20 Symptoms of Writeritis

Sharing to spread awareness of Writeritis.

I knew I wasn’t the only one who got anxious over commas!

*Note: When I reblogged Diana’s post, my blog automatically changed the font to my settings (and I can’t revert it). If you’re having trouble reading, please click the link below to read the original post on her blog, or click here. 

Myths of the Mirror

image from pinterest

This 2-yr-old post was one of my most popular, and for those who missed it, I once again share the symptoms of this incurable condition.

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As some of you know, a pervasive syndrome has troubled a segment of society for centuries. After years of research, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders finally classified these symptoms under the diagnosis: Writeritis. 

Writeritis is defined as a persistent, maladaptive pattern of writing that leads to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by six (or more) of the following within a single month:

1. A marked craving for increased amounts of writing, and longer periods of time to write.

2. An unquenchable thirst for coffee.

3. Repeated efforts to cut down or control word count are unsuccessful.

4. Withdrawal occurs when writing is discontinued or suddenly reduced. Symptoms include shakiness, moodiness, and/or irritability.

5. A tendency to rapidly relapse into extreme patterns of excessive rewriting – even after…

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[Poetry] Sea of Sad Songs

Stranded
With no land in sight
Perhaps, it’s better to sink.
Straining
To hear something other than the noise
Of every thought I think.

Once
You were my life raft
My reason to be strong.
Now
I wonder how long it’ll take
To drown in this sea of sad songs.

© Jade M. Wong 2017

[Poetry] Bleeding Lines

I never could see her soul through her eyes—
They were thick opera curtains that never budged,
Never giving light a chance to pierce through.

But light always finds a way—
Illuminating her veins down to her fingertips,
Until every word she wrote breathed anew.

[Writer’s Quote Wednesday] Sad Girls

Writers take things that are deeply personal, things said to them in confidence, often during moments of great intimacy, and strip them down into words. Then they take those words, naked and vulnerable, and give them to the world. Yet in spite of this, writers struggle more than most when it comes to sentimental attachment. They only write about things they’ve felt deeply. That’s the thing about writers—on one hand everything is sacred to them, but, on the other, nothing really is. 

—Lang Leav, Sad Girls—

Rejections

You: So, let me guess, you finally heard from the magazines you submitted work to earlier this year?

Me: Yup.

You: Hmm. Judging from the fact that you’re not hyperventilating in excitement, I take it the news is not good?

Me: Nope.

[Poetry] Ode To The Girl With The Flowery Handwriting

And the lavender scented stationery,
On which you have composed beautiful words,
Dancing to a song so familiar and sweet,
Yet I am sure of it I have never heard.
Tied daintily like a precious treat,
The pink silk ribbon in a little bow,
Do you plan for you and I to ever meet?
Miss Mystery-and-Intrigue that I do not know?
Perhaps, perhaps, oh how you tease me!
As I run my fingers over your stationery,
Tracing the letters you’ve weaved just so,
One day, this secrecy, I will unfold.

© Jade M. Wong 2016

[Short Story] The Mysterious Device…s?

I was calm. I was so calm. In fact, I couldn’t possibly be any calmer, despite the fact that I was solely responsible for this conundrum of an invention and I was trying very hard not to blow it up into a fiery mess.

“Boom!”

I yelped and banged my head against the eyepiece I was looking through. Ok, I was not calm.

“You’re so tense.” Dirk strolled in, yogurt in hand and completely indifferent to the fact that he had just given me a mini-heart-attack. “So does that thing control people’s minds or what?”

[Writer’s Quote Wednesday] Magic

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

-Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Some people don’t believe magic exists, but magic, in my opinion, is all around us.

Day 3 Quote: Writer vs. Brain Surgeon

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.”

—Robert Cormier—

Wrapping up this Three Quote Challenge with a little humor. This quote always makes me feel better when I find myself struggling with a first draft that makes me second guess every decision I’ve ever made thus far. Don’t doubt yourself, guys! And be grateful you’re not a brain surgeon.

Day 1 Quote: Can You Hack It?

“You can’t force art? BULLSHIT. Can too! Sometimes, you gotta. Does that make me a hack? Then fuck it. I’m a hack. But I’m a hack who’s making art and you’re an artist who can’t hack it.”

-Chuck Wendig

I usually don’t post profanity, but sometimes, you need to use words most people don’t like to use to deliver a message most people don’t like to hear. This isn’t the first time I’ve posted a Chuck Wendig quote, but the guy knows what he’s talking about. Sometimes, we need a little bit of tough love.