My Dirty Little Spot on Tumblr

A place for me to keep all the little things I find so fun to look at and read. Nothing is mine, everyone is over 18 (and if you aren't 18, don't let the door hit you on your way out). 40+ yo (I remember the Reagan years…) in SW.

[the-blueprint]

@Wisdom

[animentality]

[cricketcat9]

The disdain and hatred for science + adoration of wealth = more deaths from cancer and preventable diseases.

[guerrillatech]

[whoznoah]

The agony of thinking you’re finished doing the dishes only to turn around and to your horror: the pot.

[artisimpossible]

At some point, you gotta stop asking yourself "why does everyone prefer bad books over mine" and start asking yourself "what are these badly written books doing to connect with people that mine aren't?"

Every time I hear an author lament the fact that people only like "bad" books and no one appreciates their artistry anymore, all I hear is "I never take the time to evaluate what makes something interesting to people who aren't me, and I value the rules of craft and other arbitrary elements I've posited as the crux of good writing over the art of actually meeting people where they are and giving them something that holds value to their lives."

[artisimpossible]

I actually want to talk about this again because I think people see "real art" as "never compromising your work by creating for someone else", and if you want to make art that never considers anyone else, that is a totally real thing you can do.

But there is a community minded way to view your art and an individualist minded way to view your art. Writing to connect with your community, to speak on things that are relevant to the whole, to fill in gaps where community is lacking, vs. writing whatever you specifically enjoy and want to read.

And look, these are not mutually exclusive things. My stories are very community minded, but the way I execute them is to prioritize putting things in a way that *I* personally enjoy. It's a blend. But I see a lot of people getting angry that their "very personal, just for me, just everything I want" art is not being well-received by the masses, arguing that everyone just has terrible taste now and nobody cares about *real* art, and like... Have you ever considered that your audience isn't ignoring you because they don't appreciate the quality of your craft but simply because they were never your audience to begin with? If your only audience is you, how can you be mad that only you care to read it?

If you want to reach people, consider what you're doing that keeps you from *reaching people*. Sometimes you're looking in all the wrong places, and sometimes you're writing for an audience of one but expecting a crowd. People who write for larger audiences have mastered a *different skill than you*. If you want what they have, you have to master *that* skill. It's not that people just "like bad books". It's that some authors know how to write for their community, and some only know how to write for themselves, and it is perfectly okay to be either type, but shitting on your peers and your future potential audience because you refuse to evaluate *why* your work doesn't connect is not going to help you reach people.

The fact of the matter is that most readers read for *content* not *craft*. That doesn't mean they dislike your university-learned craft (some might, but most won't). It just means that if they have to choose between "high craft, pointless to them substance" or "weak craft, valuable to them substance", they're going to choose the second. If you don't care to provide substance that's valuable to them, that's totally fine, and you should continue crafting just for you, but it is not some phenomenon of people suddenly hating good craft. It's a phenomenon of authors learning how to "craft" but never how to "connect".

And frankly, this is why fanfic authors tend to do so well even with original fiction. Fanfic doesn't [inherently] teach you craft, but it teaches you to connect. These are completely different skills.

[tallysgreatestfan]

Do you have more specific tips on how to do this? Because I am quite sure that making my texts mainstream digestible is my single most biggest missing writing skill. I just have no idea how to even learn this or to start. I don't even really manage to do this with fanfiction.

Maybe because its because I am queer and autistic and mentally ill, so I don't even have some mainstream experiences to resort too. And it's hard to even see what exactly is mainstream, unlike most people who seem to just feel that like second nature.

I put a lot of raw emotion on my text, and I tried to make my characters as distinguishable as possible and my world vivid - but these are still all drawn from fundamentally not being mainstream, and while it might resonate with other weird people like me, as long as it does not reach mainstream, it will not have reach, and I despair about that.

[artisimpossible]

Okay, so 1. A story that is "able to connect" with audiences and one that is "mainstream digestible" are not inherently the same thing, and 2. stories don't need to be "mainstream" in order to have reach, they just have to *reach* the people who will further that reach through word of mouth. I say this as an author of queer/trans neurodiverse PoC books that are still connecting with readers years after release.

So, "how do you figure out what makes a story connect with people and how do you replicate that?"

