The Letters of Dissonance

In my meager years as a writer, I’ve realized but one thing. Writing is a difficult profession. Writers find themselves in the position of a boulder rolling down a steep hill. It destroys everything in its path but is unable to stop, even if it wants to do nothing other than stop. I have so much to write and so many emotions to delicately express using the gift that is language and poetry, but I don’t have the words. A writer can never truly look at any of their works and say, “Wow. This perfectly encapsulates what I was trying to express.” Because it can’t. That is the downside of writing. No words can ever truly express the tsunami that is any emotion. I find myself desperate to write at times, desperate to push out words that express literary genius as well as emotional depth. But I have no words. On one hand, I sometimes look at my work and think, “Wow. That is some damn good writing.” But on the other hand, I look at the same work and think, “This isn’t working. It’s good literary...

  TW: Mentions of Suicide, Death, etc. CW: Spoilers for both parts of Aristotle and Dante by Benjamin Alire Sáenz "You are a beautiful boy." -Aristotle Mendoza, to himself There's something so insanely pristine about the love Aristotle felt for Dante. So pure and unfiltered, yet so soft and hidden. Ari is a dangerously complex character, and it's challenging to think of him as just a character and not a real human being. The way he feels for everyone in his lifeー his father, mother, siblings, Gina and Susie, Sam and Mrs. Quintana, and Dante, most of all ー  is like he's building a dam to hold back the weight of an entire ocean. I once read this in a fanfic: "The love pours out of Yunho like a continuous flood, and Minhyuk has never been so grateful to drown." I think it's similar for Ari. However, instead of love, there are just feelings. No matter how many dams he builds, his feelings keep rushing out of him from the minuscule holes in the walls crea...