Editor’s Choice — Top 10: Do Not Hurry, Do Not Rest

Become a friend of these 10 brilliant writers

When you write, you are ordering words. Like an architect, you use your words to create a meaningful construction — of ideas. But words don’t always play well. You experience blocks sometimes.

You’ll figure out the way you want to write in time. You start writing fearfully and boldly keep on chiseling your way out through your writing blocks. You write a good story, and then you work hard, but the result seems average. But you are always learning to write.

When you start seeing the path you want to take — though the way is not clear — you want to find your words carefully. You start seeing new angles. Then you notice your previous work was careless.

Once you have learned to write well, you can ignore how many times your articles were rejected. Your writing process is not your goal; your writing is. You don’t need to look back except when you want to see the distance you traveled from a novice to a master.

Here is the list of our top 10 stories. These writers choose their words carefully — so please don’t skim and skip:

10. Are You Hitting the Stores for Black Friday This Year?

Rose Bak is a writer, author, and yoga teacher from Portland, Oregan. Her style will teach you to knit words into interesting sentences while she explores the shopping frenzy on Black Fridays.

The term “Black Friday” initially was coined to mark the devastating stock market crash in 1929.

It became associated with the day after Thanksgiving in the 1950s, where the police department in Philadelphia started using the term to describe the chaos of Christmas shopping. The combination of crazy crowds, brazen shoplifters, pickpockets, and the requirement to work on the day after Thanksgiving was a dark day for those in law enforcement.

9. Ten Tips for Writing Better Articles

Amy Chamberlain’s style is simple and elegant. If you read her articles, you’ll definitely like to read more from her.

There’s a lot of competition in the writing industry, so your content has to be of high quality; otherwise, you’re not going to make it because anybody can write things and publish them.

But good content isn’t that difficult to create, everybody has exciting stories, but the technique to write them down correctly can be an issue sometimes, but this is mostly the thing that makes or break an article.

Your article has to be interesting to read and have quality, but that doesn’t mean it must be difficult to read.

8.The Only Way Out if Self-Criticism Is Killing Your Work

I wrote this piece. I hope you like it.

When you start doing some work, a stream of thoughts starts simultaneously to tell you that your techniques are not good enough. After some time, you do not even have to criticize yourself; the inner critic runs in the background — like a state of mind — forever telling you that you do not have what it takes to be the chosen one, the liked one, or the preferred one.

You cannot get rid of this feeling. I used to think that some people had it, and others didn’t — as if it was a bacterial infection or a genetic mutation.

7. Are The Star Wars Prequels Better Than The New Films?

Isaiah McCall is a brilliant writer and a great storyteller. I believe his story about the evolution of Star Wars is both entertaining and informative. Don’t miss it.

Before Star Wars: Episode 9 came out I decided to go through all the movies again; from the original trilogy to the Star Wars prequels up until the 8th movie. I didn’t do it for me, I did it for my little sister. She had only seen the newer movies and felt lukewarm about them. So, it was my duty as her older brother to show her the rise — and harsh fall of Star Wars.

6. Debunking Three Myths About Raising Bilingual Kids

Vic Bowling’s intriguing style will definitely hold your attention. She engages you with her deep understanding of the issue. Invoking emotions in this way is difficult for most of the writers.

I started feeling like I was losing a battle that had barely begun.

Both my partner and I wanted our child to grow up bilingual. But it’s easier said than done. Because I — myself and I — would be the parent responsible for our little one’s bilingual skills. And it’s kind of daunting.

I also realised that I had a lot of fears associated with trying to teach my child two languages at the same time.

5. Europe’s Regional Languages Risk Dying Out

Roxana Azimi’s take on this issue is noteworthy. She is a good writer. Try to keep track of her future work.

The EU currently boasts 24 official languages, but this region is also home to numerous regional languages beyond the likes of our beloved Spanish, French and Italian. From Sicilian to Silesian, Gaelic to Galician, Venetian to Valencian — there’s more to the European language story we are often told…

Often pushed to the side-lines, some of these regional vernaculars — the hipster equivalents of languages, if you will — have even been threatened with extinction because, quite frankly, people aren’t speaking them as much.

So what can we do to ensure these less prominent languages live on? Should we bother at all?

4. A Senseless Murder Of An Innocent Young Couple In Utah

Floyd Mori is a prolific writer and generally writes about politics. But here he is telling you a gruesome murder tale.

It happened in April 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a huge problem. Businesses had closed, and people were staying home. There was a senseless murder of a young, religious couple in a small city fifteen miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. They were apparently awakened from their sleep in a home invasion. They were robbed and then killed.

3. Going for alcohol-free beer: A silly experience

Enzo M. Battista-Dowds PhD. RD. is a registered dietician. He is sharing a personal experience. Please do read it.

The date was October 31, which is not only Halloween and the birthday of one of my best friends — shout out to Panny — it’s also the final day of ‘Stoptober’. If you’re unfamiliar, Stoptober is a public health campaign in the UK that encourages people to quit smoking for the month.

I don’t smoke, alcohol is my vice. So, as a personal challenge, I decided to be alcohol-free for 31 days. On October 31, I had a bright idea, genius, really. Why not celebrate going alcohol free for a month by having an alcohol free beer on the final day of the challenge? It’s poetic — and I’m guessing a tasty experience too. Win, win.

2. On Becoming Tina

Tina Olson’s story will grab your attention instantly. You’ll feel compelled to read it to the end.

Humans are only one of the many colonies that inhabit the Earth. I bet ants think they are hot shit too.

On a summery Fall day, when the sun hung low and the leaf dust picked up easily in the breeze, I walked along the winding empty road leading from the Casino to the TV Station. These are old boots, the buckle on one side waves awkwardly after being ripped from rage and the other boot is too tight on my broken toe nail.

1. Dave Chappelle’s “Unforgiven” Is A Masterpiece Of Persuasive Writing

At number one, Steve QJ is telling us about Dave Chappelle — a famous standup comedian. His work is an inspiration for all of us. Writing killer sentences comes naturally to him. Enjoy.

It’s easy to forget that comedians are writers first. Before they get up on stage in front of thousands of people and make us laugh, they sit in a room, alone, and figure out how they’re going to do it. The good ones do it so well that it feels like they’re up there just getting things off their chests.

Dave’s Chappelle’s Unforgiven is no exception, but he takes the concept to a whole new level. What feels like an impromptu set, casually thrown up on Instagram in the middle of the week, is really an eighteen-minute and twenty-eight-second declaration of war against the corporations he feels have wronged him.

Final Thoughts

No matter how hard I try, it’s impossible for me to read everything all of you publish on Illumination and Illumination-Curated.

If you are an editor, writer, or reader of Illumination and if you have read a story that you liked, drop its link in the comments below. If you want to write a few lines as a review of the story, it would help me even more. I’ll publish the short review with your name.

I would love to include the stories — and your short reviews — in my top 10 stories tomorrow.

To improve your chances of success as a writer, read these curation guidelines.

You can read my curated stories here.

Note: It was Goethe who said, ‘Do not hurry, do not rest.’