#writing industry

[purplecowbell]

Submitted my first short story to be professionally published today.

In celebration I'm going to ask you other writers:

[amewinterswriting]

On Supporting Artists

We all need to get better about supporting artists. Both on an individual level and a structural level. We are currently living through a time of change - though that is broadly true of any period of history; humans create change as naturally as breathing. But some of the specific changes I see happening now have a lot of potential to radically change how we view, make, and consume art, and it’s up to us to make sure those changes are positive ones.

Read the rest (for free!) over on my Kofi!

[malcolmschmitz]

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.

There's a subset of self-published indie authors who write a ludicrous number of books a year, we're talking double digit releases of full novels, and these folks make a lot of money telling you how you can do the same thing. A lot of them feature in breathless puff pieces about how "competitive" self-publishing is as an industry now.

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They're using upwork or fiverr to find people to outline, draft, edit, and market their books. Most of them, presumably, do write some of their own stuff! But many "prolific" indie writers are absolutely using ghostwriters to speed up their process, get higher Amazon best-seller ratings, and, bluntly, make more money faster.

When you see some godawful puff piece floating around about how some indie writer is thinking about having to start using AI to "stay competitive in self-publishing", the part the journalist isn't telling you is that the 'indie writer' in question is planning to use AI instead of paying some guy on Upwork to do the drafting.

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive', because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

[miss-saytr]

“Open at: FIVE!!!”

I would stare at the piece of printer paper on the door and check my phone until it hit five exactly. I would bounce my leg, I would look at my nails, I would pace around. But it was only for a few minutes. There was no one else waiting, so when it was five pm exactly, I opened the door.

I saw him a few yards down playing with… toy planes? He was making plane noises too, childish ones, making them crash into each other. This man had a suit and tie, and was as old as my father.

“I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”

“It’s five now, isn’t it? Sit down.”

He put his toy planes to the side on his desk and he would give me a smile. We talked awkwardly for the next few minutes about the industry, about how I felt like I wanted to give up. This is the time period I was born into but it’s all crashed and burned before I was ready to even get even a sliver of a chance that I can get my dream.

“How did you do it?”

He shrugged. I understood he never got what he wanted at first too, but back in the 90’s the chances of those dreams becoming a reality were significantly higher.

“And don’t say you knew someone, don’t say you were lucky, don’t say you kept coming back. Because I know to do all that stuff. I’ve heard it a million times.”

He nodded his head very lightly. Silence.

“And I know it was easier back then but I’m old enough for this now, and I wish I could go back in the past and live in a better world where hope feels real. But no, the universe said I had to be here right now and have this dream.”

Silence.

“Why don’t I just end it all? I mean, I’ve asked myself that when I was younger and stupid, but she had a point, didn’t she? If I can’t do anything about the fact that I was tossed into this industry because I loved it and found out it was greedy, selfish, expensive, apathetic…”

…

“Damnit, Tommy, are you even listening?”

I couldn’t see his face through the tears in my eyes. I wanted to give up. I wanted to cry. I wanted to magically put myself in the past or a better universe where hope feels like it could work.

He slowly swiveled his seat around to reach for one of his toy planes. He held it, looked at it for a bit, then turned to me.

“I think… you have to realize… that despite it being so important to you, I think your passion should keep you alive. I think…”

He was tapping his foot and fidgeting with his toy plane. He was saying all of this slowly, stumbling, trying to find the right words to say.

“I think you need to continue doing things for yourself. Max told me about you and you’re a good kid. He said you thought happiness was the meaning of your life. And I think if you believe that, you should continue to find it even if the world you came to is crumbling. I get it. But there are so many things that you enjoy too that you find purpose and happiness in, even if it doesn’t ‘benefit’ you. I’m sorry, I hope I’m making sense here.”

Wiping my eyes, I imagined myself punching Max in the face.

“I know you said you beat depression. Congrats! I’m sorry if I’m getting too personal. But I think I should tell you. I’m proud of you and you were the only one who showed up to see me here today. I think that says a lot about you. I think you should keep up that determination not just in your work, but what makes you happy.”

I wanted to hug him, but I felt strange. But I felt myself only thinking of replying in the form of a stupid, unrelated question.

“Were you playing with planes before I came in…?”

“Yeah! It makes me happy.”

