I’m interrupting our regular programming to finally write a blog post. At the turn of the year I started one, addressing some points about the last decade, but it was pretty boring so I tossed it. But now I have something mildly pleasant to say so here’s my first Hot Garbage (TM) post, ever.
A bit of useless backstory and context to this website, since I’ve never really given any:
I’m a night shifter whose primary hobby for the last 10+ years has been photography, but now I am returning to writing, my childhood passion. I moved from California to the Midwest, where winters don’t take as kindly to my preferred photoshoot settings, so writing as a creative outlet is coming to the forefront again for the first time since my late teens.
One thing that’s important to me now as I pull writing back into focus in my life is that I’m doing it to keep myself healthy more than it is about a goal of being good, or recognized (though that certainly has value as well).
With all this being said, I’m rather chuffed to mention that this week I was chosen as /r/WritingPrompt’s Spotlight Writer of the Week. While I probably owe much of this to the fact I spend a lot of time in the Writing Prompts discord chat server, I do appreciate the sweet words that have been showered on me in regards to my writing and person.
For some people it may be ordinary to accept some praise for their work since they’ve been at it so long, but it’s still so precious to me. High School me was so dedicated to writing and (if looking back at old deviant art writing is any indication) was still fairly cringey. That could have a lot to do with age as well, but I still feel like that kid sitting down to a laptop to write my heart out, feeling like I’m flying blind but hoping I’m at least at the right altitude.
Getting even a little bit of recognition and positive has been gratifying for me. At least with photography I did a lot of growing up with online communities, bumping my head around on light fixtures and jostling elbows with artists growing up with me, experiencing all the same growing pains. Now in writing I feel like everyone’s fully invested in their headstart, and I’m the old fogie just trying to get some words down.
In some ways I don’t even feel right getting praise. It feels disingenuous to be a recipient when there’s such amazing writers out there who have been at it way longer than my year and a half return. But since the praise has been given, it would not be gracious or polite to refuse it, so I’ll take it with a bit of repressed glee.
So here’s a bit of the lovely things people chose to say about me and my little writing contributions, in addition to some questions about my process and silliness. Below this I’ll add the link to the actual link so anyone interested can read further.
This week’s spotlight writer is ALiteralDumpsterFire!
I’m gonna take a moment to tell you about a good friend of mine, a writer named James. James exemplifies what we’re aiming for on this sub. She’s kind, thoughtful, and she works hard to improve at her art. She brings a good attitude around and improves the community. Though she’s only been a part of our sub for a little under a year, she’s been on my radar from pretty much the beginning.
It’s rare for our regular TT writers to get a whole lot of recognition. While u/ALiteralDumpsterFire does post regularly on WPs, I personally know her best from our Theme Thursday campfires and our Discord. She’s active in the community, she’s friendly, she’s smart, and ultimately she’s one of my favorite people. Many are the nights I’ve been unable to sleep and found her up and open to talking. Aside from being a talented writer who is bent on improving, she’s also a very talented photographer, and we’re lucky to have her posting her pictures regularly.
It’s my hope that by giving her this Spotlight, she’ll get a bit more attention on her stories. In my opinion, it’s very well-deserved.
Congratulations, u/ALiteralDumpsterFire!
And now, onto the questions!
From u/ArchipelagoMind, r/ArchipelagoFictions:
Two questions.
First of all, what is in the dumpster that is burning so well? You’ve been writing consistently great for a while now, so there must be some really good fuel.
Second of all, the internet is full of a lot of dumpster fire gifs. Which dumspter fire gif do you think best represents your writing process?
My answer:
Hm, let’s see what we’ve got in this smoking trash heap….
I found a wrench, tears of frustration from my former math teachers, a crust of bread (still good, too!, just a little char!), an old xanga blog, doodles from night shift, some terrible poetry from high school, and a scratched up Hans Zimmer’s Best Hits CD.
I would have to say my favorite dumpster fire gif is this one (there used to be a super long version of this gif, where it floats all the way down the street but I can’t find it anymore), because it’s so inspiring.
First of all, I’m a very slow writer, and a big fire like that has so have a slow burn at first to really get a nice amount of heat going.
Second, this dumpster continues to float on despite the dismal flood it’s carried by, which to me signifies how the creative process isn’t about a flash in the cans, but about keepin’ the fire burning for the long haul.
It’s so flabbergasting to me that all these compliments are rolling in for my writing, and I don’t really know what to say except ‘thank you’. I really do appreciate all the kind words. Thank you. This dumpster fire just got a little more fuel today. <3
From u/-Anyar- r/OracleOfCake:
Congratulations ALDF! So, photographer? What’s a photo you’ve taken that you really like?
My answer:
Thanks, Anyar!
Yep! I only recently (hah, I say that but it’s actually been two years) came back to writing a couple years ago after pursuing photography seriously for a little over a decade (wow I feel old)!
At this point I have so many favorites but for everyone’s sake I’ll leave only 3.
One would have to be this one, because it says so much about my artistic vision that hopefully comes across just as strong in my writing. I have done a fair amount of work with wolfdogs and models and it was a very important part of my growth into that vision.
In that same vein is this one, a film shot, and while it’s not the most technically great of images, it is one of those images that lends itself to storytelling… I even used it as a reference for my most recent TT. Not to mention the experience of shooting this image is still a great one.
Third would have to be this one. It’s one of the first images I was ever proud of, I pushed myself in so many ways to get it, and I still love it, because the location is dear to me and it’s just a beautiful shot.
From:
u/psalmoflament /r/psalmsandstories
Yay! Excellent and deserving choice for a spotlight. Congrats, DF!
