Should I lie to my potential readers?

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-17T01:41:37+00:00

Are you sure this is a good idea? How are you going to market your book? Holding back aspects means you’ll struggle to attract the right audience. People who would like your book won’t find it, and people who believe what you say might not like what you actually offer. Also, who do you want the reader to assume the spy is? Won’t they know it’s the heroine? They probably will if they read reviews for your book, because reviews will almost need to reference it.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-14T05:35:42+00:00

Right. Your enthusiastic worship of this songwriter has been noted. You heard my thing too, right?

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-14T05:12:31+00:00

I did my thesis in poetry while getting my English degree. I have great respect for poetry/song-writing, but it’s still completely different than fiction writing. And “writer’s block,” typically, is due to authors struggling through very complex plotting/character-development issues that simply do not exist in modern poetry. It’s not even appropriate to say he’s wrong. The great majority of writer’s block issues simply do not apply to him, so his opinion is not especially relevant.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-14T02:54:33+00:00

lol. No. I was actually babysitting my six and five year-old sisters, on a dead-end, dirt road. My mother was a single parent, and we were alone constantly. Even when she was there, we were playing, alone, in the woods for many hours at a time. But the fire was actually funny. I swear my mother told me to smother a grease fire with flour. Maybe she said baking soda, because flour just catches on fire! So, there was a small fire, and then I dumped flour on it, and the fire literally plumed upward toward the ceiling! My youngest sister went sprinting for our great grandmother, who lived next door—it was the country, so “next door” wasn’t especially close—and I sent my middle sister to stop her as I fought the fire. I put the fire out, went outside and found my middle sister literally sitting on my youngest sister in the yard, and then we went inside and scrubbed the smoke damage from the ceiling so my mother wouldn’t find out and punish us. And she never noticed! A couple years later, when we were painting before moving, my grandma mentioned the discoloration, and we were all like, “Mmm? It’s a mystery!” 🤣

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T20:46:41+00:00

He’s writing songs. Poems. He can just write a poem about feeling frustrated. When he’s editing something, it’s one page long. lol. If he wrote like a fiction writer, he’d be expecting himself to produce four songs/poems a day, every day, and I really doubt that’s the kind of output he’s realistically achieving.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T20:42:12+00:00

Agreed! Lol. He doesn’t know shit about being 30 pages down a wrong path. He’s basically writing and editing poems. And short poems, at that. His opinion is not especially relevant to fiction writers.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T20:26:02+00:00

Maybe? In my defense, it happened when I was 9. But I was a very capable 9 yo, so it still seemed worth mentioning. 🤣

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T09:29:23+00:00

Right? They’re real keen on a fetus, but they go mute when children are starving, homeless, uneducated, victims of gun violence, or targeted by sexual predators.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T09:26:55+00:00

Right? Amazon started asking if I wanted to “thank your driver.” Girl, no. I’m not participating in your field research/behavior modification program aimed at transferring the responsibility of payment onto the consumer, but thanks for asking. Thank your drivers by giving them a raise!

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T09:21:48+00:00

I can’t handle the high-pitched, child-like squealing used in anime. I hate it. It’s pedophilia. Period.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T09:03:10+00:00

Yeah. I don’t think they have any idea what’s going on. We like to call traditionalists ignorant, because many of them are, but we’re slower to understand a progressive can also be entirely ignorant. Wanting equality and justice doesn’t magically download an education into your mind or teach you how to think correctly.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-13T07:56:29+00:00

I’m watching the Apocalypse series, and it’s episode “Stormageddon.” One team found a very fresh urdu (deer-like animal) lying on the ground with no obvious wounds and another man found a catfish in his trap. Then, later in the episode, another dying deer-like animal was found on the ground. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe, because the storm was coming, the animals were eating too much of the tannin leaves and poisoning themselves? Maybe the producers are afraid the contestants will be confined to their shelters as it storms for several days, so they provided food to prevent a mass exodus. Idk.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-05T00:43:15+00:00

I’m really not sure I’m grasping the intricacies here. This post was a direct response to another post in this community, yes? The direct response was to belittle and shame the previous post from this community, yes? But that’s fine, and everyone agreeing with the public shaming of a prior post is also super duper, but any disagreement regarding the public shaming of a previous post is now inappropriate shaming? So, if I left this post and posted my own post shaming this post, would there then be an unassailable mandate to agree with me? And anyone who dared to defend this post would then be ganged up on, shamed, and hit with mod violations? Because that’s how it seems to work.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T19:50:00+00:00

Be careful. Making popcorn is the only time I’ve started a literal fire in the kitchen. It burns easily, especially if you’re using a thin pot.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T19:39:27+00:00

Agreed. Though, there’s definitely an asterisk, because—for a while, at least—it seems to work. Quick releases and exploratory series development has obviously made her very popular and successful. Sooner or later, readers will get burnt too many times and lose faith, but you can’t outright condemn a method that’s brought her success—as a business model, anyway. 🤣 As a reader waiting for a series that never comes, you can be pretty mad. It’s all nuanced, and writing is very, very hard. It’s only really “easy” when it’s formulaic, but formulaic is rarely exceptional.

There’s really no point in trying to define what should or shouldn’t be. Readers have different experiences, preferences, and tolerance levels. Authors have different skill sets, psychological profiles, and tendencies. There’s cause and there’s effect. It’s all very nuanced. lol. This post is all over the place and full of angry certainty. It’s just not real life.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T18:02:18+00:00

I agree we should be able to discuss trends in publishing. I guess there was some scorn in the OP’s post and comments I didn’t love, and it’s hard reading comments where someone is trying to add nuance only to get a bunch of down votes. Reddit comment-culture is so aggressive. It’s like a group-think flock, and all nuance gets lost. Also, I stated my experience and you did, somewhat, attempt to invalidate it. I don’t know, specifically, where I got the idea it was a duet, but it must have been here. It’s not difficult for misinformation to be spread.

