- I feel like a whiny, privileged asshole every time I write about my tiny house.
- I love my people — my family, my friends, my colleagues — but I don’t like people.
- Los Angeles vs. San Francisco? Los Angeles, all the way.
- I work in tech. I’d rather not.
- When it comes to underground dance music and culture, I’m stubbornly stuck in the 1990s and secretly hate anyone who tries to tell me that today’s “EDM festivals” are amazing. They’re not. Fuck off.
- I’ve got fantastic story ideas. I suck at actually executing them.
- I’m a mediocre writer. I’m a much better editor.
- I think about death and my loved ones — a regular worry, but rarely expressed.
- I don’t feel I want children of my own, which is both relieving and freeing — but there’s a sadness there, too.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Story wrangler, WordPress.com. Senior editor, Longreads.
View all posts by Cheri Lucas Rowlands
There are too many of these I can relate to ~ the last two being perhaps the ones I will always have the most difficulty to express. It is kind of nice seeing thoughts that mirror mine on a page (or screen) that gives me a moment to take a deep breath and think “yeah, exactly.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your comment. I’ve actually never said the last point out loud.
I used to write about death more openly on my main blog, but I haven’t really explored it much lately.
LikeLike
Bullet #1: The very fact that you feel like a whiny, privileged asshole means you’re not a whiny, privileged asshole. 🙂
Bullet #2: YES. Because of this you and I will probably never win the Nobel Peace Prize — but I think it’s overrated, anyway.
Bullet #5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pQAWOCofXo
Bullet #6: I can’t imagine what your ideas must look like, because I love your stories!
Bullet #8: Six years ago, when I got a potentially terminal diagnosis, I learned that a little whiff of mortality can make life much richer and sweeter. The trick is to not focus on what you might lose, but on what you still have.
Thank you for this honest and thought-provoking post, Cheri.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks 🙂 Glad that this little list resonated with you in some way.
LikeLike
Oh stop whining and write me a story about going to an EDM festival with loads of dead people in San Francisco.
LikeLike
Umm.. You are a mediocre writer? Are you kidding me? I remember the day I found your site and (obviously) spent the entire afternoon lost in your words. Your writing conjures up a magical, surreal world- I dont know what it is, but your posts are always soothing and free-flowing. Heck, I remember sitting and writing a long post because I was so inspired by the way you write.
LikeLike
This is a lovely note to receive here — thank you. I’m glad that you find my posts to be soothing and free-flowing. I once received a harsh piece of criticism from a fellow writer in graduate school; she said I was inauthentic and tried way too hard. Ever since then, I’ve reminded myself to keep it simple. To write as I think in my head, and as I talk (in person, I’m not articulate). I think it helps, and so I appreciate the comment.
LikeLike
“Inauthentic” and “tried way too hard” are terrible bits of feedback, in my opinion.
I remember receiving such feedback before, and I think there’s probably a healthy portion of psychological projection involved. How on Earth can they know how true your writing is to your thought process!
I know people who truly think in the style of Charles Lamb’s prose. If they were to write, they’d be accused of inauthenticity. And yet those who live by Strunk and White and Miranda July speak directly from their hearts!
LikeLiked by 1 person