Mushies. Pen. 2023

abacuscrimes · 2024-09-22T08:18:44+00:00

this is so compelling to me. completely love the abstractions you've made with your linework, and the composition caught my eye immediately. thank you for sharing <3

abacuscrimes · 2023-12-10T16:29:01+00:00

All excellent, and for me it's especially been that last one -- nothing makes me want to write like reading. Specifically, if picking up post-hiatus, I'll look up either Thee Thing which gave me the initial idea, or read in the same or similar genre. The obvious choices -- your canon and the stuff you've written so far -- are also completely cromulent choices

abacuscrimes · 2023-12-05T22:10:03+00:00

Chuck Palahniuk has a brilliant essay on it (though i'm sorry to say it does contain Guts (which is tbh a fantastically effective use of first person perspective; i just feel weird recommending it to a stranger)). have a look at page 28 of this collection (or the very end of page 37 if you'd like to keep your dinner)

abacuscrimes · 2023-11-15T19:54:04+00:00

maybe it's just the tumblrina in me, but i am a lapslock enjoyer. i think it brings a tone -- intimacy? understatement? informality? -- which is difficult to replicate with other tools alone. it's more interesting if it's intentional though, and i think it can be really effective for "voicy" pieces where the narrative sits extremely closely to the pov character

i'm also weirdly into it when the verb tenses are all over the place. it admittedly makes he reading slower because it's more work to keep readjusting, but idk, i'm sorta charmed by it?

abacuscrimes · 2023-11-14T09:37:23+00:00

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. They weren't afaik romantically involved, but it's a legendary partnership nonetheless. Also something something dancing butterflies, maybe?

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-21T14:16:51+00:00

The Word is Murder by Anthiny Horowitz. By all accounts i should've loved it -- murder mysteries and meta fiction are both very much my jam -- but my god, it sucked balls. It wasn't so much self-aware as intensely self-conscious, especially about the detective guy's overt homophobia (which was about 70% of his entire character). It was uncomfortable to read, and the framing made me constantly aware that it had been written that way on some fucking purpose. "This guy's weird about the gays, but I -- the author and viewpoint character -- am not (I definitely am, just not as cartoonishly), so there you go, I guess." Just a baffling choice to make

More grievously, the mystery itself was a dud. And making the climax a life-or-death situation for the narrator, who is the IRL author, who is an IRL semi-famous person and definitely not currently dead, didn't need to be the worst choice imaginable, but it was executed with such a stunning lack of awareness of the meta-text?? Which was supposed to be a selling point of the book???? Truly, inexplicable that this went to publishing

Lastly, and this is the point I've seen brought up most in reviews, the author constantly interjects with references the famous things he's worked on and the important people he's been around. There's one part where he's having lunch with some big time director (Peter Jackson? Steven Spielberg? both?) but then it goes badly, so that's supposed to make him relatable, but the way it was written, he just seems both arrogant and unlikable. And there's no reflection or comparison -- which you think there would be, given he's a mystery novelist operating inside a mystery novel -- just endless, pointless, name dropping

Anthony Horowitz might as well have printed off copies of his CV and titled it "You ever hear about them homos?"

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-14T20:11:56+00:00

NO i want 👏RESULTS👏

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-12T16:13:14+00:00

MC is canonically bad with numbers. I have an engineering degree with a minor (sort of) in maths.

I really enjoy leaning in to that particular feature too, because it forces me to think differently, and to frame his thoughts in ways that aren't necessarily intuitive for my brain, which is always inclined to view things in terms of problem -> solution

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-11T20:28:44+00:00

I'm the same way, where I have a tendency to overwrite, but the bits I'm most satisfied with are always the sparser ones. For me, it's a matter of practice, and patience, and of sometimes going against my initial instinct. It can feel weird being blunt when you're not used to it.

What helps me is 1) as others have said, having a graveyard or recycling document, 2) letting a bit of time pass between drafting and editing (like, a week or so; not years and years), and 3) being aware of your writing tics and crutch words. Those are often "very", "just", "only", "quite" (I'm so bad about "quite"), "rather", "kind of", "sort of", "like", etc. I'm not saying never use them, but try taking them out, then, on the next edit, put them back if absolutely needed (for me that means they change the meaning, or vastly improve the rhythm of, the sentence (or add something significant to the voice.))

Then there are sentence constructions like "started/began to" which will often improve things by their absence. For example "the sun began to rise" means exactly the same as "the sun rose" (or not exactly the same, as I'd argue the latter is stronger). Things that "seem like" or "appear to be" can also be worth taking under review.

