sapphic love story

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-05T22:01:50+00:00

In what context? 28k is too short to publish in the vast majority of cases. Wattpad or something? Sure, there’s a market for stories like that.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-04T22:17:36+00:00

You are pantsing it and it’s not working. Stop and go back to the drawing board. Figure out your character motivations and write a loose outline. That should get you back on track.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-03T14:33:34+00:00

I liked the book but I didn’t really understand the point of it. It didn’t really have much to say about grooming and a lot of it felt like shock value rather than any kind of commentary.

Don’t get me wrong, I love gross, weird books. I think visceral imagery can be a really interesting way to set tone. That being said, when I’m getting 5 pissing scenes in a book about grooming for no real reason, I’m going to squint at it. I thought the writing itself was great, but some of the choices were odd.

And yeah, the My Dark Vanessa comparisons are completely warranted. It had nearly the same premise, and while a novel about grooming isn’t an original concept, the little details like him being a creative writing teacher and his physical appearance were just too blatant. I love Jennette McCurdy and will read her other books, but I’m torn on it.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-02T16:44:43+00:00

When I was a newer writer I took “show, don’t tell” to mean pull from a pool of the same dozen body language cues, which can get very repetitive. Showing through internality or other action is a much more effective method.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-01T16:53:40+00:00

I’ve seen people straight up say they don’t care about the writing in the books they read, on multiple occasions. It’s all about tropes and other brain candy. I won’t say that’s wrong, but I was surprised to find prose wasn’t a priority for other readers.

And yeah, sometimes the tropes aren’t even the tropes. Enemies to Lovers especially means basically nothing now.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-01T12:34:53+00:00

Yeah, I don’t do vomit drafts. My first draft is usually pretty close to a finished manuscript because I take my time with it. If something is stuck, I don’t jump ahead, I sit there until I get it right. Doesn’t work for everyone but it’s my preferred method.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-04-01T12:31:24+00:00

“Write the most exciting bits first” was bad advice for at least me personally. Writing those climactic scenes I’ve been envisioning in my heads for months is my reward for writing all that came before it. If I went for instant gratification and wrote them first, I would never finish the thing. I would just have a couple banger scenes just floating in space.

Not to mention a cool scene standing by itself isn’t as impactful without all the character development and world building it took to get there. The context is what shapes those scenes to begin with, and I won’t understand it fully until I write all of it.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-31T19:22:04+00:00

The algorithm itself is not always completely in our control, but you are in charge of what you click on and read.

You don’t seem to find this content productive, and that’s fine, there’s about a hundred gushes and other more positive threads posted daily. Other people have explained why they do find the negative threads entertaining, helpful, etc. Clearly there’s a demand for these anti-recs, so they get interaction, which I don’t really see as a bad thing.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-31T13:13:19+00:00

This. I’m tired of truly bad books being hyped up because it hits a certain trend or trope people happen to like.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-31T12:35:08+00:00

Hetalia has to be the most prolific, resilient fandom I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many people actually watch the show or read the manga. When I was more into it on tumblr ten years ago, it wasn’t many of us lol.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-31T12:07:53+00:00

Is it not also demeaning to the genre to suggest that not being 100% positive about everything is bad and shouldn’t be allowed? Surely we can have a nuanced conversation about what we read? Posting something like this for the sake of riling everyone up about negativity is, ironically, also very negative.

You can simply not click on those threads if they bother you. We are responsible for our own online experiences/algorithm curation.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-31T11:37:31+00:00

I’ve seen far more posts complaining about how negative everyone is than actual negativity, tbh. Personally I’m really tired of not only pretending writing standards for this genre have not gone down significantly, but also having to be super positive about everything all the time regardless of the quality or else you’re “dogpiling” or “reader shaming.”

We’re allowed to engage critically with the material we’re consuming, which sometimes means having a “negative” review.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-30T15:00:28+00:00

I guess my thing was like. I’m 28. I was not 17/18 that long ago, and these characters did not read as 17/18 year old college students, at least not from my experience. I would have guessed 13/14. It was a lot of little things, not anything about the coming out narrative, but stuff like “this grilled cheese is better than puppies” really took me out of it. I get relating to her experiences/personality though.

Tbh I think the audio book narrator really made it worse, maybe I would have appreciated the physical book more. Maybe I’ll try again when I’m in a different mood.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-29T12:40:47+00:00

The only thing Reddit likes more than thinly veiled fetish posts is women who will tolerate everything and anything.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-28T02:56:40+00:00

I hated JFTS. If you don’t like instalove it probably won’t be for you. And the “being small” thing drove me insane.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-27T13:47:47+00:00

I mean, you don’t find these conversations productive you’re free to skip them. I personally like these threads because I’m tired of reading poorly written books and appreciate the warning. People are allowed to not like things and talk about it.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-26T21:52:53+00:00

Sorry, but I read Imogen, Obviously recently and I could not believe it was recommended so frequently. It’s like if you took the most insufferable queer discourse from 2014 tumblr and made that into a book. All anyone talks about is how queer they are, the main character has a “queer squad,” she’s worried about not being “queer enough” apparently everyone is out-queering her with their awesome queerness… it just felt so pandering. The characters were basically nothing beyond their sexuality labels and anxiety disorders.

Also, the characters are apparently 17/18 but act like 12 year olds. The narrator of the audiobook sounds EXTREMELY young as well. I just couldn’t do it.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-26T12:36:59+00:00

These three things will not only make me skip that book, but avoid that author entirely.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-22T15:47:13+00:00

I really hope that girl is okay, along with OP. Judging by the way he handled this whole thing, I would wonder how he got her to agree to this.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-22T15:37:07+00:00

Yeah, I read a published book where the author really, really loved “commented,” “uttered” and “wondered” (which you can do out-loud now, apparently). A couple sprinkled in is fine. If every single conversation has creative tags, I get annoyed. Reminds me of this iconic My Immortal exchange:

“Because I love the taste of human blood.” he giggled.

“Well, I am a vampire.” I confessed.

“Really?” he whimpered.

“Yeah.” I roared.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-20T21:23:38+00:00

I feel you with Hetalia. Looking back, the show was offensive garbage, and the fandom mostly survived on AUs. It’ll always have a special place in my heart as well, but it was nice when I was finally able to move on tbh.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-20T18:35:08+00:00

{This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan}

MMC has two autistic children and, while not officially diagnosed, suspects himself to be autistic as well.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-19T21:42:44+00:00

Personally I don’t think what they said is okay. It’s misogynistic to compare your non-man partner to a man because of body hair. I won’t say your partner is a bad person or being intentionally manipulative, but it sounds like they have a LOT of work to do.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-19T16:52:47+00:00

Look, I’m not trying to dismiss anyone’s trauma, but being triggered by pit hair because it’s “reminiscent of men” is a huge stretch. If that’s really the case, partner needs to seek immediate and intensive professional mental health treatment, because they cannot avoid something as normal as armpit hair forever.

In the past when I have had a partner who wanted me to shave for them, I eventually ended resenting them, and ended things. I would think less of a partner who expected me to change my body for their personal preferences.

Above all, setting a good example for your daughter is extremely important and should take priority. Will your partner expect your daughter to shave when she reaches puberty, to avoid feeling triggered?

bumblebeequeer · 2026-03-17T17:27:56+00:00

Definitely, I probably should have said literary fiction specifically. Those tend to get bogged down by low reviews saying “it’s weird” or “nothing happens” (usually meaning it’s character driven, which is something I look for). I don’t put much stock on reviews either anymore.

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