a question until I stumbled across a post on TikTok, showcasing various vampiric teeth in different tv shows. The caption on it was, “Your fangs are on the wrong teeth” which immediately got me thinking of a scene from Avatar: The Last Airbender where a character lets Zuko know his scar is on the wrong side. This then got me thinking, is there an incorrect portrayal of v

Image Source: wordcounter.net If you’re anything like me, it can be hard to really get yourself to sit down and start writing. It’s easy to perceive this as having a lack of ideas or writer’s block, but I think more often than not, it’s actually about the environment you’re working in. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my first couple of years at Rowan was trying to do all of my school work at home in my bedroom. I’m sure it varies by person, but by doing the work in

Image Source: Paperpal.com As many creatives and aspiring writers, I do a lot of research as I work on any of my creative pursuits. While I’ve gotten frustrated or hit a wall many times along the way, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has hit blocks when it comes to the writing process. Now with the developments of AI, some people have begun to use it to help with their writing, character development, artwork, and even as an editing tool for their work. Every application and

Image Source: IStock.com “Do you remember? Remember those nights wrapped in blankets in a house with no heat?” This is the opening to a very loose poem I wrote called Familiar discomforts. Within it, I mention, “...Those horror movies kept you sane when life was at its worst?” which is exactly how it sounds: Horror movies, or horror in general, has been in my life since I was a kid. From the TV version of IT and Dreamcatcher, to Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, th