Trashy book reading is like the best kind of reading, no one can convince me otherwise lol (and i personaly believe that any work of fiction has at least _something_ to be taken from it)
It’s the best. I love reading pretentious classics and books on philosophy but I would be insane if I didn’t have my trashy reads in between them. They are really comforting to indulge in
Recently, I had the realization that I could just write stuff. Which probably sounds strange, but I have always felt that I'm not good enough to actually write stories. I'm a heavy fanfic reader, and I always thought to myself, "I'll never be able to write as good as this person." So I was just like, man, I have all these fun and cute story ideas. I hope someone writes something like that. Then, one day, I was like well I could write it, and even if it's cringy, at least I tried something. Now I'm just writing nonsense self-indulgent fanfiction that no one will probably read but myself. And it's so fun! I do want to work on my writing skills and share my work someday, but that's not the goal right now. The goal is to just have fun!
Thank you. I fell out of fandom and writing fanfic several years ago. Couldn't even tell you why I just stopped one day. And I've missed it so much, but so much time has passed I'm back where I was when I started, too afraid to put my ideas down on paper. Your comment reminded me that I can just write them for me and for the fun of it.
i havent written fanfic since i was 14 but have been writing just for fun since i was 13. now, i do what i consider "free writing" though its technically not that based on the definition. i just write and let my characters do what they want; it's like they are telling me the story and i am just writing it down. its more fun and i can always go back to edit it. it also helps with my characters forming relationships and personalities. i usually start with appearance and some personality traits and let them decide who they become friends with, fall in love with, etc etc. just have fun and worry about what type of story/message you want to later.
Honestly, reading fanfiction has helped me loosen up from the elitist stuff my writing program at college taught me. There are so many incredible and talented fanfic writers, but there are even more "just ok" fanfic writers whose stories I've still enjoyed. It made me realize that if I write something that someone likes, that is a success!
I admire your spirit so much. I fell off writing fic years ago. I remember once feeling the joy and fun of writing silly fanfiction. It's a fantastic hobby. Doesn't cost us a penny and gives a good hit of having accomplished writing a unique story about characters you love. 🥰
Avid fanfic reader, aspiring fanfic writer here, has your exact thoughts before!! My stuff is so hyperspecific and weird that maybe it’ll be just me reading it AND THATS OKAY. Art for its own sake is beautiful. And in my reading experience, sometimes that extremely niche stuff is something that will connect deeply with you as reader that the author may never know. And surprisingly, it was another fanfic author who wrote a crossover fic with a concept so utterly balls to the wall insane but executed it INCREDIBLY that made me realize, yea. Write whatever the hell you want. Go as crazy as you want and be unashamed because that can end up making some of The most Stunning work, and even if it doesn’t, you enjoyed the crap out of it anyways.
I've been working on a project that started as a commercial romantasy project. Something that was meant to be "trashy." It has now turned into a project to help me process trauma and creating the love story I don't know if I'll ever have in real life. It's become a deeply personal project and has drastically departed from the original premise. But to an outsider it might still look like a cliche romantasy project. So it's a wierd one.
I hope it gives you the healing you need and want I did my writing to essentially give all the friends I see suffering happy endings that they're constantly denied in real life
Often a well-written - so called - "trash" novel feels more real, feels more natural, than most of those sublime novels. People often preach about "try to be more", "try better yourself" and stuff, but I think the key to a happy life is to learn how to enjoy the simple "trash" moments. Most of us not gonna be heroes, not gonna change the world, all we can do is indulge in some fun while we are on this mud planet.
I'm writing an anthology (so basically, just writing anything that comes to mind for a certain ff pairing I and my friend really like) for my friend and the first thing I did was write a disclaimer to myself: "when writing this collection of fics, I gave myself one rule: write whatever makes me happy. It doesn't have to make sense or even be 'good', as long as it makes me happy, do it." Just writing that alone was enough to get me out of my writer's block.
I think it's telling that the series that made fantasy into a genre worth respecting was Tolkien's Middle Earth books. Before him fantasy was dismissed as nonsense for children and not something an adult would find any worth in. The entire series only existed because Tolkein was a language and mythology nerd who wanted to share the conlangs he'd created. He'd started with Quenya then constructed an entire elvish history so he could play at creating dialects that had evolved from that first language. He created an entire mythology and history for this new universe and additional languages to fill out the other races that lived there. He published the Hobbit as a children's book and then wanted to play in this universe more so badly that he changed the story and had it reprinted afterwards to give him room to write the Lord of the Rings, where he refused to be limited to writing solely for children any more. All that enthusiasm and nerdy excitement to write a book series that came to define the entire genre in a classic that has endured nearly a century, now. It's entirely worth it to just write something because you love it. There are bound to be people out there somewhere with similar tastes and interests that will love it too.
On playfulness in creativity. I played piano seriously as a kid. My teachers were extremely serious Eastern Europeans--very disciplined, very no-nonsense. Then I had a teacher who encouraged me to experiment--"try playing it this way, that way. See what you like. Which of these techniques works best for you?" That was an infinitely better approach, but as you've pointed out, not easy to adopt as an adult.
Whenever i start to write something self-indulgent just for fun it doesn't stay that way for long. After a few chapters in my brain is like "THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER, EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS" and i lock in, and get right back to "boss writer" mode. My stories tend to slip back and forth between ridiculous whimsy and gritty drama as a result
Your experience reminds me of a bit in the book "Art and Fear" where they talk about this experiment: a ceramics class is split into two. Half the class is tasked to make one single perfect pot over the semester. The other half is told to make as many pots as possible regardless of quality. At the end of the semester, they found that the highest quality pots came from the half of the class that was making dozens of shitty ones, not the ones who worked on a single pot for months! All that to say, I absolutely agree, sometimes the best way to improve as a writer is just to write--and specifically to finish things and move on!! I definitely write for myself and it's not commercial but it's DEFINITELY indulgent 😂 It's not for everyone but the readers I do have really like it, it seems. Just seeing the title of this video made me happy and validated because I'm in the middle of book 3 in a series and wondering what the heck I'm doing 😅😂 I've just gotta remember to indulge!
@@valvihk3649 It's because every time they finished a pot they were able to learn from any mistakes they made and troubleshoot/apply solutions on the next one, whereas the people working on one single pot did not have that same opportunity. So much of improving creative skill lies in repetitive trial and error which you can't learn from a book or lecture, and finishing more objects gives you more opportunities for those trial/error moments. If you constantly rework one piece of art (or writing) it does not take you all the way through the process of finishing, which is crucial for learning creative skills. It also allows for more muscle memory to be built up!
@@valvihk3649 My original reply disappeared after editing it a few times (oops?), but! Yes, less stress was a part of it, but mostly it was due to the fact that finishing a work of art (or writing) allows you to experience the entire creative process in full, which does not happen if you are repeatedly reworking one piece. Additionally, the more pieces you finish, the more opportunities you have for many different kinds of trial and error, which ultimately is a better teacher than books or lectures. If you stick to working on only one piece, you have less opportunities to encounter different creative problems and practice applying them on the next piece 😊
Since my fiction work doesn’t sell anyways, I’ve decided next year that I’m writing a cozy fantasy mystery series that’s just for me. I poured my heart into a series for nearly a decade with few sales for the first book and I’ve yet to sell any for the others. My second series I’ve stopped completely since sales are so awful. I’m switching gears and writing fiction just for me. It’s fun to write a story and make it good, but I don’t care if they’re cheesy or don’t sell. I’ve got my nonfiction which sells a bit each month (hopefully more with 6 books coming next year). Love your content as always 💙
As a fellow fiction writer buried in the Amazon algorithm, I salute your self-indulgence. I'm right there myself. It's a gut check but maybe a necessary calibration.
My most successful series was written purely because I couldn't find a story like it to read and decided to create it out of pure selfishness. It's ultra-niche, and I never expected a single person would buy it. Surprisingly (though not in hindsight), I wasn't alone in wanting that kind of story.
@@UliaSamsonova A Kiss of Light and Flame, part of the Tales of Love and Magic series. My Detective Trigger series also had a similar origin. Just wanted to write a story based on all my rescue pets.
One of my other favorite things about fanfiction is Ao3s search system. The ability to be so specific with word count or tags has made me a spoiled brat essentially and now when I search things on a library app the best I can do is search by genre and then whatever I type in the bar it’ll search that for titles, authors, or descriptions. So if I want vampires it’ll be vague like vampire might be the title on one book in the search or in the description of the next book in the search. I’ve been spoiled rotten by the in depth search feature of Ao3 and now the only traditionally published books I read are recommended to me and described to me and I look them up by name to read them. But also there are so many good fanfiction authors that I’ll goto their page and read fics they’ve written in different ships or fandom or genre than what I’d usually search for but the writing was so good that I’ll ship that if only for this story they’ve givin. I’ve definitely read so much more now I’ve been reading fanfiction. And at 19:40 when you mention snobbishness towards writing that’s very true in my case as a reader where I found amazing fanfiction and realized oh fanfiction is like looked down on and people judge you for reading it but it’s literally just as good and sometimes better than traditionally published works. I know this is about writing and I do wish I wrote more but with my kid I’m just glad to be reading and fanfiction has really gotten me back into it the past few years. As you say “level up” except I did as a reader.
