Used to be Catholic? Miss having saints looking out for you? There's a dozen or so fresh candidates to choose from in this postmodern, post-humanist occult e-tome but they might actually be giant bugs and also they might hate you. DRM-free, mult. formats.
In the ancient realm of whimsy and jest,
A prophecy, absurd, I shall attest.
Beware when socks turn into birds,
And kittens converse with wise words.
When gravity wanes and laughter’s flight,
Cows dance beneath the moon's pale light.
Fish sprout feathers and walk on sand,
And squirrels crowned kings and rule the land.
The rivers shall flow with shimmering glue,
And umbrellas rain when red is blue.
Clouds of cake will drift and scream,
As trees grow small and blossom cream.
Beneath the sea the rocks will rise,
With goggles, flippers and a free door prize.
Mountains and marshmallows will fall in love,
While Bigfoot will swim in the lakes above.
But heed this warning, dear seeker of mirth,
For reality's tether may lose its worth.
Topsy horses dance and creep,
You can’t eat chocolate unless you sleep.
So embrace the chaos, whimsy and glee,
And dance to the rhythm of absurdity.
For in this prophecy, though strange it seems,
You’ll wake the day in the realms of the dreams.
Well, it's official: I'm open to editing books! Please spread the word!
I have worked as an editor for 2+ years at a small publisher, and I have 3+ years of editorial experience with literary journals. Feel free to DM me, and I'm also really flexible with pricing!
My character's knowledge ends way before my knowledge of the subject ends.
#Fantasy#magic systems often fail to impress because lots of detail, except where the reader can intuit a logical loophole, is a bad thing! The reader will often assume the gaps for you. I must remind myself every so often that a story is entertainment, not a treatise or thesis on speculative science, sociology, or engineering, especially after all time I spent on the research. When I wrote from a prize-fighter's POV, I learned how training felt, and the injuries, but I didn't presume to write the coach working their miracles. Only enough to convince.
I try to be imprecise, even about what I know a subject very well. Well, heck, I recognize I could misunderstand somethng! I then lampshade enough to ensure the story makes sense and to keep the plot logically together. I would, for example, make sure to understand the limits of a submersible pressure vessel (I don't) and get that much right. I'd also work on the jargon. My character would then be passenger told not to touch anything, and not an engineer or pilot.
A tactic I use is to consider secondary characters to provide "details." I include lieutenants, clerks, and engineers to do real work, maybe letting them talk down to the MC because the MC couldn't possibly understand and is wasting their time. This excuses lack of detail.
Everyone is a lay person about something, many many somethings, IRL. To the extent that I don't know how to maintain my car, build my house (I actually did), generate my electricity, butcher my meat (thinking about which turns me into a vegetarian for a few hours), and piloting an airplane, I make my characters the same way. Builds a sense of #Verisimilitude
"Show people your stuff, listen carefully to their responses, but ultimately don't value anyone's opinion above your own. Be influenced by writers you dislike as well as writers you like. Read their stuff to figure out what's wrong. Find a balance between the confidence that allows you continue, and the self-critical facility that enables you to improve. Get the balance wrong on either side, and you're screwed."--Alex Garland
Ich habe - nach zwei Jahren - es geschafft, meinen Blogpost fertigzustellen.
Achtung, langer Titel:
Warum Superkräfte nach Geschlecht zuteilen eine bestenfalls schwierige, schlimmstenfalls sehr problematische Idee ist - und Ideen zum Bessermachen.
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich im Laufe des Tages alle alten Threads als Blogposts archiviert kriege, weil ich immer was ergänze. Aber immerhin ist der jetzt online.
@Radical_EgoCom Quiet Quitting (not working unpaid hours) is Setting Limits, good in any relationship. Rested employees tend to be more productive in allotted hours, but people miss that.
Why so many negative articles? Crabs in a bucket, people pulling everyone else down to their level. People don't want to feel stupid or lazy, or be noticed looking different, so they write about it. Those that think they benefit from unpaid overtime also encourage writing about it, using the derogatory tag quiet quitting. (No, it's not entitlements, it's benefits.)
However, "quiet quitting" is now a thing because more and more people understand the trade offs, and only want to work for hours paid and then actually enjoy having a life. (I mean, think about it: If you're paid $x for 40 hours, but you work 80 hours, aren't you really working two jobs at $x/2? Google employees, I'm looking at you.)