YOU KNOW WHAT BOTHERS ME

YOU KNOW WHAT BOTHERS ME

when fantasy books describe the cloth of Quant Farmpeople’s clothing as “homespun” or “rough homespun”

“homespun” as opposed to what??? EVERYTHING WAS SPUN AT HOME

they didn’t have fucking spinning factories, your pseudo-medieval farmwife is lucky if she has a fucking spinning wheel, otherwise she’s spinning every single thread her family wears on a drop spindle NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THE SPINNING unless you go out of your way to establish a certain baseline of industrialization in your fake medieval fantasy land.

and “rough”??? lol just because it’s farm clothes? bitch cloth was valuable as fuck because of the labor involved ain’t no self-respecting woman gonna waste fiber and ALL THAT FUCKING TIME spinning shitty yarn to weave into shitty cloth she’s gonna make GOOD QUALITY SHIT for her family, and considering that women were doing fiber prep/spinning/weaving for like 80% of their waking time up until very recently in world history, literally every woman has the skills necessary to produce some TERRIFYINGLY GOOD QUALITY THREADS

come to think of it i’ve never read a fantasy novel that talks about textile production at all??? like it’s even worse than the “where are all the farms” problem like where are people getting the cloth if no one’s doing the spinning and weaving??? kmart???

ARCANE + PARALLELS

not to post even more Villains Discourse on main but it really bugs me how people read giving villains tragic backstories as inherently excusing their actions and/or demonizing trauma survivors.

the actual message of Tragic Villains is (almost) always “people who are never taught or given any healthy, constructive outlets for their emotions will often find unhealthy, destructive outlets.” it’s that people who are traumatized and never learn how to cope with that trauma can become a danger to themselves and others. the message isn’t “trauma makes you evil!!!!” or “genocide is okay if you’ve been sad before!!!!” it’s “people need compassion and help to recover from trauma instead of becoming increasingly angry and harming themselves and others in the process.”

this site takes an alarmingly behaviorist and punitive approach to everything and it’s literally the most annoying thing. y’all have this concept that “if we just punish people hard enough, if we just scare them enough, if we just make them feel guilty enough.” that people just Do Bad Things Because They Do Bad Things, I Guess, and Because We Didn’t Threaten Them And Shame Them Enough. but humans are an innately social species. at our very core, we need compassion and kindness. we need healthy relationships with other humans.

you can keep looking at traumatized villains and being like “haha this dumb pathetic sadboi thinks murder is okay because his parents died” but as a survivor myself, unaddressed/untreated trauma absolutely can make you ragey and destructive. i was lucky enough to have support and eventually get the treatment i needed. but it’s not hard at all for me to imagine how, if that hadn’t been the case, that could’ve been me. obviously not on a movie-villain scale like murder or war crimes, but it’s so irritating as someone whose trauma has always manifested as anger to watch people on this site be like “this is just bad writing!!! real survivors/good survivors don’t end up like that the writers just hate survivors and want the audience to condone murder!”

Why do people stop commenting on fics if they’re more than a week or two old? Please comment on old fics. Tell me you like my one shot from 2014. Tell me you like my old multi-chap I finished in 2016 that I spent a year writing. I will be fucking thrilled.

Things I learned during my first year as a self-published author

Hello, hello, hello.

Here at the end of 2021, my debut year, I’ve published two books, with the third coming in spring of next year and the fourth in fall. I spent the last year and a half treating self-publishing as my only career (which it is), and let me tell y’all, it’s been far more work than the retail job I had prior to the pandemic. I wanted to reflect on some things I’ve learned:

#1: Prepare to make sacrifices.

And I don’t mean blood to the old gods, although I’m sure they’d appreciate a few drops. If you’re seriously considering a career as an author, you’re probably already aware of how much time writing takes out of your day-to-day life. But when you’re self-pubbed, everything is on your shoulders. Not just writing, but all the elements that go into producing your book, plus all the elements that go into publishing, marketing, and building your platform. If you’re one of a rare species of industrious writers, this may not be much of a challenge for you. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll find that there are not enough hours in a day to tackle all the things you require for a successful career (whatever that means to you). This might mean certain activities, tasks, etc., get cut…often many, many times.

#2: If you don’t have patience, you won’t get far.

Let’s face it: many of us don’t have sizable platforms or fanbases. I sure as hell don’t. So when I went to publish my first book back in June, I felt demoralized. After my launch week, things went dead. And I mean dead. But I pressed on, because I realized something: regardless of whether your debut is wildly successful, it’s still the first brick laid on a lasting foundation. There is plenty of time for people to discover you and your books. Me? I’m only just starting to see interest pick up for my work, but I’m in this for the long haul.

#3: Hook yourself up with author friends or groups.

This one in particular has been making all the difference. Surround yourself with like-minded writers—especially writers who write in a similar genre as you—and boost each other’s work. I’ve found Twitter to be more reliable in this regard, as many writers over there are published/about to be. You can also gain a lot of traction by participating in chats, recommending books you enjoyed, and coordinating group giveaways.

With that said, socializing as a self-published author is hard, at least for me. There’s not enough time in the day to juggle your own career/daily tasks with keeping up with hundreds of other writers. To be honest, this is why I have a hard time keeping up with the Writeblr community. While there are many beautiful WIPs to be enjoyed here, I only have so much mental energy to invest in others’ projects, and it’s easier to invest in projects that are completed/published. However, I very much look forward to the day when I can gush about y’alls completed works!

#4: Prioritize self-care above everything else.

Publishing is certainly exciting, but it can also be stressful, demoralizing, and overwhelming. There will be many days when you feel like you want to quit or take a long hiatus from writing. You will feel as though your career is pointless or a waste of time. You’ll likely see long periods without sales (I went about three months without a single sale) despite your marketing efforts. If you’re pursuing a full-time author career—and not a casual side hustle type of arrangement—you will have to work consistently. But this shouldn’t come at the expense of your well-being. Work hard, but don’t work so hard that your mental and physical health suffer. Take those breaks. Fill the creative well.

And remember: it’s not a competition.