https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/07/21/critics-are-getting-less-cruel-alas

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https://txtify.it/

https://archive.li/dGpHw

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!bookworms, !neolibs

King came out with his new book Holly a few days ago and I just finished it. What it's about isn't important; what struck me while reading it is how badly being a lib on Twitter has infected King's brain. The following are just some of the Trump mentions in the book:

“That sounds right,” Holly says.

“And bonus! Trump's gone.”

Leaving behind a country at war with itself , Holly thinks. And who's to say he won't reappear in 2024? She thinks of Arnie's promise from The Terminator: “I'll be back.”

It was Charlotte who died.

An avid Trump supporter—a fact she trumpeted to her daughter at every opportunity—she refused to get the vaccinations or even to wear a mask. (Except, that was, at Kroger and her local bank branch, where they were required. The one Charlotte kept for those occasions was a bright red, with MAGA stamped on it.)

On July 4th, Charlotte attended an anti-mask rally in the state capital, waving a sign reading MY BODY MY CHOICE (a sentiment that did not keep her from being adamantly anti-abortion). On July 7th, she lost her sense of smell and gained a cough. On the 10th, she was admitted to Mercy Hospital, nine short blocks from Rolling Hills Elder Care, where her brother was doing fine… physically, at least. On the 15th, she was placed on a ventilator.

“Divorced. Herbert and I dissolved our partnership three years ago. Political differences were part of it—he was all in on Trump—but there wereplenty of other reasons, as well.”

“How did Bonnie feel about that?”

“Handled it in very adult fashion. And why not? She was an adult. Twenty-one. Besides, the first time Herbie came home wearing a MAGA hat, she actually laughed at him. He was… mmm… displeased.”

Here is another relationship chilled by the fast-talking man in the red tie. It's not fate and not coincidence.

The jagged laugh comes again—nerves rather than amusement. “He's in Alaska. Left for a white-collar job in a shipping plant about six months after the divorce. And he has Covid. His idol refused to wear a mask, so Herb refused to wear one. You know, Trumper see, Trumper do.

“I don't know exactly. I've been working at that Jet Mart a long time. Seen em come and seen em go. But Trump was running for president, I remember that because we joked about it. Seems like the joke was on us.” He pauses, perhaps thinking over what he just said. “But if you voted for him, I'm only kidding.”

Like fun you were, Holly thinks. “I voted for Clinton. You called him the bowling guy?”

There is also a hilarious bit where King let's you know a character is evil because they find the Jan 6th insurrection inspiring, and another character is good because they cried during it:

Bonnie needs to see her as the stereotypical elderly academic: head in the clouds, losing a few miles an hour off her mental fastball, and largely helpless outside her own field of expertise. And harmless, of course. Would never dream of insurrectionists hanging elected representatives of the United States government from lampposts. Especially the blacks (a word which in her mind she will never capitalize) and the fannyfrickers. Of which there are more every day.

She's cried so much lately. Tears of relief after Biden won the election. Tears of horror and belated reaction after Chet Ondowsky, a monster pretending to be human, went down the elevator shaft. She cried during and after the Capitol riot—those were tears of rage.

You will never be a real reader

I'm eight months and 110 pages in (I'm slow, but also a first-timer). Yesterday, I gave the majority of my novel a readthrough and saw that virtually all of my small, sharp paragraphs moved at a pretty rapid pace and were full of friendly (and not-so friendly) banter between characters in an attempt at levity, even during tense and emotional situations.

I guess it sounded better in his head.

Tbh based on the full post it didn't sound that bad (just generic), but in a later comment OP posted a plot summary.

My novel is about a young girl in France during World War 1 who sneaks into trenches to aid soldiers as a Combat Medic... and who happens to weld the mystical healing power of Jeanne d'Arc's guantlet. It's just that she can be quite snarky and also has a friend whom she has excellent rapport with.

Just a quippy magical girl protagonist in the trenches of WW1. Maybe it works in context?

someone [can adapt] it into the next marvel movie 😆

I second finishing it, editing can fix a lot.

I'm an edit-holic; three hours of editing for every one hour of writing lol. So for the most part my chapters are looking extremely close to what their final version will be, witty banter and all.

Frick, not the one draft guys again. Line by line polish does not replace the need for rewrites because you need to respond to structural problems. A one draft story, even with outline, is essentially a random walk and can lose track of tone, get bloated or distracted, just end up married to ideas that don't work, etc (this is all an issue in my fanfic submission btw ). Making every scene "good" does not mean you have a good manuscript.

Marvel movies have only made, what, twenty billion dollars? There's nothing bad about having a book with broad appeal.

The market's right behind me, isn't he?

