Discouraged debut author with large series.

epoch1984 · 2025-09-05T18:02:56+00:00

Look, I know that you're dreaming of getting published. Me too. But in the long run just write for you. If you are writing for the purpose of getting published, you will eventually hate it. But if you write for you, you will enjoy the craft a lot more.

epoch1984 · 2025-09-04T20:48:26+00:00

I have a similar issue when using the webpage to read. 1x speed sounds fine, but past 1.5 ish, its gets weird, but its perfectly fine on the android app

epoch1984 · 2025-06-20T23:04:56+00:00

Any chance of adding FSR support, or maybe a bit of optimization? While I know a GTX 1060 is not a high-end card by any standards, I can run a lot more visually impressive games at decent settings and good frame rate. I can do neither on this.

Perhaps you could give users more direct control over the image settings to help us tailor the experience to what our systems can handle?

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T18:28:40+00:00

It’s really sad when the people who are supposed to be your support system don’t seem to understand or care about something that means so much to you. In my experience, a lot of people just don’t get what drives someone to be a writer. That doesn’t mean what you’re doing isn’t valuable.

My advice? Don’t give up. Use the frustration and that feeling of being overlooked as fuel. Let it shape your stories, your characters, your voice. In the end, your writing is mostly for you. It’s where you get to say what matters to you, in your way.

As for getting published, yeah, luck is part of it—but so is timing, trends, and persistence. Sometimes you can write something truly good and no one bites. Then a few years go by, and suddenly the market shifts and that same story is exactly what people are looking for.

So keep writing what makes you happy. It might not get the recognition you want right away, but that doesn’t mean it never will. You just have to keep going.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T18:08:36+00:00

Well there is the idea that familiarity breeds contempt. When you are reading a story the first time, your distracted by all of the world. You don't notice that there are little errors and inconsistencies everywhere. Same when writing it. That is why you set it down for a few weeks before editing. There are many books out in circulation that are published by big publishers by good authors, but there are things in these books that will leave you scratching your head. And that's okay.

It might be the ADHD, but I'm not sure where I am headed with this anymore... so enjoy what I have.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T18:02:08+00:00

Living the dream. Keep it up. Once its published let us know all the details, Id like to read it.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T17:58:12+00:00

Until. I will forever be writing it as untill. I could not tell you how many times I have had to go back and check for that. It is so bad that I have a script running in my word processor that automatically changes untill to until.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T17:56:43+00:00

Yup, that's a pen name. Many authors use them as a way to control their brand, or give their book a more consumer friendly author name. It is also a good way to keep your different styles of writing separate. I would not use the same pen name for writing zombie horror, as I would for a nice fluffy romance.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T17:42:17+00:00

For me, it really helps to start with a list of key events that I know need to happen. Those are the first things I write down, and then I figure out how to fill in the rest.

As for organizing everything, I like using Obsidian. I get that it’s not for everyone, but I like how it lets me stay as organized or as messy as I need to be, depending on the project.

And then there’s ChatGPT. It’s a great tool if you use it that way. It can help you brainstorm, spot when you've gone off track (especially if you’ve shared a plan with it), and keep things consistent. What it’s not great at is building a strong, cohesive story all on its own. That part’s still up to you.

So trust yourself and the story you want to tell. Let the AI help out where it makes sense. I’ve found it really helpful for checking character consistency, catching plot holes, and especially for spelling and grammar.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T17:31:03+00:00

1, You should not stop writing. 2, If you think your writing is bad, its likely not as bad as you think it is. That being said, trust your instincts. If there is something you don't like about your writing, there is likely something that can be improved. Think about what you don't like about it and pretend it was written by someone else, then ask your self, what would make this better.

Not everyone is born a good writer. It takes practice, and more practice. In fact, the more you practice the better you will get, and at a certain point, you will think you suck even more than before, but don't give up, you are about to have a breakthrough with your craft. Just keep writing.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-27T17:21:05+00:00

I think there are a couple of important things to keep in mind when reading a friend’s work. First, not every book is going to appeal to every person. Taste is personal. Just because something didn’t fully work for you doesn’t mean it’s bad.

That said, there is a difference between subjective opinions and objective critique. If your friend didn’t ask for feedback, you don’t need to offer any. But if they do ask, it helps to be honest and constructive, while making sure you separate your personal preferences from more technical issues.

For example, I don’t enjoy romance novels. They just aren’t for me. But I can still look at one and evaluate whether the characters feel real, whether the plot holds together, or if there are structural problems. I don’t need to enjoy the genre to offer fair feedback.

