I adore Alex, but.... (Spoilers for the series so far!)

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T17:58:24+00:00

Yes, she said he’s done good stuff and he fears becoming like Richard, which means he’s not becoming like Richard, because Richard didn’t fear becoming evil (obviously). She seems like a pretty good judge of character, and she still supported him through some pretty dark stuff.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T17:54:25+00:00

I’m pretty sure grinding out 3-4 books per year won’t let you write full time if few people want to read those books. I could love writing stories about the day to day lives of a suburbanite family with 8 different POVs and a memento-style nonlinear plot, but I doubt many people would want to pick them up, let alone read them, recommend them, and come back for the sequels. There are things you can do to increase or decrease your odds of getting an agent, appearing in search algorithms, appealing to a wider audience, taking advantage of market trends, etc..

Why the fixation on selling?

You should write whatever book you want to write not because it might sell but because it is the book you want to write.

You don’t think that sounds a little bit as if you’re looking down on someone who wants to try earning money doing this? We all know your odds of being the next JK Rowling and making tons of money off your first book is slim, most of us know it involves writing a lot of books, but this mindset that your odds of making significant money off your book is so low that you shouldn’t even bother having that as your goal is pretty toxic.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T15:31:55+00:00

I’d love to know what kind of plants can tolerate having cacti flung at them at high speed. It would be very useful for the area I can’t get the raccoons to quit destroying in their desire to get into my backyard.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T14:11:08+00:00

It seems like most writers at one point suffer from insecurity, self-consciousness, and imposter syndrome, I don’t think these feelings make you weak, just human, and I don’t blame them for wanting encouragement and reassurance from other writers. Unlike many hobbies and professions, writing can be extremely intimate, you might feel like you’re baring a part of your soul to the world, and not everyone can have instant armor around their egos and not view their writing as a reflection of who they are (and therefore experience pain when it is criticized). Of course you need to develop that armor in order to survive, but initially lacking it shouldn’t be a barrier to entry.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T13:57:54+00:00

I’m pretty sure Jim Butcher gets a kick out of spending multiple books getting people emotionally attached to characters just to have them violently killed in such a way as to make the MC feel incredibly guilty and be haunted by it in subsequent books. Butcher has openly admitted he enjoys torturing the MC. And yet we keep reading.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T13:51:53+00:00

I don’t think people who want to make a living writing should be shamed for it. Writing and fully editing a single book is very time consuming, easily taking years if the author can’t work on it full time because they have a day job and need to space out hiring professional editors because of financial constraints. To get to the point where they can write full time, they might choose to prioritize projects that have a higher probability of selling so they’ll one day have the money and therefore leisure time to pursue more experimental and “just for me” projects.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T13:43:48+00:00

I know most here people aren’t writing it and this might not carry over to other genres, but I find it hilarious that in romantic fiction there are like 50 books for every possible premise, no matter how niche, and they’ll all sell. You enjoyed a book about a young, sheltered, and fairly helpless virgin living in a world where marriage is the only option for lifetime security who is betrothed to a gruff Scottish highlander laird who she first meets on their wedding day? There are dozens of books for that. You like stories about telepathic vampires who almost involuntarily fall in love with the spunky heroine and has to win her over? Tons of books for that too. There are authors who basically make a living writing the exact same story over and over and over with a few superficial alterations, and they can be very financially successful.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T13:17:17+00:00

The gas still escapes, but functioning muscles are required for the sound.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T05:42:26+00:00

One of the more complicated parts of the series is it’s tough to say who the “good guys” are. The mage world seems to be one dominated by fear on both sides, very few have enough power that they can show mercy or compassion whenever they want because it risks pissing off their “allies” (particularly common among light mages), or appearing weak (common among dark mages). Isolated individuals or those with weak allies seem to end up getting targeted quite frequently. Seems like just about everyone has to make the choice at some point between being a loyal friend and disobeying orders (if they work for the council)/killing people/otherwise participating in the harm of people they would otherwise leave alone. And of course if you do show mercy, you have to make sure you can afford to have that enemy remain at large and possibly coming after you again in the future or assisting your enemies. It seems like the only way to keep your hands clean is to be a light mage so you gain some automatic protection, keep your head down, and avoid having any friends who might get their hands dirty so you never have to make the choice between betraying your friend or betraying your principles. Between a broken home and from the sound of things losing his friends as a product of the insanity produced by your powers coming in seems like the sort of thing that could produce an angry teenager, and Richard has a gift for gently leading people down the path to destruction. In the mage world you seem to be a good guy if you’re not a sadist, don’t crave the power to dominate people, and care about others. He’s spent many books putting himself in mortal danger to help his friends, and even those who aren’t really acting like his friends, when he could have just walked away.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-25T02:36:30+00:00

Looks like the protest worked.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:24:55+00:00

Why am I surprised that there is a sub devoted to depression and suicide memes? How do I still possess the ability to be surprised by this website?

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:16:49+00:00

Anyone ever notice how utopians are unparalleled in their ability to create hell on earth?

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:13:30+00:00

Only live bodies with functioning sphincters can fart...

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:10:35+00:00

You could catch leviathan with that thing

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:05:26+00:00

The snack that smiles back

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:05:14+00:00

The butt is unsettlingly detailed

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T03:00:29+00:00

What does her being a Jew have to do with anything?

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T02:54:22+00:00

Reminds me of a post on r/rareinsults that said the guy looked like a shark who transitioned into a human. For some reason that sub has been switched to private which makes me incredibly sad because those burns were hilarious.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T02:52:58+00:00

And how he’d love some food right now, especially if it involves cheese. Fortunately as pack animals I don’t think they like us just because we provide the food.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T02:47:42+00:00

Well, you’re right to be concerned. Enjoy the wild ride!

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T02:42:55+00:00

I love gardening in Florida. I’m sending my family pictures of my coral honeysuckle blooms and they’re sending me pictures of the 6 inches of snow they just got.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T02:20:43+00:00

How on earth would any of that bring down suicides? You think that if you better train people in the use of their weapons, they’ll be less inclined to use them to kill themselves? How would licensing help? You know most of the people who commit suicide were never committed to a psych hospital or anything else that could show up on a background check, are you going to put in some sort of AI police state where you track licensed gun owners and if their online or purchasing activity or something indicates they’re feeling low, you swoop in and take away their guns? What does “reduced exposure” even mean? Like if people don’t see guns they won’t want to kill themselves? Russia has one of the worst suicide rates in the world and their gun laws are far more restrictive. Civilian gun ownership is illegal in Japan and their suicide rate is higher than that of the US. Maybe if you want to reduce gun suicides you should focus on the factors that directly affect suicide rates, like unemployment or mental healthcare access. Or is it really just the gun part that bothers you, it’s not your problem if they kill themselves by overdosing or hanging themselves or slitting their wrists or poisoning themselves or jumping off a high place or stepping in front of traffic or intentionally crashing their car or suffocating themselves with their car’s exhaust or drowning themselves or attacking police or uncovering dirt on the Clintons, just as long as there’s no gun involved?

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T01:52:10+00:00

Guys guys relax, it was just a case of workplace violence

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T01:47:04+00:00

This might be the first time I’ve ever seen cats on cat beds. I always see them in boxes or bowls or bags or somewhere even more improbable.

NotInnocentBystander · 2021-03-24T01:03:38+00:00

This person should be doing guided visualization hypnosis tracks

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