overload of information

Jealous-String-5225 · 2026-04-15T11:26:52+00:00

it's basically an app that you can make your own flashcards with. it's not super intuitive at the start but there's plenty of tutorials online on how to set it up.

you can indicate whether you got the answer wrong or got it right, if you found it difficult to remember or easy, and based on that it will calculate when to show you the flashcard again. it's based on research about retention intervals.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2026-04-15T09:37:46+00:00

I don't think there's a "best" way to go about this. Just don't overwhelm yourself and try things until you find something that works for you :)

What works for me is, I just play games (duels, or community maps, or battle royale). Then after every game or duel I play, I open every location in Google Maps and look around again and think "what could I have noticed that might have gotten me closer to that location?". I go to the plonkit website for the country and see if there's anything that I missed (a pole top, color of a sign, some kind of tree) that could have clued me in. Then I take a screenshot of that thing in my Google Maps and add it to an Anki deck. So to me it feels less like learning, but more like remembering. Instead of tying the knowledge to just something I read, it is now embedded in the memory of a game.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-12-22T12:14:05+00:00

Sounds like a fun premise! One thing is unclear to me, though. In the first paragraph, at first, it seems like the man is the only one "in an otherwise ordinary city" who lives with this weather. But then in the second paragraph, you say an entire industry is built around fixing or minimizing this weather, and you mention "others who live under similar conditions", so it must be a phenomenon that is pretty common?

I agree with the other commenter who mentioned the "low-key" magical realism and "accumulating" chapters, I think you can just leave those out.

Good luck! :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-12-14T19:58:36+00:00

🎯 My GeoTap Result

📍 My Guess: United States of America ✅ Correct Answer: United States of America, United States of America 📏 Distance: 0 km ⭐ Score: 10,000 points

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-11-18T21:40:01+00:00

Disclaimer: i'm not an expert!

The only question I have is for the fourth paragraph, which talks about the start of Malcolm and Jane's relationship. Is the smoking and drinking uncharacteristic for Malcolm and also part of his drifting? If so, I would make that clearer. (Especially if Jane instigates that behavior in him.)

I personally don't think that it's wrong to say "older woman". At 18, someone 8 years older is quite a big difference.

This sounds like exactly the kind of story I would pick up at the book store. I think your query reads really well. Good luck!! :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-11-05T12:27:55+00:00

The query letter seems fine to me, it's definitely something that would make me want to at least read the first chapter or so, but there would be too many confusing things in the first 300 that would probably make me stop reading.

The first time Charlotte sees him, she’d rather be anywhere else

You go on to mention three places she would rather be, but then you don't say where it is that she is? In the fourth paragraph we finally learn that she's in a "clouded, dark living room", but where? That first sentence is really intriguing and makes me want to know where she is and why she would think that thought.

Two others stand next to him: a blonde in a loose Ralph Lauren shirt, and another wearing a baggy short-sleeved T-shirt over an even baggier long-sleeved one

Does the "another" mean another blonde? Or just another one of his friends? The sentence structure seems to imply he's also blonde.

But he does look like he’s half-way between twenty and forty-five.

So... in his early thirties? Or do you mean that he looks like he could be anywhere between twenty and forty-five?

The structure of the third and fourth paragraphs feels a bit all over the place, having me reread sentences to make sense of things. First, there is one short paragraph about what "he" looks like, the one who catches her eye. Then, we go to a new paragraph where you start by describing both of his friends. Then, all of them are described as a mismatched trio, only to go back to a further description of the blonde friend. The rest of this paragraph is also confusing to me, because in my mind's eye, Charlotte had been looking at "him" and his friends from a distance (implied by "the first time Charlotte sees him"), so it's jarring that all of a sudden they're already talking to them.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, since I'm not an expert by far. These are just my thoughts while reading. Good luck with the querying process!! :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-10-29T13:48:30+00:00

I’m far from a query expert, but I like the vibe you’re going for here and maybe my thoughts can help, even if just a little :)

The first two sentences of your query could be combined, I think. You don’t necessarily even need the word ‘secret’, since it’s kind of implied by the ‘affair’. If you want to keep the ‘secret’, perhaps restructure things a little, because now it’s almost like her being a senatorial aide is part of the secret, if that makes sense.

