writing

The Social Skills I’ve Picked Up As A Socially Awkward Person

/ Stuart Danker / 36 Comments

A blur image of

First off, let me start by saying that I haven’t been socialising on WordPress at all. So if I’ve yet to reply to your comment, I’m super sorry. I’ll get around to that, I promise.

It’s just that life has thrown me a new challenge to overcome, and that’s meeting ten to twenty new people a week, not just in a touch-and-go capacity, but to actually hold a conversation for minutes. Minutes!

Of course, as a self-proclaimed introvert, I might as well crawl over broken glass, or worse, have a smudge on my spectacles that I can’t clean for the entire day.

But I knew what I’d signed up for when I accepted the role of deputy editor for a lifestyle magazine. Going to events was part of the deal. We have to represent our magazine, after all.

Which is why for today, I’m going to list the things I’ve learned by stumbling through the foreign art (at least to me) that is socialising.

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The Dangers Of ‘Just Write’ As Writing Advice

/ Stuart Danker / 57 Comments

Notebook and Pilot G2 pen alongside coffee and plant

As much as I love the ‘just write’ motto, I have to say that there are times when it could be detrimental to your writing career.

I mean, it is good advice if you’re the type of writer that prefers dreaming over actual writing. Just write and you’re bound to pick something up along the way. That’s how I learned most things in life too.

That is why I feel ‘just write’ has its merits. Especially since most of us writers tend to err on the side of avoidance.

So why, then, does ‘just write’ not apply to your craft sometimes? Read on to find out.

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Here’s What I’d Tell Myself If I Had To Start Over In Writing

/ Stuart Danker / 40 Comments
Start Over Climb - Michal Matlon

A person climbing up rocky stairs on a mountain

Sometimes I feel like a sham, giving out writing advice. Maybe it’s because I haven’t achieved much through writing lately. Or maybe I’ve been relying too much on goat sacrifices rather than actual skill.

Who am I to tell people how to approach their art, am I right?

But what I can do, however, is tell my younger self what to do. And perhaps by doing so, I can inspire you to reassess your writing as well.

So today, I present you, the unsolicited writing advice I’d give myself if I had to start over with writing.

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Love Lessons I’ve Learned From Being An Asshole

/ Stuart Danker / 50 Comments

A couple sitting on the uppermost floor of apartments with bottle of whiskey between them, overlooking night cityscape

”It’s just puppy love.”

That’s what my mum said when I was all but 14 years old and going through my first heartbreak. “Don’t worry. You’ll know real love soon enough,” she said.

Then you don’t know love, I thought. I was hurting so bad that it had to be real love. My parents just forgot how it was to be a teen. That’s how I justified it.

But as it’d turn out, she was right. I would finally meet my soulmate and we’d be together for more than a decade. And only now I’m learning what true love is. Danged adults and their wisdom.

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Maybe Your Flaws Will Help You Achieve Greatness

/ Stuart Danker / 51 Comments

A cracked and broken

I wake up feeling negative every day. Not just because I force myself to wake up earlier than I want to, but also because life can feel like an unending rat race sometimes.

Maybe that’s why I do routines, mainly by working out and writing right after I wake up. Because then, no matter how my day goes, I’d at least have improved in my main priorities in life.

Yet I can’t shake the thought that I’m operating at a lower level than most people I know. Like, my friends don’t have problems standing up for themselves. They don’t have problems talking to strangers, or doing the groceries.

Me? Just the thought of having to do the groceries short-circuits my brain. Because the possibilities of things going wrong are endless.

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