Suma Nagaraj

Penmaiden. Bookworm. Sidewalk ambler. Supreme klutz. Day dreamer. Gym rat. Coffeeholic. Oenophile. Beach girl looking for herself in the mountains.

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

Where the magic happens in your writing: my takeaways.

Draft 1 - shit (idea stage)
Draft 2 - plugging narrative gaps
Draft 3 - write into it more because gaps lead to more gaps, some gaping
Draft 4 - frustration, because it is not coming together the way you want it to. 1/n

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

People say there’s no magic in books but the fact that you can string words together to create a series of visions in someone else’s brain is still our greatest achievement as a species.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

There are still people who ask “what’s the point of reading” and the best answer remains “because it’s FUN.” Fiction is a pleasure. Learning is a pleasure. Reading is not a chore but our greatest escape from the pressures & perils of living.

[📔 Kelly 📔 @kellywellread]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a bibliophile in possession of a great number of books must be in want of a bookcase-lined room with a rolling ladder.

[Natalie Devora (She/Her) @NatalieDevora]

For this Women's Day, I asked my friend and collaborator @thatwritestuff to write a guest post for my website. She wrote about our friendship: built on mutual introversion, the writing life, and love for the written word.

https://t.co/t6qIV2Z9vl

[Becky Tuch @BeckyLTuch]

Ugh just read a Substack article by a lit mag editor that I'm almost certain was edited with AI. The style is so common:

* short, punchy sentences
* "This, not that" construction. ("It's not a rejection; it's a sign the process is working...")
* Things in threes. ("Not a no, not a rejection, not a closed door. A window to something better...")

I cannot say it enough: writers & editors, please stop relying on AI to help you edit your stuff.
AI strips you of your own voice & makes you sound like a machine.
It's utterly depressing to read such pieces from writers and lit mag editors.

[shayla @callmeMaharani]

women’s loneliness is treated as a personal failing and men’s loneliness is treated as a societal failure

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

*you're

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

I’m rather fond of quirky old fashioned words. Here are some of my favourites:

Skedaddle
Nincompoop
Highfalutin
Malarkey
Comeuppance
Skullduggery
Kerfuffle
Flummoxed
Thingamajig
Tomfoolery
Shenanigans
Hoodwink
Blethering
Hullabaloo
Curmudgeon
Whippersnapper
Bamboozled

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

Tech companies made a choice to get people hooked on social media when they were kids, knowing it increases loneliness & depression. Now they're selling products, like AI companions, to cure the very despair they caused. Real joy is found in books, in friends, in logging off.

[Into The Forest Dark @ElliottBlackwe3]

Ray Bradbury once said "Get passionate about ideas. Cram your head full of images. Stay off the internet & all that crap. Read all the great books. Read all the great poetry. See all the great films. Fill your life with metaphors. And then explode."
I think about this every day.

[Tom Morgan @tomowenmorgan]

Horrifying banger

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

The climax of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) unfolds on Halloween night, when Scout and Jem are attacked while walking home from a school pageant. This scene introduces Robert Duvall in his first credited role as the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley.
"Hey, Boo."

[Archon @im_in_a_vat]

Inspired by @gregmushen I have been doing 2-5 minutes of cardio every 30 minutes (almost) every day for about 6 weeks and trying to get 10,000 steps. Here are my observations:

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

There is no pensmith as plummy as Plum in human history <3

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

I hope every P.G. Wodehouse fan gets to see this passage 😄🤞🏻

(Includes a delightful description of an Autumn morning, an opposition to lunching on raw carrots, and the most terrific word in 'rannygazoo': an old American slang term for a scheme, or a foolish carrying-on.)

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

Hear me out. Scraping papaya entrails is the existential metaphor for why some people lean towards the concept of salvation in midlife.

Because no one wants another lifetime of dealing with *that*.

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

And then I found this and my joy got sparked again 🙃!

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

Marie Kondo-ing the heck out of my life and boy, most everything is not sparking joy, is it?

[Novelle art. @artistryhere]

.

[Suma Nagaraj @thatwritestuff]

Apparently, mattresses are now sentient.

Hahahahahahahahahaha 🤣