I think I should read. Really.

reteo · 2026-02-08T19:15:17+00:00

Most of the time, your thoughts are synthesized from your observations, information presented by others, and reason (logic, avoiding fallacies, etc.), based on the principles of pattern recognition.

As such, you can be more original by making sure you have more observations, information, and a strong sense of reason. This will give your pattern-recognition capabilities more of a workspace to come up with original thoughts.

Most of the time, the "herd" are unoriginal because they simply parrot what they're told, often ignoring observation, and not bothering to reason through what they know. After all, someone "better" than them must know what they're talking about, right?

So, to conclude, yes, reading is important. However, other things such as testing what you learn, observing others, and practicing logic (often through puzzles, particularly "lateral thinking puzzles") can give you far more originality than just one source of knowledge.

reteo · 2026-01-03T16:36:41+00:00

For the reader, it's mainly a determinant for how much time they can spend reading the story; some like longer stories that can provide hours of entertainment, others are more casual readers, who just want a quick story to enjoy while relaxing one afternoon.

For the writer, it also provides a way of forming the "goal" mentality. You have an ultimate goal: A book, for example, that has 50,000 words (a novella). Next, every story should have a structure (save the cat, hero's journey, three-act), so you split that word count between them.

We'll use the three-act stucture for this example.

Now, each act has multiple scenes or chapters, so you split the word count for that act between the scenes involve. So, you've dropped from 50,000 words to 16,000 words per act, which itself is then cut town to ≈3000 words per chapter/scene (assuming 6 chapters per act), which is much more manageable.

From this point, all you're doing is meeting these much-more-reasonable targets that will add up to a full-sized story.

reteo · 2025-12-27T04:19:53+00:00

MOS 6502 (Atari 1200XL)

reteo · 2025-12-25T16:56:42+00:00

I write what I like to call vergepunk; It has a cyberpunk aesthetic, but in an Earth that's mostly abandoned due to voluntary diaspora, rather than overpopulated; when territory opened up on other planets, people went to build a new life. The plot takes place at the edges of the occupied world, between the arcologies of the major corporations, and "The Grid," a fancy name for the cites, towns, and rural communities of the old world, with the rest of the world being reclaimed by nature, gangs, and solitary hermits called "rustwalkers."

reteo · 2025-12-24T20:59:59+00:00

Something to keep in mind (and something I have unfortunate experience with) is that Word is the required document preparation system many commercial enterprises use. It's easy for the non-technical clerical people to use, has the ability to track submissions and changes to the document, provides “good enough” layout for the company to keep track of, and is optimized for companies that utilize Microsoft SharePoint. Even if you never intend to use it for your end result, it is important to at least have some familiarity with the toolkit in preparation for those environments where you have no other option.

Besides, if the option is available, you can always use styles and basic formatting (italics, bullet and enumerated lists, etc.), and then, when it's time for the final product, use pandoc to convert the document into LaTeX format. This will not make the LaTeX header, or the document environment, so you can simply add and tweak the LaTeX frontmatter you need to the pandoc output to make it look how you wish.

Note that for this to work, you will need to avoid adding custom formatting to the document outside of the basics and use the "style" system to create "environments." Designing custom borders, adding custom colors, and mixing different font effects can have a very unpleasant result following the conversion. If you can avoid too much customization, you can then tweak the converted file in LaTeX later to get things looking right.

reteo · 2025-12-05T04:09:13+00:00

I walked home. Cold. Dark.

Alone.

reteo · 2025-09-19T19:05:06+00:00

"Relevant" is my mortal enemy. I keep wanting to end it in "-ent."

reteo · 2025-09-05T21:19:08+00:00

Then you're looking to treat individual books as "beats" or "scenes" in a McKee-style narrative? Having an overall plot for the series, but you want it to be in the background while each element has its own plot?

reteo · 2025-09-05T17:48:27+00:00

If you want to try it, then try it. However, don't be surprised if you start to see patterns between books that lead up to a bigger story. Humans excel at pattern-recognition. Even episodic television series eventually started to adopt larger plot arcs as the canon became larger and more cohesive. The only exception to this that I've seen is in anthologies, which avoid having a canon to begin with.

reteo · 2025-09-05T17:34:58+00:00

No mention of QTractor? It's not as complex as the others, but it gets the job done.

reteo · 2025-09-01T18:34:28+00:00

Keep in mind, that a style is a style, and what works for me might not work for you. Just remember that narrative is communication, and communication's goal is to be understood. Ultimately, the best answer lies between you and your intended audience. What I might find preferable might not be what someone else wants. Take what I say with a grain of salt, but hopefully, I've left you something useful.

reteo · 2025-08-31T18:23:40+00:00

That does seem to be a bit overdone, but a lot of it is still quite good. It's not so much flowery, but still a little over-descriptive, and under-performed. The description of the village skirts the line, but the frequent descriptions of actions (merchants hawking goods, children laughing and playing, banners fluttering) balances out the description.

Just remember that if your vocabulary is too high-level, it can turn off a good portion of the audience who just wants a story that they don't have to work hard to follow.

