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GLASSWORKS

If You Want to Write, Watch as Well

5/1/2025

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by Ethan Gross

If you want to write, read a lot. It’s good advice, generally speaking, and very common. If you’ve ever taken a writing course or looked up writing advice online, you’ve almost certainly been given this tidbit. Most of my peers come from writing and literature backgrounds; they’re the kind of people who read all the time. Having come from a background studying film and TV, I had only read every so often, and even then it was usually for high school English class. As time went on, I focused more and more on creative writing, and I found myself being given this same piece of advice over and over again.

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Hey Hollywood, Publishing Is Actually Harder Than You Think

9/1/2024

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by Chloe Joy
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Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
One of my guilty pleasures is bad romance movies. Bonus points if they are Christmas-themed or feature a person from a big city forced to travel to a small town and fall in love with a local. If both tropes are used? Immediately my favorite movie of the year. I love them so much because they’re not meant to be taken seriously nor reflect our real lives, so I often let my suspension of disbelief hang. The main leads say “I love you” after knowing each other for a few days? Sure! One big speech at the end can wash away the trauma one character brought upon another? I’m eating it up!
However, nothing gets under my skin more than the inaccurate portrayals of the publishing industry in these movies. Many romance movies have a B plot that focuses around the publishing industry (because publishing and struggling writers are just so sexy), and they almost always end with a fairy tale dream success story. I’m tired of this dominant, false narrative prevailing through the media, making publishing look easy, because if you’re a writer or aspiring editor like me, you know it’s anything but easy.

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I Saw A Black Man Holding A Gun: An Evaluation Of Black People In Writing

2/1/2024

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by Qwayonna Josephs
At nine years old, I participated in my school’s reading program. We’d get a medal for every hundred books we’d read. Being the overachiever I still am, I read everything in sight, trying to be the student wearing the most medals. This program introduced me to The Bluford Series, which consists of many black-led stories. My school had the entire collection available in the reading section of my third-grade class. All the books I read from the series had the same elements, single mothers, troubled teens, violence, incarceration, and Ebonics. ​
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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Looking back now, it’s crazy to think that my introduction to Black-led stories was a book with a Black man on the cover, holding a gun, a book that was distributed to schools from Scholastic and praised as honest portrayals of inner city kids. Yet, every one of those books I read came from the mind of Paul Langan, a white man who claims in an interview that his intention behind the idea was sparked by minority students wanting to see themselves in print. I’m sure that drew lots of students to the books, seeing someone who looked like them on the cover―it definitely drew me in―but, with maturity and clarity, I now understand the harmfulness of these stories and characters. While trying to show our “experiences,” the books highlight negative stereotypes, slap on a problematic cover, and end up in the hands of impressionable elementary, middle, and high school kids that are desperate to see themselves in a story. 

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Writing & Entertainment: Your Opinion Still Matters

5/1/2023

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by Bryce M​orris
Since the summer of 2017, I have been writing my own social media reviews on Instagram based on pop culture topics such as film, television, comic books, and video games. Before I write my Instagram reviews, I avoid any other reviews or comments that may influence my opinion before I view the product myself. It can be difficult to prevent others from influencing my opinion. In favor of collective opinions expressed on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook becoming the determinant, the sacred days of everyone having their own distinct opinion seem to be fading into the background.
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Photo by Joelle Nebbe-Mornod on Flickr
Social media sites have opened the floodgates for users to produce reviews and begin discussions of their own. Most social media users are so keen to have followers and an artificial sense of community that they will not hesitate to share misguided content. This can range widely, including news footage, articles, celebrity gossip, political prospects, and even reviews directed at several forms of media. Quite literally anyone, myself included, can go out and create a review with their smartphones or computers now, which is a scary ability that is already harming the world of entertainment. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but when that single opinion actually stands in as the opinion of several others, then it becomes an issue within the world of creative expression.

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Writing Away Stigma

1/1/2020

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by Brianna McCray
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via IMDb
You don’t know because you’ve never seen it. Society doesn’t talk about it, but there is a lot of stigma that surrounds it.

I myself struggle with mental illness, and can say that the mental health services in America are not good enough and are not easily accessible. It took me years to find help, and this type of help is a necessity for those who struggle with any type of mental illness. When I went to see Todd Phillips’ new movie Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix, I was worried that it would portray mental illness in a bad light. The film was challenging to watch, however, many important aspects of mental illness are touched upon. Personally, after seeing the film, I would summarize it into one sentence: Joker is one of those experiences that will stick in your mind for a while. ​


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