i'm not much for intentional projecting on my ocs (unintentional is another matter) but i do want to find a way at some point to give one of my pov characters my "forgets how to move or talk when stressed/overwhelmed" autism trait. it would make me feel nice to see it represented even if it is only being represented By Me. and i think it's my most like, visibly not neurotypical trait and i think making characters actually act disabled is good and awesome
To my mind, the appeal of both [vampires and werewolves] is very strong and very obvious, and people are unlikely to be swayed from one to the other. If youâre interested in animals, control/lack thereof, The Fleshâą, transformation of the physical body, etc., the werewolf may suit you better. If youâre more interested in seduction, desire, dependence, transformation of social position, etc., the vampire may be just what you need.
I find itâs also worth pursuing where people want to place shame⊠vampires and werewolves both seem to struggle with shame over their âconditions,â and itâs just a question of whether you want your character to feel guilty over, say, their physical form vs. their desires. (Keeping in mind you can of course do anything with any character.)
Furthermore, there are clear class and gender implications with both archetype. For a variety of reasons, there is an association between the âhigh classâ and âfemininityââthink 1700s men in their big wigs and heels and frilly, pastel outfits, or how Americans associate certain British accents both with money and effeminacy. (Note specifically that this does not rely on any presumed 'objective' levels of masculinity or femininityâobviously, these don't exist to begin with, but even when we can look back and say, e.g., "oh, the heels were actually a symbol of masculinity at the time," this does not alter the fact that in the current cultural eye they have been transformed.)
The fop, the dandy, cannot be extricated either from his money or his presumed femininity. It is not a coincidence that extreme femininity is associated with an extreme cost (in not only literal money but also time): shaving, waxing, skincare, large amounts of fabrics, structured garments which restrict movement (and therefore ability to do labor), attached frills and lace and bows, accessories, jewelry, makeup, lingerie, perfume, dozens of shoes.
There is, similarly, an association between âlow classâ and âmasculinityââwhen you picture a butch, do you see her as an accountant or a lumberjack? Physical strength, flannels, pants, manual labor, endless work to survive. These things are all bound up together.
Then you throw in the vampire and the werewolf. The traditional vampire is wealthy, remote, fashionable, slick, soft-spoken, implicitly fruity if not explicitly so. The male vampire is likely to be hairless, svelte, long-haired, and generally androgynous. The female vamp wears glossy makeup and long gowns.
The traditional werewolf, on the other hand, is often lower-class, working with their hands, living in closer proximity to nature and other people, louder, rougher, brasher, generally physically capable and able to show it. The male werewolf is likely to be hairy, muscular, short-haired (at least on top), and generally masculine. The female werewolfâwell, this depends. In the big alpha/beta/omega m/f circles she may literally be Just Some Girl, but in other cases she may be feral, unmannered, (at least slightly) muscular, etc. Of course, mass media is too afraid even to depict a woman with unshaven legs, so you're not likely to see her often.
If these seem like extremely racialized dynamics, you are correct. Iâve said this before, but the vampire has essentially transformed from the antisemitic/antiziganist/xenophobic âlooks pale and âwhiteâ like us, but in a WRONG, âdarkâ wayâ (light-skinned with dark hair/eyes and âsemiticâ/âforeignâ facial features) aesthetic to one of white Christian abnegation (if you pictured the Cullens, youâre right; if you pictured the original Interview With the Vampire, youâre also right).
Iâm less of a werewolf specialist, but I also think that the complexity of shifting werewolf racializations also have something to do with the difficulty of defining something as definitively âwereâ or ânot wereâ. People of color have always been dehumanizingly compared to animals;Â Twilightâs turning an Indigenous nation into wolves is only the logical next move in a long history of anti-Indigenous racism. At the same time, thereâs this big new boom in werewolf media, and would you look at thatâjust as the vampire became white when he stepped into the heroâs role, so has the werewolf become this strapping, chiseled young white man ready to sweep young white women off their feet. And his female werewolf wears perfume! Oh, well.
(Note that these are only the broadest strokes of how vampires and werewolves are most popularly visualized, and therefore by necessity incomplete. Most ânon-normativeâ vamps and weres will therefore respond to these archetypes rather than setting them, as it were.)
