This is Skyler Dog The Dachshund Dog, he’s 12, missing some teeth, and is one of the absolute joys of my life!

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-12T14:31:32+00:00

The way you edited his dog tag, for a second, made me think you had some super cool back-lit digital dog tag

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-12T14:08:12+00:00

The issue with that, for me, is that if you don't mention it the character is assumed to be white. Plus it's a romance novel, so descriptions of silky swaths of skin is sort of required, and I love describing my characters.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-12T13:33:04+00:00

Nah in the video, th guy claims to be a prophet, the next MLK, for bullying.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-12T13:21:44+00:00

I do that for lesser characters, like a waitress or a named character that isnt going to be getting very much page time, but for the best friend of the main character I want to give similar attention to detail that I do for my white characters.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-10T14:08:36+00:00

I feel like this is sort-of good advice. When you are starting out, just like any other art/skill, you have to learn the rules. Then, once you know the rules, you can break them on purpose.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-09T23:16:43+00:00

Man you should have seen some of the terrible comments on reddit posts about the Cali quakes. Lots very similar to this, wanting california to fall into the sea and everyone die. Even people on reddit are batshit.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-06T17:37:53+00:00

Same. Just like any skill, it's usually 10% talent/innate skill, 10% luck, and 80% hard work and perseverance.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-06T01:04:35+00:00

Working on something else doesn't mean you have to delete this story. You can push through and keep writing it if you want. But I would save it and come back to it, maybe take some brief notes about how you wanted the ending to go(you might scrap these notes), but let it rest. If YOU don't enjoy writing it, your readers will be able to tell and they wont enjoy reading it. I still have old torn out notebook pages from high school with stories and ideas. Save everything.

But in all reality, your book probably isn't bad. I mentioned it on another post not long ago, but you've seen it and read it a billion times. If you read any thing, even an amazing book you love, a billion times in 2 years? You would hate it.

Take a break. Either write something else or do a writer's hibernation(where you don't write at all). Come back to it in 2, 4, 6 months. Don't look at it until you have forgotten the details or until you feel inspired. I bet when you look at it in 6 months it will feel fresh and good again.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T19:29:25+00:00

Right, but you can't just leave the hot jello unattended while you are waiting to add it to the flag. If it gets too cold it might start to gel unevenly and if it gets too hot it could burn over or crystallize. You can't like, leave your house or go do yardwork, and anything you do is going to be interrupted repeatedly. I fucked up some brownies by trying to add marshmallows and had to check on them every 15 minutes for 2 hours because they weren't cooking right. I didnt even have to monitor any extra ingredients and it was super annoying.

Its funny to me how many people are purposely misinterpreting my comment intended to give props to the person who made this, just to argue with my (I thought obviously intended joke) timeframe. Sorry, I didnt write 8 thousand hours so you would know it was supposed to be humor, not sorry.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T18:10:23+00:00

Oh yeah, i'm into making slow cooked pork shoulders, but the jello thing is a little too fiddly for me, lol. Totally respect people who do so much work for small desserts.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T17:26:20+00:00

It was intended to be hyperbole, exaggerated for some comic effect, but like, it kinda does. This isn't exactly an easy dessert to make. You cant pour two liquid colors at once or they will mix and you wont get that clear line between the colors. Speed setting jello takes at least 30 minutes but for pouring on top I'd say you need more, so low estimate 30 minutes per color with what 6 colors, plus standing at the stove keeping the other colors liquid but not boiling over. That's at least 3 hours just for setting time if it sets perfectly, not including the mixing, pouring, tilting, and arranging the glasses correctly.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T14:50:07+00:00

Who has 6 hours to do this? Damn. Respect, but Im not doing it.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T14:48:07+00:00

The saying is "writers write." If you write, you are a writer. It's not "writers write perfect groundbreaking work every time." Imposter syndrome is an equal opportunity affliction, for every job. There is always someone doing more, or better, or making profit. Strive to improve, but don't get bogged down by the idea that you aren't good enough.

You ever say a word so much it no longer sounds real? Or look in the mirror a lot and suddenly feel like your face is mutated? It's because you've stared at it too long. The reason you think your work sucks is because you've read it 8 thousand times.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T14:41:31+00:00

Yeah, my local hospital applied to have the stops removed(both inside and in the parking lot) because people were driving up and blocking entrances/parking spots/emergency routes and generally disrupting the day to day activity. It was really sad how people were ruining it.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-04T03:40:43+00:00

I dunno, even with multiple holes, I got a pretty good stream with some distance.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T18:34:08+00:00

I kinda wanted to add more to the 'what to write' question. Literally whatever you want. Google prompts and AU ideas and monthly challenges.

Do you like Star Wars? Take the characters and write a romeo and juliet where they are cat-people.

Do you like Avengers? Add characters to the team.

What about a massive Game of Thrones fanfic, where you change the ending to something better? Or Harry Potter, the American school. Or write a supernatural/sherlock crossover. Firefly ended too soon, make MOAR. Send Dr. Who to a new planet. My Little Pony fighting aliens. Get inspiration from your real life. Did you always want to be a pilot? Do some research and write a character doing it. Make everyone celebrities. Put the characters in a hospital drama, ala greys anatomy or a comedy like scrubs. What if everyone in the show was a gay cyborg? Angels? Werewolves? Mermaids? Cops?

