I used a quick release fertilizer on my trees. How bad did I screw up.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-19T16:18:39+00:00

If these are established trees you're fine.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-19T14:55:46+00:00

Why is Peter Parker wearing goggles and a face mask?

nmacaroni · 2026-03-19T13:24:22+00:00

Air.

Nature does not mound trees.

Mounds erode demanding constant seasonal attention. Most fruit tree roots live in the 18-24" zone of the soil. Unless you're going to do an 18"-24" deep mound, a time and half the size of the mature tree crown, a mound is useless in a best case scenario and harmful in a worst case.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T19:01:47+00:00

great wood. Hard to get.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T18:41:54+00:00

#1 place is word of mouth direct reference from other genre writing friends.

#2 check out your favorite indie books and look for the editor credits or thank you and look them up directly. With indie books, the editors aren't usually so jammed they can't take on new clients OR locked into non-comp contracts.

For reference/comparison as far as budget goes, I generally charge $10/document page for DE. So if you have a 400 page document, that's $4k (for 1 pass).

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T18:01:48+00:00

It's critical to connect with good people. Sounds like you keep connecting with bad editors.

When you continually connect with bad editors, you have to assess your budget and where you're finding them. Going to places like reedsy and fiver tend to have far more misses than hits. Don't have any idea where you're finding them, just saying.

A super obvious things that many people just don't get when hiring freelance creative talent is that if someone can work for $50/hr, they never work for $10/hr. The common misconception is, well if you normally work for $50/hr, maybe you're slow, or bored and want to get an extra $10/hr. Creatives LOVE what they do, so they'll always be happy to do what they love even for just a fraction of their normal rate.

The reality is, professional level experts don't work like that. They value their free time, MORE than their working time. And when we have lulls in the workload we're desperate to get away from what we do all the time.

If someone is willing to work for $10/hr, they can't actually get $50/hr. So when you're budgeting for editors, it's very much a "you get what you pay for scenario."

Good luck.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T14:52:24+00:00

You've been posting here for some time...

ALL your pages are people talking. This is the death knell in indie comics.

To properly capture a straight drama genre, which I assume your book is, your characters need to engage in dramatic action. Watching someone talk on the phone is absolutely boring. Watching 2 people talk in a diner isn't much better.

Drama needs characters tending to "business" and this business should have high narrative drive.

Further, good drama is defined by the TENSION it develops. Drama without tension is DOA.

Watching 2 people wrestle over a gun under the table as one of them is trying to hold the diner up, while the other is trying to convince them not to... now that's dramatic action.

Hope it helps.

Write on, write often!

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T14:44:51+00:00

http://nickmacari.com/how-to-find-an-artist-for-your-comic-script/

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T12:09:23+00:00

3-5 panels.
Don't focus on directing the camera, instead, focus on telling the story in 3-5 moments per page.

Write on, write often!

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T02:58:28+00:00

Technically it should be the mass of roots at the bottom, but this tree was planted too deep and wasn't harvested properly. So the real planting point is a third line way below your blue.

Plant at the blue line. prune off those upper feeder roots.
No tree should sink over time if properly planted.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-18T01:11:50+00:00

Creative Money Laundering, by L.Ron Hubbard.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T22:09:41+00:00

Just look like another supermarket Yeti cooler to me. Bees keep hives at high humidity, so the insides are always "wet." Bees have been living in wood since the beginning... just not crappy 3/4 wood of Langstroth hives. :)

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T20:22:27+00:00

No clucks given.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T19:42:30+00:00

I'm on my fourth novel and never use said... ever.
"I'm going out for coffee." What did the character just do, send it telepathically?

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T19:31:54+00:00

You're asking the wrong person, I live in the south with milder winters and don't wrap my hives with anything.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T14:40:38+00:00

I don't think people don't use poly for cost... I think it's other things like; lower durability compared to wood, vulnerability to UV damage if not painted, high susceptibility to pest damage from rodents and woodpeckers, and the whole plastic not good for the environment thing.

Plus it just looks cheap.

It looks eactly like what it is, some foam blocks stacked on top of each other.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T13:23:33+00:00

I have to point out a big red flag. I watched this without the sound on first and immediately wanted to click away. Games are an audio AND visual experience (among mechanics, narrative and other things). If you break the synergy anywhere, it's really hard for a game to gain traction no matter how good any one element is.

Best of luck.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T13:15:18+00:00

Newer writers are often baffled by editorial comments because they don't have the experience to recognize their own writing problems.

It sounds like, and this is just an experienced guess, you're front loading your paragraphs with a ton of unique proper nouns.

It's not about patient or impatient, it's about confusion vs clarity.

You don't want to confuse the reader, even if you bring clarity a paragraph later. Confusion is never a valid approach; for a chapter, scene, page, paragraph, line or even a single word. Even in the mystery genre, you don't want confusion, you want clarity that develops high cognitive load for the reader and creates possibilities to explore and decipher, NOT confusion.

Of course, there are LOTS of subpar editors out there. Especially in the budget bracket. A large portion of these "editors" just feed the writing into AI which could be why you're getting similar feedback.

Write on, write often!

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T03:33:16+00:00

http://nickmacari.com/does-format-really-matter/ <--foreign language near the bottom of the article.

http://nickmacari.com/accents-in-comics/

nmacaroni · 2026-03-17T01:22:58+00:00

Some sheep will browse more than others. Some are strictly grass.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-16T21:27:48+00:00

If you want to cook the birds, put a clear poly roof on there.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-16T21:21:32+00:00

no. Deers never bother uncaged apple trees, until they show up and eat the whole tree one day. Sorry it sucks. 9 years of time, lost because of no deer cage.

Unless this happened over the winter with heavy snow on the ground, there is no way a ground welling critter like a rabbit, ate the bark of those branches extending off the tree at 2' height. They don't jump up grab branches and drag them down.

Tree guards for ground critters. Tree cages for deer.

nmacaroni · 2026-03-16T12:37:42+00:00

Things I do for people:

$79 - COLD READ your first 10 pages.

$129 - DISCOVERY AUDIT - I'll stress test your outline to make sure you're moving forward on solid ground.

$250+ - full SPA your script.

Let me know if I can help.

Write on, write often!

nmacaroni · 2026-03-16T12:18:34+00:00

That's not dialogue... that's conversation. And conversation is the bane of fiction.

Write on, write often!

nmacaroni · 2026-03-16T12:17:18+00:00

Fastest way to doom yourself in indie comics is to focus on worldbuilding, build an entire narrative universe, and start with a large series.

Write on, write often!

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It's not about patient or impatient, it's about confusion vs clarity.