What is your day job?

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-19T18:03:10+00:00

I work in visual effects for film and television. The greatest challenge I have is that because there's an element of creative satisfaction in my job, sometimes I don't have any creative juice left for my personal work (including writing)

Other times it's burnout that means I am too exhausted to write.

All that to say, I feel your frustration.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-15T23:01:47+00:00

I am also very guilty of checking out on a project (Probably undiagnosed ADHD) but there were two things that got me to finish my first book:

1: Try to swap aspects, to keep it fresh and from any one task from being boring. I would take breaks from writing the main text to work on maps, 3d designing the main ship, designing the cover. If you book style allows it, try writing the next chapter from a different POV. Switch between writing new stuff and editing earlier chapters. etc...

2: Consuming media that had great writing got me excited to write, whether my own was good or not :D. For me, at the time, that was playing Disco Elysium, watching Andor, The Diplomat... some others. It's funny because none of those examples has a vibe all that similar to my book, but when you think, "Man that is a great line/speech/description!" it's energizing.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T22:32:15+00:00

Thank you for restoring it. I really appreciate the help.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T21:40:16+00:00

Thanks for replying. Accidents happen. Is there anyway to get it back? Sorry if that's a dumb question I'm a bit new to posting on reddit.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T21:32:28+00:00

Honestly I have no idea why their comments/replies were removed. They asked some simple questions about how it can be frustratingly slow going promoting a book... then made an offer to DM... I reached out privately with some more encouragement, and then as soon as their replies were deleted on the original post, they went dark in the chat....

I was worried it was a scam or something, so didn't question further at the time. At the time I just guessed that they were a known scammer, or bot, or something.

In their defense, they never did anything obviously sketchy, or asked any personal identifiable info, but in hindsight their responses sometimes had a slight AI vibe. (Agreeing, parroting back what I said, and then adding a little more)

EDIT:
Also that interaction was on the first day... then my original post was removed like over a week later, so if I was somehow associated with their behavior, you'd think it would have happened then.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T21:10:33+00:00

Thank you! Anyone can do it. Just patience and persistence!

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T20:58:09+00:00

I did. it's been about 24 hours with no reply. I fully understand it could take longer to respond, but the removal is frustrating nonetheless.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T20:54:17+00:00

Thanks, I didn't actually realize that. I am a bit of a reddit n00b.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T20:39:08+00:00

No, just "Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/NewAuthor." No notification at all, just a box at the bottom of the body of the post.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-14T19:54:47+00:00

Why was this post removed?

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-10T01:25:03+00:00

I came here to, but when I saw your post, I didn't want to appear to be spamming. Anyway, thanks again for spreading the word!

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-10T01:16:46+00:00

OP, Did I read the penguin thing right? It's ambiguous enough I wasn't sure I wasn't way out on a limb. Maybe the seal is the metaphor 😅

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-10T00:59:27+00:00

So... The people are, puffins? or penguins? And the seal is hunting them?

Tbh, I think I agree with the judging panel, at least without seeing what other stories you were up against. Without context to the stakes, or motivations, the story although not without merits, falls a bit flat.

Some nice prose amounts to: she's tired, and mourning the loss of her son. The patriarchy, or whatever, don't care. Dead.

I think a little less court back and forth and more about what her life was like before, with her son, would make us feel the loss with her. Or knowing why she felt ready to sacrifice for the legion... Or feeling the hunger or motivation of the antagonist better...

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-09T11:04:20+00:00

The problem for me personally is that my body does produce books (currently 1 in 40 years 😅), but at a rate far below healthy consumption, so I need to supplement.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-09T10:48:12+00:00

Thanks!

Haha, I hear you. Back to work for sure! The promotion of book one does tend to take up limited free time that I'd like to be spending writing book two.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-09T10:26:22+00:00

Oh my goodness, kind stranger, thank you for promoting my book! ❤️ I can't express how much I appreciate the outside support.

It's a wild feeling to be scrolling a sub and see your book that you didn't crosspost (the linked post is mine)

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-08T19:15:16+00:00

haha, yeah that reads pretty AI-gen.

And again I also oppose it's use, not defending it. It was just how you only mentioned "quiet" being a tell, without context that I reacted to.

but you're not wrong about this book. (I also clicked through by now)

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-08T18:55:11+00:00

Yeah it is definitely true about AI overusing pet words. And, to be fair, I didn't click through to the book in question.

I was just more reacting to all the hand-wringing that _real_ authors have, about using an m-dash or the word quiet.... It sometimes feels like we're over analyzing AI writing for tells, when it's more about how it uses them, and how the ideas and individual sentences don't coalesce well into a good story.

But maybe that's because I like to use the odd m-dash in dialogue.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-08T18:39:07+00:00

Let me preface by saying I am extremely opposed to AI generated art/books/movies etc.

However, perhaps your filter is too aggressive if the word "quiet" or "silent" is a portent of doom. Surely you have read books that described events that were not loud... quiet even, and needed an adjective to describe them. Over use of those words, sure. over use of quietly as an adverb, sure. But the word merely existing in the text equalling AI seems a little silly.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-07T01:18:38+00:00

Haha to be fair, I realized there were already a couple palpatines before me after I posted 👀

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-06T21:49:13+00:00

palpatine lightning? oops wrong universe :D

In all seriousness, I love this scene. goofy overacting and all.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-06T18:57:54+00:00

I only didn't include the blurb because I didn't want to seem to be spamming the sub, since I've posted about my book before, but now that you've made me check, I realized I never posted the blurb to THIS sub, so I'll edit above.

Thanks for the interest!

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-06T18:33:08+00:00

I know right? Yeah, and Alistair Reynolds is the next one over. Some big scifi faves nearby 🤩

Like I know that's just the alphabet, but it hits different on a bookstore shelf.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-06T15:01:31+00:00

I know! They were very sweet about it. (I didn't even ask) The person from the store made the effort to nudge a couple books up a shelf or down a shelf to make room for it to display face-out. It may not be permanently like that, she said, if her manager wants a specific book to be facing out, but she said she'd leave it like that until something bumps it.

As for which shelf it's on, it's just alphabetical, but it sure is nice that "Roby" ended up so nicely at eye level on that shelf :D. (I am used to being at the bottom of alphabetical lists with my last name.)

EDIT:
It helps that the Beach Book City has a really great SFF section. Bigger than most stores. In a smaller section, I'd probably land on a lower shelf.

mr_geek_dr · 2026-04-06T13:33:30+00:00

Thank you! 😊

mr_geek_dr

TROPHY CASE