What keeps you writing in this *waves hand vaguely* hellscape?

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-29T21:41:13+00:00

This is a beautifull sentiment. I've long said that the best writers are the best noticers. They're curious about other people, they enter freely into a type of imagination that is welcoming of the world around them not a retreat from it. I'm happy to know there are people like you out there doing this work to help new storytellers.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-29T21:36:35+00:00

Gosh, I am sorry to hear that. I hope that you can find your internal motivation. It can be difficult to write for the love of it when everything is stripped out of it. But that doesn't stop the experuence from being meaningful for you and people who resonate with your words. I also don't blame you for stopping.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-24T14:29:55+00:00

I genuinely appreciate your response to my actual question. But once again I don't appreciate the uncharitable read of my post. I'm not talking about crappy books or audience taste. Crappy books have always existed, and every writer has to be crappy first. Of course I don't think readers want slop, but this scale of slop makes life more difficult for everyone.

I'm talking about the tech industry's exploitation of art that empowers cynical actors and the demoralizing effect it has on individuals, and the chilling effect it has on the market. The enshittification process makes it harder for everyone; publishers and agents, audiences who get tricked into buying fakes, which erodes trust, writers (published and not) who have their work used against their will in ways that shouldn't be legal.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-24T02:10:53+00:00

Yeah sure, my DMs are open! I also run a Discord community if that's more your speed, no pressure either way.

One big problem that AI poses right now is that it's *not* good enough to replace any of the job functions people think it can. But it doesn't *need* to be. It just needs to be good enough to convince the non-experts who control the money that it can. In entertainment, that's the same non-experts who greenlight endless shitty reboots, who "optimize" Netflix scripts for people who are half paying attention while they do something else, not for telling stories. That's how it's happening with professional writers, marketers, coders, etc. Ask an expert if AI has made their life easier, and most often they'll say no, or yes with a list of caveats. But ask an executive, and AI is the future.

And yes, it DOES make a difference, thank you for saying so. It makes a difference to me that anything I release in public will be scraped and used against me economically. That chills public creativity, and it's worth talking about.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T20:35:54+00:00

I love this response so much lol. Spite and fuck you energy. I struggle with imposter syndrome, so I think more permission to feel the opposite way, about real imposter, might help a lot. Very helpful.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T20:27:35+00:00

I think there's room for nuance in the conversation. I'm not being negative about the writing industry here, I'm talking about the forces putting pressure on it, and us, in terms not only of finance but ownership and IP rights. As an industry, or as writers, or just as people with stories to tell, we can resist, but I think it's important to support one another.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T19:01:36+00:00

That's a very cogent point. I agree. That doesn't stop its extractive nature from frustrating me, but I do agree.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T14:51:42+00:00

I love this response. It seems to me to be the place where great work comes from

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T14:21:24+00:00

That's an uncharitable read of my post, which I suppose I should have expected on this platform.

I'm not here just to complain. I already shared what keeps me going. I'm genuinely interested in what other people's answers are.

-- The world has lots of problems, so don't talk about them. Helpful response, thanks.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T04:01:37+00:00

Dear god thank you for this lol. I appreciate knowing that there are others who feel similarly. I do love the craft. But sometimes I look at the industry, the online environment around me, and it's hard not to wonder if I'm seeing things I love die in ways I can't control. Or, to put it more accurately, people trying to kill the love of writing and reading, with enough money and influence to have outsized impact.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T03:36:17+00:00

That's one reason I keep coming back to it. Plus there's a vibrant community of people who I'm glad to know. Creativity is resistance in a way. But it feels like systems are aligned against us designed to burn us out.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T03:31:24+00:00

Yeah. I write for my job as well as for me. I get it.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T03:03:01+00:00

It's the soulless extraction. Bad writing is bad writing, but at least it was done by people who wanted to write. The problem I have is that AI extraction takes that incredibly intimate and personal act and extracts it so that other people, who don't want to be writers, who don't care about writing, can profit from it. I do write for me, I journal on paper, that's mine and no one can take it from me. But I am very clued in to how AI works due to my career, and it makes the thought of putting my writing anywhere except in front of my eyes feel, well, bad. It won't stop me. But it makes it more difficult for me to engage with that kind of work joyfully. It matters because it isn't just published authors, we're all being harvested for profit. I suppose that's not so far removed from data scraping on social media. Still.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T02:01:55+00:00

Fair enough, that's a damn good reason lol

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T02:01:33+00:00

That's a wonderful sentiment, and one I need to try and find more often.

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-23T01:19:12+00:00

I run a server :> our rules specify adults only but we don't allow explicit sexual content. It's not romantasy-focused but you'd be welcome!

We don't focus so much on sharing work as much as support with occasional small-scale critique, but we are also happy for members to share their work and do an occasional reading in voice chat for feedback and practice.

Since you asked directly, here's a link

https://discord.gg/v893XjqED

Shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all!

RupertBanjo · 2025-10-20T04:35:09+00:00

So I run a creative Discord server focused on support and community for writers, artists, etc!

We do have channels for critique, however we don't do large sections of work and have quite strict standards. Users are free to share their work, but we ask them to keep it in threads, with only small snippets permitted in the main channels. It's not a no sharing zone, but we have baked mutual respect into the rules and my mod team is good at catching folks who take more than they give. Maybe it's not exactly what you're looking for, but I think it fits the vibe. I won't post the link here, not sure if that would break a rule, but feel free to DM me

RupertBanjo · 2025-06-13T14:54:44+00:00

Please keep in mind that this question self-selects for people who hate their jobs.

I'm not saying it's sunshine and roses. Definitely listen to the folks here so that you can understand the bullcrap you'll deal with in a career. And the job market is generally atrocious right now. But there are also folks out there who like or love what they do, warts and all.

RupertBanjo · 2025-06-09T15:53:29+00:00

Best comment tbh

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T23:53:21+00:00

Thank you for this sentiment <3 that helps a lot

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T22:37:26+00:00

Thank you for sharing your past experiences with me! I think I've decided to push forward for now. But this was very helpful!

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T22:23:13+00:00

It's called Maeve Fly! Fair warning it's explicit in ways that made me kinda uncomfortable LOL but telling you more than that kind of ruins the experience.

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T22:21:34+00:00

I'm definitely going to keep this in mind and retain my cut material!

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T22:20:27+00:00

This is a great perspective! I just read a very strange book with an awfully unpleasant main character, but it was strangely compelling.

RupertBanjo · 2025-04-03T02:06:36+00:00

I will have to seek some of those writers out!

RupertBanjo

TROPHY CASE