We don't write in a vacuum, and not everyone studies the classics. Our voices, methods, and priorities are influenced by what is in the air.

My literary influences are Marvel movies, isekai anime, and Bluey.

nothing wrong with writing marvel stuff a lot of my work was mostly inspired from anime I watched a mix of steins gate and jojo but the story still nothing alike.

Is that a fricking Jojo ref-

As usual, the problems with /r/writing are structural rather than comment by comment (sounds familiar ). In this case, the issue isn't whether quips are always bad. Rather, it's whether they work in context and whether they're appropriate for the story and setting. OP's setting likely meshes poorly with a wacky tone (and nobody seriously asked OP why the story suddenly felt bad to them, instead reassuring them that it's okay).

OP also gave away that they are not actually planning to do rewrites. So as usual, they came to the soyhaven to ask for affirmation about what they were already going to do.

Edit: I forgot to make fun of them for "devistated"

From Dante to Tolstoy to Dan Brown, it seems like self inserts are and old technique with very different results depending of the author.

What are your favorite and most hated self inserts books or characters?

The user page for the guy who made these changes is under the category "Wikipedians with autism"

Also I stole this post and its title from Reddit but if you actually loved me then you wouldn't care

This sounds dumb, but is true: As a kid, I grew up with a lot of violence. Men, in my family, school, but also on the street, were either utterly angry or utterly indifferent at all time. [...]

Due to this, I didn't really socialize with guys till I was an adult. And while I do know some "opposite examples" now, this shit is still bleeding in my writing. Like, I've been writing a script with around 5 main male characters. In general I treated them like every other character: Character, motivations etc. However, now a Beta-Reader informed me that they all sound needlessly aggressive. Like: Rude, cold and/or indifferent. Very strong in contrast to the female characters, who are very "normal", including empathy, kindness and "often sounding like the last wall between a full out massacre sometimes".

Now, obviously I don't want that. I live for four-dimensional characters. But looking through my other stories, I can def see a pattern: Men (if not the LI) are often villains. There are grumpy old men, shitty fathers, sociopathic Mafia bosses etc. "Positive" examples, are mostly just variations of 1.) My cousin (very nice, extroverted guy) and 2.) character-types I picked from other stories (e.g. "old man who is too invested in his grandson's love life")

Any advice? Cause at this rate, I'll paint a very, very bad picture and I hate it

"How can I make myself not hate men? I know! I'll talk to some Redditors!"

>Writing wish fulfillment romance scenarios while hating the opposite s*x

🤝

The thing that comes to my mind is to consume more stories with male characters that display the traits that you're looking to emulate in your own writing. [...] I can offer some movie recs: Before I Disappear (2014), Submarine (2010), and Stand By Me (1986) all explore I would say a more tender side of masculinity

Ever notice how their go to examples are never books?

OP:

Good point. I did get a lot of LI material from romance books. So maybe I can do the same that way. I'll the check out the suggestions!

No, don't do that. I love a good bodice ripper, they're my guilty pleasure, but you are not going to get an example of loving, normal men from them. They are always portrayed as a slightly aggressive "Alpha Male" type who gets extremely possessive of his love interest and has problems expressing feelings

You will NOT have a man who protects you. You WILL comfort your boyfriend when he comes home crying after work.

I have to offer a word of caution, here. Romance books give people a distorted ideas of a relationship the same way porn gives people distorted ideas of s*x. They're idealized or sensationalized because it's better for the person consuming the product, not because it's realistic or healthy.

Women be reading romance. That's basically the same as me edging in my goon cave for four hours every night.

If you wanted to, you could write the men as "normal" people, too. As people first, men second.

Novice writers when you explain to them that the opposite s*x are people

I try. That's the problem. I try, but in the end, there's something that just bleeds through. However, tbf, maybe this does speak of a deeper issue. Like, maybe I know logically that men are people (duh), but emotionally, there's still a part who does not believe it...? Idk.

Trust your instincts, sister

Some therapy wouldn't hurt. It's reflective of your experience, and not dealing with your past to a healthy degree is warping your ability to see men as anything other than what you experienced.

I am on the hunt for that, don't worry. I've had some therapy for 5 years, but I was just newly diagnosed with CPTSD last year. So rn I'm in this "in-between" of switching therapies.

Five years of therapy didn't work? Better give it another five years.

For the sake of providing advice I don't see here, you could try writing a character as a girl then just changing them to be a guy. It's unconventional, but it might help you eliminate your bias. Alternatively, make really mousey nerdy overly polite type guys who avoid aggression. We exist, lol.

Is this... the ick?

I'm not crazy, i promise, but you're going to think I am. If you're willing to go out on a limb, though, i think it'll help.

