Why I’ve Lost Interest In Words And What I’m Doing About It

/ Stuart Danker / 64 Comments

So I lost interest in words for a bit. No writing, reading, or even listening to words, except when work is involved. It was just one thing after the other: a new job, a newborn, my old procrastination habit. You know, the usual.

But it’s coming up to 16 months since landing a full-time job, and I’ve realised I hadn’t written for myself since. 

Do you know how much time 16 months is? I could’ve written just 250 words a day and I’d have two novels by now. I could’ve spent twenty minutes a day learning a new language and have mastered a fourth language. I could’ve laid one brick a day and built a tiny little ledge. Okay, this one’s not so impressive, but I’d have my very own ledge. Alas, all that potential is now gone.

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It’s Okay To Hurt

/ Stuart Danker / 23 Comments

You’ve always felt different from a young age. You grew up being told you weren’t enough.  These would be the voices of a permanent gloom, a cloud that would follow you for the rest of your life.

Yet you try outrunning your cloud. You pick up self-help books. You play motivational podcasts on repeat. You adopt the billionaires’ morning routines. But nothing changes. You’re still you. Only now you take cold showers and meditate as soon as you wake up.

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So I Wore All Black For A Year To Improve My Social Skills

/ Stuart Danker / 41 Comments
Stuart in black tee doing stand-up comedy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. My pre-all-black days.

I’ve always worn a black T-shirt for as far as I can remember. Scroll back through my Instagram account and you’ll probably catch the rogue grey or white, but I’ve always leaned more toward black clothes.

I have to credit my genesis story to the series Californication. Hank Moody was a true inspiration to the budding writer that was yours truly, and so I adopted the fictional character’s wardrobe, as well as the philosophy of a personal uniform.

But then came the next level—the day I decided to wear all black. Every day.

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I’m Not Cut Out To Be A Magazine Editor Because Of These Responsibilities

/ Stuart Danker / 51 Comments

Ever since I joined the publishing industry, I aspired to be an editor. I just needed the writing skills, and I had a decent serving of that.

I pictured myself catching typos and lecturing writers on how they could improve their style. I’d be perched at my desk, approving or rejecting pitches like I was swiping on Tinder. Every once in a while, I’d throw out words like ‘pagination’ or ‘masthead’.

Turns out, I had totally misjudged that role. As a deputy editor for a lifestyle magazine, I get a first-hand look at what my boss does, and I’m quickly learning the many reasons why I might not want to be an editor, ever.

The first reason? I’m bad at dealing with people. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are some of the other ‘interesting’ things an editor needs to do.

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This artist is dropping bombs about writing

/ Stuart Danker / 8 Comments

Ideas are about confluence. I believe it’s Neil Gaiman who said that. I can’t come up with quotes like that. That’s because I don’t typically insert ten-dollar words like confluence into my everyday speech.

And that’s despite the fact that I live in Kuala Lumpur (which literally means muddy confluence in Malay), but I digress.

Anyway, in my spare time, I watch sketchbook videos so I can fancy myself an artist. That’s when I came across this talented Singaporean’s video and found myself upon a confluence.

Chroma Moma’s (who shall henceforth be known as CM) thoughts on art mirrored mine on writing, and that was how this post was born.

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