Learning Honesty: Feelings about Other People

Honesty has become an integral part of my identity and my writing journey, but I realized that being honest about what I feel for other people is something that I have yet to learn.

As you can see through my blog, I am not a fan of privacy. When it comes to my thoughts and feelings about my life, I can be as honest as hell, but when it comes to my thoughts and feelings about people, I often use euphemisms, evasion tactics, and I even resort to downright silence.

I am more bold when it comes to challenging other people’s beliefs, but I am mum when I need to tell them that I they hurt me, or simply irritated me.

Being honest doesn’t mean that I want to become red-faced-banshee-screaming honest. I’d rather be cool and collected, but I need to face painful issues that arise in my relationships.

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Wishing for a Dictionary of Description Pegs from Literature

Now that I’m writing a lot of descriptions, sometimes I get stuck. I look at something, and I’m like, What kind of vocabulary do I need in order to describe this? At that moment, I’d wish for some sort of reference that I could leaf through like a dictionary, but instead of words, it has description pegs from literature. As in if you look up house, you’ll get a list of how writers like J.K. Rowling, to Edgar Allan Poe, etc. described different houses. Then, you can use them as your guide to create your own.

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Why do you blog when you already work as a writer?

I blog because I have to express myself. When I write my articles for work, I’m always talking about another subject, so I can’t share my ideas or concerns.

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Creative Non-Fiction Tip: Start Your Article with a Story

When I was a kid, most of my classmates started their essays with a quote. I never did that, until one day, I couldn’t think of an intro, so I decided to create my own quote, and I attributed it to JTC (Jasmine T. Cruz). I was hoping that one of my teachers would get it that I invented the quote, but I don’t know if any of them did.

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You’re Not a Newbie; You’re a Rising Star

“You should project yourself as a rising star,” my mom said.

I don’t know why I’ve become small, meek, laughing at everything that doesn’t need to be laughed at, conciliatory, afraid. I’ve been thrown into this wild sea, and I’m questioning whether I’m the right fish to swim in it.

But I am. I’ve been writing ever since I was eleven. I know my shit. I’ve been playing with words even before I read a book that advised me to play with words. Innovative writing was instinctual. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been like that.

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