Something I’ve noticed in your writing is your ability to completely capture and describe moods and atmosphere. Do you have any methods or tricks that help you tap into such depth, or is it a skill that has naturally developed over time? (Sorry if this is too vague/hard to answer – just curious!)
Is there a piece of feedback you’ve received (from here or elsewhere) that stands out to you as having been particularly helpful?
Hypothetically, if you were able to transfer your fire to some type of non-dumpster container, what would it be?
Congrats again!
My response:
Hi Psalm!
Thank you! I appreciate your kind words!I use music for everything I write and I owe a lot of my atmosphere and mood to that. If I don’t have the right music to guide my tone, I’m pretty much hobbled, so in that regard I wish I weren’t so dependent on it.One thing I’ve also been exploring is scent, too! There are certain characters I’ve associated with certain scents, and I’ve gotten little scented balms and such to lend themselves to my process as well.Something I constantly try to remind myself when I am writing is: “how does this scene feel in my fingertips, if I’m there?” A friend of mine in high school was a fan-freakin-tastic writer who always had a way of making the reader aware of every little detail and I was always jelly of that, so I guess that question is my way of forcing myself to constantly reinforce the feeling I’m going for.
I think honestly I learn a lot from feedback on posts I randomly read here. Plus /u/novatheelf‘s Teaching Tuesday posts help as great refreshers for me…. I just thought of one. /u/leebeewilly‘s first feedback ever to me in TT was for linebreaks (of course). That is a tip I use every freakin’ day now.
I think if I had to evacuate this dumpster for another receptacle, it’d have to be a shipping container, so that I could be even more portable. If a shipping container is out of the question I think an oil barrel would also be acceptable, it seems really popular with the classic hobo and I’d probably stay well fed.
From u/TechTubbs:
Congrats, literal! You definitely earned this spotlight, it should have been earlier in my mind haha! My question is: how long have you been writing? Do you think that it matters how long someone spent their life writing in order to improve?
My response:
Hi TechTubbs! Thank you so much for the kind words!
I will answer this with an anecdote.
When I was a real little kid I couldn’t say my ‘r’s, but it didn’t stop me from declaring to every adult that when I grew up I wanted to be a “writer, pirate, and lawyer”. My family used to ask me in front of strangers just so that they could call me their Bostonian relative.
Eventually I learned to say my ‘r’s but my motivations remained the same. =P
I started taking writing seriously in high school with contests and the like, but after graduation my other hobby, photography, took the front burner for about 10 years. I wrote within that time but not consistently. One thing that’s important to me now as I pull writing back into focus in my life is that I’m doing it to keep myself healthy more than it is about a goal of being good, or recognized (though that certainly has value as well).
I can say with confidence that I know basically nothing about writing. With any skill, it takes a lifetime to master, and our taste gap will always make us feel like we don’t measure up in some way. It’s more important to read, and read lots, in order to internalize the things we admire about great literature so that it becomes second nature in our storytelling.
So, in short: in my mind a voracious reader has a better chance to write a compelling story than someone who spends all of their waking lives in front of an open document, having read only a handful of books.
From u/Ryter99
Yay, congrats! The best dumpster fire questions may have already been asked, but I won’t let that stop me Where did your username come from? Did you intend it to be a double meaning for your writing account and an amazing eventual profile picture from the start? Or did you just like the username and end up using the account to post writing as well?
Did you already feel you were sufficiently lighted in your daily life (being a dumpster fire)? Or will this spotlight status help you keep from bumping into things in the darkness and etc?
A part of your TT’s that frequently impresses me is your descriptive writing, so I ask: Verily, ALiteralDumpsterFire, could thou teach me thine secrets? And, if per chance it could be so, would thou have to charge? (I’m sorry, after reading that story of yours just now I had to write the question this way, even if it was inferior to the original haha. Check out DumpsterFire’s back catalog of stories y’all, if you don’t yer missing out!)
I’ll be repeating myself at this point, but I enjoy reading your stories, and I appreciate your welcoming attitude and kind words towards me or something I wrote on several occasions, congratulations!
My response:
Hi Ryter!
All of the above, ish. I love it as a pun, so once I realized what a great pun it was, I immediately made an account for it and decided going forward it would be my official writing account instead of my personal alt. After that I decided I should archive my words on a website, for kicks, and also just for bragging rights that I was the owner of such a punny and on-trend url. =P
Because I am the way I am, I don’t like using images I don’t own, so to avoid copyright infringement I commissioned a fiverr artist to make a logo for me. … and then ordered 2 more artists to do the same thing. Not only do I get a kick out of commissioning graphic design artists to make me the most unique logos they will probably ever make, but it’s kind of like Christmas. I have various versions of literal dumpster fires on my grocery totes and t shirts. >.> When I like something I uh… really like it. XD
Lastly, the meaning actually kind of circles back to how I felt as a writer, getting my head back in the game after 10 years away. It’s kind of like how Tyrion tells Jon in Game of Thrones “you are a bastard. Wear it like armor and no one can harm you with that word”. If anyone says to me “don’t bother taking writing seriously, this is awful tripe,” I can just point to the name and be like “-shrug- what did you expect?”
This spotlight is such a treat and I’m so flattered (especially given now what you know about my last paragraph). It’s definitely going to be some fuel for this flaming heap for a long while!
I shall not charge you monetarily, but I do charge you to check out my response to Psalm’s similar question here! I’m so tickled you liked my Wizard story, it’s one of my favorites!
Thank you so much for all your complimentary words, I am chuffed to receive such supportive kindling for my fuel!
Feel free to browse the rest of the thread with the link below: