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Beanie

@meanbeanie.bsky.social

1.4K followers 2.2K following 2K posts

Internet dipshit, full time complainer, not to be taken seriously. If I'm on here I'm probably procrastinating. This place will be an ungodly disorganized mashup of writing and Wheel of Time

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Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 1d

WYM the peacemaker finale is tonight and I'm gonna have to go an indefinite amount of time before Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase as Vigilante graces my screen again

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 1d

and yes, i'm aware that this second issue is entirely my fault and boils down to me lacking discipline and "well obviously you don't want to publish THAT much" and not taking the craft seriously as a job and business

i am aware. so don't tell me. i know full well i just lack professionalism

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 1d

having one of those days where i'm really upset for no particular reason that i'm never going to get published lmao

both because i'm fucking terrible at this, and because "no matter how short my project is, i WILL burn out and quit halfway through" (yes, even the 1.5k word short story apparently)

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 5d

I binged Peacemaker in like a week and now I'm pissed as hell I have to wait until Thursday for the finale

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 7d

Thinking about that one person who read six chapters from me and proceeded to tell me to cut out my main POV character and also make it historic fiction and not fantasy

"Hey, great story! Don't change anything! Oh but also change your entire fucking premise because I don't like it"

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 7d

**became mothers / had kids / however you want to read that

I'm too riled up to proofread I fear

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 7d

And if you're uncomfortable with it because you're child free / struggle with pregnancy / your pregnancy was traumatic?

That's fine! Cool beans! Just don't become a harassing dickwad morality policing and say no author should ever write it and that it's wrong and offensive or whatever, bc it's not

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 7d

Also if anyone wants to come into my replies and say "but I don't like how it reduces women to nothing but baby makers!"

Literally shut the fuck up? Shae and Wen in the Green Bone Saga were not "less than" when they became kids.

This reflects the drivel you read. It's not a fuckin' morality thing

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 7d

Apparently this needs to be said again:

Just because YOU PERSONALLY don't want to read about something in a book DOES NOT MEAN that it's wrong for the authors to write it (not even in a depiction ≠ endorsement way, but in a "a MC having a kid isn't fucking problematic" way)

jesus christ people

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

Ah thanks — I am cutting that bit out though. I need to remind myself that "if it's important, i'll be in the subtext, and if it's not, it's not important"

Nobody will ever care about the characters more than I do, and I don't want to jump back in a story that's supposed to have FORWARD momentum

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

i mean i don't disagree

i'm just petrified of breaking the rules and doing the writing amateurs on reddit do because i fail to realize nobody gives a fuck as much as i do

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

the shit about her being in law school, her brother being arrested, it being her dad's idea??

doesn't fucking matter at all. nobody is going to give a shit. they read books for what's happening NOW. what the character wants and what they do to get it. backstory is a distraction

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

but we already know they were married. we already know they were divorced (he's referred to as her "Ex husband" at one point)

we can already surmise who ended it based on how they interact

you like it. but it's bad writing. it's infodumping. exposition. breaks immediacy. frankly repetitive.

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

and heres a passage from my own thing that prompted my OP

like all of this is either 1) not fucking important 2) is literally already implied by how she and her ex interact in the present (he still likes her, she doesn't still like him)

nobody. fucking. cares.

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

i mean i write (low) fantasy but in this i'm talking character personal background so it's not really genre dependant. i never exposit worldbuilding anyway

just. yeah. backstory breaks all the writing rules and i can't understand why it's okay. just imply it in the present, it's never necessary

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

tbh all the "best writers" i know and trust have hammered home "show don't tell, always imply never state, never be direct, keep everything in the subtext"

so i trust them more than shitty writers who say "lol weeee infodumps and worldbuilding is fun!!"

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

and ive been praised by someone who told me it showed trust in my reader because i NEVER exposited and religiously followed show don't tell (which, imo, is the number one rule to follow)

its not just reddit advice. EVERYONE says to avoid backstory & context like the plague

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

to paraphrase someone i saw on reddit;

just because some authors get away with exposition and backstory and infodumps doesn't make it okay. it just means bad writing slipped through the editing cracks

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

so why do all the writing rules emphasize no backstory, imply don't state, immediacy, let the story stand alone, trust the audience

i was explicitly praised recently for having zero exposition and just keeping everything into the subtext

stating backstory is just redundant and handholds readers?

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

Couldn't you still keep it in the story and just add it to the TWs if you want? I'm sure some people won't mind it if they have a heads up, or even won't mind at all?

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 9d

discourses ive been exposed to in the last 12 hours include "it's never okay to kill a main character in a novel because your reader is attached to them" and "it's never okay to write any upsetting content in a novel because it's triggering"

so i mean i guess i'll go fuck myself

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 10d

every bit of backstory and context can just be implied in the subtext of what's happening now

it's NEVER necessary to state. "this characters mom died when he was three" okay imply it by her just not being around and how your character acts around other moms

show don't tell. imply don't state

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 10d

is it ever necessary to undertand the scene though? i mean, isn't the whole point of writing THIS story that the actions / characters are just taken for granted as is and they stand alone? you don't need to tell us someone grew up in the circus to explain how they can walk a tightrope - it's implied

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 10d

Is it ever okay to be direct / write backstory in a book? I mean, I know some books do it, but it breaks all the rules, right?

I wrote two paragraphs last night, and it was character background. And all I could think was "jfc this breaks interiority, just imply it in the present."

Beanie @meanbeanie.bsky.social · 14d

It ain't happenin'