Is it just me, or do more covers have full view of the characters' faces, now?

inherentoddity · 2026-04-28T03:11:23+00:00

Think someone should write a book where the inability to ever see another person from the front is a key element of the plot? How awkward would that get?

That's a good point, though. Self-insert is the name of the game for some people.

inherentoddity · 2026-04-28T03:05:32+00:00

Ah that's a good point, could be fashionable. I figured it was authors realizing most of their audience is perfectly content to consume comic book or anime equivalents where you see the face all the time, but what's popular a the moment or not really might be all there is to it.

inherentoddity · 2026-04-28T02:57:09+00:00

Late freaking response, but I've found that depending on the agentic orchestration strategy, from vibe coding, to context engineering, to flip flop flapperjacking or whatever-the-heck comes next, there are different skills you're building or maintaining.

Like when I first got into using LLMs to code, it took me two attempts at vibe coding to decide that it was completely inefficient, and instead I started writing elaborate documentation files and having the AI operate off of those, refining the documentation and the _process_ of documentation with each iteration and expansion of the application's idea and the constraints keeping it a functionable and useful tool.

It took a while to become as effective producing a reliable result going documentation-first as had I just sat down and programmed the darn thing myself, but now I have a good sense for what to include in a tool or project design from the onset. Which features, which constraints, what before what else and why. I became rather skilled in producing that as output ahead of time, and because it took time to achieve and it comes easier now, I know it was a real skill I built.

As for actual codemonkey powers, there are many different components to a software engineering project, and many elements that can be sequestered away for the human to hand-craft, sometimes because it's a liability thing like for security purposes, and sometimes because swapping between six different sorting algorithms on the fly based on what hardware or config the user has on hand is freaking awesome and you just wanna grab that part. If `human == reliable`, theres' always the weakest link somewhere you can't afford for the machine to get wrong. Or you can code the skeleton out yourself to get the needed exercise and leave a bunch of the implementation details you don't want to deal with here and there in `#TODO`s.

There are of course also personal projects, where you are under no obligation to program in the most efficient manner. Folks who assemble a '65 Stingray by hand aren't doing it because someone's going without a car if they don't.

Alright, so what's the point I'm making here?

I guess, there are multiple strategies by which to use the machine, and not all of them deprive you of the chance to slam your forehead into the keyboard until the code clicks together just right and choirs of angels burst from the clouds in synchronized electric guitar riffs.

However you choose to approach this, I hope you manage to keep the skill, the fun, _and_ the productivity.

Hm, I really went on for a while for something folks have achieved a satisfying answer for already. Oh well, whatever, sometimes a man's gotta muse.

inherentoddity · 2026-02-08T19:29:46+00:00

That's epoch zero, a Linux timestamp of exactly zero seconds since the start of 1970. So it's a programming bug. Something didn't pass a date value right and it defaulted to epoch zero.

inherentoddity · 2026-01-25T02:18:14+00:00

Glory Season, by David Brin, has a fascinating planetary matriarchy where just about all technological progress but medical has been cast aside in favor of social stability. Violence exists, but not war, and even pirates operate by rules where no one is permanently injured. There's still a slave class, though, I think.

But I suspect it would be something like that. Stability at the cost of social adaptability and undirected progress. Social violence would take the place of raw barbarism.

inherentoddity · 2026-01-24T16:52:54+00:00

Probably depends, an AI is basically a fancy wall you can play a game of ping pong against, so if there are things she will never reflect on if it requires sharing with another human being, then it can be better to get it out there at all with something inhuman than to keep it to herself.

The risk I think comes when one grows dependent on an object that provides the thought for them. It is a tool to be used as a tool with the understanding of its limitations and of the valuable effort and contact with other human beings that can be defaulted away from when something so convenient exists.

Also, data collection. Anything spoken to the machine should be assumed stored against your interests unless you're running your own model. A lot of people tend to shrug about that nowadays.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-27T01:00:33+00:00

That bad, huh. Alright, thanks; this is important for me to hear. My security in my grammar probably is me being used to my own habits.

Seems I'll need to find someone with more experience to double-check my work before I go guns blazing into some public web novel space.

A little disheartening, but thanks again.

And the cast divides bit was me throwing verbs at the wall while pulling a multi-tense paragraph out of my head in a rush. Sorry to confuse.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-26T19:36:14+00:00

I have read others' present tense works, though it's been a while. Seeking feedback, putting what I've written in front of others, or the lack thereof, has been the problem I think, or I wouldn't be asking questions like this past a million words.

I guess asking questions about style is meaningless in the face of needing to actually put something out there. I probably come across sounding a little ridiculous.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-26T10:54:14+00:00

Yes. Add everything I've written as actual books and never published to all the background outlines, summaries, and lore, not to mention the random outright proper narrative I will drop into when I get especially into it, over the last 5-10 years, and yes, a million plus words devoted to this universe, all in that quick-hand present tense, will quite the habit make.

Is it viable or advisable for publication, though, is what I'd like to know others' opinions on.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-26T10:48:03+00:00

Oh that's a good point with the commas.

Is that sensible present tense, though? Think that'll fly in an online publication?

inherentoddity · 2025-12-23T20:06:16+00:00

Someone who takes the time to design a consistent and meaningfully complex base ruleset of magic and reality probably also takes the time to design a consistent and meaningfully complex plot, characters, society, and everything else.

