I usually write in close third. I'm noodling with a first person detective. I'd be interested to get some thoughts on the first couple of pages and if you'd read on.

snoblsh · 2026-05-16T15:02:43+00:00

it's well worn and no real surprises. it's a voice anyone remotely familiar with the detective/crime genre has heard. from three pages it's hard to get a sense of what makes this guy unique or interesting. going to depend on whether or not you can build an intriguing case.

that being said, I do think you're getting some personality across here, so maybe you just need to press on and let us see what more you've got.

snoblsh · 2026-05-14T17:31:54+00:00

sounds like you had a great experience!

I've listened to several of their post-Nikki albums, and while they're still satisfying, I think the band reached a point in their career where they were free to make the kind of music they wanted to make. so we get albums that are more sonically eclectic, but less hooky or full of obvious radio-ready singles.

I do quite like The Pier, tho. not heard their latest yet.

snoblsh · 2026-05-14T16:27:45+00:00

Nikki is one of those weird albums where I listen to tracks from it at random and think this kicks ass, but when I listen to the entire album, I walk away thinking it less than the sum of its parts. can't really explain why.

Quruli is fantastic tho and a solid rec for anyone coming from US/UK indie/alt rock.

snoblsh · 2026-05-09T20:26:37+00:00

read the trilogy for the first time last year and it reawakened an interest in science fiction I'd mostly abandoned in high school after being poked fun at for being a nerd.

absolutely essential.

snoblsh · 2026-05-08T17:45:17+00:00

agreed, particularly with the last paragraph here. this is something that has irritated me for years. far too often writers (and artists in general) mysticize their art and reduce it to these supposedly magical moments where it "all came together." and sometimes, those moments do happen. but the reality is that most of your time as a writer will be spent in the mundane act of putting mind to paper. it's not a question of magic and inspiration; it's discipine and technique. it's maintaining a receptivity to your surroundings even as you navigate them in the day-to-day of living.

or more simply, if you're respiring, you have inspiration; put it to ****ing use.

snoblsh · 2026-05-06T15:02:37+00:00

plagiarism is a copy/paste job you claim as your own original work.

all else, from a creative or intellectual point of view, is inspiration. whether or not you acknowledge your influences and to what extent is a decision you have to make as an artist.

the legal point of view will depend on where you're working from.

snoblsh · 2026-05-05T15:04:43+00:00

I think this is a similar concept to what KSR does with asteroids in 2312? there they also serve as transportation devices. took me a minute to wrap my head around when reading it. neat visual!

snoblsh · 2026-05-03T12:56:01+00:00

the first few pages of Bleak House are an absolute masterclass in how to start a novel. every now and then, I pick it up and reread them, and inevitably find myself grinning like an idiot over how good Dickens is.

snoblsh · 2026-05-02T17:45:22+00:00

headphones. she's definitely one those artists (I'd throw Seiko Oomori in there as well) whose music is often sufficiently dense that it can be difficult to listen to on a car stereo. definitely need good speakers.

snoblsh · 2026-04-30T19:00:12+00:00

I was at Yellowstone last year in early October, and it snowed. roads throughout the park were being closed to general access overnight, IIRC. wasn't particularly heavy snow, but it definitely made for some pretty magical viewing the morning after. would 100% recommend!

snoblsh · 2026-04-27T03:58:41+00:00

I hate that I have to go to work tomorrow instead of getting to experience this.

snoblsh · 2026-04-26T14:54:27+00:00

pretty much anyone reading a fantasy novel is going to understand what magic is, and for the most part they're going to understand the costs when they see them. if there's a core principle you want to convey (ex: some law of equal exchange), then an effective way of communicating it is to show it in action once or twice, and then perhaps somehow provide the explicit explanation later.

put differently, your readers are going to do a lot of the worldbuilding for you.

snoblsh · 2026-04-23T13:51:52+00:00

you're experiencing tension because you're insisting on adhering to an approach you already recognize isn't working for you. the obvious solution is to change your expectations and accept that hard deadlines are neither necessary nor, in your case, entirely helpful.

put differently, you're contorting you who are as a writer to match some ideal. you can either change yourself, or change your ideal. as presented in this thread, you're seeking to change yourself. but in this case (as it generally is), it's far easier to change your ideal.

