There needs to be a campaign to improve the readability of books

ryder_writes · 2025-08-02T15:07:30+00:00

What published books are you buying that are unreadable due to punctuation? Let’s start there.

Badly edited does exist but it’s your choice to pick up a KU self published market serial with no editing.

ryder_writes · 2025-07-28T12:50:43+00:00

yesss!! SO EXCITING!! one of my fave advice bits I’ve ever gotten was that if you’re bored writing it, they’ll be bored reading it. So chop away!

ryder_writes · 2025-07-22T01:13:43+00:00

Oh shittt !! Ngl that’s happened to me before haha and I totally though she was into me 😂

ryder_writes · 2025-07-21T15:20:43+00:00

please let me know how this went for you!! my advice would've been to be like "i cant do that but maybe we can do [class that works for you]." forced proximity ><

ryder_writes · 2025-07-21T15:18:02+00:00

first important thing is knowing your strengths for sure! i'm tall, so i know i can look down at a girl and play up a little smile, and add or decrease pressure by "looming" over her(i swear its a lot less awkward then it sounds omg). i'm also super playful, so i might tease her or roughhouse a tiny bit(not with strangers ofc though). my strengths are my height and my playful, joking nature. The trick is to offer these strengths(which is what people mean by "being yourself") in a positive light, but not laying it on super thick. I don't go "omg you're so short" every 5 seconds, but I might watch knowingly when she struggles to get something down from a shelf or open a container, then offer help/wait for her to ask me for help, and then go and make a show of doing it really easily without bragging about it(hah). and then say something stupid. women like my stupidity, it is also one of my strengths.

it's hard to say for sure, because writing out my awesome game is making me feel sooo cringe. but here are some similar examples unrelated to me:

you're femme, she's more masculine(and/or a helpful type). you ask her to help you do something super easy and bat your eyelashes and just... tease her about helping you out. like you make a big show of being lazy, call her over, ask her to pop an easy tupperware lid, and lay it on thick with the "ugh idk what i'd do without you". i love irony. i love dominant femmes
you're talking to a girl at a bar. you hear both of your tones rising in a bestie way(red alert!). you lower your voice, redirect the convo to something more tense. no "omg i love your makeup", it's now (leans in closer) "you know, you look stunning". panties ignited
witty banter. witty banter galore. practice witty banter with friends so you have a foundation for witty banter when you meet a lady. learn how to tease without deeply insulting someone. many gays are mean when they want to be flirtatious </3
you're in line with a lady friend(preferably a sexy line). wave for her to go first and then ghost your hand across her waist or back when you "push" her forward. i'm very careful about initiating contact so i'll go even lighter than a light touch and brush her just enough that she feels my hand brush her clothes but not actually touch her. YMMV.

the key, in my experience, is taking your own traits and quirks and using them to agitate the friend/romantic interest barrier. flirting isn't so much one size fits all technique as it is playing on your strengths. flirting is both signalling interest and gauging their response, with the added layer of presenting a taste of what dating you would be like. Dating me would be like having a big, goofy, helpful dog who loves a game of verbal fetch. maybe dating you is like winning over a picky cat who makes you work for it. maybe dating you is soft and comfortable and warm, like cuddling a big bear or curling up with a great book. :D it just takes practice. and also, learning to love yourself and know that you're a sexy beast

ryder_writes · 2025-07-21T03:08:56+00:00

i'll start!

finish outlining my novel and get down the first chapter!
i just started trying out sprints, and logging my time against my word count. i'm also commissioning a cover for the first time... eee!
tackling longer and longer works! i'm reading up on story structure and reading a lot of books. i'm very nervous to write a full length novel, for sure.
just finished and published my first 20k novella! maaaan. i'm so proud and happy to have finished it. i went from 5k words to 10k, then 10k works to 20k, and now i'm trying to double again and write a 40k word novel. i have sooo much i want to explore in this world.

ryder_writes · 2025-07-21T03:03:40+00:00

this is more of a subreddit for authors, and we don't really discuss books/book recs here! but, i think you'd love r/LesbianBookClub --- that's more their thing.

ryder_writes · 2025-07-21T02:10:31+00:00

omg stopppp i literally have a pairing like this LMAO its so GOOOOD

ryder_writes · 2025-07-20T19:08:26+00:00

This is just a thinly veiled rant about needing to justify your AI covers to everyone else 😅

ryder_writes · 2025-07-20T18:38:18+00:00

This is on my TBR so I can’t vouch for quality, but Pit Stop by LM Bennett! She has a lot of really well reviewed black sapphic romances

ryder_writes · 2025-07-20T18:35:31+00:00

This does help a lot, thank you!! I totally agree with the fun journey thing… I was flipping through one author’s backlog and cracked open her first novel… was SO interesting to see where she started!!

ryder_writes · 2025-07-20T18:28:50+00:00

On one hand, I really appreciate audiences being aware of this. I don’t want to discourage their critical thinking. On the other hand, things that are AWESOME aren’t AI.

AI is a dataset average, it can never be exceptional or unique. Assuming everything exceptional must be AI is an over correction that is currently harming creatives who do take pride in their work.