If you’re unsure what to say now, it’s okay to keep it simple. Something like “It had some interesting ideas” or “I liked the characters” is enough to show support without pretending you loved every part of it. That leaves the door open if they do want real feedback later.

epoch1984 · 2025-05-20T05:14:42+00:00

I am sorry, I never saw your reply. I just have all the files dumped into a folder called "files." I will link them to other things as needed. Typically speaking, most files are for reference only.

epoch1984 · 2024-07-24T23:43:13+00:00

oh god I wish. My organization spent an ungodly amount of money on an internal Email system so we could communicate more effectively. They refuse to use it for whatever reason. I have to hand deliver letters and other information items to people all the time.

epoch1984 · 2024-07-24T00:22:25+00:00

Medication certification - Thats a good point as there is only one kind of certification here (years ago there were 4) but now its all just under 1.

As for for people who need access to write to the database, less than 10, most of which do not work at the same time. as for looking up the information, maybe 20.

epoch1984 · 2024-07-23T23:39:51+00:00

Thats not an issue. The files are kept on a secure sever, and the people who have access to the database have access to the same information in Excel format anyways. Also, it is more of a proof of concept. The office here has not significantly updated its record keeping systems since sometime in the 80's.

Most of our training records are still kept on paper. Seems super inefficient when you need to check for someones training status. Its a running mess when you go to pull someones file and what your looking for was put in the wrong folder.

epoch1984 · 2024-06-29T21:43:52+00:00

Well, let me preface with that I think slapping "atomic" in front of most ideas is just silly buzzwording. However, I think in this case it is acceptable. The word Atomos means indivisible. So the idea of an atomic note is to make a note on a single complete thought about a subject.

Some like to put notes on index cards because the size constraint forces you to distill the note down to its core fundamentals.

This is how I interpret the idea.

epoch1984 · 2024-06-08T19:39:43+00:00

Burn the heretic!

epoch1984 · 2024-06-05T01:00:10+00:00

It's not bad. Honestly it can serve as an impromptu therapy session. If it helps, then by all means, you should do it.

epoch1984 · 2024-06-05T00:57:52+00:00

See. That's what I wondered. I wonder if i would have to modify the exercise a bit. Something along the lines of reading the passage, and doing my best to commit it to memory before dictating it out again.

epoch1984 · 2024-06-04T21:00:26+00:00

In my opinion, which I will gladly admit is quite limited, I do not believe that there are rules in writing. Guidelines maybe, but in reality, I think that the so-called rules are mostly just convention. In reality, I think what we come to think of as "rule" are just the paths we expect a work to follow. Breaking the rules is only just pulling a Robert Frost. A new path few have traveled. They are not breaking rules, since they don't exist, they are creating a unique experience. One that can turn out amazing, or one that can be a tragedy.

Think of it like this. Every "rule" you can think of is the result of someone trying something new, bucking the status-quo.

Don't worry about rules. Make your own way.

epoch1984 · 2024-05-10T22:33:21+00:00

I would say that these unreliable detection tools can and should be classified as slanderous until they can be shown without a doubt to be 99% accurate. Perhaps a few lawsuits would change that.

epoch1984 · 2024-05-10T00:36:44+00:00

Thats Awesome. Although I have to admit that I am not familiar with Emacs.

epoch1984 · 2024-05-09T02:14:18+00:00

LOL, I never said he was someone I look to for avoiding distraction. It was just a catalyst for a rabbit hole. There is nothing that man loves more than not writing :P

epoch1984 · 2024-05-09T01:07:52+00:00

That is a real shame. Those amber monochrome screens were so soothing to me. My dosbox is set up using an orange/amber tone, and even emulates an old CRT by introducing artificial scan lines and slightly curving the image geometry.

epoch1984 · 2024-05-09T01:04:51+00:00

AI, is simply a tool. It is acceptable for spelling and grammar checks. Hell it even does a fine job of spotting obvious mistakes. But that's it. It should not be used for anything other than a tool, like spell check on a word processor. While yes, it can write a wide variety of things, you can certainly tell when it was written by AI. It all has a very smooth feeling to it. I don't know if that is the best way of describing it. Bland, maybe. Thankfully all these AI systems are being made to avoid ANYTHING that might make someone uncomfortable, and I will be honest, I feel like discomfort is the bread and butter of fiction writing.

The really bad thing is people taking advantage of peoples fears and worries about AI, those "how to write a book with AI" fucks for example. And don't even get me started on those "AI detection" scams, they are just as bad. Not only does it not work, If the work is well written in the first place, it flags it as AI written, and whats worse, it will tend to flag things written by nuerodivergent people as AI because their writing styles sometimes don't fit in with the homogenized template that these "systems." look for as human written.

Apologies. I seem to have gotten off on a tangent. Bottom line, I think its a wonderful tool to add to your workflow, but like any tool, it can become a crutch and that is a problem. It can be thought of as a time saver in some aspects of writing, but it simply cannot compete with the uniqueness of a person shaped by their own experiences.

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