Now, people have said therapy and that's not a bad idea. It does sound like the unresolved trauma is causing problems, but we're not doctors so that's about as far as we can suggest with that.

What you should do is, like someone else suggested, find and consume media with more positive male figures.

Watch Bluey. I'm not kidding. It's about a little girl who is a dog and her dog family and Bandit is a good girl-dad. He's portrayed as a normal dad, in that he gets frustrated but he tries not to lose his cool.

I'm not kidding. It'll help.

I AM NOT CRAZY!

Without actually reading her work I can't evaluate it or try to psychoanalyze her.

What I can tell you is that Redditors are the last people you should ask about masculinity. Redditors are hardcore feminists to the exact extent that they believe feminism strips them of masculine responsibility. Once we get rid of toxic masculinity, women will finally throw themselves at timid scrawny nerds who cry once a week... Right?

It seems to me like the obvious advice is to portray male aggression honestly, while showing the neutral or positive ways it can be channeled. The Redditors instead are telling her to feminize her male characters, watch children's cartoons, and get (another five years of) therapy, sweaty.

One soy milk please, shaken not stirred

Taken from "On His Majesty's Secret Service"

First i want to apologize if a make gramar errors, i am not a native english speaker. I'm an college student and i want to beging to have a writing routine to gain experience as a amateur writer (my dream is to publish my own fantasy novel). Because college and work i don't have much time, so i ask you "is 100 words minimum a good amount to have like a daily routine? It is low?" Every answer is welcome. Thank you.

Sometimes I wonder if every word goal post is just the same guy trolling, seeing how low you can go before they finally call you out.

Sure. Especially if you're trying to build a consistency habit. Some days 100 words will feel like bending over to pick up a feather and sometimes it will feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. Everyone's journey is different and every day is different.

I always wondered what George R R Martin was doing these days

It's better than 0. Keep up the good work my friend!

There are 130 comments, most variants of this, from all the other writoids who don't actually write anything.

The most effective days of writing, you often type zero words. I tend to write in my head a ton, then type it all, then write in my head a ton and repeat. Progress is progress is progress.

Heh. Write it out? Not necessary. I calculated the story in my head. Hmm... Another draft, perhaps?

Some of the most effective days involve removing 100 words.

So true!

My manuscript is -47,000 words and shrinking every day.

Fantasy writer (and college professor) here... I'll say this. Any amount of writing daily is good to establish a routine and to simply practice, but on average, fantasy novels run at about 170,000 words (varies depending on subgenre, but this is average in most cases) so it might take you forever if you're sticking to 100 words a day

Agents love getting 170k word debut fantasy manuscripts. That's like the bare minimum these days!

It's great!

Any consistent writing is greater than anything else. It won't get you go published fast, but it's waaaaay faster than "waiting until I have the time" writing. Also some people's 100 words are better than others 1,000 words.

And by "some people's" I mean mine.

it is a great amount per day! i do even less if i am being honest, so you are doing great. (your english is very good by the way)

Keep it up and you'll be 1% done with your novel in no time!

People here will say any writing is a good amount of writing. I'll be honest, one hundred a day is not very good. It's basically your post twice. It takes no effort.

What the frick? What are you doing in here? Guards!

This post contains 149 original words, not counting Marseys and file names. Soooo, that's my writing goal for today. Later, virgins!

A harrowing novel set in an alternative United States —a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official

Solenne Bonet lives in Texas, where choice no longer exists. An algorithm determines a Black woman's occupation, spouse, and residence. She finds solace in penning the biography of Henriette, an ancestor who'd been an enslaved concubine to a wealthy planter in 1800s Louisiana. But history repeats itself when Solenne, lonely and naïve, finds herself entangled with Bastien Martin, a high-ranking government official.

Me and who?

Most of the reviews feel like my parents reading the stories I wrote when I was 15. "Wow... This is certainly unique! Um, 4 stars?"

I did get a chuckle out of this one tho:

What happens when you cross a terrible idea - an erotic novel about a slave in love with her master - with an okay idea - an dystopian novel about an alternative United States where a second Civil War reversed emancipation? I guess you get the blueprint for The Blueprint, which is not good, but has potential to be even worse.

If Ms. Rashad wanted to write a more straightforward erotic novel, it would probably be pretty good, there are some genuine sensuous passages in "The Blueprint." If Ms. Rashad gets a little better at world-building, she has the imagination to author some compelling science fiction, her ideas are good but underdeveloped. But it seems like she considers herself too good for genre fiction, she wants to be the adopted daughter of Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood right now. And the result of such impatient ambition is phrases like "the room was washed in truth" and "I saw all the girls I was from fifteen to twenty." I'm guessing that wouldn't be quite so awkward in a romance novel, but in "The Blueprint," the romance is supposed to be a symbol of oppression, so I don't quite know why it's also a coming-of-age novel. It left me confused. Confusion is not always bad, but combined with incuriosity, it makes for an unsatisfying experience.

