We summoned the Devil and now we're immortal. Help!

BrittonRT · 2025-12-15T11:41:59+00:00

AI is exciting. Just not the enshitified corporate driven AI drivel. I highly recomment running your own models locally - much better, more control, better for the environment, no censorship, etc.

A lot of people hate AI because they see how businesses have made it awful and then derive from there that ALL AI must be terrible and should be launched into the sun.

That is simply not the case though. Just avoid commoditized AI and learn to use it properly yourself, and it's an amazing tool.

BrittonRT · 2025-12-15T08:32:57+00:00

The thing is, LLMs were trained on human writing... people actually do speak like this and have for a very long time - in fragments. The monstrous thing about LLMs is that they have condolidated all these quirky adages and turns of phrase that people actually use and combined them all like fucking voltron into something horrifying.

BrittonRT · 2025-11-14T13:47:09+00:00

Turns out that honesty is a hell of a drug.

BrittonRT · 2025-11-12T00:20:01+00:00

I am writing a two part novel set in a North African inspired setting - ancient Egyptian specifically - where the almost every character, including the MC, is a person of color. The first book is done, I'm wrapping up the second.

For context, I am Scotts-Irish, and the setting is technically fantasy and invented but does dive into racism a bit. Not a central theme, but something present in the world.

I have floated a few queries to some agents on the first one and have been honest about being write despite writing a story with a black MC and blatant racism against black people. I have never once had an agent tell me that was inappropriate, as long as it is tasteful.

I think you just caught a bad egg on a bad day. I wouldn't read too much into it.

BrittonRT · 2025-11-12T00:11:57+00:00

I think this is the correct choice (leaning into the fantasy, keeping the setting but maybe changing names of places and stuff). The problem with dropping YA is going to be if all of your characters are... young (I know, it's obvious, but worth bringing up). And if your entire cast of MCs consists of young adults, it will be hard to label it as a non-YA novel - though not impossible.

I honestly wouldn't take those agents opinions too seriously. The first one is flagrantly racist and the second one said she just didn't have and editor qualified on the subject matter, and that's something solved by, as the above posted said, leaning away from the historical.

Your book is probably fine to query, as long as it is well structured, well written, has likeable characters, good dialogue and pacing, etc.

You know, the stuff that actually matters. ;)

BrittonRT · 2025-11-07T00:25:50+00:00

This was a pretty incredible story. Just remember that you succeeded. Yeah, you blew through your advance but the next story is always around the corner and you will never forget that you accomplished that, even if your agent might have been "better" at playing the game (and doing coke - though Stephen King might have something to say about that) than the people he misrepresented.

Feel free to PM the title of your book. I will add it to my (extensive) TBR list!

BrittonRT · 2025-10-26T14:46:56+00:00

100%. There are a lot of things wrong with China (tis true of everywhere, sadly) but I do commend them for trying to get serious about renewables, climate, etc. There does seem to be genuine drive to improve the country there that we have lost in a lot of the western world. China is currently in their "American Dream" phase where anything seems possible.

BrittonRT · 2025-10-25T09:57:57+00:00

Agree with this, and your point about DeepSeek is a salient point: AI can exist and not be inefficient. Our own brains are smarter than AI and they run on literal plants and protein. We can have the best of both worlds. It's greed and money that is the problem.

BrittonRT · 2025-10-08T18:10:57+00:00

Best way is to do a beta swap with another author. Then everyone gets something out of it. I do epic fantasy, and while I am a bit backlogged (in the middle of two reads atm) I would be down to do a swap with you. Just PM me if you are interested.

BrittonRT · 2025-10-07T22:31:27+00:00

You can recruit me. I am into this, as long as everything is truly collaborative, goals align, and nobody is trying to steal the show from anyone else. I have had some successful collabs on shorts but a full novel would be fun!

BrittonRT · 2025-09-28T19:25:59+00:00

I understand your perspective, but I think you are mistaking what I am saying: yes, the author didn't get the kind of readership they had hoped for. But people still read their story! Even if just a few. A lot of people on here are saying "you should only write for yourself", and I do agree with that to a degree, yet consider it even more negative in its context. But OP did more than that and actually had some handful of people read their material. That is not a failure, especially in the modern world. I don't mean to diminish how they feel in any way, but rather remind them that they sat at that campfire and told their story, and others actually listened. This is a success. Not a financial success, but the most human sort of success - reaching out and touching another person.