Also, thereâs just been so much more popular vampire media in the world, so vamps more easily take on whatever symbolism you want them to have because thereâs precedent. Popular, famous, everyone-knows-who-Dracula-is precedent. The vampire has been very clearly used to represent so many things that you have more to, in theory, respond to; at the very least, more to respond to that your readers are likely to recognize. Werewolves may better suit those who like uncharted territory!
My personal preference follows below the cut, because this has gotten long enough...
To give my own personal little flavoring of the vampire vs the werewolf⊠which is to say, to discuss why I am so consistently drawn to the vampire:
I like the symbolism of a creature which âlooks just like usâ but is not like us, which seduces others to be like itself, which refuses to breed cisheterosexually but builds (remote, disinterested) community nonetheless, which struggles with a desire that is not accepted in its society. If this sounds remarkably queer all of a sudden, that is correct!
(I find Iâm most compelled by werewolves, unsurprisingly, when they are big hairy butches. Iâm predictable that way.)
Thereâs also the natural Jewish reclamation of vampires; we have the blood libel and the âlooks like us but not like usâ and the conversion and isolationist community and the pale-and-dark thing going on all the time. Yes, please, help me romanticize Jewish men! Brooding intellectuals, you say? Swoon.
I also think my being drawn to vamps matches my preference for frills and capes and all things ouji-and-lolita-fashion; I simply prefer the aesthetic of some tall androgynous thing skulking about in Victorianesque ornament. I like candelabras, castles, and foggy moors. Androgynous men are easier to find in media than androgynous women; itâs been said a thousand times that Louis and Edward and insert-pop-culture-vamp-here is strangely effete, but naming an overtly masculine werewolfwoman is hard. There are fewer futches, even, in media than there are metrosexual men. Thatâs just how the world is. I like a lot of things that simply happen to match vampires more readily than werewolves, so I fell in with the vamp crowd.
(I also suddenly realize at this point that Iâve always liked Remus Lupin, that strange, guilty creature who seems deeply at odds with his condition in a way that quite clearly parallels a fear of his own masculinityâmade all the clearer by his panic at becoming a father. It seems the shame&masculinity combo, particularly paired with paternal guilt, can easily be used to compel me⊠much to ponder.)
I think thatâs the end of my screed. I donât think there really is an objective better creature in this discussion; I see all sides.
P.S. Please send me your masculine woman werewolf recommendations I am starving for some good food.
respect to people who write their wips in fancy published-looking fonts with all the proper indents but i can't do that shit it starts getting me all perfectionist and stopping up my words from intimidation. my formatting HAS to look like i am just throwing shit onto a page, only then will the words really flow properly
for years i've daydreamed about being a popular writer online so that people ask me writing advice questions and i get to answer in depth. and now i am on reddit and i go on r/writing and i get to answer people's writing advice questions in depth without even having to be a popular writer. this rules
i've said a few times that my story ideas would actually get written if i could just pay someone to sit me down for half an hour each week and ask me questions about my wip to get the brainstorming juices flowing and help me figure out stuff i'm stuck on and then watch me write for 15 minutes to make sure i don't get distracted. if i just had that in my life then i could join the rest of the writeblr people who actually write and i might get a complete first novel draft done for the first time in my life. but alas.... đ
actually... just in case, does anyone know of a service like this? someone who could help me brainstorm and keep me on task in a professional capacity? it would be massively, massively helpful to my non-fanfiction writing endeavors đ
i've said a few times that my story ideas would actually get written if i could just pay someone to sit me down for half an hour each week and ask me questions about my wip to get the brainstorming juices flowing and help me figure out stuff i'm stuck on and then watch me write for 15 minutes to make sure i don't get distracted. if i just had that in my life then i could join the rest of the writeblr people who actually write and i might get a complete first novel draft done for the first time in my life. but alas.... đ
me watching writeblr have fun and do their thing, knowing that my approach to writing (especially my tendency to rotate concepts in my mind for years without freaking writing them) is simply not made for that environment and i shouldn't force myself to try to be part of it anymore
If you think white authors are being âpushed awayâ from writing characters of color when Black people and POC call out how trash their character wasâŠDonât bother writing any characters that arenât white. Just donât. Do not represent me at all. If me rightfully calling out a yt author for depicting a Black character as a clear stereotype is pushing them away then I will gladly do so. Letâs not forget them not even giving them a personality and making them depend on the yt character or somehow push the yt characters development forward. Not that Iâm reading a book by a yt author anytime soon though, for this very reason, but itâs something I have every right to do. So do other marginalized communities. No one cares if you get your feelings hurt either. The internet is literally in our hands now. There is no reason why Black and POC characters should be based off stereotypes or revolve around the yt character. Period.