I was one of those people who looked down on fanfiction. I'd only ever heard people make fun of it, after all. Then I read a book that had a horrible ending (and was the 2nd of three books) that I ended up turning to fanfiction for comfort. I soon found someone who'd written an entire third book and spent the first chapters undoing what I hated about the 2nd book. Needless to say, I was fully converted, read it all the time now, and enjoy writing some myself (though I've never shared it). I just love that they're all works people really care about. Hurray for passion! Hahaha
all of the things you listed as "considered trashy" are basically the things i enjoy reading most. my only goal is to write the literary equivalent of doritos or a cup of hot cocoa and every so often a pizza with pineapple and sausage. gotta eat your vegetables every so often, but i'll buy someone else's veggies. if i'm gonna cook, i'm gonna cook what i'm feeling.
Okay, there's this one person I know IRL who once said to me "Is your book like Twilight? Cuz I can't do Twilight?" And I'm thinking: "Why would you assume Twilight?" I mean, I can only wish to be Twilight, but she meant it as a slight. It took me years to get to this level of confidence where I just brazenly announce to people I meet IRL: "I write indie romance." But I still get the odd "You look like you write romance" which makes me double take "What do you mean I look like I write romance?" There's a 'look'?
Does this person not actually read and Twilight is like, the only book on their radar over the last 20 years? I swear I've met people like that! Maybe there is a look because no one has ever told me I look like I write romance. I assume I am too disheveled, LOL. I don't think of you as looking like a romance writer, though. I feel like romance writers, in my stereotype, have some kind of deliberate hair cut and they don't wear t-shirts, they wear a "cute top".
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor This person actually reads nothing and the only books on her radar is big name books. So obviously, my book had to be either Twilight or Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code (yes, we're stuck in the last 20 years lol...). Now I need to know what this deliberate haircut is! 🤣 I think you look like a children's book author circa 1977 who writes fantasy classics. If I didn't know what Madeleine L'Engle looked like, I'd say you were her.
@@teresachaotic.corner Well, I guess they haven't made a blockbuster movie of anything popular recently. That's an important component of knowing about books when you never actually read... I just mean any haircut where you go to a salon and actually ask for *something*. Not like going to GreatClips and asking for a trim. Your hairdresser has a name and your haircut has a description. That's how I think of romance authors I guess. LOL Madeleine L'Engle! Aw! That's a compliment! I guess I would think you look like you write books that are funny and romantic. And that's actually true! I might think YA like Stephanie Perkins though, not "romance novels". (Am I still being mean to romance novels? I actually think it's just that I always feel out of place in a large gathering of romance writers.)
i hav autism & tourettes & OCD & i live with supportiv roommates. i wrote a scifi short story inspired by my meltdowns while in psychwards. im proud of it.
i wrote a couple songs the night before going the the mental hospital for a hold lol, i both think i did a great job on them and cant listen to them cuz they captured that feeling very well, i did end up writing one about recovery tho so thats nise
I'm going to try to internalize this. Need to write more fanfic (and maybe actually finish one). I had my playful phase as a kid with writing, and then I wrote RP on some forums as a teenager, but those phases have passed and now it's just cynical adult me having a difficult time learning how to write again but with somewhat different equipment upstairs. I have known a lot of somewhat snobby people who think that anything other than contemporary litfic is trash (English major...). Which I think is absurd, because I'm least likely to pay attention to your deep literary themes if the setting, premise, and characters are all boring (joking...mostly). I'm so glad to hear about your bookstore! Tangentially related - this is going to sound really mean, but I think one of the most encouraging things I've ever done to make me feel better about writing a modern fantasy novel was reading some the most popular modern fantasy novels. There are a lot of stories that I look up to and I feel like I could never even approach their level, which has turned me into my own kind of snob, and also made me feel hopeless about writing. But I recently read all of The Wheel of Time and a couple of series by Brandon Sanderson and none of those books were...spectacular. In some cases, they were just straight up bad. But people LOVE them. And I love them too (I love Wheel of Time, not so much Sanderson). Anyway, I've started to realize that you don't actually have to be "good" or meet your own personal writing standards to write things that people enjoy and connect with. I don't have literary aspirations, but it would be really nice to connect with a lot of people who are into the same trash I am. So that's been my focus lately as well. Or maybe I'm just avoiding having to study the craft? Whatever lol. It definitely seems like just writing is probably always going to be a more efficient teacher than other kinds of studying.
That is an excellent point about how often the popular works don't seem that "good". Well, chances are there might be a few popular works you really like, and others that you're like "huh? why?" I tried reading ACOTAR last year and I thought it was...okay. I've read a LOT of YA and I know technically ACOTAR is actually adult, but anyway...it just felt like I'd already read plenty of similar books and I don't know why these took off in particular. I think there are many factors, including perception (a great cover and good marketing can't make for a hit, but they can give a book some rocket fuel early on) and author/fan relationship (Sanderson is excellent at this aspect of it). But part of it is just a mystery.
writing is writing, it's expressing your creativity via words rather than visual art. no writing is trash, because there's always someone out there who would like it. but i understand the message of the video and i agree, i love writing whatever i want and having fun with it :D
I write half a million words a year of self-indulgent trash, and it’s so FREEING. My writing has gotten better, and I even managed to cut my finishing time from 17 yrs (oops) to 5 weeks. Like-astounding what you do when you let go of your own judgment.
Wow that’s awesome. What was the mental shift that you had to just write? I worry about it ALOT. I start out just for fun and like I then get into editor mode where I start to get technical.
I really like this message. There is always so much pressure on artists of any kind, asking them to be perfect, deep and a light of wisdom in a very messy society. Yet the truth is I listen to Rhapsody of Fire much more than Mozart; writers, musicians, artists in general don't have to be unmatched masters, but Muses and unique voices. I hope one day to become as skilled as you writing my "trashy" projects! Happy for the bookstore too!
Thank you for making this. I have held off because i didnt want trash to be my legacy. But it will have me in it. And its ok to make trash not only to help yourself hone your craft, but to push yourself to take the ego out of your work and connect with your most playful yet vulnerable self. Now to *finish* something... As a side note, it's funny to hear someone wish they'd had a fanfiction phase. I *did* have a fanfiction phase, and all the while i felt a bit guilty for not writing original works, because I felt like i was cheating myself by using characters and settings I already knew, when I could be working on my own ideas. I guess the grass is always greener! Both sides still get your practice in, which is what counts!
Yeah, that is basically why I didn't have a fan fiction phase. And it probably was just as important to spend that time developing my fantasy world. But...it is true that fan fiction writers are often really good at connecting with audiences...
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthorthey really are. I used to have this little dedicated weekly readership that I really looked forward to :) I think a lot of it is to do with working with established properties, wish fulfilment of people seeing the story how they wish it had gone, and the nature of fannish communities in general, not necessarily the quality of the work! Everyone is on a level playing field, nobody writing owns the characters or setting or both, so you can get a lot of back and forth going that generates inspiration etc. In a commercial fiction setting we just dont have that. Copyright protects us but at the cost of collaboration and exploration.
I actually just wrote a Jane Austen retelling. The first draft took 5 weeks and I've been editing and adding for the last year and it's been SO MUCH FUN. Seriously! I think being a "serious" writer sounds tedious. I don't want to read or watch anything that is "raw" or "real" or "gripping" or "gritty." There was a really fun movie with Sam Claflin called "The Book of Love." He wrote a very serious relationship book and it tanked, but was very popular in Mexico, after it was translated. So he goes on a book tour and finds out the translator "embellished" it a bit. 🙂
That does sound like a fun movie premise! I have enjoyed so many different types of books, there's a place for everything, but the ones I return to over and over do tend to be more fun and hopeful than raw and gritty. Like Jane Austen for example! And clearly I'm not alone in that.
i always feel a little like an outsider because i never wanted to write until my late teens, after i started doodling things to look busy in my english class (i'd already read all the books we were going over on my own in like 6th grade, which annoyed the teacher for some reason). During that time, i'd stumbled on role-play forums where a lot of it took place in familiar anime worlds, and i learned how to do actual character growth -- which became my writing strength 😅 i worked out a lot of my bad writing spending most of my free time in those forums that were basically group fanfiction But i think that speaks to the importance of fanfiction as a learning tool 😁 Travis, my narrator, agreed to take on my debut only if he liked it (considering i now have an audiobook...) and one of the things he'd said is that it didn't read like a debut, so he figured i must've had at least of couple completed works prior. Which felt like the biggest compliment, ngl🥰 and yeah, i just want to keep getting better and write stories i enjoy reading. Because when editing comes, i'm gonna have to rad it 104x LOL
I did a lot of RPing as well. It was the most fun ever and also soooo great for character development. But we did it all as a chat, so I didn't develop some of the other prose skills quite as much, and it was all original characters and worlds. That is an awesome compliment from your narrator, because yeah, reading aloud really reveals all the clunky bits even more than reading on paper, so he would know!
40 books in 4 years?! I need to make that kind of investment in my future. Also thank you for mentioning books being happy. I'm looking at writing 4 books next but don't want them to be gloomy like my first two. I didn't even realize that "happy" was missing from my vocabulary.
