Hobbies & natural talents are enjoyable until one’s livelihood begins to depend on it. Then it becomes stressful & a chore.
Having finished two, shitty, self-published books, I’m envious of anyone who can write well.
Reminds me of how David Rakoff put it "writing is like pulling teeth.
From my dick."
I really really really love his writing. I’ll go and read one of his books when life deals me a hard blow and I just need to read someone who gets it.
Create wonderful people that you care deeply about, and then kill them.
This is part of why I’m a shit writer, I think. I can’t stand to put my characters through any major torments. I also hate it when writers kill off major characters at the end of a story. Doing so often feels cheap and gratuitous.
I suppose I haven’t written enough. I need more practice, maybe.
I do think a lot of modern media embraces “unexpected death” tropes a bit too much. When done well, it can emphasize the harshness of a world and drive ambition to right things. Done wrong, it actually depletes the stakes because a lot of the motivation and interest was in saving the person that was just killed.
Breaking Bad, and Danganronpa V3, are some examples of where I felt the latter.
That said, it suspends belief sometimes when readers realize anyone in the main cast has plot armor. To me, part of that remedy is occasional deaths, but part is to just not invent frequent hanging-by-thread situations, and then frequent deus ex machina to exit them.
Everyone loves having written but everybody hates writing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s like running
I thought writers were actually drinkers with a writing problem?
Software engineering
Writing is hell. Not writing is hell. The only tolerable state is having just written.
For a day, maybe two. Just don’t read it ever again. But, that doesn’t help much, because you know. You know.
Then at least it’s over and you can go hide somewhere yeah
Obligatory shift of perspective.
There’s several pieces of media I’ve consumed lately where on a second review, I can see: “This makes little sense. This is a lazy connection, this line could’ve been worded much better” yet it doesn’t matter since I still remember my heavy reaction on first viewing, and can see other strong reactions.
A big part of that is how well the story itself sets up for core moments, even if some of the pieces are clumsy.
Thats genuinely helpful to see, thanks
What if the author (me) is actually trash though :(
If My Immortal can be literally immortalised. So can you.
Good point, fuck the prepz!
God this is such a good analogy
I think he’s waffling on finishing it himself or dying and letting Brandon Sanderson do it.
that guy is writing
that’s what writing looks like
the mechanical process of putting the words down isn’t what people like about writing
it’s creating the words, and that is what that looks like (in the pics)The writing isn’t that bad.
The editing is fucking brutal
That’s because you need to read what you wrote. You need to face it. There’s no deluding yourself during editing.
Writing is fun until you read what you wrote.
Then you hate yourself for being such a garbage writer, delete everything, and start again.
I was watching a stream from simon clark and he said one of the worst things he’s done is an audiobook for his own book because he had to read through all of it and couldn’t change anything because it has to be read exactly as it is printed.
I wish you could have seen my face melt onto the floor reading your first sentence. It hurt.
delete everything, and start again.
Kill your darlings. As long as you start again.
