It’s true what they say, if you want to get good at your craft, you have to PRACTICE!

There are two people that come to mind when I emphasize that word, but I’m not going to tell you that reference LMAO.

Anyway, I’ve been reflecting on my journey as a writer lately. So, last year I said that I wanted to rebuild a healthier relationship with writing. 

Let’s say that I have things to rescind, but this is not the blog post for me to say it.

I think as I reconstruct a new relationship with writing this year, I think one of the biggest things for me to point out is my semi-consistent habit of reading. I say semi-consistent because in the almost five years I’ve picked up the habit of reading, there were days I read for the sake of it. And there were days I skipped reading altogether (to be fair, those were probably days that I preferred to rest more than read).

But now, I’ve realized how powerful reading is, especially as a writer who publishes fan fiction (from time to time). This year, I’ve started writing again after five years (wow, a five year cycle haha). Well, technically speaking I did write fanfic during 2023 or 2024. But, I didn’t have this much passion as I did two or three years ago.

For those who are reading this that are unfamiliar with my history of fan fiction writing, I will not tell you who I ship. And, I thank you. But for those who might know and may know which ship I’m talking about then hehe.

Writing For Fun Again + Advice

In the past few weeks coming back to fan fiction writing, I realized how rusty I am. There are moments where I get a burst of motivation and just write and write and write. However, I felt there was something still missing from my writing.

In the fandom, I asked people on Twitter, “how do you show and not tell?”

Only one answered me, but I think it had a huge impact. They told me that I have to find books that I like reading. Then, find passages and copy those, which you can use for your own fics. The advice was not to copy verbatim, but to copy the way authors wrote. Additionally, make use of the senses. That’s what I remembered from that person’s tweet.

It really struck me because, looking back, I couldn’t pinpoint authors I liked. I do have some of their books on our shelves. But I wasn’t in the PH when I asked this question, and I couldn’t get the books that I wanted. However, I tried to practice the advice that night and wrote for another ship, but I paused the writing because it was getting close to midnight, and I needed to rest.

Since receiving that advice, I’ve been more careful with how I write fics now. I still write the scenes playing in my head. However, I tend to come back to them and put more “sensory” details in them as best as I could to “show” a scene, rather than tell it. This was the advice a previous beta reader told me, which prompted me to ask that question in my tweet, seven or eight years after she gave me feedback. Hahahaha.

Reading Progress + Challenges

Anyway, when I got back to the PH, I experienced jet lag, and I’d wake up earlier than usual. At one point I watched a whole movie before eating breakfast. Then, I’m not sure what happened or what prompted me to do it, but I started reading in the morning. This was still at a time my body was adjusting to the PH time zone. Not sure what I was reading before it, but I knew I started reading “Remarkably Bright Creatures” consistently in the morning.

To those who know, I have a crush on Lewis Pullman, LMAO, and it was one of the reasons why I read the book, so that I can watch the movie after. [I actually watch a movie before reading the book, but I’m changing that to read the book first, then movie after]. 

Anyway, during this time, I became so enamored by Shelby van Pelt’s writing. And I thought, “holy shit! This was it!” This would be the book I will consider using as my inspiration for writing. Looking back now, I don’t think I’ve applied the way van Pelt wrote the novel, but I’d like to believe I made some improvement with my writing from ten years ago. I’ll probably do a quick reread or scan the book and see how I can apply her writing style and weave it with mine.

I think, also by reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, I managed to maintain my routine of reading in the morning. Plus, instead of reading a chapter a day or like 5 to 10 pages a day, I allowed myself to read more than my usual. With Remarkably Bright Creatures, I’d like to think it’s because I didn’t want to encounter ANY spoilers on Twitter. Thankfully, there were none! But the thing is, I didn’t rush through it. I enjoyed reading the book and sometimes I didn’t want to put it down. It felt so nice!

After that, I started reading “Anna Karenina”. One of my goals this year is to read a Classics book, and it was one I felt that was intriguing to read. I’ve watched the 2012 film. Thanks to that, I can imagine the characters as I read the book. This one’s quite challenging for me because part of it feels like homework. However, there were parts that were fun or interesting to read. But still, I stuck to the whole read four chapters a day or reading more than 10 pages a day challenge.

Then, one Sunday (this was last week LMAO), I decided to challenge myself after finishing the book, Empire of AI. I remembered getting the book “I Who Have Never Known Men” and thought, why don’t I read this in a day. It’s just 190 pages. It took me one Sunday morning to finish it, and I just felt accomplished. It felt nice to read a book for a day, not picking up my phone to distract myself. It was just to find the meaning of unfamiliar words. And it got me thinking that I should do this every Sunday. This week, I’ll be reading “Sense and Sensibility” which I watched first, too!

Wrapping Up

What prompted me to write this wasn’t just because of my progress in reading for the last five years. I saw a Reddit post about how this person is struggling to do their hobbies because they feel burnt out from work. And I agree with what people have said. If you’re unable to “decompress” or “decenter” with hobbies, due to the stress caused by work, then, it’s going to be hard to “enjoy” your hobbies.

I suppose I’ve found myself enjoying reading more these days than I’ve had in the past couple of years. This might change in an instant because knowing me, while I’d love to be a creature of habit, I change things up to get out of a funk. However, I’m going to push myself to keep this habit and deepen my love of reading, which may help me improve my writing. But, for now, while I’m reading, I’m going to savor it. I know that it will help me become a better writer and broaden my imagination further.

Till next time!

Featured image: Jason W from Unsplash