sleepyowlwrites

[sleepyowlwrites]

oh good. it's time to go home.

[sleepyowlwrites]

I disagree. but I practically write backwards so whatever

Love this. Heavy on the info dumps though it's the biggest turn off in a book.

[sleepyowlwrites]

wait why is it perfectionism or bust I'm very remarkable and imperfect and it's awesome like idk if I'm special to *gestures vaguely* YOU but I'm special to me and that's neat

trying to be perfect is actually one of the most existentially destructive things you can do to yourself

[sleepyowlwrites]

does anybody wanna hear about the card game I'm working on based on munchkin and critical role? it's my latest "hopefully my brain doesn't eat this thing like tumblr eats asks" creative endeavor

[sleepyowlwrites]

uh oh

[sleepyowlwrites]

friend! will u be making more videos?

On my bookshelves? Idk.

I've been watching a lightlark read along and now i once again want to join booktube/bookblr and make content beyond my energy levels. What else is new.

[sleepyowlwrites]

it's me. I'm writers.

writers will be like "is anyone gonna write that?" and then wait for an answer

[sleepyowlwrites]

I'm going to have chocolate cake for breakfast and no one can stop me

[sleepyowlwrites]

girl sometimes we just gotta be human and that's okay and good actually.

like. it's not fair. I want to do community events and write my stories and give advice and play games and be here. it's so hard and that sucks.

the world is mean. our bodies are mean. the sleepy tireds are a constant ghost. no fair.

but that's still pretty human and I think that's okay. it sucks but also it's okay. it's not fair but also it's okay. be human and discombobulated and weary with me anyway. maybe I'm not really here but I'm here with you, and that's something, yeah?

attempting to outline and get the energy up to write a gator-focused creature feature but the sleepy tireds have had me avoiding it for days

i also have a ya dystopia that i'm working on so maybe later this week i'll do intros for them

[sleepyowlwrites]

I think maybe my point was that an author is lowkey only as good as the help they allow themselves to have - we're meant to be in community, writers included. Part of the process of improving is to seek the help of professionals or even just peers and learn from their feedback. And to immerse ourselves in the medium we're trying to pursue. What you do with your craft for yourself is all yours, and you may enjoy it in any and all stages. It is generally recognized that when that craft is gifted to the public, it will be analyzed and critiqued as it is now for them to enjoy as well. And if you have ignored your peers and the professionals instead of learning from them, then that critique is going to be more negative than you'd want.

And while I absolutely understand the headspace of believing in the validity and sanctity and beauty of this art you've made, there is an inherent danger to your feelings if you hold your own biases above anyone else's opinions. You can love your own work and recognize that it needs improvement.

But it takes practice to get to that new headspace, the one where you can preserve the validity of your art for you and recognize validity in how that art presents to others. As I understand it, Audra hasn't reached a place where she can believe in the second point of validity without diminishing the first, and has mistakenly opened herself to critique she was not emotionally equipped to handle.

I feel bad for her, for where she is. How she is handling herself in her responses to critique, and the manipulative tactics she is knowingly or unknowingly utilizing to defend herself, that I do take issue with. But I get it. I get being in the place where you believe 100% in this piece of art that owns your soul. I'm sad to know that she's so deeply in that place that she's completely destroying her goodwill (and causing herself harm. She admits to how this whole thing is destroying her.)

This was much more coherent. What was going on with my brain the first time.

I watched a whole video about the Audra Winter debacle and can't stop thinking about all you indie authors that managed to release decidedly readable books and how it's so fascinating that despite all odds she managed to not, in fact, do that. Like, she hired editors and did rewrites and had beta readers (according to her) and had been writing this story for the past ten years but still published a book that reads like a first draft.

It's infinitely more fascinating to me how someone can work at a craft for many years and not improve but be so confident of skill. And I'm over here having no big stool to stand on. I'm an amateur writer. But in the past 16 years of practicing this craft I've gone through all the stages of skill awareness. And I didn't have anyone coaching me on how to do that. I just did it, like I assume everyone else does. You know:

"I'm so good at this." to "I might have overestimated how good I am at this." to "I suck at this." to "I'm not half bad at this, it's coming along." to "I am capable of being good at this when I apply my learned skills."

Do not know what my point is. It's just an interesting case study in the spectrum of author quality in the indie scene.

[sleepyowlwrites]

I watched a whole video about the Audra Winter debacle and can't stop thinking about all you indie authors that managed to release decidedly readable books and how it's so fascinating that despite all odds she managed to not, in fact, do that. Like, she hired editors and did rewrites and had beta readers (according to her) and had been writing this story for the past ten years but still published a book that reads like a first draft.

It's infinitely more fascinating to me how someone can work at a craft for many years and not improve but be so confident of skill. And I'm over here having no big stool to stand on. I'm an amateur writer. But in the past 16 years of practicing this craft I've gone through all the stages of skill awareness. And I didn't have anyone coaching me on how to do that. I just did it, like I assume everyone else does. You know:

"I'm so good at this." to "I might have overestimated how good I am at this." to "I suck at this." to "I'm not half bad at this, it's coming along." to "I am capable of being good at this when I apply my learned skills."

Do not know what my point is. It's just an interesting case study in the spectrum of author quality in the indie scene.

[sleepyowlwrites]

It's not a sound Wednesday

[sleepyowlwrites]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

What are some of the recent writing/brainstorming/editing highs you've had? What are some of the lows?

💗 -- @oh-no-another-idea

The highs of it are that I'm having a blast just making up random lore for my dnd-themed world Ilspyre (name subject to change) and eventually I'd like to actually dm a game in this world. After I, like, maybe have actually played some dnd and know what I'm doing. I'm passing on running a game for a few friends but in a different, much simpler, more whimsical world.

The lows are that it's super hard for me to write stuff down. Even getting my thoughts together to answer this ask took me stewing on it for a few hours after work. All my brain power goes to those hours I'm being paid, because I really need my brain wworking then. Afterward I tend to have smoosh brain.

I'm working up to writing by rp-ing with myself lots of dialogue and thinking in descriptive sentences about my stories.

Thanks for stopping by, Idea

[sleepyowlwrites]

Bonus points if you reblog and also tell me which one you know the LEAST about OR which one you WANT to know MORE about!

[sleepyowlwrites]

It's utterly magnetic when a character's rage is quiet and precise. When they don't scream and throw things but they just b r e a t h e and very very calmly aim their fury like an arrow shooting inexorably towards the target of their wrath. It captures my attention, I lean in close, I wait for the hit. It never disappoints.

[sleepyowlwrites]

This is kind of what I'm looking at right now!

Total word count is around 43K words currently but I haven't revised any of the posts yet, I could see it getting up to 50K. So a short and sweet little reference guide! Maybe $10 for a paperback if I set up my page count correctly and KDP gives me a correct estimate or a cheaper ebook?