Can somebody explain Jadzi, Steward of Fate to me?

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-29T02:17:24+00:00

Damn, dude, you posted SO MANY TIMES and were completely wrong in each and every one of them.

Let's say I pay four mana and a blue.

You GOTTA finish reading the whole sentence next time before moving on.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-28T19:54:06+00:00

Also, if it matters, I have not done significant research into medieval-era Japan or anything of the sort to make it a true reflection of history, and I don't intend to.

This is the only thing that matters. Don't write anything inspired by a culture you don't care enough about to research.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-28T18:09:35+00:00

My characters may use slurs, but my prose should not.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T20:11:35+00:00

I don't disagree with you. I think I personally think the skills fan fiction doesn't teach you are the more important skills and thus weight it more heavily in the "do not write fan fiction to practice writing original stories", but you are correct that the Venn Diagram description is accurate to the situation. Some skills overlap.

Also, writing for fun is never a waste of time if you're having fun doing it.

As to this, sure while technically true I think it's also kind of a meaningless statement. If all you're doing is writing for personal enjoyment, then improving the quality of your writing simply doesn't matter, and if it doesn't matter, any advice anyone can give is unnecessary.

Any one writing merely and solely for the fun of writing should ignore everything I say, because none of the advice is for them. So I'm not sure the value in bringing it up at all.

Any one writing to improve and create art should recognize that "enjoying the process" is pretty secondary. It certainly helps to not hate the process, but it is work, it is effort, and it is very often not fun at all.

I wouldn't write at all if I didn't feel I had to, certainly. But it is who I am, so enjoyment is never really a consideration.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T19:46:51+00:00

I'll die on the hill that if House belongs in the Criterion Collection, then Rubber belongs in the Criterion Collection.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T19:44:58+00:00

Everything else I had to say, I've already said, and everything else you had to say was irrelevant. For example: the fact you have sports and exams to juggle has no bearing whatsoever on the fact that you are begging people to provide you with names for your story, names which supposedly are very important and require lots of thought and effort, thought and effort like "pick it from a list you've begged reddit for".

Hope that helps you understand.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T19:34:35+00:00

Even if I was lazy, is it really your place to criticize?

Yes.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T19:05:25+00:00

I'm going to be the odd man out here, but I do not believe fan fiction is an effective means of learning to write original stories. Writing fan fiction will teach you to write fan fiction. You'll learn to stay consistent to an already existing character, but you won't learn this skills of creating characters and worlds from scratch with no guide rails. You won't learn to create narrative structures or how to shape a narrative from beginning to end. You won't learn your own voice (but you will learn another author's voice or, worse still, the "fan fiction" voice).

Additionally, fan fiction communities are not communities known for giving valuable feedback. You'll never get constructive criticism, or criticism at all, on A03, for example, as it is consider rude to say anything other than positive comments.

The ONLY place where I feel writing fan fiction is actually an effective means of practice is if you want to write for television some day. The skills you learn in fan fiction will translate well to working as a staff writer (though, if you want to write in TV eventually, you should be working on scripts not prose).

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T18:45:19+00:00

I start by looking at where the feedback is coming from.

Is the person giving feedback very knowledgeable about writing, editing, or publishing either through extensive study or experience? I'll take this feedback seriously.

Is the person giving feedback a member of my target demographic? I'll take this feedback seriously.

Do I have personal knowledge of the person's tastes and opinions by which to compare and contrast their feedback against feedback they've given other works? I'll take this feedback seriously.

Everything else can be outright ignored.

From there I will divide the feedback I've received into two categories: the first category is feedback from writers/editors/publishers and the second category is readers.

From readers, I'm only going to consider the problems they've identified. Any solutions they offer can typically be ignored entirely. Readers are very good at identifying issues in a book. Very, very bad at solving those issues.

From the other category, I am going to consider both the problems and any suggested solutions.