[noknowshame]

always a fun time when real life people are doomed by their own narratives. like guys you know it doesn’t have to be like this right? this isn’t a stageplay the foreshadowing isn’t real until you make it real

[scriptwriters-network]

Script Analysis ~ Readers Class on 6/17 - This Saturday!

Reading and analyzing scripts is one of the best ways to improve your writing! It’s so much easier to see glaring problems and brilliant writing in work that is not your own – and once you see it and know what to look for, you can apply it to your scripts.

For more info.

[nine-aetharia]

i need swifties to shut the fuck up about 'oh so kendrick's disses can be analyzed for hidden meanings but we can't do the same for taylor songs' yeah bc that's not isolated to kendrick. subliminals and entendres abound in rap. taylor swift songs are as deep as a puddle while youre wearing flip flops and your feet still arent wet

[lucybellwood]

Another piece I did for The Nib back in 2015! Gonna keep posting these until they shut down at the end of the summer. It was such a treat to hear that Matt and the whole editorial team just won an Eisner for their work on the magazine and website. Much-deserved.

Anyway: this is a parody and isn't representative of every screenwriter's experience, but it certainly feels relevant with all the strikes rolling out right now. Did you know what kind of credit you get on a film directly impacts how much you're paid? For writers you'll see "created by," "written by," "story by," and all sorts of other things, all of which translate to different levels of compensation! (Highlander, for example, has Story by Gregory Widen and Screenplay by my dad and his writing partner, Larry Ferguson.) The Writer's Guild is often responsible for arbitrating those decisions. They have a whole MANUAL to help writers understand the process. It rules.

Thanks, WGA. Thanks, The Nib. (And you can always make more of these comics possible on Patreon.)

[lostlegendaerie]

there's something deeply gutting about being a writer right now. watching studio execs brag about starving people like you out of your very house just to not pay you anything above the pennies you currently make. watching some people cheer over AO3 being targeted for a DDOS attack. the complete lack of profitability of writing commissions or writing in general in transformative spaces, especially in contrast to fanart. the pivot of so many social media platforms to be video and image based near-exclusively.

I don't know. it just makes me sad to know that the hobby that kept me alive while growing up homeschooled with dial-up internet and local antenna TV... is only ever gonna be a side job with minimal engagement. I know this site is good about supporting libraries and the concept of books but, do me a favor? Reach out to a writer friend you know. Leave a comment on your last five read stories on your favorite website.

Tell us you care.

[jakedustry]

𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐎𝐘 - 𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐀 𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐈

bf!riki x fem!reader

in which your boyfriend insists on leaving his birthday party sooner when he sees you're getting along with his friends little too much

wc 0.7k

warnings jealous!riki, drinking, kissing

↪ izzy adds...happiest birthday to one of my favs <33 this is not proofread!

“I can handle my alcohol,” you assure your boyfriend as you take another shot with his friends. “Riki, I’m fine. I promise,” you spare him a mare look before Heeseung, on your other side, steals your attention, making you laugh about something Riki can’t even comprehend. He sighs, looking down at the drink in front of him. He lost his appetite. 

“Relax, man. It’s your birthday!” His best friend reminds him, patting him on the back. “Yeah, yeah,” Riki just brushes him off, glancing at you before he grips the bottle of soju before him. “Whatever. I’m going home soon anyway.” Jake sighs, his eyes drifting towards you. “She is having fun for the both of you right now. Don’t be mad at her.” Riki only hums in response, not saying anything else before he brings the bottle to his lips, gulping it down as if it were water. 

You shake your head at Heeseung, a laugh escaping your lips. That’s when you feel your boyfriend’s hand on your thigh, making you look up at him. “What’s up?” You ask softly, and he can’t even be mad at you when you give him those eyes. “Stop drinking.” You frown when his breath reaches your face. He’s also had enough. “I told you I’m fine, baby. I’m not drunk yet,” you disagree, but that only makes his grip tighter. You raise an eyebrow at him in question. “Let’s go home,” he insists. 

So you give in, telling everyone you are leaving. However, they don’t let either of you go just like that. You have to take two more shots, “One for each leg,” as Jay says. By the time you’re leaving the place, you’re beginning to feel all the alcohol you had tonight. 

Riki holds your hand in his as he waits for a taxi to arrive, not saying anything, which only worries you. “Are you okay?” You ask, your thumb rubbing the back of his hand to calm him. “Yeah,” he hums, but you both know he doesn’t mean it. “I’m sorry, baby,” you apologize, even though you’re unsure what for. “What’s bothering you?” You step in front of him so he has a reason to look at you, grabbing his other hand, too. 

