How to be wrong and American at the same time!

amandaonwriting:

Roddy Doyle - On Writing 

1. Do not place a photograph of your ­favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.

2. Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph –

3. Until you get to Page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety – it’s the job.

4. Do give the work a name as quickly as possible. Own it, and see it. Dickens knew Bleak House was going to be called Bleak House before he started writing it. The rest must have been easy.

5. Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research.

6. Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg “horse”, “ran”, “said”.

7. Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.

8. Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones. I was working on a novel about a band called the Partitions. Then I decided to call them the Commitments.

9. Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.

10. Do spend a few minutes a day working on the cover biog – “He divides his time between Kabul and Tierra del Fuego.” But then get back to work.

This advice first appeared in The Guardian

Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into , beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993.

(via wordpainting)

strugglingtobeheard:

audiodopexx:

sonofafieldnegro:

I’m not gonna deal with the commentary below ‘cause I don’t wanna and I’m on my Bobby Brown. (Late 80s R&B reference—deal with it.)  I will say this though:

EVEN IF I were to accept the argument that people of color can be racist against whites (and to be absolutely clear, I do not under any circumstances accept this argument), thus conceding the premise that this type of racism occurs at all, the idea that this type of discrimination is so rampant, so damaging to white people everywhere is simply laughable.  Really?

Can you catch a cab in the city?  ’Cause I can’t.  Have you ever fit some vague description and stopped by police officers? ‘Cause I have.  Have you ever been denied housing because, upon meeting the landlord, magically someone else took the apartment not twenty minutes before you arrived?  ’Cause I have.  Ever heard stories of lynchings of distant relatives drunkenly whispered by aunts and uncles? ‘Cause I have.  Ever been denied services, ever had someone grip the bag a little tighter or turn their wedding ring when you’re in their presence or had people feel as if touching you without permission was wholly acceptable because you look “different.” Yes, yes, yes to all three.

This “what about me” pathology is so sickening.  How dare you compare being allegedly bullied by the one black girl in your school to more than four hundred years of race-based, systemic enslavement, under resourcing and intentional psychological trauma against peole of color in this nation.  The temerity it takes to audaciously declare that your experience and history is in anyway similar or equitably damaging to those of POC is wholly representative of the high level of privilege you possess.  How dare you? And I’d seriously like an answer to that.  Please tell me how that equates?

You cannot have this, too.  Steal and appropriate our cultural artforms, gentrify our neighborhoods, lay claim to historic figures, whitewash us from the broader American culture and there is little we can do stop you.  But to lay claim to some false history of racist and disenfranchisement as a means of alleviating one’s self and one’s ancestors to the continued systems of racism and oppression against POC in this nation, is beyond boundary of acceptable. 

**steps off soapbox** I’m done.  May tumblr become my happy place again.

i erased everything else but this because the rest of the nonsense below makes my blood boil and i don’t need that. but really, this is good. it’s a man’s perspective, but it is 100% truthful in their experiences and with pointing out exactly how even if we were “racist” against white people, how not the same it is as racism towards people of color. 

(Source: asderathosoriginalthoughts, via stfuconservatives)

I never thought id be excited to see a movie with Selena Gomez but I am!!

(via brokenanchorslostsailors)

stfuhatemongers:

Please tell me this is trolling.
Terrible trolling.

(Source: theyahooanswers)