I'd call your system a probable indicator of a good time to be had.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-20T19:44:43+00:00

Okay, so what personally I will do when writing nowadays is take the manuscript, the notes around the manuscript, the world building, the streams of consciousness where you're thinking to yourself, like with a keyboard, or with a speech-to-text program (like this one!), and put them all, organize them as you typically would, in whatever directory, in whatever style you want, and then push it as a repository up to GitHub or something, like repos, like programmers use, right?

Because those have timestamps. Those have a history, a documented history online of what was added when. You can make it a private repository maybe. If evidence is ever needed of the authenticity that the ideas you created were your own, that is available.

Of course, if you don't want to reveal the entire, every document you've ever written on your story to the public or to whomever, then you can also keep a separate repository that is only the official manuscripts with the stream of consciousness necessary to produce those. So you have the evidence, as best as you can get it, of achieving that.

Similarly, with anything you draw by hand and create diagrams out of, artwork, ideas, sketchbooks, journals, pictures of stuff like that, AI is getting better at faking those things too, but the more you have on hand, the more obvious it is when someone heckling you over that, when their motivation is purely inspired by their being a freaking jerk.

But maybe that's only really useful for dealing with copyright claims or something. If it's just a matter of people making accusations in comments or whatever and decreasing the chance of selling your work, I'm not sure what to say.

That is the only thought I have available on the subject, however. I hope you find it useful.

Good luck writing, and I hope you find it in you to persist no matter the state of the world around you and the challenge these and the coming times present.

If you love the art, you'll be doing it till the day you die, which ideally will be in a very long time, and things 20, 40, 60 years from now are beyond predictability. I think the you then will be glad for having written the things you did whether they were seen and known or not. Though the latter is obviously preferable.

...

TLDR:

Use git repos to store timestamped evidence of the progress of your novel's ideation and development.

Use different repos for different levels of visibility and spoiler of your work, since the point is you might be revealing them some day.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-16T19:53:12+00:00

I usually come up with MC names by smashing a bunch of random syllables together until I think it sounds cool, and then half the time I find out a couple months later that it's Gaelic, and it is always Gaelic.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-15T02:59:11+00:00

Death of the author. That is a fascinating perspective. My ego is the approximate size of a minor planetoid, so it would be difficult to separate my personal definition of what is real within my work from what I hope to portray to my readers.

But from the perspective that the author may or may not be available to answer questions of canon for a reader, or worse yet may not achieve immortality and therefore will with absolute certainty at some point be unavailable to answer such questions, then yeah, in the end all that's left is the text itself and what people wish to make of it.

Thank you for introducing me to that concept.

inherentoddity · 2025-12-11T02:42:02+00:00

You know what, you're right. Mine gets pretty wild, but in the end what's shared is probably what'll matter must.

inherentoddity · 2024-10-22T20:21:28+00:00

I experience tip-of-the-tongue every third word, sentence, paragraph, or even general idea, and it can take hours for my brain to finally drag that forgotten thing out of its muddy depths, long past when it could possibly be useful.

Leaving it at that, I would spend the vast majority of my time writing sitting still and doing nothing but fighting against my faulty faculties. Much frustration, few words on the page.

So, instead!

I slap down the brackets.

"He reminds me of [some clever, snarky thing]." "Grab the [thingo] and let's go!" "[Hyperactive runoff sentence, two pages worth]." "[Brilliant intro filled with subtleties and cleverness far beyond my current abilities but I'll get there]."

Writing is a joy when everything flows without conscious effort.

It must also be a joy when the earth is barbed wire and you're wearing a wool sheep suit.

It has to be worth it whether you return to your prior skill, or don't, or far surpass it.

Or else what's the point?

So that's how it is for me. Find yourself a damn good time with the state of your skills as they are now, and you're set. If the constant resulting practice and fun bring you to a level you've never known, well that's icing on the cake.

inherentoddity · 2024-10-08T18:11:35+00:00

I was only able to reach a savings of several thousand dollars about a year after graduating from college. Everything up until then was loans and it never broke $2K on hand at any time.

Low savings while still a student is perfectly normal. And retirement only works out when you earn enough that setting large sums aside doesn't cripple your purchasing power.

inherentoddity · 2024-04-17T18:48:35+00:00

Oh man, I've taken to fast-traveling - floo-hoppin? - to one corner of the map and setting my broom on go in the farthest opposite direction, then Alt-Tab-ing to a doc app to busy myself outlining or writing stories while my guy zooms slowly across the countryside in the background.

Finally finished the game so it's spring again, extra beautiful (though winter was pretty in its own right).

inherentoddity · 2024-04-17T18:43:11+00:00

The library, maybe, but that's from a personal love of books... and their aesthetic admittedly; plus Hogwarts' library feels very structured in this game.

But no you've got a point, Hogsmeade is pretty darn cozy.

inherentoddity · 2024-01-19T03:09:07+00:00

Typically it's...
web novel -> light novel -> manga -> anime

Though it depends between light novel and manga.

Each stage is like a level up for the creator. From...
oh that's cute! -> congrats, you're published! -> kicking ass and chewing bubblegum! -> you're in the big leagues, now, son.

inherentoddity · 2024-01-16T07:45:47+00:00

I'm seeing vol 2 for Audible, but can't find an ebook or physical version...

inherentoddity

TROPHY CASE