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RJ Taylor

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks for keeping this up! I think a news-free day is a great idea

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 2 months ago

    I love this! I’ll have to think about it. Off the cuff: I’m really good at listening to people. I’m also good at seeing the humor in any situation.

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    OK the post I had intended to write was a list of things that do/don’t help in both the short and long term. Obviously mine will be a personal list, but I’d be very interested to see other people’s lists.

    I’ll start with the unhelpful.

    What Seems Like It Will Help, But Doesn’t
    -thinking it out–usually just goes in spirals
    -eating…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    Not sure if anyone will still see this thread, but I thought I’d pick it up again. Realized that I never replied to Ellen’s great post, which I had meant to, and also I was hoping we could get some more positive coping methods rolling as this past month had been a slow and steady slide into a sh*tshow of sadness, despair, sloth, and general…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    Following off of Tananarive’s post in another thread about focusing on what you *have* done instead of what you failed to do, I’m going to post a few gratitudes to my past self:

    I’m grateful for the 1000+ words of a new short story I’ve worked on this week
    I’m grateful for the revision schedule I’ve created for myself
    I’m grateful for the…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    Thanks for bringing this up, Austin. I’ve definitely heard of WotF before but assumed it was SF only. But it looks like they also take fantasy…so…GULP, I guess I’m in too!

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    I certainly had the “Hey–that’s ME!” reaction to quite a few items on your list!

    I identified especially the odd anxiety reaction and the “NOTHING YOU DO COUNTS” reaction. For me it’s “either you’re making your living as a writer, or you’re a hack! so just give up”. Except it doesn’t come in as a thought in words, it’s just this heavy feeling…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    Thanks, Steve! (and everyone!) It’s encouraging just to put things in perspective. I’m going to think more on these things and post more after our class

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 3 months ago

    Not great, thanks for asking. I’m hoping to add something to my morning coffee as Ellen suggested, but haven’t settled on what movement or phrase to use. Everything feels kind of false. Which I guess is the point–it becomes true through repetition.

    I’m just in a year-long funk. In part I think b/c I had expectations and hope. I had a number of…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 4 months ago

    The emotion of powerlessness, witnessing destruction but only being able to document it. (Converted to a feeling of power via art & connection with humanity)

  • RJ Taylor started the topic in the forum 7 years, 4 months ago

    When an artist documenting the destruction of war is trapped in a collapsed cellar, she is compelled to escape. But she can’t because the only other person who comes through the war-ravaged town is from the opposite side, and threatens to leave her to die.

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 4 months ago

    Thank you for starting the thread!
    I’m planning to keep adding to this beyond Thanksgiving week, so I hope others will as well. Just going to add one big one for now:
    I’m extremely grateful for this class, for the work that Tananarive and Steve have done over their lives to get to the place where they can offer us such insight, and for their work…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 4 months ago

    Thanks! You all have given me a lot to think about.

    Steve–I wonder if you could point us to some more specific examples of the exercises/affirmations people have used with the “morning ritual.” If I lived in LA I would have definitely gone to your event the other week! I get the basic idea, but I would find it helpful to see some examples.

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 4 months ago

    “I have hated myself for “failing” when in reality I have done an awesome job.”

    This is a good point, thanks. That’s so amazing you lost 100lbs! Really inspiring.

  • RJ Taylor started the topic in the forum 7 years, 4 months ago

    (Sorry, this rambles off topic, but here it is anyway)

    I’ve been starting to work “the machine” and I really love having those simple rules to work with. However, I’m noticing a pattern in myself that is really troubling. Every time I start into a program or system that I believe will really help, I keep at it well and then end up reacting with a…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 4 months ago

    I see your points, and I agree that trying to work through anger, let go of it, move beyond it, etc is a worthy goal. However it’s been my experience that anger is a natural and uncontrollable “reptile brain” reaction to certain circumstances.
    What we DO with anger is our choice. We can choose how we express it, whether we hold onto it or let it…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 5 months ago

    I didn’t so much have a story in mind as just a situation. I was going to go into more the juxtaposition of memories of military combat with domestic life, how violence from the past can become its own “layer” on top of current reality. There’s so much hope for the future in these characters: wanting to get better jobs, wanting to start a…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor started the topic in the forum 7 years, 5 months ago

    Since we started chatting about depression and mental health a lot in this week, I thought I’d start a thread to continue the discussion.

    When we were discussing what “revolutionary writing” means to us and what topics we were interested in, depression and suicide specifically came to my mind as social topics that I find myself addressing again…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor replied to the topic in the forum RJ Taylor 7 years, 5 months ago

    I like your additions! I was taking notes on the book and I decided to reframe the 31 failures as their opposite (that is, if you were able to successfully avoid these failures, what would it look like) Here’s the list I wrote as Causes of Success, with asterisks by the ones which I feel are important for me…[Read more]

  • RJ Taylor started the topic in the forum 7 years, 5 months ago

    I had a harder time with this than I would like to admit. I ended up starting and stopping down a few different paths. I felt like because the whole point of the exercise was “writing the other” that my internal critic was on full blast the whole time. But it was important to me to do the exercise, even tho I ended up with more like a page than…[Read more]

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