Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories

by Charlie Jane Anders

a good writing day is often one where something happens in my story that I never saw coming and didn’t plan on. When my characters take on a life of their own, or when I find pockets of my world that I never knew were there, it’s magical.

And if you feel like writing erotica, write erotica. Make it dirty and obnoxious and queer and sweet and righteous, and build a fortress of horniness to protect you from this cold, ugly world.

You have the power to shape worlds, and the monsters are scared of you.

A huge part of the pleasure of creating stories is having another consciousness inside your own head.

When your characters take on a life of their own, they can help give you life. And maybe, in turn, you can put them out into the world, so they can give some life to everyone else. We all need an imaginary posse every now and then.

Nobody is ever going to come along with a magic wand and say, “You’re a real writer now.” There are a million definitions of writing success out there, and almost everyone feels like a failure sometimes.