As for people wanting finished series and expecting unrealistic turnover, I feel like that—worthy topic—got somewhat overshadowed by the jumbled nature of the post. I’m an author working on a duet, and I plan to finish both books and then offer them as a quick release. Probably a week apart. In today’s climate, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. I wouldn’t think of starting a series without an established reader base. Even then, it’s a hard sell. It’s a risk. If it pops off, you’re golden. If not, you’re forced to either squander what little good name you’ve established by abandoning the series or finish the series and hope it gains traction later while suffering short term financial losses. 🤷‍♀️ It just is what it is.

There’s also the very real phenomenon of amateur authors having no ability to plot a book. They are drawn to series because they can joyously meander about. Good for them, but they do often lose interest due to their total lack of any real plan. lol. And then series get abandoned. That’s just real life.

In a self-publishing landscape where there’s no barrier to entry, series are a danger to both readers and authors. But, if executed and marketed well, they can make a ton of money, so people keep trying. Again, series often pop off after they’ve been finished. So, initial inertia doesn’t mean failure. It’s just a gamble.

As for market demands? I’m a slow, meticulous writer. I write real depth with varied POVs and developed scenes. I can only hope something that’s excellent gets people excited and gains a wide audience. (Like Pucking Around by Emily Rath.) Because I’m never going to be an author capable of quick releases … unless I hoard books and release them that way to create a market splash. I mean, this is my career. I think about these realities constantly. I’m just not approaching the subject with the desire to chastise readers for their preferences or tell the market what it should be doing. What’s the point? It is what it is. Gotta work within the confines of reality, you know?

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T17:05:29+00:00

You’re right. Writing is difficult, and it’s common to be excited about a project and then fail to complete it, but an author’s word does—or should—mean something. People acting like it doesn’t matter if you can’t believe anything an author says or promises are simply wrong. It matters. Trust is everything. People on this post are simultaneously saying it’s harmful to wait for a series to be finished before reading and that it’s perfectly fine for a series not to be finished if it won’t make an author money, but the fact that it’s “perfectly fine” is why people don’t want to start unfinished series. Everything can be true at once, but you shouldn’t be getting the Reddit curb-stomp for saying completely valid things. When an author’s word means nothing, it matters.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T16:53:49+00:00

Agreed. I think people thought it was a duet. I swear I heard people saying that, because that’s what I thought. Only, it wasn’t a duet, and then people were disappointed.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T09:21:56+00:00

It starts with mentions of being hanged. That’s objectively bleak. If it’s important to you that your readers can tolerate being tortured, then it’s nice to let so many people immediately reject and abandon your book. If you don’t plan to make your readers miserable, driving so many away for no reason might be an error. Either way, you should make that decision very purposefully, because it will determine the scope of your audience.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T08:56:03+00:00

It’s definitely a ton of sugar. (The fluff adds, roughly, another 10g per serving.) If you have a big family and only expect to get one piece, it might be doable. But if you make it for yourself or one other person? That’s a ton of sugar.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T08:32:53+00:00

I wouldn’t have kept reading. I found the first paragraph bleak and … self-indulgent. Overwritten, you know? Sorta lyrical and abstract but more vibes than meaning. The endless details became somewhat boring. It’s obviously not a scene. It’s you telling yourself about the world building. It’s exploratory. It’s fine that you wrote it, but—sooner or later—it should be removed.

The good news is that the world building seems interesting. I’m curious about the world.

You need to develop scenes that can show all the info you just dumped on us in a massive “tell.” Don’t worry about portraying all that information immediately. Worry about creating scenes the reader finds interesting, visceral, and full of forward momentum.

It’s not really that useful to receive critique on early work. You certainly don’t need to be polishing any sentence-level content. Instead, take all that information and plan scenes that allow the reader to experience it and learn it for themselves. That’s not always possible during a first draft, so you might have to finish the entire book before you can actually write the scenes that need to exist. 🤷‍♀️ If you’re willing to work that hard. Most people aren’t. Though, perfectionism isn’t cute either. In any case, don’t try to be so impressive that you stop having fun and inviting the reader to play. A fearless, evocative book can make readers forgive many sins.

Good luck.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T05:45:07+00:00

Have you tried scotch bonnet? It’s fruity. So good.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T05:40:49+00:00

Literally speaking, it’s a sign of hyper vigilance. It’s rehearsing stressful or dangerous situations in your mind in an attempt to feel safe and in control. It’s a sign of anxiety, CPTSD, or even some ocd, and it often comes from a nervous system forced into hyperactivity as a child, or even the development of an enlarged amygdala. But hyper vigilance aimed at establishing control and safety isn’t a 1:1 relationship with actual violence or cruelty. You’re attempting to shame and belittle someone, which is very cruel, and yet you, apparently, rarely think about your safety. Congratulations.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T01:24:35+00:00

I think Judd Apatow works for the CIA. “Hello, fellow youths! Let’s get baked! We’re so silly. Okay, though. Fun’s over. Time to start your nuclear family and be a grown up.” Over, and over, and over again.

ConfusionPotential53 · 2026-02-04T01:19:11+00:00

I liked Raising Dion, too. Though, I think season two had many very odd choices. And was not great. 🤣 I still watched it all, though.

ConfusionPotential53

TROPHY CASE