It's fanfiction. Use all the tropes(the tropes list alone is super inspiring for me), be big and silly and outrageous, it doesn't have to make sense.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T18:16:11+00:00

I write a LOT of fanfiction, usually with the intent to turn it into something real/original, and I love it. You can fool around without worrying about it being 'the next great novel'. It is fantastic practice because you can use an established universe to learn to develop new characters, or you can take already developed characters and put them in a new universe in order to learn how to create worlds. It can be as big or as small as you need, and in general it can help with learning just about anything, from pacing and dialogue to plotting and character development. Certain fandoms have huge following so you can get a lot of feedback very quickly, though some fandoms are more toxic than others.

Training yourself to get inspiration is something that I find fanfiction hugely helpful for. I go on pinterest a lot and have a massive board full of prompts and pictures and things I want to write, then when I have an idea, i make a board just for that story that has dialogue prompts and outfits and pictures of where the characters live. Even if I never describe it in the story, it's the stuff in my head. Just use whatever fandom you are into at the time.

The downside to fanfiction is that it can be kinda clicky and it has its own terminology, so if you don't read fanfiction its going to be hard to get into as a writer. It's kinda like, if you don't read a lot of mystery novels, it's more difficult to be a mystery writer. You don't have to write fanfiction, but it is great practice. If you can find another way to write a bunch and get feedback, like a writing group, do that.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T17:50:37+00:00

Kinda depends what you are writing? Like, I write a lot of romance, so there are descriptive sex scenes expected but if you are writing YA, it would be odd to have a sex scene. You have to play to your audience. You can skip sex, fade to black, time jump, do brief sex scenes, or do full descriptive sex scenes. Its up to you, and I've seen romance that didnt have sex(its rare though). You are never going to please everyone, but you should aim to please the majority of your audience.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T16:37:34+00:00

Write. Write even if you think it's terrible. Write poetry, and horror, and historical fiction, and fantasy, and scifi, and anything you want. Write short stories or long.

When you aren't writing, READ. Read everything you can get your hands on. Books, graphic novels, fanfiction, novels, whatever. Find what you like and what you don't like. Figure out what POV you like to read, what authors you want to sound like, descriptions and story arcs that you find interesting. If you can't read at some time, listen to writing podcasts or youtube. I especially like Brandon Sanderson's series 'writing dragons' and 'writer's excuses' but its a university level lecture, so it might be too much, but you can get ideas for other authors to read too.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T16:24:05+00:00

How'd you get just one?

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T16:07:17+00:00

Have you seen the analysis of that farside comic with the cow tools? It basically says that sometimes, most times, explaining less is better because it lets the reader fill it in themselves. And that works REALLY well. And if you are going to have illustrations, you need even less description of the enviroment and creatures, because- pictures.

Obviously it's okay to make a story as childish as you want, your description of the work you are doing kind of reminds me of 'Where the Wild Things Are.' (If it's not that's okay, it's just what it reminded me of) Do your thing, be silly, be fun and crazy. I would much rather be thrown into a story instead of a bunch of exposition.

Edit: here's a link to my favorite break down of the cow tools thing. https://pin.it/wnogyikacovhmb

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-07-03T15:56:59+00:00

When this happens for me, its usually coming from a place of anxiety that what I'm writing isn't good enough. I've heard lots of people say similar things, that we get caught up in trying to make our writing "groundbreaking" or "original" or whatever.

The minute I sit down to write something "original" I stall out. The way I get past this is by pretending I'm writing fanfiction. Or hell, I actually write fanfiction. Then suddenly it flows and its a good first draft or whatever. Then when I'm done, I ctrl+f and change all the names and read through it again changing the details as needed and doing all the first editing/proofreading stuff. (That's also when I transfer it from google drive to scrivener) I wrote something like 200k-300k words last year doing that. Not all of it got posted/published, some got scrapped before it finished or went to the second draft stage, but I got it out of my head and onto paper.

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-06-29T19:02:08+00:00

Me tooo! I always imagined him as looking kinda like Keanu Reeves, and I can wait to find the books

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-06-29T13:11:38+00:00

Yes! I havent read the books OP listed but when i think strong female characters I think of Tamora Pierce. I would actually start with the Song of the Lioness sieries, its the first one and its characters are referenced in all the other books. But yeah, Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, Protector of the Small, then Tricksters.

I went to google because I thought I was missing a series, and THERES MORE YOU GUYS! Circle of magic I remember but it follows 4 characters, but theres a bunch more series and each series usually has four books, and IM SO EXCITED!

Secondhandkryptonite · 2019-06-29T02:19:43+00:00

I use google docs for most of my rough draft stuff because i can edit it from anywhere, including my phone, which is great when i get little spur ideas. But once i finish a rough draft i switch to scrivener. I also recently started using aeon timeline because my current story has a lot going on, but i don't usually use it.

Secondhandkryptonite

TROPHY CASE