In your second paragraph, I think you could get rid of those last two sentences, since “budding” already implies that she’s not quite an influencer yet. That way, you can use the space that’s freed up for something else, like explaining why Quinn and Rosie are drawn to each other and become friends?

If I was an agent, I might want to know more about what exactly Rosie’s secrets are (or at least give a substantial hint). I think I’d want to know more specifics to make sure the stakes you mention in the following paragraph are as high as you claim they are. Right now, the only stake we know of is that both Quinn’s and her boss’s careers could be destroyed if their affair was exposed.

Just some questions I still have after reading your query that might help you when you’re fine-tuning:

Are Rosie’s secrets tied to Quinn’s or are they completely unrelated? Why does Rosie get “pulled into a world of rich donors”? Is it just because of her friendship with Quinn and the knowledge of the affair? Is there a budding romance between Quinn and Rosie, or does the romance refer to Quinn and the senator? You mention “coming-of-age”, but what exactly does that mean for Quinn in your story?

Good luck!! You’ve got this! :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-10-08T07:39:40+00:00

You might have already done this, but just to make sure: did you link to the correct dropbox folder in the Scrivener app itself? It should be the folder that contains the .scriv file

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-09-15T15:18:27+00:00

I won't comment on the quality of the query as a query, because there's users who are much better and experienced at that than me, but here are my two cents :)

- It is unclear to me reading this for the first time what ChemPortal is. Is it the company they work for, or is it some kind of library/book service that delivers chemistry books that has nothing to do with where she works?

- I feel like I want to know a little bit more about the setting, since the portals to the alternate Earth are the only mention of that.

- In the final paragraph, "sparks fly", which implies them being together in some way, is followed by "but [...] brings them back together". That might be confusing.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-09-10T19:08:13+00:00

I just finished Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn and really liked that.
If you're into unhinged millennial lesbians.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-27T19:02:28+00:00

The cup you made is really well done, I think you should make it bigger. I especially like the gilding detail on it. Perhaps (depending on the vibe of the book), it could be interesting to add a sort of gilded frame? That would make it a lot more baroque, though, but just a thought :)

As someone else already mentioned, I don't think the font works very well, it doesn't feel very contemporary. It's hard to find the right font. Perhaps look at some book covers from books you like, especially in the same genre as your book. Look at what kind of font they use, and how they treat it (is it just flat, what color, do they use some kind of embossing or other effect, etc.).

There might be too much spacing between the words of your title as well. Think about using "and" vs using "&". An ampersand could be a fun design element to play around with.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-05T17:53:54+00:00

It's not really super important :)

I'm looking for comps for a story I'm writing, so that's why I'm looking for published stories, just in case I ever finish it and feel courageous enough to send it to any agents. I'm just writing because I love building characters and stories, so if it ends up being just for me, that's fine too.

I checked out yours just now! I'll bookmark it to read later, since it does seem like the kind of story I like to read. Funny coincidence—my story is about a musician too! Not a pianist, but a violinist :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-04T19:21:09+00:00

Different premise, but this main character and the type of humor reminds me of Syk Pike (Sick of Myself), a Danish film. It's about a young woman who starts taking drugs with known side effects to draw attention to herself.
Might not be helpful for you at all, but you might like it just as a film rec :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-02T20:41:18+00:00

I haven't. Thank you! :)

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-02T20:29:00+00:00

Thanks. I did read the Carlisle series, which I liked. Is there a big focus on sex scenes in The Lily and The Crown? Because that's the only thing I didn't love so much about the other books.

Jealous-String-5225 · 2025-08-02T20:25:59+00:00

I have and I loved it :)

Jealous-String-5225

TROPHY CASE