Writing self-indulgent comics has mentally freed me. I’m beyond happy giggling and kicking my feet writing and drawing it. Also I feel like not everyone HAS to see your work. These are for my eyes alone (or close friends interested lol)
Thank you for this!! As authors, we should write the stuff we love and believe in. I write to entertain myself and write the stuff I want to. I don't really much care what anybody else thinks. Self-indulgent pulpy space fantasy author representing here!
This was a really good push, and I hope will be the one I need. I've also wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but life has taken me a lot of directions I couldn't predict. The throughline has always been my hobby writing, and for most of my life I've been stuck in that place you described, never finishing anything, but writing a ton. I fell into this trap where I would stick with the safe-zone of writing just for me, and I would think about my "great work" and writing, taking it all too serious and being all cerebral despite having literally nothing under my belt to show for it. But going back to the place where it's just all passion will be the springboard to actually gain experience, finish more pieces, and honestly, have some fun again. If being all highbrow means I don't even pick up the pen and stop enjoying it, it's not a good attitude to have right now. Thank you for the insight!
This was just so freaking good! Really enjoyed it - could write a non-fiction book right here about this whole high art/trash tension-journey thing. So happy to hear about the bookstore!
What a coincidence how I came across this at the perfect time. I'm just coming out of a period of little to no reading or working on my stories at all. I've recently found the will to listen to audiobooks again, and it's been giving me the pull towards writing again. I used to write all the time when i was a teen: fanfictions, dreams i had, original stories. It started fizzing out in my 20s, then barren. 30 now, I'm deciding to fully self-insulge when it comes to my creativity and my passions, and complete the projects I shelved away. Watching this validated that urge. Thank you for talking about this!! 💖🌈✨
Absolutely! This year I finally started finishing pieces. For so long I wanted to write the perfect novel, over and over and over--- now I've joined a writing group and share a short story every week (nearly). I've been writing way more than ever, and part of that is letting go of perfection or idealism and just write what is fun. Because if the practice is fun, you don't notice its practice.
Thank you so much for making this! It gives me the push that I needed. I'm mainly an artist and only writes fanfic for self-indulgement. I've always wanted to write longer stories but I'm always having second thoughts: what if it's not good enough, what if I never finish it, what if my words sound silly and not readable (since english is, like, my 3rd language), what if it's so cringe people will hate it etc. But in the end you should just write what you want and finish it and more importantly, have fun. It may needs months or maybe years, but I'll definitely finish that one trashy book I've always wanted to write!
The way I look at it, if *I* like it, maybe there's a singular other person somewhere who will also like it lol. I mostly write not great poetry, which let's face it, no one is making a living at poetry no matter how good they are. It has to be something of a compulsion regardless of recognition.
My project started out as purely self-indulgence. But i couldn't keep from sharing those early chapters (to my blog back in 2009!) & was surprised to find that several friends *also* enjoyed it. So, suddenly I was researching story structure & beats, etc. That book even got picked up by a small publisher. Book 2 was written so much faster (even around my first son, but he was a text book napper) & i think is a much better book. But ... 2 kids is a very different kettle of fish, & book 3 has taken 10 years to be *nearly* done! So, i don't have millions of words behind me. I'm still finding fun in this little, old project that i now self publish. I am looking forward to typing the final "The End" though, as another fantasy world has plonked itself in my brain. The kids are growing up. The business needs me in it less. Hopefully now i can write something a little bit grand, but still fun, a whole lot faster.
I love you and your channel, Lidiya. You're so transparent and gentle in your approach to encouraging others to be true to themselves in the midst of WORKING and writing. I'll throw some change at the GoFundMe for your bookstore❤ and I'm glad you and your family are okay❤
Ha, I love that I clicked on this video and the first thing I see is piles of manga on the shelving behind you. My exposure to SO many isekais over the years is actually what lead me to this same conclusion. Yes, they are largely formulaic, wish fulfillment power fantasies, BUT ALSO... that's just kind of fun. It's weirdly a type of "cozy" fantasy for me, because the main characters tend to be so overpowered and it's all so ridiculous that even when the stakes are, in universe, very high, it FEELS low stakes because we all know there's no way the MC ain't gonna clean up shop, ya know? There's a LOT of anime/manga where the point is that blatant power fantasy, and I don't think it's necessarily COMPELLING, but I have come to the conclusion that it's still worthwhile. Just because it's not high art, doesn't mean it's not worth writing. Sometimes trash is just fun, and that makes it worth doing on its own :]
I appreciate your practical wisdom. I want to write, but I get stuck on the idea that there is nothing new under the sun. I think I need to let that go.
Yes, there are always new readers under the sun, after all! And readers will always enjoy a fresh take! But when people are stressed out they often don't want something TOO new either, and there is nothing better than finishing a book you love and finding a good "If you liked this, try this..."
Never felt that tension but I have absolutely just in general been struggling to finish any projects, even short ones. But I'm hoping maybe I can take your advice to heart and just detach from any self-imposed sense of quality and just write and finish something again
I love this advice! Whenever I’m stressed, I like to write short stories set in the worlds of my favorite sitcoms. It’s amazing how freeing such an exercise can be.
I want to say thank you so much for making this video! Thanks to you, I was FINALLY able to finish a novelette! I'm not sure I'll be able to actually PUBLISH it anywhere (because it's at least 60% smut) but it really feels good to have finally seen a first draft through to completion! I'm going to try writing a few more trashy stories and hopefully, I'll learn more about my writing process in the process and will become a better writer for it! THANKS AGAIN!!
This!!! Yes! Trying to write "real" books totally got me stuck and ruined the joy of writing. Will be embracing the joy of writing trashy books and having fun in the process! ❤🥰
I write fan fiction and love it. I've learned so much about myself and my writing. And I've made some good friends. I once thought of fan fiction as junk food and was embarrassed. Now I see it doesn't matter. I'm entertaining myself and others. I'd love to support myself with my writing, sure, but I'm having fun with fan fic and Substack.
I agree so much with this! There is a place for every genre, no matter what other people might think about it. If we all exclusively wrote literary fiction the world would be a very boring place.
So I'm not a writer but an illustrator (started in early 2013) and I used to do everything by the book and really make sure everything was accurate and proper however when I posted my stuff I came to find the general audience is completely indifferent, they'd like some ai trash just as much as my properly researched and quality controlled art piece so I thought if people don't care about quality what's the point of me putting in all this extra effort and limiting myself? Might as well just make whatever I actually want to make then; though it's hard to actually live by that as my pride and respect for the medium stops me from ignoring the rules or doing things that would result in a technically inferior piece... Like I started doing art initially because I wanted to make what I wanted to consume since it didn't exist (certain animes etc) , though as I learnt art I started shifting more towards fine art / academic art and felt I shouldn't do anime art because I started to see it as inferior so I never got to make the self indulgent art I initially started doing art for in order to produce...
Thank you for this video ♥ I'm just plotting out a really short novella and this video reminded me to stop writer mode for a second and just have a bit more fun with it. I am so with you on the fact that it really levels you up in an invisible sort of way when you let go and go out of your comfort zone.
This video was very insightful. I tend to write more angsty litfic, but I get so caught up in trying to make my projects perfect I never actually write anything down. My writing skills have regressed as a result. I really like what you had to say in your video about just... getting the writing done. Even if my writing is more... heavy, I still want to have fun with it. Thank you!
I appreciate your perspective. I felt that, when you said Fantasy and SciFi are in a weird place right now. So true. I’m a fantasy author, all I wanted, but am a closet lit fiction writer hehe Ty for the videos, they are great.
I love Angela Carter’s ‘Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman,’ it’s so amazing because it’s super pulpy surreal scifi with a sexy edge. Yet it goes so hard that it somehow ends up becoming high-art somehow. She really believed in herself. I started writing interesting open-ended scenarios for Call of Cthulhu, and after I kept never playing them, i started writing them as short stories and novellas. It’s pulp, slightly camp, poking fun at but still enjoying Weird Tales-style fiction. It’s ridiculous, but at times legitimately creepy. None of them are finished, everything seems to stall around 70%. But i’m enjoying writing anyway.
I so agree with this!!! I wrote fan fiction as a teenager. It was so much fun!! And I think the best part about it is learning that writing is fundamentally about practice and doing as much of it as possible. It's also about reading---I learned a lot about my own writing style by reading other people's fan fiction (and "actual" literature) and coming to conclusions about likes and dislikes and what I myself wanted to try. I think everyone should go through that practice. What you like is important and it's funny that that has to be said about writing; people don't say that about the craft of cooking or painting or anything and it makes me wonder why exactly.
I absolutely love Montgomery's writing style. The way she brings the avonlea to life is it just beautiful. She's definitely an idol of mine, sometimes when I'm in the middle of a writing project I'll pick up my copy of Anne of Green gables and read through some of my favorite parts just so I can try to analyze how she wrote, I usually end up getting distracted and read it without any analysis though xD
Same!! She's just SUCH a good writer of human nature and girls and women's lives. I am appreciating new things in her work at 40 than I did at 18 and than I did at 11. For all her popularity I still feel like she's underrated! I'm now rereading Emily of New Moon and darned if the first few chapters didn't make me cry again even though I've read it enough times to practically recite parts of it...
American Fiction had great dialogue/scene about this. The example of different labels of Johnnie Walker was made. Most of their sales were said to be the red and black labels. The main character was upset that their “trash book” was making so much money. Their agent equated it to having written blue label books his whole life and he finally wrote a red label book.
