youtube and reddit are definitely the mind-killer. that cycle burnt me out too.

classes and workshops are always a little hit and miss but when i got the chance to take a free class it was night and day. someone who is enabling you with techniques, vs. trying to prove themselves right.

but it's also to be said that i despise the writing advice cottage industry and On Writing is no exception. so i disagree with the book's existence anyway lmao

i think people will improve more slowly if they lack the desire to. not everyone wants to break the mold, and so they won't grow as quickly.

that, and authors will stagnate if they're just putting out any old unedited stuff. stephen king's own career being an example.

the classic adage of "the only thing i hate more than writing is not writing"

exactly. but in most critique groups ive been in, it was either this, or nothing lmao.

nah don't read too much into it lol.

i am a very, unusually slow writer. if your medication is working then i'm positive whatever you're doing is the right way for you.

hey cheers! i also just started (a higher dose of) prozac, so i'm glad we're both feeling happier.

i always under-thought things while writing depressed. i would just power through it since i wasn't having fun. now i get to enjoy taking it slow.

so opposite but kinda same vibes lmao

it's not advice but the thing that will make me want to cross the table at a crit group is, without a doubt

"i don't get it but it's good i guess"

every crit group has the type of person who knows only one piece of conventional wisdom and will eagerly beat you over the head with it

you sure were. look at that triple-wide smile. great job.

reflection sword saint isshin was always too intimidating to retry cause holy moly isshin did not form happy memories lmao

i also never beat the demon of hatred

i think some people get confused about what pretentious means

legitimate emotional depth is one thing

reliving a pow's trauma from vietnam by shooting a bunch of goo-spitting bug enemies is certainly another

so i guess the genre is like

submainstream literary fantasy fiction

also my honorable mentions are tolkien and howard andrew jones, both out of spite

the time war duo: put em both up there. el-mohtar and gladstone's this is how you lose the time war--

on top of having the most badass aesthetic of any time travel story i've read--

has the ONLY fictional romance i have ever cared about or had an opinion on whether it should succeed or fail

jeff vandermeer: i think there is not a truer piece of cosmic horror that exists, even in the catalogue of lovecraft himself, than annihilation.

the cosmic horror was you, the literary-minded person reading and analyzing this text, all along.

jorge luis borges: borges is my "you will never be him."

tlon, uqbar, orbis tertius is a unique piece of meta fiction that is not easily described and i cannot in good faith spoil the experience.

he's not trying to do that, of course. that's just how he writes and what he prioritizes, and his laws of magic just inherit his worldview.