chapter of a book that leans heavily on atmosphere and setting will need you to render those fine setting details, but when you get to the speedy action scene, there's no point describing the fireplace and the couch in the room (unless they come into play) /3

was 100% gospel. but no longer! my biggest rule of thumb here is to let level of importance guide you. an atmospheric secondary world fantasy will need a lot of description; a literary character piece will need heavy internalization. i think this applies at the scene & chapter level too - the 1st 2/

I wasn't online to see the controversy yesterday but just wanted to say this is one of my favorite writing games so far on bluesky and I really appreciate what you're doing so please take all the time you need!

this is so real 😭and the opinion is like 'that was a good book'

and tbc i dont think trad pub is the One way for anyone, but if u ever want to discuss the pitfalls and challenges + some of the positives im happy to dm (if it helps my book is trans-focused horror but i also write lit fic and sff). im pursuing trad pub bc i have no money to self pub so 💀

c) anything that doesn't fit very safe market bets is having a hard time getting thru the door. so things like long series/less marketable premises (ie anything not romantasy or cozy in fantasy) are hard sells, and its compounded by being trans focused. if that makes sense.

idk if my 2 cents help at all but as a trans person on sub w/ a trans centered book, i think certain trad pub genres are more open to trans books than others. that being said we're at a rly shitty point where a) the world hates us so who knows what will happen b) books overall are trending shorter

but this means that in the telling POV, I really have to lean into voice and style in order to keep the reader hooked. So TBH I think telling can actually be harder to implement ~correctly~

this sounds so good i want this immediately

the no context curse is the worst w/ leaks!! that being said either way this is super intriguing and tense af

hello this is insane (in the best way)

I get you! that's the kind of stuff I've been thinking about as I've moved from SFF to more literary work. i think in the lit fic space other elements (atmosphere, theme, more subtle characterization) can take precedence. not to say SFF can't be literary ofcourse! but it depends on the story