Creativity is like a houseplant, not an endless well. You need to seek out sunlight, water, and nutrients in art, shows, music, experiences, and more to tend to it. And just like plants it has its dormant and active periods and you may not seem improvement for some time.

This, from @clintsmithiii.bsky.social, has been on my mind today.

BREAKING: Latest horror a distraction from many other horrors

From Mary Oliver

I'm so glad there are fic writers willing to share their stories with us on ao3. The world is too horrible, the anxiety too intense and the stomach ache too bad to endure the day without being able to read my favorite characters suffering and laughing and banging nasty

Do It For Him (Jayce Talis) ⚙️🦋 #arcane #jaycetalis

Do It (Crime) For Him 🧪🩸 #arcane #silco #zaundads

@ambiguouspenny.bsky.social fancy seeing you here bae’zell

So the worst genre is definitely dystopian nonfiction

Is it even a good ship if they don’t try to kill each other at least once? Thinking about #zaundads #lamen #loustat

For me, a story has two turning points:

- a drop point, when I decide it isn't for me and stop reading

and

- a hook, the point when a story grabs me and I am invested

As a writer, my goal is to put the hook before the drop point.

Gross Topics should be explorable in fiction. People experience a lot of things and fiction allows people to safely learn and understand those things at a distance.

Separating fiction from reality is hard nowadays, but things with darker topics should be used to grow empathy or knowledge.