“They are bothering me,” he admits quietly, mumbling a few curses about his friends. You scoff at that, letting go of his hands so you can wrap your arms around him instead. You pull him into a hug, resting your head on his chest. “I’m sure Heeseung would love a hug like this.” 

That’s when it finally hits you. Your boyfriend—who is always trying to be nonchalant and easy going around you—is jealous. “Oh, baby,” you smile, shaking your head. “You know I’m all yours,” you remind him, rubbing small circles on his back. How funny was this situation? Your gigantic boyfriend pouting in your arms because he is jealous of his own friends. 

“Let’s go home, yeah?” 

♡⸝⸝ 

“Are you feeling better?” You ask, placing another kiss on his collarbone. Your lipstick is covering his whole neck at this point, but he couldn’t care less about that. “And here I was, thinking you would be the one taking care of me tonight,” you mumble, moving up to place a kiss on his cheek. “You are just my big baby, aren’t you?” You watch him roll his eyes and you giggle, finally pressing your lips on his. 

Riki smiles when he feels the familiar touch of your lips, his arms wrapping around your waist so he can pull you closer. “I’m not a baby,” he disagrees, his cold hand sliding under your shirt. He doesn’t move up, though. His hand rests on your waist, simply letting you know he’s there. “Are you sure, baby?” You tease him, but it only leads to him flipping you around on the bed, so you’re lying under him now. “Not a baby,” he repeats himself, leaning in for yet another kiss. 

“Okay, okay,” you laugh. “You aren’t a baby,” you agree with him. As your eyes meet his, you can’t help but smile. He’s cute, no matter how much he doesn’t want the adjective associated with him. 

“Happy birthday, love,” you wish him. “I hope all your wishes come true.”

✧˖°. izzy's tags @beomiracles @adel222 @hwanghyunjinismybae @liaatiny @nxzz-skz ✧˖°. want to get notified? join taglist here!

[inkskinned]

you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.

(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)

but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.

(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)

there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.

(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)

you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.

(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)

you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.

in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.

but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.

they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.

it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.

[bixels]

I'm not explaining why re-imagining characters as POC is not the same as white-washing, here of all places should fucking understand.

[shotmrmiller]

ps!ghost is very interested, to put it mildly. can't seem to stop re-watching your debut video that was released a week ago. it's always the same premise. black leather couch casting. nice little bird in a modest dress or shirt and jeans who gets undressed because the "director" has to take in measurements and the like, only to end up getting railed from the back with their pretty face pressed into the cushion.

it's a thing male viewers like. they love to watch a professional break in the new girl. he, though, not so much. he doesn't go for the new girls. doesn't like to be the one to test the limit like others do. (big cock anal on their debut? ghost finds it a bit much.) he hears one tiny gasped ouch and he's not finishing the shoot.

no, what gets him going is the enjoyment one can get during sex. it's why he ended up in this business in the first place. he likes sex. a lot.

likes to have men, women, young and old alike writhing beneath him gasping his (stage) name due to the pleasure and not because a script said to. and the benefits of working in the porn industry means that he gets paid doing what he likes, and can stay safe while doing so.

this is where you come in. the only reason he'd sat down to watch your video at all is because you'd been given a contract by the same company he is under. he's bound to come across you at a later date, might as well learn what he'll be eventually working with.

and he's hooked. whatever initial nervousness you might've had at the very beginning (because this is your very first professional shoot, of course) bleeds from your shoulders once price, the lucky bloke, gets his hands on you. you're a bloody natural.

and you enjoy it. there's no faking the way your nails bite into price's scalp when he licks at your pussy through your thin knickers. you gently wrap your hand around his fingers that's rolling your hardened nipple, giving it a gentle squeeze. he's doing it too rough. you buck your hips into his face, riding it even though you're the one on your back.

ps!ghost has to swallow the mouthful of saliva when he notices strings of creamy white sticking to price's body hair, a frothy ring around the root. the best part of all of this, is that you're giving as good as you take. you're no passive participant. you could, under price's big bulk, just get folded in half and do nothing other than feel the sweet burn of his cock stretch you, turn you inside out.

but you don't. you know exactly what you like and how you like it. you look for your orgasm, make sure it happens under your manicured fingers or price's thick ones. you don't let him be too rough on you nor too gentle.

simon loves it. you're new to this. you could've just accepted what he gave you without so much as a peep of complaint and gone home to soak in an epsom salt bath. but you didn't. you didn't let him pinch your sensitive clit, didn't let him mindlessly claim a fistful of hair.

but you did open your pretty mouth so he could spit in it (fucking lovely, it was) and let him keep your soft hips in the air as john's pace turned frantic and the best of all (in his very biased opinion) you crossed your ankles around his waist to keep him there as he fucked you full of his come.