Hi RK! I think about you a lot as far as seeing the writer I want to be out in the wild. You self-published, right? Do you have a Guide for those of us wanting to follow your path, or advice on Where to Look for going in the self pub direction?
Hello and thank you so much!! I apologize if this gets rambly- there's a lot to cover, and I hope you stick with me through it.
I am indeed self-published! Everyone's situation and goals are different, but for me, I work full-time, write on the side, and want to push out professional-looking books because...well, because I want to. I currently don't plan to move to writing full-time, and I do have a job that helps cover the costs of an editor, cover designer, etc.
That's all important to establish up front, because that majorly impacts basically everything else about my strategy.
Because I work full-time, I can't write as fast as other folks. I also don't have as much time to spend on marketing. But because I work full-time, I can set aside money for a line editor, a cover designer, a proofreader, and an illustrator if needed, as well as cover a website, pre-order goodies, author copies for giveaways, a BookFunnel subscription, etc.
So, with all that...
Step 1:
Assess your goals, your abilities, your limits, and plan your strategy around that.
I realize that sounds really vague, but there are so many aspects to self-publishing, and so many things that can either cost $0 or $1,000, that it's worth jotting down the following first:
What you are comfortable & proficient with doing yourself (cover design? proofreading? making your own pre-order swag?)
What you have time for (things like social media, newsletters, and designing your own cover all take time)
What you have the money for (if you're going to spend money on anything, the conventional wisdom is cover design + editor)
What you have the energy for (book release speed, marketing, etc)
What your end goal is (publishing for fun? for a career? for something in between?)
Once you have all that jotted down, I'd plan out the following (and this is really starting from square one):
Your Books' Content
What genre do I want to write in? And do I want to put effort into targeting a sub-genre or sub-sub-genre (a successful strategy for career-focused indie authors), or would I prefer to keep myself flexible for creative purposes?
How much research do I want to put into this genre? A lot of intense indie authors will read a ton, research genre expectations, analyze tropes and covers, etc. But if you're just having fun, that's totally cool!
How quickly do I want to write? And the corollaries: do I want to write a bunch at once, then rapid-release? Or write and release one at a time?
What do I want my editing process to look like? I'd consider things like beta readers, sensitivity readers, and professional editors and/or proofreaders. (For later: don't forget about front and back matter, like copyright pages, acknowledgments, "leave a review and sign up for my newsletter!" pages, etc.)
Your Author Presence & Marketing
How do I want to appear as an author? Do you want to go all-out with a website, newsletter with reader magnets, Patreon and/or social media presence? Or pick and choose a few/none of those things? These are major time-sucks, and the conventional wisdom is that you don't want to try everything at once (particularly social media sites). Master one thing first, then move on to the next. (This is a, uh, do as I say and not as I do kinda situation...)
How do I want to handle cover design? Maybe the most important part of marketing besides your blurb. Please please don't skimp on it.
How do I price my books? Check other books in your genre and see what their average cost is.
What do I want my release strategy to look like? Pre-order goodies? ARCs? Giveaways?
Do I want to participate in any promos or paid advertising? The answer is typically 'no' at the beginning, but I've found BookFunnel to be helpful when it comes to distributing reader magnets and joining group promos.
The Technical & Business-y Aspects
(Not things you have to worry about right now, but things to eventually research and keep in mind.)
What format will my books be in? E-books are cheaper to produce than paperback and net you higher profits. But if you really wanna hold your book in your hand (like me) and write in a genre where readers buy paperbacks, then it could be worth planning for that as well.