I love this cause theres alotta talk about Sci Fi/Fantasy and I do wanna make a good urban Fantasy setting. The fears and insecurities of looking petty creep up, but I should just write what i enjoy and refine my craft from there
the guy wrote Doc Savage didn't give a fuck, he had hard critics but he didn't care because he was traveling on vacation in his yacht during the Great Depression.
Haha, well, this IS one reason I have made videos about finances on my writing channel. Writing is admittedly much easier if you have "f--- you" money...
That's really cool that you feel like all type of writing is important. I love to write and read horror fiction - gory horror. After reading much more important books on important subjects, I feel like shit. My stories don't do that. My stories are purely for those who find entertainment in horror, and I wished I could write something more important. This sense made me stop writing. . .
Im halfway through a first draft of a fantasy novel, and im amazed how much my writing style has changed over the last 6+ months. My uni course and craft books have not done half as much good as just sitting down and writing.
Honestly, I really needed to hear this. I'm not a writer, but I am a Dungeons and Dragons player. I've been wondering why I've been so connected to a character I've been playing for the past few weeks, and now I understand. I did an entire solo campaign (it's basically playing by yourself with two characters, and using dice to see what happens), and I used her specifically to play as one of my characters. Since I had a conclusion to the campaign, it felt more satisfying. I realize that unless I can play a storyline with some sort of satisfying ending, I won't be as good of a character. The funny thing is, my other character was a male version of another character I played. I'm attached to him more than the one I used with other people. I think that if I really want to develop a personality for something I want to play, I need to give them a bit of a prequel in my eyes. I don't feel ashamed of that now!
Yeah, a project I started as a goofy writing exercise kept developing itself and it’s taken up so much of my time now, it’s a novel Still more work to be done but this idea really wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, but you know, it’s been fun
I've been so scared to get back to writing because I really enjoy romance novels and have so many ideas but people really look down on it as a genre. Half the time I'm scared to tell people I like to read romance, let alone aspire to be a romance author! Thanks for your message, this was very inspiring.
I got into writing as a teenager doing snippets of epic stories that I wanted to turn into mangas (yes, I did have a weeb phase lol). Then, I eventually started writing an epic fantasy story (that I still want to make into a comic) that I'm still working on. The first draft (and previous snippets) for that story really made me cringe years later. But I remember having a lot of fun when I started that project! While it still makes me cringe, I now have a lot of respect for it because it was what really hooked me into writing. And it was the first draft of anything I'd ever completed (and it was a thick one). I often need a reminder to not take my writing too seriously and have fun. Otherwise, I get stuck in my own head and get 0 writing done. Having permission to write trash and know that it will ultimately help not just my productivity but my craft as well, is just what I needed to hear. Thank you!
After saying for years and years I was going to write a novel the thing that actually started me writing was just vomiting out a lot of fanfiction because I couldn't keep track of limbs 🤣 It's really easy to put myself down for that but the 200k plus words I put together gave me the confidence to actually start writing a "proper" book. Thanks for reminding me that writing for fun is sometimes what we need.
"couldn't keep track of limbs", LOL...relatable I struggled through writing a couple of books and half-finished books in my teens/early 20s but I didn't really start finishing them consistently until I wrote this purely for-fun book in one month with basically no plot, all just my characters I loved having a good time, and then it was like, oh wow. You're capable of way more than you thought! It really does help!
@ driven to writing by the search for the allusive third arm.. 😎 also being 37 and having a job that suddenly gave me free time helped. Thanks again for your videos though. It’s so nice to get a balanced less influencer like take on things. Hope the post-hurricane clear up goes quickly.
I was a kid who was introduced to reading very early on (due to my limited tv time and boredom), I started with the classics and stuck to those for quite a while. But then I read my first fantasy book and it was life changing. I still remember reading my first fanfic (not realizing it was that). I never can judge fanfiction because some of them have left their mark on me more than those classics ever did.
Genuinely think fan fiction is the reason I can string a storyline together so easily. I just think it’s a good process, of gutting plots and storylines and, you know, making shit up, with that baseline. Like, idk if that’s how it is for others, but I definitely attribute my own skills, like, 80% to ff. It just has such a special place in my heart. I love reading it, I love writing it. (Original fic is ten times harder tho 😅)
Believe it or not, many philosophers have created their own works based on others. So we could say that they were the first fanfic writers. Loved your video
I write because it helps me deal with myself, gives my creative mind an outlet so that I don't start chewing holes in the wall out of boredom. Unfortunately I never master the art of using tropes. If only I knew how to tropee-fy my work, I'd be so happy!
It does put things into perspective. I've tried writing things for years but never finished anything because of a fear of being trashy. Maybe being less snobby (or perhaps more accepting of my own lack of quality) is precisely what I need.
I agree. Authors should write what they feel like writing. Writing exactly what you want, how often you want, is whag peoole want. The problem with today, I think, is that a lot of editors take writer's works and then turn them into the "modern" way of organizing and writing novels. There's a certain mood and writing and sentence structures that are preferred and considered "good." Likewise, there are topics like mystery and thrillers that are always favored. Still there are so many other ways of loking ag the world and writing thst could resonate people. Also, what is cknsidered heroic and good, is different than what people want. People don't always have the same view on what they want from life and writing should reflect, instead of all writing following the standard hero's tale.
I'm just worried about what I'm going to have to tell my kid when she asks me why Calliope Targer (a non-Syonian who is still, somehow, able to attune to the Calyx Frequency in order to infiltrate Syonian society to save her sister who might actually be the other half of her soul) just turned into fat Harry Potter and swallowed her half-wolf boyfriend, Jaleb?
One of my favourite series ever is called all for the game (even though its got almost every trope i dislike it somehow works) which was clearly written indulgently, by the author, for the author, since she was young. she self published it and the first one is free on Apple Books, and she encourages people to download it free if you cant buy it, the way the fandom grew was pretty much just word of mouth, and no one i know thats read it isnt obsessed with it, i couldn’t read new books for years after finishing it, thats how much i love it. So, yeah, write the trash thats in your heart, you might surprise yourself
I feel like I have been too serious and judging of myself, and this approach - hey just write for fun under a different name - is super beneficial. I am really trying to convince myself that this is fineeee.😂
12 minutes into the video and it finally hit me. I really should write "trash." As in, write whatever the fuck I want! I've been watching a lot of writing advice, and it's aimed at writers who want to make a story for the public and I thought: "Well, this story idea that's based on something deeply personal to me might be popular if I write it right." And then I realized that's dumb. Because I would have to squash and stretch it into something I don't like, I even stressed over deleting central ideas because they were "cringe" but it would destroy the point of writing it. If I can't make something people love without butchering my ideas, I will make slop.
Not a writer, illustrator, but i clicked this immediately because i remember as a teen i was so much more prolific. Nowadays i work with art for a living and one compromise gave way to another and i dont know how to do personal work anymore. "Be indulgent", i dont know how. I fear i will be cringe or pretentious, that it will be a waste of time i could spend on other things to deliver work thats bellow par... So many insecurities. Especially when you need multiple skills, like comics require drawing AND writting. I've never written prose longer than a couple pages for school. But maybe i'm just delaying the first step. Maybe treating writting as a practical skill, a "necessity" or toll i have to pay before getting into comics is exactly the approach thats stopping me. I ight have to rewatch this one again to absorb more.
This year I choose to write a toxic relationship in a cozy and I have so much fun writing a character that was complex but also a bit a lot unlikeable it's my lovechild because I don't do romance but it have me wanting to editing an tackle that project to publish I guess maybe the next year but when I write that first draft I was so happy that was all I needed at that time
There are a ton of gatekeepers in the art and literature world that need to have a clear gap between fine art and commercial art or trashy novels and fine literary fiction. They do this because it is a marketing tool that drives up the cost of everything beyond their gatekeeping. Unfortunately, the general public often takes its cues from these gatekeepers. We can see this a lot with art in TV and movies where the average person looks at a piece of art and likes it until someone “educates” them and says it’s commercial art and then redirects them towards a fine art piece that is ugly and they don’t like but they buy it anyway because it’s fine art. Art is subjective and the value comes from what the viewer/reader gains by interacting with the piece. Until someone reads it, even the most amazing literary fiction is just a collection of pages and ink.
you're confusing 2 different groups of people for a single collective. gatekeepers are there to prevent the creative space from being oversaturated with slop, since it's produced at a much higher rate than non-slop and this can hurt the artform by making it into a social blemish. people who argue something that has no artistic value to the average spectator is actually fine art are engaging in money laundering or a tax scheme. the average person can almost always appreciate actual art even without in depth knowledge and this is a well known procedure. I can assure you these 2 groups hate each other very much.
As a non-writer, I'm gonna take this as permission to fully enter my trashy book READING phase without shame.
Yes do, you will not regret it
Trashy book reading is like the best kind of reading, no one can convince me otherwise lol (and i personaly believe that any work of fiction has at least _something_ to be taken from it)
I could not have read C. Jung, if I hadn't read DBZ.