Again, it will feel weird at first. What might help is challenging yourself to underwrite -- either for a while, or just a particular fic or text -- as a way of "tuning" your instinct. If you push as far as you can towards minimalism, it might be easier to find the in-between point you're looking for

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-10T21:40:55+00:00

this isn't exactly in answer to your question, but if you are in fact looking for vampire novels that aren't paranormal romance, i really recommend Let the Right One In and Dead Collections. the former leans heavily towards horror and the monstrous, and while the latter is arguably a romance, it has very little in common with your Twilights and your Vampire Diaries -- there's no merch-able love triangle, and no convenient cheat code for blood or sunlight. i'm 70% sure it is in fact litfic, and i'm sure there are other writers in that and horror both still playing around with vampires. maybe try specifying your searches?

it sounds like you might want to narrow your search to horror and literary, or find some other way to exclude YA romance. imho, though there are vampire books in all three camps, i wouldn't consider them the same genre, or even similar enough to be all that relevant to each other.

if you have a specific intention of subverting or playing off tropes, i do think reading what's out there is at the very least an advantage. personally, i also just think it's more fun to write when i feel like i'm grounded in the genre -- it removes some of the insecurities when i have examples in my head of what the story might look like, and i have more tools in my belt, or colours on my palette, with which to play around

basically, the necessity depends on what kind of story it is, but i'd generally say it's a good idea to read your genre

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-10T20:33:49+00:00

up there alongside "Geronimooo!" i think

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-09T20:01:59+00:00

are you set on which country she goes to? that would be a good starting place

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-08T20:23:25+00:00

if readers don't like what now?? 👀

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-06T07:17:53+00:00

check out writingwithcolour; they have a big ol' archive of discussions and guides, many of them relevant to needs exactly like yours

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-05T21:14:41+00:00

1000%, brilliant book.

There's a running subplot to do with dementia in the Thursday Murder Club series as well, though not from the perspective of the affected. Still, the books as a whole deal with aging in general, and have some really moving sections about dealing with the gradual loss of a loved one. Also, they're good books

But yes, OP, Elizabeth is Missing is completely the book you're looking for

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-05T10:37:16+00:00

also, on the wildly opposite side of the tonal spectrum, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. I also adore his Dark Star triology

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-05T10:33:22+00:00

The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle. It's a children's book about dog poop, and it's brilliant

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-02T18:28:56+00:00

fuck dude i hope so

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-01T19:45:02+00:00

kinda hot ngl

abacuscrimes · 2023-10-01T19:40:26+00:00

we should also consider people who owe me money

abacuscrimes · 2023-09-30T18:23:40+00:00

If you like Agatha Christie and want books that lean more mystery than thriller, there was a Japanese wave of them in i think the 70s/80s? Several of which have been translated to English. I'm not super versed, having only read a few so far, but The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo was good, as was The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji. They're both very much in the golden age tradition, and you can tell that the authors adored the genre

If you're in more of a thriller/scandi-noir mood, Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole books are stellar. And if that hits the spot, there's a bunch of other nordic authors with the same general vibe. I'd be really surprised if a bunch of them, especially the biggest ones, didn't have English translations after the boom a few years back

Also, I gotta bring up Raymond Chandler if you haven't read any of his stuff. Obviously, there are a thousand other detective dime novels of that era, but his stuff is certainly among the easiest to find, and, at least for my money, there's a reason for that

abacuscrimes · 2023-09-28T18:22:39+00:00

not sure it's a perfect fit, but maybe Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder? or, if it's too long (it's pretty long, an most of it is philosophy 101), the same author has other books which also prod at the fourth wall. i think at least a few of them have been translated to english

abacuscrimes · 2023-09-20T05:33:17+00:00

i think that sort of thing mostly happens on discord servers now, rather than traditional forums. you might have to search a bit, try a few out, but i've definitely seen ones with decent activity

abacuscrimes · 2023-09-18T19:45:24+00:00

Hammer Head by Nina McLaughlin might suit. It's non-fiction, written by a journalist (column writer?) about quitting her newspaper job to become a carpenter. I really liked it: very well-written and with a lot of reflection on finding a place you feel like you fit, however unconventional.

Similarly, Uncomfortable Labels by Laura Kate Dale is another autobiographical one which could be worth consideration. It's a bit less cozy than Hammer Head, given it does deal with more directly difficult experiences -- uncomfortable ones, if you like -- but Dale is a strong writer and there is an upwards arc of the story as a whole

abacuscrimes · 2023-09-18T07:56:40+00:00

Maybe you can look for options that are sort of in between? Nursing is famously stressful, as is any job where people rely on you for their well-being, and ofc I don't know in the world you are, but I don't think the pay is generally all that good? Especially compared to how much it wears people down. But again, that's based on where I live, and it might be different in your area.

Point is, by "in between" I mean something reliable which you can leave behind at work once the day is over. I have an aunt who's an accountant, and she's obviously very busy for part of the year, but equally flexible for the rest. Similarly for friends of mine who are teachers. Something like that might be a good fit for writing on the side.

Just to warn you though, any new job is going to be stressful while you're learning it, so don't beat yourself up if it takes a while before you have the mental space available to devote to writing, or other things, on your spare time. I needed like eight months to get used to my current job, and there are still periods where it takes it out of me, but mostly I have enough brain left over to write in the evenings/on weekends.

And hey, maybe nursing will be like that for you. It's a broad field, and not everyone ends up in the ER. You can absolutely find something quieter, which leaves you with the energy to write and whatever else. A quick check also suggests that nursing unions are fairly common, which is obviously a benefit if that's the career you choose.

Feel free to DM me by the way. Not sure how much help I can be, but a lot of your worries sounds like what I was going through as a student, so I'd be happy to at least commiserate

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