#blaizespeak

[blaizekit]

Literally no one asked but yes I AM grumpy that yet another app I use has gone subscription model with the justification that it’s needed to bring us the hottest new ai features they’ve decided to shoehorn in

On the surface I should be glad that goodnotes 6 still at least offers a one time purchase (as many don’t even do that anymore) but I can’t help giving it the side eye. While I don’t agree with its $20 price hike over the last version, what actually concerns me more is the attitude in the fine print. It’s not clear if one-time purchasers will get every new feature going forward. The way it’s written, you have to take it at face value and assume that what you are paying for is what exists there right now. Which isn’t a lot. And introducing the ability to sync across different platforms, but only for subscribers? This thing JUST launched and they’re already excluding buyers. They’re not even being subtle here.

Look, I’m probably in the minority on this even among people who hate subscriptions, but I would literally rather pay more for a fair and transparent experience than whatever kind of lip service this is.

And making it so you can’t buy or download the old version anymore unless you already own it is shit. Shows how much confidence you have in your new features that are so great we simply must keep paying for them every year.

[blaizekit]

I haven’t decided this 100%, but it’s looking increasingly likely that I will self publish my original novel.

While I've gotten plenty of rejections and feedback at this point from agents, it's not that I've gotten overly discouraged or anything like that. Most of them seem to think I stand a chance of being accepted somewhere, just not with them. If anything, some of the feedback has boosted my confidence.

So there are a variety of factors, but mostly it comes down to timelines and scale. I set aside a certain amount of time for me to query and focus hard on breaking in. That time is quickly coming to an end.

In addition, I've started thinking the gradual route will work better for me, as I struggle with social anxiety and a fear of self-promotion. It's a necessity for both paths, true, but I worry that the added pressure of having a business partner and the need to 'earn out' will only make it worse. I can get used to the realities of managing and marketing over time, but I think being allowed to go at my own pace may greatly reduce my stress. I may even be able to cross over later if I keep going.

Whatever happens, I've started a mailing list so I can stay in contact with anyone who is interested in my originals.

If you'd like to be on the mailing list, send me an ask or DM--either here or on twitter--with your email and name you want to go by.

Even saying that feels weird to me, but I have to start somewhere. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It's only so I can tell people when the thing is coming out, and maybe stuff about advance reader copies if I can figure that out.

I really, really appreciate it. 💗

[blaizekit]

Me @ my characters: you feel so real to me now and I love that for you. But. Can the next ones do it faster please

[blaizekit]

got my first personalized (ie not form letter) rejection today

trending in the right direction at least :'D

[blaizekit]

all my highlights and notes disappeared. a week’s worth of revisions. just went poof

[blaizekit]

Do you guys know how weird it is for me now every time I post with this thing at the bottom each time

[blaizekit]

Idk about other people, but the part of querying (or job searching, or anything like that) that’s most scary to me is the sense of unknown. Especially when it comes to, like… how much trial-and-error will it take? And what if I ruin too many opportunities just from making mistakes? I mean, you can only learn so much just from reading about it. You kinda have to DO the thing to really get it, which means making mistakes, which is scary.

[blaizekit]

After that whole revision-loss fiasco, I decided to switch note apps (again) because even though the default Notes app is super convenient to use, it’s not so convenient to back everything up for safekeeping in case the cloud decides to shat on itself

I was not happy at the thought of switching all my stuff over and learning a new program yet again, but I did it. I spent literally the entire day yesterday moving stuff over to Obsidian and learning how to set it up. It took a lot of web searches to figure out how to get it up and running, but I eventually found a good theme and plugins to make it do what I wanted. I got this theme and just followed what it said to do.

Honestly, now that I have the hang of it, I'm stoked. IT HAS MY BELOVED TOGGLES which I could only get from Notion before, but I hated how toggles on Notion WOULDN’T LOAD if my internet connection was weak (spoiler: it always is) and in general anything that can’t work well offline is a big No. Plus the margins on the notes were too big even if you chose the “slim margins” options. Obsidian LETS ME SET THE LINE WIDTH as a percentage so I can have that shit edge-to-edge, baby!!! Also, there are window panes within the app so I can have side-by-side notes in a WILD amount of possible configurations, which is perfect for using full-screen mode on my computer, cause then I can have a ton of notes up at once even though full-screen mode only allows for two side-by-side apps.

Oh right, then there’s the stuff it’s actually known for, like it isn’t platform-restricted and saves all your notes in plaintext in a normal set of folders so it’s super easy to backup, and it’s future proof. That’s pretty cool too.