Decolonize your bookshelf with me! Amanda (she/her) is a mixed Vietnamese American writer who firmly believes that stories can change the world and that protest happens in small everyday disruptions consistently over time. She's based on unceded Tongva land and is the Chief Editor at Bookish Brews and an associate editor at Cast of Wonders and GigaNotoSaurus. 🤍
On Becoming a Writer
On Becoming a Writer
Becoming a writer was not something that I ever imagined for myself. I never spent nights in bed contemplating my dreams of sharing my writing with anyone else. In fact, I didn't even start Bookish Brews to share my writing with others, which I feel is a bit strange for a blogger. I just wanted to share my love of books. More importantly, I wanted to share my love of authors. I wanted to help the authors that I believe in succeed. It was never about sharing my own writing but to share other people's writing.
Fairly recently, I started realizing just how much I actually put words to the page. I started paying attention to what writer challenges and realized that I go through the same pains. I started to check my grammarly weekly report and noticed I write tens of thousands of words a week. Can you believe it often says that I write more than 95% of other users? Absolutely dumbfounding.
Even more dizzying than that, though, is that I'm realizing this only now. Now that I've been writing for Bookish Brews for almost a year and a half. Now that I have already built friends in the writing community. Now that I literally sit down and write every day. And now that I already have an audience. People already read my words regularly. A surprising amount of people too.
In this last month or so I've been completely blown away by the amount of people who have told me that they value what I do. I've always thought that my main platform is just adding to the excitement of books, another voice in a sea of voices celebrating new releases. Just another person shouting about good books in a giant crowd of cheering fans. But somehow along the way, people have found some trust in me. For recommending books and for helping authors. This amount of trust is not something that I ever imagined coming out of starting Bookish Brews and I'm so grateful.
In my whirlwind of a realization, I've been thinking a lot about how long it took me to get to this point where I really feel that I can call myself a writer. Honestly, it took too long. I was a writer long ago just as I'm a writer today. I've just grown in my writing and I've just had outside validation to begin to see it for myself. But I shouldn't have needed it.
For some reason, there's this strange stigma around who is and isn't allowed to call themselves a writer. I'm sure this is true for so many things, but I find it to be especially true for any creative expression. Regardless, if this realization has taught me one thing: it's that your skill level does not dictate your right to call yourself an artist, a creative, or a writer. Just getting up and doing it is enough.
Thank you!
As always, I'm sending you all a big thank you for coming with me on this journey. I can't wait to see what you're reading and I hope that you lean into the work that you're doing for yourself. I'm proud of you!
What have I been reading?
Come visit my Bookshop list to see all the books that I read in April!
| Amanda's May Reads |
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Hi! I'm Amanda.
Decolonize your bookshelf with me! Amanda (she/her) is a mixed Vietnamese American writer who firmly believes that stories can change the world and that protest happens in small everyday disruptions consistently over time. She's based on unceded Tongva land and is the Chief Editor at Bookish Brews and an associate editor at Cast of Wonders and GigaNotoSaurus. 🤍
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