!bookworms !writecel

Pretty sure if you gave me a year I could write Shakespeare quality work.

Like if someone hadn't read all of Shakespeare and you randomly gave them me or him, on average they couldn't tell the difference.

Of course without the blind test people would pretend it wasn't as good.

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) October 9, 2023

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1710735038621602211#m

This idea actually started with SBF going statistics shows us Shakespeare wasn't that good

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1711209801785761877#m

I have never heard of this guy before but he seems very dramatic. He holds (held?) actual academic positions but then was cancelled for some allegedly white supremacist stuff he wrote when he was young and now he has a book about wokeness coming out, I guess he thinks that's more worthy of his time than writing something greater than Hamlet.

Edit: Some Reddit threads:

https://old.reddit.com/r/rpdrcringe/comments/1b6v2jm/you_can_buy_mien_kampf_on_rupauls_new_bookstore/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1b7gz9n/bunnys_correct_take_on_rus_bookstore_selling/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/RPDRDRAMA/comments/1b6wrbj/so_many_options_at_rus_new_bookstore/?sort=controversial

encouraged by commentators on Twitter I tried (again)_to watch "Twin Peaks" & gave up after a half-hour. the mystery for me is why people so admire this pretentious slow dull excursion into absurdity in which, for some reason, characters speak painfully as if brain-damaged.

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 28, 2024

All her tweets on the matter.

Redditoids react

That's funny because Joyce Carol Oates's Twitter feed, at times, seem like vignettes from Twin Peaks The Return

"she just doesn't get it bro. "

What's weird here is that a lot of her own work is surreal, has many layers of reality and people who question their own sanity, she uses satire in dark ways, she has been an English professor for decades so presumably knows how to analyze others' art and does so well with Lynch's other work. I'm just not sure what her payoff is in repeating the “brain damaged” line (which seems inaccurate and mean-spirited to me), and it is painfully obvious that she doesn't understand either melodrama or satires of melodrama.

David lynch hates words. Words are her element. Makes sense she doesn't like his dialogue.

If words are her element she should use them better.

These people genuinely think they're some sort of enlightened souls just because they enjoy David Lynch.

I think there are two kinds of audience (broadly speaking, obviously); the kind that see something that triggers their imagination and sends them into a kind of imaginative engagement with what they are seeing; and the kind that expect what they see to do the imagining for them. Both are valid modes of reception, but the first has the advantage of including the latter in what it can appreciate whereas the second constantly needs to be convinced to remain engaged, and therefore cannot appreciate anything that requires them to imaginatively buy into what they are seeing.

Another user thinks she isn't good enough to critique Lynch. .

I'm not just saying this as a TP fan, in fact I've avoided saying it because of how it looks, but everything I've seen from her seems to be on the level of a third rate Chekhov or a third rate Shirley Jackson, depending on genre. If someone like Ishiguro said what she said, I'd be disturbed, but I wouldn't pretend to dismiss their ability. Obviously I'm in a minority about her.

Multiple accusation JCO being Dull and Pretentious

Dull and pretentious is exactly how I'd describe the majority of these tweets.

Says the lady who exclusively writes pretentious slow dull excursions.

JCO is media illiterate as well according to these redditors.

The world is full of media illiterate people.

Serious question, who is this woman and why should I give a flying frick what she thinks of Twin Peaks? Her tweets read like a crazy old lady with dementia who should have had her phone taken away.

Old senile lady who posts bullshit opinions a lot. She posted her foot one time and it is truly gross

Anyway, lots of "literally who?" comments by the "media literate" intellectuals on /r/DavidLynch regarding JCO. Lots of seethe in the quote tweets as well .

!kino !anime !fellas

@JoyceCarolOates

Thoughts?

Opted for the paperback myself which I don't do but it seemed more fitting for the material and I don't regret it. These are extremely high quality paperbacks with very nice heavy duty glossy pages, well-bound and with beautiful illustrations. Haven't checked the others yet but the first one has a really illuminating 20-page preface by Watterson explaining his life and how he ended up doing C&H and early, unpublished works and also pictures of his cat.

!bookworms you are LITERALLY LOSING MONEY by not picking this up

https://old.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/16h9ul8/i_finish_my_manuscript_and_no_one_cared?context=8&sort=controversial

Why does a neighbor expect praise for accomplishing a goal

Your writing is just words till it affects someone, either makes them reflect, cry, sneed, enraged, fricking something. Only people getting praise for simple finishing a work are writers with a history of delivering