What Makes you Tick? (Sunday Summary)

It’s been an exciting week here at 2 Rules of Writing. We released our first Instagram Reel yesterday. If you’re not already following us there, you can find us at TwoRulesOfWriting. Erika also has her own Instagram where she crossposts our content but occasionally drops in a few extra snippets of poetry or cat pictures, too. You can find her at WhatTheMamaSaw. Erika had fun creating this video, and there may be more forthcoming, too. Meantime, the theme for this week is: What makes you tick?

Why do you keep going when things get hard? What do you dream about doing when you have the time or the financial security. And if you write about characters, why do you write them that way? What part of you do they represent? What do they allow you to explore?

New Features

We’re also starting to consolidate some of our stories by theme. This week we launched The Rainbow Collection which is a place to go to find all our stories about queer life and queer experiences. If you haven’t checked it out yet, take a look. Some older ones you may have missed:

–The AIDS Epidemic: Fortieth Anniversary where Erika takes a personal look back at the the history of HIV and AIDS.
–Your Love is Better than Ice Cream which uses ice cream as an analogy for a charming exploration of bisexuality and the different metrics that have been created to discuss sexual orientation.
–Performing at the Cringe Festival: Becoming an Ally: What’s involved in unpacking one’s own internalized homophobia? How does someone transform into an ally or advocate?

You can find links to our collections in the sidebar on the homepage, and, of course, we’ll let you know through the usual social media channels (and here in the Sunday Summary) as new features are born.

And of course, we brought you interesting stories as we do every week.

Monday

“Hope is the thing with feathers,” Emily Dickinson told us. (When she wasn’t busy having a hot-and-heavy affair with her brother’s wife.) Well you know what? Hope and drag queens have that much in common.

After a year of legislation attacking the lgbtq+ community, and with the expected reversal of the Roe v Wade decision, Erika faces the coming Pride Month with a greater sense of fear than she has in the past. In spite of that fear, there’s also hope to be found and a desire to fight for the future.

Sometimes the question: “What makes you tick?” really means: what keeps you going when things look bleak. Sometimes the answer is standing in solidarity with your community. Sometimes the answer is: This is who I am and you can’t stop me just by making my life more difficult.

Tuesday

It would be easier if I just said I didn’t want to write. Because then not writing wouldn’t hurt as much as it does. But I do want to. I just don’t know how. And it does hurt. So for all of that pressure moving the cursor forward, there’s an equal or greater pressure moving it back.

Adam has writer’s block. What does a writer do when that writer has writer’s block? One piece of advice is, paradoxically, to write about it. And so Adam does just that. Join us as we unpack writer’s block and explore how (and why) one writer tells stories.

Writers often get asked “what makes you tick?” And unfortunately, having writer’s block is a great time to find out.

Thursday

“Water is a symbol of ease in movement and change”, she offered. I wondered if she was an expert in this. She went on: “When we see water it is a good opportunity to reflect on where we are heading and how we would rather move”. 

J.D. Saward brings us the fifth installment of An Archaic Concept of Me, where we meet up again with Stuart. The story is getting more complex. Find out who is telling him about water and what other wisdom she might share with him?

A lot of the time, we read a work of fiction and find ourselves asking the author: “What makes you tick?” Why did you write the characters you wrote? What do they mean to you? J.D. has helpfully provided us with this answer.

Saturday

If androids dream of electric sheep what do sleeping kitties dream of?

Frob did get ahold of the keyboard and send Adam a Facebook message this week. Perhaps there was some secret wish in that message, but this week’s Caturday question is about dreams–your dreams as a writer, the way you use dreams to tell your stories. Check out the post and add your own answers in the comments or on social media.

This week’s final answer to the question: “What makes you tick?” is not an answer but a challenge. What do you dream about when you’re awake? What do you dream about when you’re asleep? And what do your characters dream about? Therein lies the answer.

Looking ahead

Erika has spent Saturday reading a ruling from the Federal Court of Appeals about some anti-transgender legislation in Alabama and also reading about the budget from the state of Connecticut. We’ll see what comes from that research on Monday. Adam will continue to enlighten us on Tuesday where we’re certain to learn something new about writing or literature or both. We’re expecting a new piece from Erik Piece this week, too.

Also this week, Adam and Erika will be appearing on Now Media’s “Unique and Fresh with Jeffrey”. We’ll post that interview here on the website as soon as we’re able to get a copy of it.

As always, take care of yourself. Join us on any of our social media platforms to chat with other writers, to share your work or just to say “hi.” Keep reading and sharing the stories we bring you. Buy us a coffee to support the work we do. And perhaps, like Emily Dickinson, this week, “dwell in possibility.”