Alan Moore says that you SHOULD read trashy books, You can learn a lot from them
It’s the best. I love reading pretentious classics and books on philosophy but I would be insane if I didn’t have my trashy reads in between them. They are really comforting to indulge in
Recently, I had the realization that I could just write stuff. Which probably sounds strange, but I have always felt that I'm not good enough to actually write stories. I'm a heavy fanfic reader, and I always thought to myself, "I'll never be able to write as good as this person." So I was just like, man, I have all these fun and cute story ideas. I hope someone writes something like that. Then, one day, I was like well I could write it, and even if it's cringy, at least I tried something. Now I'm just writing nonsense self-indulgent fanfiction that no one will probably read but myself. And it's so fun! I do want to work on my writing skills and share my work someday, but that's not the goal right now. The goal is to just have fun!
Thank you. I fell out of fandom and writing fanfic several years ago. Couldn't even tell you why I just stopped one day. And I've missed it so much, but so much time has passed I'm back where I was when I started, too afraid to put my ideas down on paper. Your comment reminded me that I can just write them for me and for the fun of it.
i havent written fanfic since i was 14 but have been writing just for fun since i was 13. now, i do what i consider "free writing" though its technically not that based on the definition. i just write and let my characters do what they want; it's like they are telling me the story and i am just writing it down. its more fun and i can always go back to edit it. it also helps with my characters forming relationships and personalities. i usually start with appearance and some personality traits and let them decide who they become friends with, fall in love with, etc etc. just have fun and worry about what type of story/message you want to later.
Honestly, reading fanfiction has helped me loosen up from the elitist stuff my writing program at college taught me. There are so many incredible and talented fanfic writers, but there are even more "just ok" fanfic writers whose stories I've still enjoyed. It made me realize that if I write something that someone likes, that is a success!
I admire your spirit so much. I fell off writing fic years ago. I remember once feeling the joy and fun of writing silly fanfiction. It's a fantastic hobby. Doesn't cost us a penny and gives a good hit of having accomplished writing a unique story about characters you love. 🥰
Avid fanfic reader, aspiring fanfic writer here, has your exact thoughts before!! My stuff is so hyperspecific and weird that maybe it’ll be just me reading it AND THATS OKAY. Art for its own sake is beautiful. And in my reading experience, sometimes that extremely niche stuff is something that will connect deeply with you as reader that the author may never know.
And surprisingly, it was another fanfic author who wrote a crossover fic with a concept so utterly balls to the wall insane but executed it INCREDIBLY that made me realize, yea. Write whatever the hell you want. Go as crazy as you want and be unashamed because that can end up making some of The most Stunning work, and even if it doesn’t, you enjoyed the crap out of it anyways.
I've been working on a project that started as a commercial romantasy project. Something that was meant to be "trashy." It has now turned into a project to help me process trauma and creating the love story I don't know if I'll ever have in real life. It's become a deeply personal project and has drastically departed from the original premise. But to an outsider it might still look like a cliche romantasy project. So it's a wierd one.
I wish you much success with it. It's always awesome if a project grows beyond its limitations.
@johannageisel5390 Thanks so much! I appreciate your kind words.
I hope it gives you the healing you need and want
I did my writing to essentially give all the friends I see suffering happy endings that they're constantly denied in real life
Me too the fuc-
If it connects with you so deeply, it's bound to connect with others. I wish you well. X
Often a well-written - so called - "trash" novel feels more real, feels more natural, than most of those sublime novels. People often preach about "try to be more", "try better yourself" and stuff, but I think the key to a happy life is to learn how to enjoy the simple "trash" moments. Most of us not gonna be heroes, not gonna change the world, all we can do is indulge in some fun while we are on this mud planet.
So true. I try to remind myself of that about so many things. It's okay just to have fun.
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor Exactly, most readers and writers start reading and writing because it's fun, so why should we have to move away from that?
I'm writing an anthology (so basically, just writing anything that comes to mind for a certain ff pairing I and my friend really like) for my friend and the first thing I did was write a disclaimer to myself: "when writing this collection of fics, I gave myself one rule: write whatever makes me happy. It doesn't have to make sense or even be 'good', as long as it makes me happy, do it."
Just writing that alone was enough to get me out of my writer's block.
@@Giantkiller130-t That's a nice tip for feeling more free!
I think it's telling that the series that made fantasy into a genre worth respecting was Tolkien's Middle Earth books. Before him fantasy was dismissed as nonsense for children and not something an adult would find any worth in. The entire series only existed because Tolkein was a language and mythology nerd who wanted to share the conlangs he'd created. He'd started with Quenya then constructed an entire elvish history so he could play at creating dialects that had evolved from that first language. He created an entire mythology and history for this new universe and additional languages to fill out the other races that lived there. He published the Hobbit as a children's book and then wanted to play in this universe more so badly that he changed the story and had it reprinted afterwards to give him room to write the Lord of the Rings, where he refused to be limited to writing solely for children any more. All that enthusiasm and nerdy excitement to write a book series that came to define the entire genre in a classic that has endured nearly a century, now.
It's entirely worth it to just write something because you love it. There are bound to be people out there somewhere with similar tastes and interests that will love it too.
Tolkien is such an inspiration. I'm about due for a reread of his letters. I love the nerdiness of it all.
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor his letter? what letters? can you tell be the title ot link it?
@@jamesstone7974 There's a book with the most obvious of titles, "The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien"
On playfulness in creativity. I played piano seriously as a kid. My teachers were extremely serious Eastern Europeans--very disciplined, very no-nonsense. Then I had a teacher who encouraged me to experiment--"try playing it this way, that way. See what you like. Which of these techniques works best for you?" That was an infinitely better approach, but as you've pointed out, not easy to adopt as an adult.
Whenever i start to write something self-indulgent just for fun it doesn't stay that way for long.
After a few chapters in my brain is like "THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER, EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS" and i lock in, and get right back to "boss writer" mode.
My stories tend to slip back and forth between ridiculous whimsy and gritty drama as a result
Are you in my head? This is exactly me 😭
that, mate, is, in my opinion, the best way to write ANYTHING
Those stories are the best
I'd like to read something like that, for real
@@JLBrashCreates You want book recommendations, or my own work?😂
Your experience reminds me of a bit in the book "Art and Fear" where they talk about this experiment: a ceramics class is split into two. Half the class is tasked to make one single perfect pot over the semester. The other half is told to make as many pots as possible regardless of quality. At the end of the semester, they found that the highest quality pots came from the half of the class that was making dozens of shitty ones, not the ones who worked on a single pot for months! All that to say, I absolutely agree, sometimes the best way to improve as a writer is just to write--and specifically to finish things and move on!!
I definitely write for myself and it's not commercial but it's DEFINITELY indulgent 😂 It's not for everyone but the readers I do have really like it, it seems. Just seeing the title of this video made me happy and validated because I'm in the middle of book 3 in a series and wondering what the heck I'm doing 😅😂 I've just gotta remember to indulge!
That is a great story, I need to read that book!
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor It focuses on the visual arts but it's super applicable to all creativity imo!! Definitely recommend it 👍🏻
Why was that the finding though? Was it because it was stress free?
@@valvihk3649 It's because every time they finished a pot they were able to learn from any mistakes they made and troubleshoot/apply solutions on the next one, whereas the people working on one single pot did not have that same opportunity. So much of improving creative skill lies in repetitive trial and error which you can't learn from a book or lecture, and finishing more objects gives you more opportunities for those trial/error moments. If you constantly rework one piece of art (or writing) it does not take you all the way through the process of finishing, which is crucial for learning creative skills. It also allows for more muscle memory to be built up!
@@valvihk3649 My original reply disappeared after editing it a few times (oops?), but! Yes, less stress was a part of it, but mostly it was due to the fact that finishing a work of art (or writing) allows you to experience the entire creative process in full, which does not happen if you are repeatedly reworking one piece. Additionally, the more pieces you finish, the more opportunities you have for many different kinds of trial and error, which ultimately is a better teacher than books or lectures. If you stick to working on only one piece, you have less opportunities to encounter different creative problems and practice applying them on the next piece 😊
Since my fiction work doesn’t sell anyways, I’ve decided next year that I’m writing a cozy fantasy mystery series that’s just for me. I poured my heart into a series for nearly a decade with few sales for the first book and I’ve yet to sell any for the others. My second series I’ve stopped completely since sales are so awful. I’m switching gears and writing fiction just for me. It’s fun to write a story and make it good, but I don’t care if they’re cheesy or don’t sell. I’ve got my nonfiction which sells a bit each month (hopefully more with 6 books coming next year). Love your content as always 💙
As a fellow fiction writer buried in the Amazon algorithm, I salute your self-indulgence. I'm right there myself. It's a gut check but maybe a necessary calibration.
My most successful series was written purely because I couldn't find a story like it to read and decided to create it out of pure selfishness. It's ultra-niche, and I never expected a single person would buy it. Surprisingly (though not in hindsight), I wasn't alone in wanting that kind of story.
What is this story?
@@UliaSamsonova A Kiss of Light and Flame, part of the Tales of Love and Magic series. My Detective Trigger series also had a similar origin. Just wanted to write a story based on all my rescue pets.