How do I want to distribute my books? There are a ton of ways to distribute your book. Amazon, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, Gumroad, Itchio, selling directly on a personal website, etc. If you also want your books in libraries and brick-and-mortar stores, that will impact your distribution strategy.
How will I typeset/format my book? You can do it through Word or Scrivener or even Reedsy's site, but there are also paid programs that make it easier and freelancers who can do it for you.
What sort of licenses do I need to sell books? The really not-fun part. Check your federal, state, county, and city for any required selling permits, business licenses, and tax rules. I'd also look into if you want to set up a DBA ("doing business as") or an EIN (basically a business tax ID number so you don't have to use your personal SSN).
What sort of ID numbers do my books need? For example, in the US, you need ISBN codes sold by Bowker. Not required for ebook, but required for paperback, with a separate code needed for hardcover, translations, or subsequent editions.
How do I copyright my books? For the US, it's the US Copyright Office.
(US Only) Do I want an LCCN (Library of Congress control #) for my book? This helps you get into libraries. If you want a #, you need to fill out a form before your book publishes.
Resources!
I realize this is a LOT to research. Please don't feel like you need to do all the research at once or know everything right away. Put most of your focus into writing and set aside some time to tackle the other topics as you go.
Here are some resources I found to be helpful:
FB Group: Wide for the Win (all about distributing across multiple platforms)
FB Group: 20Booksto50K (very business-focused, almost to a fault, and has some failings, but also has some great advice and detailed insights. I'd recommend using this page only if you're very serious about self-pub)
FB Group: Author Unleashed (great for getting blurb feedback!)
David Gaughran's "Starting from Zero" free online video course, all about marketing when you're totally new to the game
Tammi Lebrecque's Newsletter Ninja books and resources, if you want to delve into newsletters and reader magnets
The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Bucket Siler
The Indie Author's Bible by Christopher D Schmitz
Becca Syme's series for indie authors
A word of warning...
There are a lot of people out there making money off writing resources, aka selling mining equipment to the miners rather than mining themselves. There are thousands of self-publishing gurus with books, consultation packages, sales funnel advice, etc. Before you throw a lot of money at those resources, do some research and take a look at what other indie authors recommend first. (If it helps, I really do trust David Gaughran, Tammi Lebrecque, and Becca Syme for starters.)
Okay that's it!
That was a lot. I'm so sorry. I'm happy to answer any specific questions or concerns you have!
the reedsy prompt this time around matches with a story idea i've had in mind for a while so i might finally be able to write something for it. HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!
that specific brand of vampire media thatâs like âyouâre a late 90s-early 00s vampire in a leather jacket and sunglasses in some sleazy underground goth club thatâs playing electro industrial/aggrotech/goth rock musicâ ruined me on all other vamp media, I too want to be a vampire in a leather jacket & sunglasses in some sleazy underground goth club thatâs playing electro industrial/aggrotech/goth rock music
Ten questions to ask a friend who just read your novel
Here are ten questions to ask that will not put your friend in a tough spot, but will still give you some useful input on your novel:
1. At what point did you feel like âAh, now the story has really begun!âÂ
2. What were the points where you found yourself skimming?Â
3. Which setting in the book was clearest to you as you were reading it? Which do you remember the best?Â
4. Which character would you most like to meet and get to know?Â
5. What was the most suspenseful moment in the book?Â
6. If you had to pick one character to get rid of, who would you axe?Â
7. Was there a situation in the novel that reminded you of something in your own life?Â
8. Where did you stop reading, the first time you cracked open the manuscript? (Can show you where your first dull part is, and help you fix your pacing.)Â
9. What was the last book you read, before this? And what did you think of it? (This can put their comments in context in surprising ways, when you find out what their general interests are. It might surprise you.)Â
10. Finish this sentence: âI kept reading becauseâŠâ
Your friend is probably still going to tell you, âIt was good!â However, if you can ask any specific questions, and read between the lines, you can still get some helpful information out of even the most well-meaning reader.
Norwegian Forest - Tyndall Light âThe light will eventually shine on you, and you will also be brilliant. â[OC][1125x1466] - Author: Fantastic-Package626 on Reddit