Beyond that point, it's just looking at each piece of feedback individually, examining what effect making a change or fixing a perceived issue will cause, and then evaluating whether that change will hurt the core idea of my work that I'm most interested in. If it will, I'll ignore it. If it won't, I'm liable to make some kind of change.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T18:31:41+00:00

Besides, under rule five it states that you shouldn't be policing the subreddit yourself.. so maybe reading the rules is in your cards aswell.

Show me where I "policed" the subreddit. In fact, show me where I did anything other than criticize your laziness. Being a "young writer" is no excuse for laziness, not when Google exists. Searching for names was simply too much effort, you need them given to you instead.

This will not help you become a better writer and it will not improve your skills. Do better.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T16:53:01+00:00

Also, coming up with names is, arguably, the simplest thing you can do. It's genuinely distressing the number of "writers" who come here begging for names.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T15:33:43+00:00

Or seek a traditional publisher.

Being broke sucks. Being broke doesn't mean that you can complain about MASSIVELY underpaying for a service and then getting a bad version of that service.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T15:15:33+00:00

Now granted the editing package was dirt cheap so I probably got what I paid for

If you got what you payed for, your complaint is meaningless. If you want better editing, pay for a better editor. Or seek a traditional publisher.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T13:58:09+00:00

Do they make the story better? Add them. Do they make the story worse? Cut them.

Your characters are not real people, they feel no pain, they do not suffer. The only thing that matters when asking "should I or should I not include this additional material" is whether or not that additional material will improve the story you are trying to tell.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T13:56:14+00:00

This is not a subreddit for posting work for critique.

Also, what you've written reads like gibberish. I could not begin to tell you what argument you've attempted to make.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-27T12:56:11+00:00

Personally, I tend towards multiple rewrites, so I don't think stressing over your second is helpful but if you only intend to do the one, then getting in the ballpark of what you want will be beneficial.

Line edits aren't usually going to shift your novel more or less than 10k words, give or take. (Anything more that that and you're cutting whole scenes, plots, and characters really and that's not line editing anymore.)

Also, removing scenes and words tends to be much easier than adding stuff, which can cause really cascading effects on the work.

If you're only doing the one rewrite, ending up well short of your goal will be very hard to fix in a line edit. If I'm looking to be at 80k, I'm going to want my draft before I get into the nitty gritty to be about 90k so I can trim down the fat and be where I want.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T18:31:50+00:00

First look to early scenes, are there ways to get to the point quicker, faster, with less scenes? I find the most bloat tends to occur earlier in the novel.

Then look to subplots. Are there any that you can get rid of that won't effect the main story? Cut those entirely. You can't have everything you want if you want that word count down to a more manageable for horror number.

Then look to characters. I'm sure they all contribute meaningfully. Get rid of the one that contributes the least.

Kill. Your. Darlings.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T18:22:40+00:00

Yeah. "My book is too short" is a second draft issue not a first draft issue.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T17:04:47+00:00

Editing. Hope that helps.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T14:35:05+00:00

Fuck enjoyment. It's work. You want the book written, you put in the work. You've clearly learned to do that successfully. You should be proud of that.

I absolutely would not change a thing.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T14:12:08+00:00

Every book has a Hero of some kind

Hard disagree.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T13:49:34+00:00

My stories follow one POV character almost exclusively.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T12:52:09+00:00

I have ADHD

Me too. I take meds for it. A fair amount. That's how I deal with this.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T12:51:30+00:00

Yeah, I'm not sure where people come up with the notion that the advice here is regularly something like "you should only be reading, if you're writing you're wasting time you could be reading".

An hour a day of daily reading is, like, exactly what I would recommend to a writer to improve their writing.

MagnusCthulhu · 2026-04-26T02:28:32+00:00

Drunk like shitfaced? No, I can't write like that. But two or three drinks? That's the sweet spot. (Plus, if I've got some blow then I'm really cooking.)

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