3 stories I can't get out of my head
Updated: Aug 24, 2023
I'm currently watching the clock at my day job. The phone hasn't rung in an hour, and my desktop computer let out a breath of exhaustion when I shut it down. At 5 PM, I'll jump in my busted Honda Civic and listen to the "Falling x Clean (Mashup)" again.
Tonight, I'll write until I can't hold my eyes open. I'll make lists of places I want to travel, work on a Star Wars FanFiction, and scribble down poetry prompts for later exploration. I live by this routine.
I've never fostered the notion of being a professional writer before. I always believed there was too much rejection on the horizon to call it a career. I don't want to spend my days waiting for mass-produced condolence letters and $4 royalty checks, but despite my self-preservationist streak, I can't seem to put down the pen.
My relationship with writing is continuously nurtured by my love of storytelling. I obsess over enthralling spiels, whether they're neatly typed in books, scattered across television plots, or locally grown in the office lobby.
For the sake of brevity, I'll get to the point.
Here are three stories that continue to haunt me:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I met Jay Gatsby between the worn pages of a classroom set of The Great Gatsby when I was in the 10th grade. This was the same year the Leonardo DiCaprio adaptation was released, and Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" soundtracked my morning showers.
People often assume that because I love literature, I enjoy classroom readings. I actually hate them. The Great Gatsby was one of the few exceptions throughout my basic education that I loved.
Love is an understatement.
My first interaction with this book was eight years ago, and I'm still texting my friends past the acceptable hour about some metaphor I've unraveled.
The Great Gatsby sparked my love of realism and tragedies. It's easier to tell happy stories where every character gets a slice of fulfillment but extremely telling when authors choose less romanticized versions of reality in their pieces. It's the story I can't get out of my head, and the type I strive to write every time I hammer out an outline.
Favorite Quote:
"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." - Nick Carraway
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Milk and Honey is another well-known masterpiece and the viral sensation that encouraged me to self-publish my three widely unsuccessful poetry compilations. Kaur's micro-poetry is soul teasing and so subtly thought-provoking that it causes aftershocks within the communities it touches.
Kaur openly speaks on feminism, rediscovery, systematic racism, and so much more. Her voice is inspirational. In many ways, her voice helped me find my own.
My early published works were deeply influenced by Kaur's style, but I've since developed my own cobbled signature. Her books awakened something inside of me and it's never quite gone away, and that's a beauty in its own.
I recently told a friend that I want to write something that changes at least one person's life. Rupi Kaur has changed many. She has impacted many because she is unapologetic and real. She's the standard for the realism I wish to embody and the transparency I'm learning to have.
Favorite Quote:
“you said. if it is meant to be. fate will bring us back together. for a second i wonder if you are really that naive. if you really believe fate works like that. as if it lives in the sky staring down at us. as if it has five fingers and spends its time placing us like pieces of chess. as if it is not the choices we make. who taught you that. tell me. who convinced you. you’ve been given a heart and a mind that isn’t yours to use. that your actions do not define what will become of you. i want to scream and shout it’s us you fool. we’re the only ones that can bring us back together. but instead i sit quietly. smiling softly through quivering lips thinking. isn’t it such a tragic thing. when you can see it so clearly but the other person doesn’t.” - Rupi Kaur
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass by Lana Del Rey
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass was Lana Del Rey's debut poetry book. For those that live under a rock, Lana Del Rey is a widely successful musician (and, in my opinion, one of the best songwriters of her generation). Del Rey started teasing her typewriter musings on Instagram a year before her book's release.
Del Rey writes romanticized versions of American tragedies. Her words are melodic and homegrown. I'm still enamored with the pithiness of micro-poetry, but Del Rey's Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass inspired me to be better and go beyond my comfort zone.
I've spent hours listening to virtual workshops and rewriting my personal pieces to reflect the "show, don't tell" mentality that graced my earlier works. It's been unbelievably fulfilling, and if I had to table where that odyssey began, it's with this book.
"Thanks to the Locals" is my favorite poem from this collection, but it's longer, and snatching my favorite lines from it seems like an injustice. Check out the link if you're interested, but don't feel required. The words will find you someday.
Second favorite quote:
"Because my bedroom is a sacred place now that there are children at the end of my bed/
telling me stories about the friends that they pretend to hate, that they will make up with later/ And there are fresh cut flowers that I grew myself in vases from the yard on nightstands, hand carved by old pals from Big Sur." - Lana Del Rey
About Katherine Lindfors
Katherine Lindfors was born in Summerville, South Carolina. She currently resides Holy-City adjacent. Her writing focuses on experiences within her young adult life and the lessons that she learned in discount therapy.
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