(had simon been there, he would've begged for a taste if he had to.)

he feels a bit desperate, after. can't get you out of his head. the thought of your slick pussy hot around his cock is what gets him to finish at times. the other times, it's your video. he swears he's found his equal (sorry, soap) one that'll forget that he's supposed to be putting on a show for the viewers.

sorry price, he's about to unfuck him out of your pussy until all it'll ever remember is simon.

(what he doesn't understand is that he's about to forget more than the viewers. why is price watching yall again? it's almost intimate the way you let him fuck you on a creaky mattress. he's drunk on the smell of you, your hair, your cunt. lost all thought when his fat cock slid with relative ease into your wet heat and all he'd done was let you make yourself come on his fingers and tongue as many times as you'd pleased. you'd latched onto his neck, maybe out of habit or whatever, it doesn't matter. he'll be telling the makeup artists to leave the bites you left. he earned every single one. and where he usually pulls out because it's easier to clean up for everyone? you'll not be wasting a single drop. it appears he has a lot bit of a breeding kink.)

[butchvamp]

we know EA interfered a lot with veilguard, i definitely do attribute the "sanitization" of the setting directly to EA's meddling, i even think to some extent taash's quest and the corporate representation feel of it all was influenced heavily by EA and not just weekes. and i think a lot of the companions being so shallow and their quests feeling half-baked is also mostly due to time constraints and rewrites/cut content-- the writers genuinely did do the best they could with what they had, and i feel for them and their frustrations. but. there are also just a lot of really bad decisions made elsewhere, too. like i said the racism has always been present in these games and it's always been a problem, it's literally baked into the worldbuilding, though i can definitely agree that some of it was potentially made worse specifically in veilguard due to constant rewrites and the loss of context and cohesion, but like... it was always there to begin with... and it's not "unfair" for players to point this out.

both things can be true-- EA absolutely fucked these people over, and we shouldn't be speculating conspiracy theory-type shit about the writers hating fans or whatever when we know. we know EA interfered, we know there were creative differences, we know they ruthlessly laid off a lot of the people that poured their blood, sweat, and tears into this game! EA is both stupid and actively malicious, they get no sympathy from me. veilguard absolutely is a casualty of the current state of the gaming industry. and i also think there were a lot of poor writing decisions made independently of that as well, that are fair to criticize and question. a lot of these problems are the same problems we've seen in every single DA game, and this consistency makes it clear this is not just an issue with corporate overreach.

but i really feel for everyone involved with making this game, this shit was clearly a very long and tiring fight, i can't even imagine the kind of constant corporate shitstorm they had to deal with for ten fucking years, and personally there is no NDA in the world that would keep me from talking shit. so these guys are stronger than me lol

[smileposting]

i loved the game as a whole obviously but hobbyhoo stands out in my memory bc i'm a huge sucker for "we gotta put on (x type of stage performance) to SAVE THE TOWN"/"we're using (x type of stage performance) to work out irl feelings that most people would probably be able to work out separately but. well. we are not most people" plots.

anyways all this to say that it's insanely funny reading back old speculation that's like "huh, i wonder if maybe king/whoever's impersonating them is taking advantage of click clack being insecure about how much of his identity as a god is tied to thespius. maybe thespius' doting accidentally drove a further wedge between the two of them?" and then you boot up the full game and thespius is on his hands and knees like "CLICKY PLEASE JUST ONE CHANCE" and then you go talk to click clack and he's like "To prove that i am a Proper Gentleman i've completely edited out any and all romantic/sexual tension between our self-inserts lest the audiences scorn my beloved BESTIE. what's the hays code btw."

[scriptwriters-network]

Script Analysis ~ Readers Class on 6/17 - This Saturday!

Reading and analyzing scripts is one of the best ways to improve your writing! It’s so much easier to see glaring problems and brilliant writing in work that is not your own – and once you see it and know what to look for, you can apply it to your scripts.

For more info.