what's on your bedside table? 📚☕️🥛👓
a character study
Not a Writers Club is a bi-weekly newsletter. Here you’ll find essays written by me (Celeste) along with writing prompts that you can try out yourself. If you’ve been looking for a sign to keep writing, this is it.
I just got a new bedside table. Nothing was wrong with my old one, except for the fact that it was from Urban Outfitters (cheap), and that there were water rings etched into the wood (ugly). My new one is cuter. And it feels more me.
It’s round, and made of black wood, which my boyfriend said is “off brand” for me because I notoriously love white furniture. Sometimes I like to surprise myself.
The contents of my bedside table at any given time are mostly the same:
My phone charger, which is one of those pads that you simply put your phone on top of and it charges. I was bamboozled into buying this charger by a very charming Verizon employee in 2019, but I regret nothing.
My airpods, which I use religiously to watch ASMR videos before bed (and sometimes in the middle of the work day when I have a massive headache.)
All About Love by Bell Hooks, which I read two years ago and then recommended to every person I know. I recently picked it up again because I realized that I don’t actually remember why it impacted me so much. It’s also fun to see all of the quotes I underlined. It’s almost like a diary.
Mutual Aid by Dean Spade, which my friend, Eileen, recommended. I started this book a month ago, and didn’t pick it back up until the other morning when I saw this TikTok on my fyp about a potentially dangerous pipeline that’s being built underground in Brooklyn. Suddenly alarmed, I scoured the internet for petitions against the pipeline, signed one, followed some groups on Instagram who are organizing against the pipeline, and read a couple of pages of the book for good measure. All before clocking in to work at my tech company job at 10:00 am.
A glass of water that I’m constantly getting up to go refill in the kitchen, a problem that would solve itself if I just got a bigger glass. Who’s gonna tell her?
My phone that I spend way too much time on.
A cup of coffee that always gets too cold before I can finish it. But more importantly, it’s in this Toro Y Moi merch cup that my best friend, Anisa, got me for my birthday. This is special to me because Anisa introduced Toro Y Moi to me in high school, and we went to go see him live together at the Hollywood Bowl (before we were in a Panda Express.)
My blue light glasses which I purchased because of the aforementioned massive headaches. They have helped me significantly, but more importantly, they make me look cute and smart.
My Aesop candle that cost $110 plus tax. It should be noted that I did not pay for this candle myself. Rather, it was purchased with a gift card that my friends gave to me for my birthday with the exact amount of money needed to buy the candle. I think that technically counts as mutual aid.
Prompt: Post a picture of your bedside table on Instagram and talk about what’s on it. I want LONG captions. Normalize long captions. Use the hashtag #notawritersclub in your post so I can read them.
Shout out to my roommate, Brea, for inspiring this week’s prompt.❤️
ICYMI ↩️
Last month’s newsletter was about using the childhood stories your family tells about you to create a more dimensional narrative about yourself. A reader named Brianna left a really great comment on it. Go check it out.
Required Reading 📚
I have recently quit Twitter, which means that all of my news is now delivered to me via carrier pigeon* (*friends texting me memes, tweets, and articles directly.) One of the articles that was sent to me multiple times by people who know me too well was this GQ feature on Zendaya written by Hunter Harris. The article is a must read because well, it’s Zendaya and Hunter Harris.
Quick Tip 📝
Writing can sometimes feel like a herculean task for more reasons than one. When it feels impossible to write, I put on a timer for 50 minutes, and within those 50 minutes I am not allowed to do anything but write. No phone, no food, no bathroom breaks (if I can help it), just writing. And then I rest for 10 minutes. Usually by then, I’m feeling more inspired and can do 50 minutes more. Try it!
You can find me online in most places at @celestuhl.
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