The idea I’m working on right now is created because I read a really good book in an ultra niche genre and i want more books like it to exist
One of my other favorite things about fanfiction is Ao3s search system. The ability to be so specific with word count or tags has made me a spoiled brat essentially and now when I search things on a library app the best I can do is search by genre and then whatever I type in the bar it’ll search that for titles, authors, or descriptions. So if I want vampires it’ll be vague like vampire might be the title on one book in the search or in the description of the next book in the search. I’ve been spoiled rotten by the in depth search feature of Ao3 and now the only traditionally published books I read are recommended to me and described to me and I look them up by name to read them.
But also there are so many good fanfiction authors that I’ll goto their page and read fics they’ve written in different ships or fandom or genre than what I’d usually search for but the writing was so good that I’ll ship that if only for this story they’ve givin. I’ve definitely read so much more now I’ve been reading fanfiction.
And at 19:40 when you mention snobbishness towards writing that’s very true in my case as a reader where I found amazing fanfiction and realized oh fanfiction is like looked down on and people judge you for reading it but it’s literally just as good and sometimes better than traditionally published works. I know this is about writing and I do wish I wrote more but with my kid I’m just glad to be reading and fanfiction has really gotten me back into it the past few years. As you say “level up” except I did as a reader.
That is such a good point about search functions! The ability to find what you want to read is such a factor in what you actually do read.
I was one of those people who looked down on fanfiction. I'd only ever heard people make fun of it, after all. Then I read a book that had a horrible ending (and was the 2nd of three books) that I ended up turning to fanfiction for comfort. I soon found someone who'd written an entire third book and spent the first chapters undoing what I hated about the 2nd book. Needless to say, I was fully converted, read it all the time now, and enjoy writing some myself (though I've never shared it). I just love that they're all works people really care about. Hurray for passion! Hahaha
all of the things you listed as "considered trashy" are basically the things i enjoy reading most. my only goal is to write the literary equivalent of doritos or a cup of hot cocoa and every so often a pizza with pineapple and sausage. gotta eat your vegetables every so often, but i'll buy someone else's veggies. if i'm gonna cook, i'm gonna cook what i'm feeling.
Okay, there's this one person I know IRL who once said to me "Is your book like Twilight? Cuz I can't do Twilight?" And I'm thinking: "Why would you assume Twilight?" I mean, I can only wish to be Twilight, but she meant it as a slight.
It took me years to get to this level of confidence where I just brazenly announce to people I meet IRL: "I write indie romance." But I still get the odd "You look like you write romance" which makes me double take "What do you mean I look like I write romance?" There's a 'look'?
Does this person not actually read and Twilight is like, the only book on their radar over the last 20 years? I swear I've met people like that!
Maybe there is a look because no one has ever told me I look like I write romance. I assume I am too disheveled, LOL. I don't think of you as looking like a romance writer, though. I feel like romance writers, in my stereotype, have some kind of deliberate hair cut and they don't wear t-shirts, they wear a "cute top".
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor This person actually reads nothing and the only books on her radar is big name books. So obviously, my book had to be either Twilight or Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code (yes, we're stuck in the last 20 years lol...).
Now I need to know what this deliberate haircut is! 🤣
I think you look like a children's book author circa 1977 who writes fantasy classics. If I didn't know what Madeleine L'Engle looked like, I'd say you were her.
@@teresachaotic.corner Well, I guess they haven't made a blockbuster movie of anything popular recently. That's an important component of knowing about books when you never actually read...
I just mean any haircut where you go to a salon and actually ask for *something*. Not like going to GreatClips and asking for a trim. Your hairdresser has a name and your haircut has a description. That's how I think of romance authors I guess. LOL
Madeleine L'Engle! Aw! That's a compliment! I guess I would think you look like you write books that are funny and romantic. And that's actually true! I might think YA like Stephanie Perkins though, not "romance novels". (Am I still being mean to romance novels? I actually think it's just that I always feel out of place in a large gathering of romance writers.)
The thing with 'you look like you write romance' is because you're very pretty and some people are jealous of pretty
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor Awww, thank you! I love Stephanie Perkins! 💖
THIS FEELS LIKE PERMISSION hhhhh TYSM
i hav autism & tourettes & OCD & i live with supportiv roommates. i wrote a scifi short story inspired by my meltdowns while in psychwards. im proud of it.
i wrote a couple songs the night before going the the mental hospital for a hold lol, i both think i did a great job on them and cant listen to them cuz they captured that feeling very well, i did end up writing one about recovery tho so thats nise
I'm going to try to internalize this. Need to write more fanfic (and maybe actually finish one). I had my playful phase as a kid with writing, and then I wrote RP on some forums as a teenager, but those phases have passed and now it's just cynical adult me having a difficult time learning how to write again but with somewhat different equipment upstairs. I have known a lot of somewhat snobby people who think that anything other than contemporary litfic is trash (English major...). Which I think is absurd, because I'm least likely to pay attention to your deep literary themes if the setting, premise, and characters are all boring (joking...mostly). I'm so glad to hear about your bookstore!
Tangentially related - this is going to sound really mean, but I think one of the most encouraging things I've ever done to make me feel better about writing a modern fantasy novel was reading some the most popular modern fantasy novels. There are a lot of stories that I look up to and I feel like I could never even approach their level, which has turned me into my own kind of snob, and also made me feel hopeless about writing. But I recently read all of The Wheel of Time and a couple of series by Brandon Sanderson and none of those books were...spectacular. In some cases, they were just straight up bad. But people LOVE them. And I love them too (I love Wheel of Time, not so much Sanderson).
Anyway, I've started to realize that you don't actually have to be "good" or meet your own personal writing standards to write things that people enjoy and connect with. I don't have literary aspirations, but it would be really nice to connect with a lot of people who are into the same trash I am. So that's been my focus lately as well. Or maybe I'm just avoiding having to study the craft? Whatever lol. It definitely seems like just writing is probably always going to be a more efficient teacher than other kinds of studying.
That is an excellent point about how often the popular works don't seem that "good". Well, chances are there might be a few popular works you really like, and others that you're like "huh? why?" I tried reading ACOTAR last year and I thought it was...okay. I've read a LOT of YA and I know technically ACOTAR is actually adult, but anyway...it just felt like I'd already read plenty of similar books and I don't know why these took off in particular. I think there are many factors, including perception (a great cover and good marketing can't make for a hit, but they can give a book some rocket fuel early on) and author/fan relationship (Sanderson is excellent at this aspect of it). But part of it is just a mystery.
writing is writing, it's expressing your creativity via words rather than visual art. no writing is trash, because there's always someone out there who would like it. but i understand the message of the video and i agree, i love writing whatever i want and having fun with it :D
I write half a million words a year of self-indulgent trash, and it’s so FREEING. My writing has gotten better, and I even managed to cut my finishing time from 17 yrs (oops) to 5 weeks. Like-astounding what you do when you let go of your own judgment.
That's incredible.
Wow that’s awesome. What was the mental shift that you had to just write? I worry about it ALOT. I start out just for fun and like I then get into editor mode where I start to get technical.
I really like this message. There is always so much pressure on artists of any kind, asking them to be perfect, deep and a light of wisdom in a very messy society. Yet the truth is I listen to Rhapsody of Fire much more than Mozart; writers, musicians, artists in general don't have to be unmatched masters, but Muses and unique voices. I hope one day to become as skilled as you writing my "trashy" projects!
Happy for the bookstore too!
Thank you for making this. I have held off because i didnt want trash to be my legacy. But it will have me in it. And its ok to make trash not only to help yourself hone your craft, but to push yourself to take the ego out of your work and connect with your most playful yet vulnerable self. Now to *finish* something...
As a side note, it's funny to hear someone wish they'd had a fanfiction phase. I *did* have a fanfiction phase, and all the while i felt a bit guilty for not writing original works, because I felt like i was cheating myself by using characters and settings I already knew, when I could be working on my own ideas.
I guess the grass is always greener! Both sides still get your practice in, which is what counts!
Yeah, that is basically why I didn't have a fan fiction phase. And it probably was just as important to spend that time developing my fantasy world. But...it is true that fan fiction writers are often really good at connecting with audiences...
@@lidiyafoxgloveauthorthey really are. I used to have this little dedicated weekly readership that I really looked forward to :) I think a lot of it is to do with working with established properties, wish fulfilment of people seeing the story how they wish it had gone, and the nature of fannish communities in general, not necessarily the quality of the work! Everyone is on a level playing field, nobody writing owns the characters or setting or both, so you can get a lot of back and forth going that generates inspiration etc. In a commercial fiction setting we just dont have that. Copyright protects us but at the cost of collaboration and exploration.