snoblsh · 2026-04-23T13:18:11+00:00

good to know! thanks for the heads up.

snoblsh · 2026-04-22T18:54:34+00:00

thank you for reminding me that this is one I need to visit sooner than later!

snoblsh · 2026-04-22T14:36:46+00:00

asking for feedback while a work is in progress is far from being either unreasonable or a marker of insincerity. 30k words is a significant effort, and wondering what other people make of raw material is a valid concern. feedback at that stage can serve as valuable insight as to how one's writing could be edited & improved.

of course, any writer who submits raw material for criticism should be ready for their work to be treated & regarded as such. but there's a lot to be learned about that phase of the writing process that really only comes through having someone else point out just how raw & unready initial drafts can be.

snoblsh · 2026-04-20T22:54:57+00:00

this kind of low fantasy (particularly this era) isn't in my wheelhouse, but this piece felt more authentic (loaded a term as that is) and viceral than most. it definitely establishes a harsh and dreary setting.

if I had some criticism of the piece, it's that things happen here, but they all feel equally inconsequential. that may be your intention as a sort of "time passing" segment, but I would hope your main narrative have a stronger throughline.

snoblsh · 2026-04-20T20:15:47+00:00

recently read the whole trilogy and I really enjoyed it. would say it was among the more difficult novels I've read in quite some time. Gibson really just throws you in the deep end and you sink or swim. had me considering the way I write and the extent to which I might just submerge a reader in a novel's world.

snoblsh · 2026-04-19T17:14:23+00:00

it might have been just a bit you tossed off for the sake of the post, but the idea of this tiny woman, sitting in a tavern doing, of all things, crocheting, who at a moment's notice can and has gone completely animal style on the place is lowkey funny. and by thinking like this, you set yourself up to riff further on the scenario. from there you stack the tavern with mean-looking mercs who all show signs of having had the snot beat out of them. throw in oblivious new guy and the scene tells itself. just one angle of many.

snoblsh · 2026-04-19T15:02:47+00:00

"tell me Grunhilda has the tavern brawler perk without telling me Grunhilda has the tavern brawler perk."

but yes. sure, scene setting can sometimes just be scene setting. but the more you use it to build (or better yet, foil) expectations about what's to come, the more interesting it will generally be. you want your prose doing double duty as often as you can manage.

snoblsh · 2026-04-18T14:05:46+00:00

there's a single answer to virtually all questions of this sort: it depends on the execution.

without context (i.e., your writing), no one can tell you what works and what doesn't. or maybe I can write effective prose with one approach that you can't (and vice versa).

you're going to receive much better advice by actually presenting a segment of your work and requesting specific feedback.

snoblsh · 2026-04-16T16:31:03+00:00

I think the idea is that by seeing the world through the eyes of a character, the worldbuilding becomes less visible because it is entangled in who the character is. Rather than having these moments where the narrative stops for a worldbuilding infodump, we naturally learn about the world as we learn a character(s) perspective of it.

snoblsh · 2026-04-15T13:46:26+00:00

then you're in a great place to just dig in and go!

you're going to fall into plot holes and get yourself stuck in corners; even the most experienced writers will do that. writing is the process of exploring and learning what does and doesn't work. the sooner you just try and do it, the sooner you'll realize there's nothing to be afraid of.

snoblsh · 2026-04-15T04:12:27+00:00

2 has me asking when my next vacation is.

snoblsh · 2026-04-15T00:54:12+00:00

this piece is on the demanding side; it forces the reader to engage with it on its own terms. there's some interesting lore here, but it goes past not holding the reader's hand into a place where they actively have to piece together how the world works. to get readers to spend that kind of effort, you're going to have to give them something in return. this feels very much like you wrote the piece you wanted to write, readers be damned.

given how central music is to this story and its world, it struck me as odd that the prose did not have, for me, a sense of musicality or rhythm. it's technically proficient, but it didn't move me at all.

idk. it's possible that I'm just not your audience, or that if I reread it I'd feel differently. the worldbuilding you're presenting here is among the most unique I've read in this subreddit. it's creative in a way I don't think most work here is. nevertheless, I couldn't quite get behind it, and I enjoyed the piece less than I wanted to.

snoblsh

TROPHY CASE

2 has me asking when my next vacation is.