Literally ask people. One of my best friends likes basically every popular IP ever, so I just ask them "Why do you like this? What about it stands out to you?" Part of it is just recognizing what stories are reaching the audiences you want and then listening to those audiences as they explain what they love about those stories.

Look at the people writing the stories *you* want to tell, but who are reaching a broader audience than you are. What are they doing differently? What sets their story apart from yours.

Get feedback on your own work. Where are people consistently falling off? What parts are they specifically vibing with, and how can you go about strengthening those parts or making it so that other parts of your stories are following in that vein?

What is the *heart* of your work. What makes it matter to you? Now look at people outside of yourself and ask yourself what *they* care about. Is there overlap? This isn't to say that you shouldn't write autistic or queer characters (you should!), but if the most important thing to you is exploring your experience as an autistic person then you're writing to a narrow audience, and that means you want to make sure you're *really* resonating with *that* audience so that they'll invest in that story. So what are *other* autistic people looking for in a story? What makes them feel invested in it? How can you make sure that your take on this experience is resonating with your community?

Finally, look at yourself. What makes you go *feral* for a story. Not, what stories do you like, but what stories absolutely go *above and beyond* in making you adore them. Now, what are they doing that you aren't? Likewise, which of those stories are reaching broader audiences and which aren't. What are the more popular ones doing that the less popular ones aren't?

This isn't cut and dry because sometimes what one story is doing is literally "having a larger marketing budget" or "starring a big name actor" or "releasing on exactly the right day to go viral", but it's about understanding the trends of how and why things resonate with modern audiences. Again, if what you ultimately find is that you don't care or you just want to write what you love, then by all means, do that, but even if it goes slowly, if you *really* connect with people, your stories will slowly find a bigger and bigger audience because people share what they love. Hope this helps!

[chelonianmobile]

Thank you! Though I would say this does kind of overlap with writing to market? I'm not sure how it's different because in both cases you're researching who the audience you want is and what they want. I think it's just not going into my brain right though, sometimes things need rephrasing.

Point five covers a different bit of writing advice I've seen - the "id list". https://www.pagesandplatforms.com/blog/id-lists-and-pillow-books-how-to-crank-up-all-the-feels-in-your-wip I love this one.

[bobacupcake]

its a mystery

[kitchen-light]

“There’s a legend about a Chinese painter who was asked by the emperor to paint a landscape so pristine that the emperor can enter it. He didn’t do a good job, so the emperor was preparing to assassinate him. But because it was his painting, legend goes, he stepped inside and vanished, saving himself. I always loved that little allegory as an artist. Even when it is not enough for others, if it is enough for you, you can live inside it.”

— Ocean Vuong, from an interview with Zoë Hitzig in Prac Crit

[elexuscal]

"what did students do before chatgpt?" well one time i forgot i had a history essay due at my 10am class the morning of so over the course of my 30 minute bus ride to school i awkwardly used by backpack as a desk, sped wrote the essay, and got an A on it.

six months later i re-read the essay prior to the final exam, went 'ohhhh yeah i remember this', got a question on that topic, and aced it.

point being that actually doing the work is how you learn the material and internalize it. ChatGPT can give you a short cut but it won't build you the the muscles.

[softwaring]

[xxxprosp3r0neilxxx]

Victor Frankenstein syndrome aka you spent nights over nights crying and bleeding over this work and now that it's finally done you're just like "nvm. it's trash" and go to bed

[beemovieerotica]

people who are just finding out about internet tracking and data mining in the year 2025 and that your special robot friend does not respect your privacy lol

[no-resolution]

BTVS textposts vol. 2

[justarandomart]

did i do it? did i do the meme right?

[spineless-lobster]

“NOT WHAT I’M CALLED” has been in my head for the past few days so have this

[emiemi345]

[kaijuno]

[bcrude]

While at the book store with Mr. Crude, Sabrina picked up a copy of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” and said, “I have a new nickname for you, old man.”

“Hey, now! I’m not fat, young lady!” he replied.

“I know. I’m referring to your dick,” she said. “From now on, instead of saying I want your dick in me, I’ll just say I want to see Moby. Okay?”

“I guess that sounds a little more polite. Okay.”

“So, ummm… I want to see Moby when we get home!” Sabrina said with a grin.