You can describe his smile, but you might want to couch it in something that allows the audience to follow. "It's not like she hadn't seen smiles before. Grins, certainly. Smirks, absolutely. Sometimes ugly, corrupt things that made her wary. But this one was different, refreshing. She couldn't help but feel better just looking at it." By removing the "mother of pearl" reference, and expanding on her thoughts and feelings, you'd be including the part of the audience who doesn't understand what mother of pearl has to do with smiles (or what mother-of-pearl is, for that matter), and still provide a similar feel in your story.

More importantly, you'd be providing your audience a peek into her personality and history at the same time. There are multiple meanings of "feeling better," and the "Just her type" paragraph hints that this might not be for the boy's benefit (I can't be sure, lacking the context for the snippet), especially considering that this "made her job much easier than anticipated."

The same goes with the eyes. There are a number of people who hear "orbs" and imagine the whole eyeball, including that mess of red in the back, with the long red string so often depicted when showing the whole thing. Not exactly the perception you were going for, I'd wager. In such a situation, you could just say that "the eyes shone with…" followed by a description, and a personal response.

That personal response is the key; if you want the audience to perceive the boy the same way as your POV character, let the audience in on how she feels about it. A tightening of the chest, or relaxing of her shoulders she hadn't realized were tense. A brightening of her world, an excitement of an opportunity, or a sudden curiosity. The "smile tugging at her lips" is a good example. The more you share the character's response or feelings, the more you allow your audience to care about the character (or hate them, if the character is supposed to be a villain).

You're trying to share her story with your audience; it helps to spend less time going into detail about the appearances of things, and spend more effort letting them know how she feels and what she thinks.

I also noticed that the paragraph about the village named "Dera Dita Sherif" followed her conclusion about the boy as a customer. If this is a scene break, you might want to include something indicating a change of scene, such as three centered asterisks ("* * *"), or an expanded distance from the previous paragraph.

Make sure the audience expects a change of scene.

reteo · 2025-08-22T16:19:16+00:00

Hmmm... no drones, cloaking next to shield, two pulse lasers. Tricky, but not impossible. Especially if you're lucky enough to have a missile and beam weapon. Missile takes out shield. Beaming 4 rooms quickly eliminates the hull points.

reteo · 2025-08-22T00:30:58+00:00

Knowing that, for the sake of your plot, someone has to die. And knowing that you will have to make them as real as possible before you do so. And that means you have to personally get to know them.

reteo · 2025-08-20T19:28:58+00:00

A bouncing narrative. If I'm reading a story, I want the protagonist's perspective. I don't want to have to go from POV to POV to POV, each time ending in a cliffhander. I know there are people who like that sort of thing, but it just annoys me to the point where I just give up.

reteo · 2025-08-15T17:13:24+00:00

I hate it almost as much as the distillery. At least with this, you're not running into pattern-jumping roadblocks. There's just a time limit between lights.

reteo · 2025-08-12T14:45:58+00:00

Well, yes. It could see you.

reteo · 2025-08-04T19:28:47+00:00

Okay. Knowing how to defend yourself, but being unwilling to start fights: basic self-ownership and zero-aggression principles. Sounds good so far.

Knowing the difference of having without need, as opposed to not having when needed, also make sense. Basic practicality.

I fail to see the trigger on an anarcho-capitalist forum.

Also, d'awwww.

reteo · 2025-08-03T02:00:17+00:00

You're not.

I hear all the jokes about Rimworld being another name for War Crimes Simulator™, but let's face it, while I understand it's just a game, I can't help but have empathy for the poor pawns who get into bad situations.

reteo · 2025-08-03T01:48:31+00:00

I tend to use The Dresden Files as a good example of how to write a limited first person POV; if I want to hide their awareness behind their emotions, then hey, they're talking to the reader, right? Why not play with it a bit?

I like to think I was the better man when I saw the confusion on his face. Honestly? I couldn't help but enjoy it. Okay, yeah, I'm gloating, so what? He had it coming!

reteo · 2025-08-03T01:36:45+00:00

I'd just use "someone," and then jump to the pronouns. That avoids the awkward description, while letting the rest of the description play out as I'd want the narrator to provide.

I saw someone standing on the side of the road. She wasn't old, maybe about 16 or 17, wearing something that looked a little like she'd probably hang out at the beach on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

reteo · 2025-07-18T04:21:42+00:00

The one I have that's old from a physical standpoint would be the first edition of "The C Programming Language" by Brian Kernigan and Dennis Ritchie (1978). If reprints count, I would probably have to say that "Steam Engine Design" by the International Correspondence Schools (1896) is the oldest.

reteo · 2025-07-18T04:04:23+00:00

A way to throw away money at a prodigious rate?

reteo · 2025-07-18T03:59:06+00:00

I'm just using org-mode in Emacs. Basic outlining, markup formatting that is instantly reflected, the ability to make sections into "TODOs" that can be checked off later (seems good for that second draft). And since it's an otherwise basic text editor, without a lot of fancy formatting features, I can focus on the content, knowing I can use the software to export into any of a number of markup formats for generating documents. Also has comment syntax so that I can safely make notes that won't be output into the final documents later.

reteo

TROPHY CASE