I don't know what the YT algorithm is doing, but I needed this video. Also, the comments are full of lovely people. You earned a new subscriber :)
I actually just wrote a Jane Austen retelling. The first draft took 5 weeks and I've been editing and adding for the last year and it's been SO MUCH FUN. Seriously! I think being a "serious" writer sounds tedious. I don't want to read or watch anything that is "raw" or "real" or "gripping" or "gritty." There was a really fun movie with Sam Claflin called "The Book of Love." He wrote a very serious relationship book and it tanked, but was very popular in Mexico, after it was translated. So he goes on a book tour and finds out the translator "embellished" it a bit. 🙂
That does sound like a fun movie premise! I have enjoyed so many different types of books, there's a place for everything, but the ones I return to over and over do tend to be more fun and hopeful than raw and gritty. Like Jane Austen for example! And clearly I'm not alone in that.
i always feel a little like an outsider because i never wanted to write until my late teens, after i started doodling things to look busy in my english class (i'd already read all the books we were going over on my own in like 6th grade, which annoyed the teacher for some reason). During that time, i'd stumbled on role-play forums where a lot of it took place in familiar anime worlds, and i learned how to do actual character growth -- which became my writing strength 😅 i worked out a lot of my bad writing spending most of my free time in those forums that were basically group fanfiction
But i think that speaks to the importance of fanfiction as a learning tool 😁
Travis, my narrator, agreed to take on my debut only if he liked it (considering i now have an audiobook...) and one of the things he'd said is that it didn't read like a debut, so he figured i must've had at least of couple completed works prior. Which felt like the biggest compliment, ngl🥰
and yeah, i just want to keep getting better and write stories i enjoy reading. Because when editing comes, i'm gonna have to rad it 104x LOL
I did a lot of RPing as well. It was the most fun ever and also soooo great for character development. But we did it all as a chat, so I didn't develop some of the other prose skills quite as much, and it was all original characters and worlds.
That is an awesome compliment from your narrator, because yeah, reading aloud really reveals all the clunky bits even more than reading on paper, so he would know!
40 books in 4 years?! I need to make that kind of investment in my future.
Also thank you for mentioning books being happy. I'm looking at writing 4 books next but don't want them to be gloomy like my first two. I didn't even realize that "happy" was missing from my vocabulary.
Writing self-indulgent comics has mentally freed me. I’m beyond happy giggling and kicking my feet writing and drawing it. Also I feel like not everyone HAS to see your work. These are for my eyes alone (or close friends interested lol)
Okay, I'm going to enter my trashy phase. That's it. (I've been stuck--UGH).
Thank you for this!! As authors, we should write the stuff we love and believe in. I write to entertain myself and write the stuff I want to. I don't really much care what anybody else thinks.
Self-indulgent pulpy space fantasy author representing here!
15:00 the ukelele story is so me haha, but with a guitar instead. I love your discussion on playfulness vs practicality.
Oh, yay! This is good news! 🎉So happy for you and your lovely boss, not to mention your community. 🤗
This was a really good push, and I hope will be the one I need. I've also wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but life has taken me a lot of directions I couldn't predict. The throughline has always been my hobby writing, and for most of my life I've been stuck in that place you described, never finishing anything, but writing a ton. I fell into this trap where I would stick with the safe-zone of writing just for me, and I would think about my "great work" and writing, taking it all too serious and being all cerebral despite having literally nothing under my belt to show for it. But going back to the place where it's just all passion will be the springboard to actually gain experience, finish more pieces, and honestly, have some fun again. If being all highbrow means I don't even pick up the pen and stop enjoying it, it's not a good attitude to have right now. Thank you for the insight!
This was just so freaking good! Really enjoyed it - could write a non-fiction book right here about this whole high art/trash tension-journey thing. So happy to hear about the bookstore!
What a coincidence how I came across this at the perfect time. I'm just coming out of a period of little to no reading or working on my stories at all. I've recently found the will to listen to audiobooks again, and it's been giving me the pull towards writing again. I used to write all the time when i was a teen: fanfictions, dreams i had, original stories. It started fizzing out in my 20s, then barren. 30 now, I'm deciding to fully self-insulge when it comes to my creativity and my passions, and complete the projects I shelved away. Watching this validated that urge. Thank you for talking about this!! 💖🌈✨
Absolutely! This year I finally started finishing pieces. For so long I wanted to write the perfect novel, over and over and over--- now I've joined a writing group and share a short story every week (nearly). I've been writing way more than ever, and part of that is letting go of perfection or idealism and just write what is fun. Because if the practice is fun, you don't notice its practice.
Thank you so much for making this! It gives me the push that I needed.
I'm mainly an artist and only writes fanfic for self-indulgement. I've always wanted to write longer stories but I'm always having second thoughts: what if it's not good enough, what if I never finish it, what if my words sound silly and not readable (since english is, like, my 3rd language), what if it's so cringe people will hate it etc. But in the end you should just write what you want and finish it and more importantly, have fun. It may needs months or maybe years, but I'll definitely finish that one trashy book I've always wanted to write!
The way I look at it, if *I* like it, maybe there's a singular other person somewhere who will also like it lol. I mostly write not great poetry, which let's face it, no one is making a living at poetry no matter how good they are. It has to be something of a compulsion regardless of recognition.
You are my favorite thing on youtube!
Thanks 😊
My project started out as purely self-indulgence. But i couldn't keep from sharing those early chapters (to my blog back in 2009!) & was surprised to find that several friends *also* enjoyed it. So, suddenly I was researching story structure & beats, etc. That book even got picked up by a small publisher. Book 2 was written so much faster (even around my first son, but he was a text book napper) & i think is a much better book. But ... 2 kids is a very different kettle of fish, & book 3 has taken 10 years to be *nearly* done! So, i don't have millions of words behind me. I'm still finding fun in this little, old project that i now self publish. I am looking forward to typing the final "The End" though, as another fantasy world has plonked itself in my brain. The kids are growing up. The business needs me in it less. Hopefully now i can write something a little bit grand, but still fun, a whole lot faster.
Thank you for helping me get my writing spark back! I just forgot how magical it feels!🙏🏻💚
I love you and your channel, Lidiya. You're so transparent and gentle in your approach to encouraging others to be true to themselves in the midst of WORKING and writing. I'll throw some change at the GoFundMe for your bookstore❤ and I'm glad you and your family are okay❤
Aw thank you so much! Used bookstores are such a wonderful part of communities who are lucky enough to have one. I miss mine so much!
Thank you!! Love your forthright openness. It really helps when struggling to write.
Ha, I love that I clicked on this video and the first thing I see is piles of manga on the shelving behind you. My exposure to SO many isekais over the years is actually what lead me to this same conclusion. Yes, they are largely formulaic, wish fulfillment power fantasies, BUT ALSO... that's just kind of fun. It's weirdly a type of "cozy" fantasy for me, because the main characters tend to be so overpowered and it's all so ridiculous that even when the stakes are, in universe, very high, it FEELS low stakes because we all know there's no way the MC ain't gonna clean up shop, ya know?
There's a LOT of anime/manga where the point is that blatant power fantasy, and I don't think it's necessarily COMPELLING, but I have come to the conclusion that it's still worthwhile. Just because it's not high art, doesn't mean it's not worth writing. Sometimes trash is just fun, and that makes it worth doing on its own :]
I appreciate your practical wisdom. I want to write, but I get stuck on the idea that there is nothing new under the sun. I think I need to let that go.
Yes, there are always new readers under the sun, after all! And readers will always enjoy a fresh take! But when people are stressed out they often don't want something TOO new either, and there is nothing better than finishing a book you love and finding a good "If you liked this, try this..."
Never felt that tension but I have absolutely just in general been struggling to finish any projects, even short ones. But I'm hoping maybe I can take your advice to heart and just detach from any self-imposed sense of quality and just write and finish something again
I love this advice! Whenever I’m stressed, I like to write short stories set in the worlds of my favorite sitcoms. It’s amazing how freeing such an exercise can be.
Yay! Great news about your bookstore! ❤ thanks for another great video.
I want to say thank you so much for making this video! Thanks to you, I was FINALLY able to finish a novelette! I'm not sure I'll be able to actually PUBLISH it anywhere (because it's at least 60% smut) but it really feels good to have finally seen a first draft through to completion!
I'm going to try writing a few more trashy stories and hopefully, I'll learn more about my writing process in the process and will become a better writer for it!
THANKS AGAIN!!
This!!! Yes! Trying to write "real" books totally got me stuck and ruined the joy of writing. Will be embracing the joy of writing trashy books and having fun in the process! ❤🥰
I love your honesty :) so insightful thank you for this!
self indulgent trash will be my fav ao3 tag to use
I appreciate your discourse, encouragement, and authenticity!
I write fan fiction and love it. I've learned so much about myself and my writing. And I've made some good friends. I once thought of fan fiction as junk food and was embarrassed. Now I see it doesn't matter. I'm entertaining myself and others. I'd love to support myself with my writing, sure, but I'm having fun with fan fic and Substack.
I agree so much with this! There is a place for every genre, no matter what other people might think about it. If we all exclusively wrote literary fiction the world would be a very boring place.
So I'm not a writer but an illustrator (started in early 2013) and I used to do everything by the book and really make sure everything was accurate and proper however when I posted my stuff I came to find the general audience is completely indifferent, they'd like some ai trash just as much as my properly researched and quality controlled art piece so I thought if people don't care about quality what's the point of me putting in all this extra effort and limiting myself? Might as well just make whatever I actually want to make then; though it's hard to actually live by that as my pride and respect for the medium stops me from ignoring the rules or doing things that would result in a technically inferior piece...
Like I started doing art initially because I wanted to make what I wanted to consume since it didn't exist (certain animes etc) , though as I learnt art I started shifting more towards fine art / academic art and felt I shouldn't do anime art because I started to see it as inferior so I never got to make the self indulgent art I initially started doing art for in order to produce...
Thank you for this video ♥ I'm just plotting out a really short novella and this video reminded me to stop writer mode for a second and just have a bit more fun with it. I am so with you on the fact that it really levels you up in an invisible sort of way when you let go and go out of your comfort zone.