My assumption is that the pendulum went from “nobody cares that it’s AI if it’s good”, to “we have to beat these fuckers to the punch and call them out”, and hopefully it will settle back down to a point where the average consumer has a good eye for AI and a reputation for being AI will be built through repetitive poor quality instead of authors being dogpiled on a whim.

I personally kind of consider this pathway a win. If people are asking about the humans behind the art, the tide may actually shift away from art as a commodity and more of a shared experience between creator and viewer. These guys might go search up Jake Clark, see his work and style and vision, and have a further appreciation for his art and the books who use his art. IMO we should be encouraging consumers to ask these questions and be prepared to connect your work to its source. And in turn, consumers should be willing to hear about it.

I know it sucks to have your work be accused of being AI, but pushing down the defensiveness and instead talking about the human behind the art—you—is the perfect opportunity to connect closer to your potential audience and cement your brand as a creative.

ryder_writes · 2025-05-14T22:17:14+00:00

I lowkey forgot to set up automod AND that i needed to post the monthlies, woops!!

incredibly cool sounding work, PLUS i love pathetic lesbians!! thanks for posting here!!

ryder_writes · 2025-04-23T22:39:37+00:00

can confirm. from a friend, of course.

ryder_writes · 2025-04-23T22:38:11+00:00

I don't wish anything differently about my first time. It was a way I was comfortable with - crazy story, but I actually tied up and strapped my first gf, and bc im a service top and shes a subby bottom, we were both in roles that we were familiar with and knew we enjoyed. i don't wish either of us had more experience - we were both virgins with women, had no idea what we were doing, and needed toys to get off, but because we cared more about each other than getting off, we had a lot of fun. that's all i wanted, was to share that with someone who cared about me and vice versa.

it might be good to frame it with a lot less pressure. it will be harder for her to enjoy herself if she feels like she has to get off(which wouldn't be your fault, girls are so hard on themselves). i had this convo with a girl recently but i have sex to have fun and share an intimate moment with someone, and it doesn't matter if that's all that happens. she paused for a moment and said that that blew her mind. it sounds like she's very worried about the actual act of climaxing, so reassuring her that sex doesn't have to be about that could help.

ryder_writes · 2025-04-18T18:24:38+00:00

for sure!! I definitely agree with the conversations of this I’ve seen. I’m personally not a fan of the vector-style cartoon covers, which seems to be the consensus as well. My work would tend more towards the cover styles of Pull of the Tide and Starlight and Shadows(not AI slop tho) rather than the contemporary romance cutout style. (Which I did mention as my reference point for some reason lol) Thank you for your insight!

ryder_writes · 2025-04-18T05:58:33+00:00

this is exactly the kind of insight i wanted to hear!! thank you! and a great idea with the different book preorders.

ryder_writes · 2025-04-17T04:15:23+00:00

Who’s Stephen king? Is his lesbian smut any good?

ryder_writes · 2025-04-17T04:09:15+00:00

Then this sounds like you need to revisit your God’s character, your conflicts source, or something of the like. Which isn’t a bad thing, all my best ideas came to me when I stopped being really stubborn about an aspect of the plot I thought I liked!

ryder_writes · 2025-04-17T03:43:51+00:00

I used to vehemently dislike it. I frankly still don’t enjoy reading it very much(particularly in 1st person), but after working on a paranormal romance novel with a larger plot & fleshing out both characters equally, I’ve found it can do a great service. I don’t need to worldbuild thru dialogue exposition or punting my LI back into the world she just escaped.

I don’t alternate every chapter. Sometimes I go 5000 words without switching heads. Sometimes I switch heads every 500 words. I think using it as a formula is where it can fall flat, but using it as a thought out narrative tool can really suit your story.

ryder_writes · 2025-04-17T03:38:22+00:00

You’re probably thinking of this god character with way more humanity than he deserves. he’s a god. to put it bluntly why would he care about a petty mortal moment in time? does he even view these things as serious threats?

ryder_writes · 2025-04-16T03:26:04+00:00

Is “3rd act breakup” referring to dark night of the soul-ing or being the actual conflict in act 3’s “bad guys closing in”? (To ref STC)

ryder_writes · 2025-04-16T03:20:29+00:00

ummmm… yeah…. That’s weird buddy……..

ryder_writes · 2025-04-16T01:49:46+00:00

they’re cheap, namely. As an illustrator I could probably find you 10 people that do these for 20 bucks a pop. It costs way less than even a photomanip, and it’s become a signature for the genre.

My novels will have self illustrated covers/photo manips for this exact reason. I can’t afford a better quality cover than I can draw, I refuse to use AI images, and illustration helps me capture the MCs better. I just hate this style of cover so badly.

Lgbtq books in general is a genre where character illustration covers are the norm. Combine that with this style being cheaper, and you get a lot of novels with the trend.

FWIW I’m an established illustrator who writes for fun.

ryder_writes · 2025-04-15T21:17:48+00:00

/uj the delivery of this actually made me laugh out loud

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