inverarity (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inverarity) wrote2025-02-19 09:14 pm
inverarity) wrote2025-02-19 09:14 pm
Entry tags:
Writing, Doomscrolling, and Randori
Well, we live in interesting times, don't we?
This week I started doing judo. I used to practice jujutsu regularly (I have a black belt) but it's been years. COVID happened, and then I got lazy. So back on the mat. It's kind of refreshing to wear a white belt again and not be expected to know anything (even though I do know a few things). But I ain't getting any younger. I felt like I was going to fall over dead after a few randoris, and my entire body is sore.
I've been struggling to write lately. Some of it is stress (mostly worrying about other people more than myself), and some is that I seem to be falling into a harmful doomscrolling habit where every time I mean to sit down and concentrate on something productive, I end up spending hours on X and reddit and YouTube. I need a cure for my Internet addiction. (Yeah, I've tried website blockers and the like; they are too much of a pain to install on multiple devices, and too easy to turn off.)
I have, however, been doing some writing. In fact, I am currently working on three writing projects, including AQ. (No, writing three books at once is not very efficient. Neither is studying two languages at once. (私は子供向けの漫画をほとんど読むことができません, ويمكنني أن أغضب العرب بالحديث عن إسرائيل).
Lately, as those of you who have read my Kindle Unlimited DNF Gauntlet posts have seen, I've been kind of fascinated with indie writers, particularly in the litrpg and progression fantasy genres. I am amazed at authors who can pump out a book every couple of months. The formula for success seems to be building up a back catalog of multiple 12-volume series. This is a writing pace that puts Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson to shame. The impact on quality shows: I've tried some of the highly prolific and very popular authors, and they just... aren't very good. I mean, compared to the stuff I've sampled from RoyalRoad and ScribbleHub, even the most mid indie writers are great, but there's very little craft to their writing, and often only the most boilerplate of stories. But the stuff is crack to their fans, who also amaze me with their reading speed. Reddit is full of people posting "tier lists" like this:
Readers go through multiple books a week, a pace I have not been able to maintain since I was a teenager.
I haven't read it, but apparently that knob is not a metaphor.
I think romance, particularly high-volume publishers like Harlequin, have similar patterns, and I understand the big thing among indie romance publishers is smut. Smut of all kinds, catering to all sorts of niche fetishes. There are of course the usual dukes and billionaires, but there is also "Dark Fantasy Mob Romance," Wolfpacks, "Omegaverse" (my brain broke a little when I discovered they have diagrams of the differing reproductive organs of "alphas," "betas," and "omegas"), and, uh, sex with doors?
The interesting thing is that this dialog is not dissimilar to the discussion that's been going on about fan fiction for years now. Everyone knows that 99% of what's published on fanfiction.net and AO3 is crap. And that's okay! Because it's mostly people writing for fun, often younger people just learning how to write.
The path from fan fiction writer to pro writer is no longer remarkable, but the shift I have seen over the last few years is that "indie publisher" (i.e. self-published writer) has lost most of its stigma, and more and more writers are just bailing on traditional publishing altogether and setting sail on the Amazonian high seas. Well, it's really more of a river, both metaphorical and literal, since so much of these writers' incomes depends on a single (highly predatory!) platform that can change the terms of payment and the visibility algorithms at any time.
Is this is all vaguely gesturing in the direction of me finally deciding to try indie publishing? Well, maybe. I'm not there yet. First I need to break my doomscrolling habit and write more.
I'm also working on producing the next print volume, this time for Alexandra Quick and the World Away. This is a rough sketch of the cover WIP.
I have written 4 chapters and 19515 words for Alexandra Quick and the End of Time. Right now the outline is a lean 20 chapters, but we all know they are going to multiply. Really trying to keep this book lean enough that it can actually be printed in one volume, though. (Unlike books five and six, which are going to be hard to print in one volume in trade paperback format.)
This week I started doing judo. I used to practice jujutsu regularly (I have a black belt) but it's been years. COVID happened, and then I got lazy. So back on the mat. It's kind of refreshing to wear a white belt again and not be expected to know anything (even though I do know a few things). But I ain't getting any younger. I felt like I was going to fall over dead after a few randoris, and my entire body is sore.
I've been struggling to write lately. Some of it is stress (mostly worrying about other people more than myself), and some is that I seem to be falling into a harmful doomscrolling habit where every time I mean to sit down and concentrate on something productive, I end up spending hours on X and reddit and YouTube. I need a cure for my Internet addiction. (Yeah, I've tried website blockers and the like; they are too much of a pain to install on multiple devices, and too easy to turn off.)
I have, however, been doing some writing. In fact, I am currently working on three writing projects, including AQ. (No, writing three books at once is not very efficient. Neither is studying two languages at once. (私は子供向けの漫画をほとんど読むことができません, ويمكنني أن أغضب العرب بالحديث عن إسرائيل).
Lately, as those of you who have read my Kindle Unlimited DNF Gauntlet posts have seen, I've been kind of fascinated with indie writers, particularly in the litrpg and progression fantasy genres. I am amazed at authors who can pump out a book every couple of months. The formula for success seems to be building up a back catalog of multiple 12-volume series. This is a writing pace that puts Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson to shame. The impact on quality shows: I've tried some of the highly prolific and very popular authors, and they just... aren't very good. I mean, compared to the stuff I've sampled from RoyalRoad and ScribbleHub, even the most mid indie writers are great, but there's very little craft to their writing, and often only the most boilerplate of stories. But the stuff is crack to their fans, who also amaze me with their reading speed. Reddit is full of people posting "tier lists" like this:
Readers go through multiple books a week, a pace I have not been able to maintain since I was a teenager.
I haven't read it, but apparently that knob is not a metaphor.
The Things That Pass Through My Social Media Feed
I think romance, particularly high-volume publishers like Harlequin, have similar patterns, and I understand the big thing among indie romance publishers is smut. Smut of all kinds, catering to all sorts of niche fetishes. There are of course the usual dukes and billionaires, but there is also "Dark Fantasy Mob Romance," Wolfpacks, "Omegaverse" (my brain broke a little when I discovered they have diagrams of the differing reproductive organs of "alphas," "betas," and "omegas"), and, uh, sex with doors?
The interesting thing is that this dialog is not dissimilar to the discussion that's been going on about fan fiction for years now. Everyone knows that 99% of what's published on fanfiction.net and AO3 is crap. And that's okay! Because it's mostly people writing for fun, often younger people just learning how to write.
The path from fan fiction writer to pro writer is no longer remarkable, but the shift I have seen over the last few years is that "indie publisher" (i.e. self-published writer) has lost most of its stigma, and more and more writers are just bailing on traditional publishing altogether and setting sail on the Amazonian high seas. Well, it's really more of a river, both metaphorical and literal, since so much of these writers' incomes depends on a single (highly predatory!) platform that can change the terms of payment and the visibility algorithms at any time.
Is this is all vaguely gesturing in the direction of me finally deciding to try indie publishing? Well, maybe. I'm not there yet. First I need to break my doomscrolling habit and write more.
I'm also working on producing the next print volume, this time for Alexandra Quick and the World Away. This is a rough sketch of the cover WIP.
AQATEOT Update
I have written 4 chapters and 19515 words for Alexandra Quick and the End of Time. Right now the outline is a lean 20 chapters, but we all know they are going to multiply. Really trying to keep this book lean enough that it can actually be printed in one volume, though. (Unlike books five and six, which are going to be hard to print in one volume in trade paperback format.)