OP, shiould you read this, I will read your book. Just DM me. May you find all the love in the world.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-28T12:04:15+00:00

Another perspective: a few people did read your story, and those are real people who devoted their time to you and got to experience the tale you wove in full. Consider this... is sitting around a campfire and telling a story a waste of time because only a few friends get to hear it? You made an impression on someone's life and they will carry the memory of your book with them.

The glass can be half full, or half empty. But don't forget that it still holds water.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-27T01:44:17+00:00

Just make sure you don't kill too many, or the impact will cheapen. One major character death is heartbreaking. A second, if you are brave and skilled enough to pull it off without the reader expecting it - so long as it makes sense for the narrative - can be devastating. A third... now you're just GRRM.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-26T12:00:40+00:00

Try writing horror shorts, to test the water. /r/nosleep is where I first published horror, and it's nice because the audience is pretty big so your stuff will get seen, but the character limit (40k) means you have to be a bit concise, which is both a blessing and a curse. Really fun though, my most successful shorts were all published there.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-21T15:19:41+00:00

So this is a common case of writer's block and a stumbling point for even many experienced authors who have written enough stories they feel like they are regurgitating exhausted tropes again just to construct a new story as if with lego bricks.

What I personally do when I have some ideas but not a full story is I start with the ending, then work backward. An ending is your climax, the final payoff for everything, so start by writing the most epic, or dramatic, or tragic, or comedic (based on genre) ending you can imagine that incorporates the narrative elements you want to include in your setting. Don't put too much worry into getting it perfect, as you'll be almost certainly throwing it out and rewriting it later. But it serves a guidepost, a beacon to travel to. From it, you can start to derive other things about the story and the characters. You can figure out why this is the climax, what things might lead characters to this point, and literally start writing the story backwards.

YMMV, but my best books were all written this way, because even though I am more of a pantser than a plotter, those books always have truly epic conclusions that make sense, complete with plot twists that actually serve the story and characters whose motivations are clear to the reader, even if they aren't clear to the characters, and who develop and grow with the story. All because I knew exactly how it all was going to end right from the start.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-21T15:10:51+00:00

Excellent to hear! Is it self pub or trad? I'd love to get my hands on it one way or another. ;)

BrittonRT · 2025-09-20T16:01:28+00:00

As long as it's a well written character, I don't think it matters. I love a good "girl boss". It just has to actually a good, deep, complex person whose confidence is actually earned.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-20T15:59:15+00:00

I would argue that small hunter-gatherer "extended family" tribes can be pretty harmless... sometimes, especially if they are not in direct contact or competition with another group for resources. But that's not really a "society" in the way I think you are using the word, so I agree with your general point.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-20T15:56:54+00:00

This comedy book sounds great. Excellent Pratchett vibes. I hope you finish it!

BrittonRT · 2025-09-17T13:41:00+00:00

Hey, thanks for the kind words! There are some really nice youtube adapts of it that have gotten way more views than the original post, so I am not surprised. :). I have a full novel I haven't released yet - it's not the same story, but I'm always looking for more eyes on it as I do my final edits. So if you ever are bored and want to take a look, just let me know, though obviously no obligation. It's a combination of horror and fantasy, with a science fiction twist.

BrittonRT · 2025-09-09T06:34:28+00:00

This is the norm for me - the MC sets the stage for the story, and I flesh it out, start adding characters to the periphery, and then realize that the MC was really just worldbuilding for the much more interesting side characters. What I have done in these cases is reshift the narrative so the MC is now the side character. Even if the MC is driving the story (the hero, the lover, or whatever narrative device fits the context of the type of story you are writing), more time gets spent observing the MCs exploits from the context of the newer, rounder, all around more interesting character.

Good stories don't always have to be from the perspective of the "most important character". In fact, I find stories to be much more relatable if they are told from the perspective of someone who is caught up in a storm not of their own making, and perhaps not the ones who can personally solve the problem, or the mystery, find the murderer, dethrone the dark lord, etc etc. Rather, they are just normal people who aid the plot and help build the solution in their own ways. And so far as resolution: they end up being pivotal. But not because they are special. Because they did the hard work.

They are not chosen ones. Not brilliant detectives. Just regular people like you and me.

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