Your commentary is always entertaining...and reassuring.
I appreciate this so much, as a person who used to love writing and wants to rekindle my passion.
This video was very insightful. I tend to write more angsty litfic, but I get so caught up in trying to make my projects perfect I never actually write anything down. My writing skills have regressed as a result. I really like what you had to say in your video about just... getting the writing done. Even if my writing is more... heavy, I still want to have fun with it. Thank you!
I appreciate your perspective. I felt that, when you said Fantasy and SciFi are in a weird place right now. So true. I’m a fantasy author, all I wanted, but am a closet lit fiction writer hehe Ty for the videos, they are great.
I like your thumbnail for this video. Trash is good if it pays the bills. Cheers
I love Angela Carter’s ‘Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman,’ it’s so amazing because it’s super pulpy surreal scifi with a sexy edge. Yet it goes so hard that it somehow ends up becoming high-art somehow. She really believed in herself.
I started writing interesting open-ended scenarios for Call of Cthulhu, and after I kept never playing them, i started writing them as short stories and novellas. It’s pulp, slightly camp, poking fun at but still enjoying Weird Tales-style fiction. It’s ridiculous, but at times legitimately creepy. None of them are finished, everything seems to stall around 70%. But i’m enjoying writing anyway.
I so agree with this!!! I wrote fan fiction as a teenager. It was so much fun!! And I think the best part about it is learning that writing is fundamentally about practice and doing as much of it as possible. It's also about reading---I learned a lot about my own writing style by reading other people's fan fiction (and "actual" literature) and coming to conclusions about likes and dislikes and what I myself wanted to try. I think everyone should go through that practice. What you like is important and it's funny that that has to be said about writing; people don't say that about the craft of cooking or painting or anything and it makes me wonder why exactly.
I absolutely love Montgomery's writing style. The way she brings the avonlea to life is it just beautiful. She's definitely an idol of mine, sometimes when I'm in the middle of a writing project I'll pick up my copy of Anne of Green gables and read through some of my favorite parts just so I can try to analyze how she wrote, I usually end up getting distracted and read it without any analysis though xD
Same!! She's just SUCH a good writer of human nature and girls and women's lives. I am appreciating new things in her work at 40 than I did at 18 and than I did at 11. For all her popularity I still feel like she's underrated! I'm now rereading Emily of New Moon and darned if the first few chapters didn't make me cry again even though I've read it enough times to practically recite parts of it...
The image of you playing the ukulele has made me smile. ❤
Word! All writing gives you more experience and skill. Plus, if "training" is fun, you're a lot more likely to do it.
American Fiction had great dialogue/scene about this. The example of different labels of Johnnie Walker was made. Most of their sales were said to be the red and black labels. The main character was upset that their “trash book” was making so much money. Their agent equated it to having written blue label books his whole life and he finally wrote a red label book.
That was a great movie. My favorite part was when he was talking to the publisher/agent about changing the book title 😅
Oh I want to see that movie so much, the trailer looked great.
I’ve been writing a novel for fun, it helps with my anxiety, the process feels great
I love this cause theres alotta talk about Sci Fi/Fantasy and I do wanna make a good urban Fantasy setting. The fears and insecurities of looking petty creep up, but I should just write what i enjoy and refine my craft from there
Hey! Fellow Ashevillian here. Happy to find your channel.
the guy wrote Doc Savage didn't give a fuck, he had hard critics but he didn't care because he was traveling on vacation in his yacht during the Great Depression.
Haha, well, this IS one reason I have made videos about finances on my writing channel. Writing is admittedly much easier if you have "f--- you" money...
That's really cool that you feel like all type of writing is important. I love to write and read horror fiction - gory horror. After reading much more important books on important subjects, I feel like shit. My stories don't do that. My stories are purely for those who find entertainment in horror, and I wished I could write something more important. This sense made me stop writing. . .
Im halfway through a first draft of a fantasy novel, and im amazed how much my writing style has changed over the last 6+ months. My uni course and craft books have not done half as much good as just sitting down and writing.
Honestly, I really needed to hear this. I'm not a writer, but I am a Dungeons and Dragons player. I've been wondering why I've been so connected to a character I've been playing for the past few weeks, and now I understand. I did an entire solo campaign (it's basically playing by yourself with two characters, and using dice to see what happens), and I used her specifically to play as one of my characters. Since I had a conclusion to the campaign, it felt more satisfying. I realize that unless I can play a storyline with some sort of satisfying ending, I won't be as good of a character.
The funny thing is, my other character was a male version of another character I played. I'm attached to him more than the one I used with other people. I think that if I really want to develop a personality for something I want to play, I need to give them a bit of a prequel in my eyes. I don't feel ashamed of that now!
Such great advice. Thank you.
Yeah, a project I started as a goofy writing exercise kept developing itself and it’s taken up so much of my time now, it’s a novel
Still more work to be done but this idea really wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, but you know, it’s been fun
I've been so scared to get back to writing because I really enjoy romance novels and have so many ideas but people really look down on it as a genre. Half the time I'm scared to tell people I like to read romance, let alone aspire to be a romance author! Thanks for your message, this was very inspiring.
I got into writing as a teenager doing snippets of epic stories that I wanted to turn into mangas (yes, I did have a weeb phase lol). Then, I eventually started writing an epic fantasy story (that I still want to make into a comic) that I'm still working on. The first draft (and previous snippets) for that story really made me cringe years later. But I remember having a lot of fun when I started that project! While it still makes me cringe, I now have a lot of respect for it because it was what really hooked me into writing. And it was the first draft of anything I'd ever completed (and it was a thick one).
I often need a reminder to not take my writing too seriously and have fun. Otherwise, I get stuck in my own head and get 0 writing done. Having permission to write trash and know that it will ultimately help not just my productivity but my craft as well, is just what I needed to hear. Thank you!
After saying for years and years I was going to write a novel the thing that actually started me writing was just vomiting out a lot of fanfiction because I couldn't keep track of limbs 🤣 It's really easy to put myself down for that but the 200k plus words I put together gave me the confidence to actually start writing a "proper" book. Thanks for reminding me that writing for fun is sometimes what we need.
"couldn't keep track of limbs", LOL...relatable
I struggled through writing a couple of books and half-finished books in my teens/early 20s but I didn't really start finishing them consistently until I wrote this purely for-fun book in one month with basically no plot, all just my characters I loved having a good time, and then it was like, oh wow. You're capable of way more than you thought! It really does help!
@ driven to writing by the search for the allusive third arm.. 😎 also being 37 and having a job that suddenly gave me free time helped. Thanks again for your videos though. It’s so nice to get a balanced less influencer like take on things. Hope the post-hurricane clear up goes quickly.
I was a kid who was introduced to reading very early on (due to my limited tv time and boredom), I started with the classics and stuck to those for quite a while. But then I read my first fantasy book and it was life changing. I still remember reading my first fanfic (not realizing it was that). I never can judge fanfiction because some of them have left their mark on me more than those classics ever did.
Genuinely think fan fiction is the reason I can string a storyline together so easily. I just think it’s a good process, of gutting plots and storylines and, you know, making shit up, with that baseline.
Like, idk if that’s how it is for others, but I definitely attribute my own skills, like, 80% to ff. It just has such a special place in my heart. I love reading it, I love writing it.
(Original fic is ten times harder tho 😅)
Believe it or not, many philosophers have created their own works based on others. So we could say that they were the first fanfic writers. Loved your video
I write because it helps me deal with myself, gives my creative mind an outlet so that I don't start chewing holes in the wall out of boredom.
Unfortunately I never master the art of using tropes. If only I knew how to tropee-fy my work, I'd be so happy!
It does put things into perspective. I've tried writing things for years but never finished anything because of a fear of being trashy. Maybe being less snobby (or perhaps more accepting of my own lack of quality) is precisely what I need.
I've been writing a Gundam fanfic and a short story but honestly its kind of just making me want to go back to writing my main project.
This gives me all the permission I need to get back to that lesbian vampire romance novel I'd shelved a while back...
"Maybe I am cringe, but that mekes me free!"
-Max0r
I agree. Authors should write what they feel like writing. Writing exactly what you want, how often you want, is whag peoole want. The problem with today, I think, is that a lot of editors take writer's works and then turn them into the "modern" way of organizing and writing novels. There's a certain mood and writing and sentence structures that are preferred and considered "good." Likewise, there are topics like mystery and thrillers that are always favored. Still there are so many other ways of loking ag the world and writing thst could resonate people.
Also, what is cknsidered heroic and good, is different than what people want. People don't always have the same view on what they want from life and writing should reflect, instead of all writing following the standard hero's tale.
I'm just worried about what I'm going to have to tell my kid when she asks me why Calliope Targer (a non-Syonian who is still, somehow, able to attune to the Calyx Frequency in order to infiltrate Syonian society to save her sister who might actually be the other half of her soul) just turned into fat Harry Potter and swallowed her half-wolf boyfriend, Jaleb?
bro I'm on the edge of my seat!
I needed this video
Thanks for this!
I'm not a novelist, but I am a programmer to an extent, and this is advice that we need to listen to as well.
"Trash" resonates deeply with the human soul.
One of my favourite series ever is called all for the game (even though its got almost every trope i dislike it somehow works) which was clearly written indulgently, by the author, for the author, since she was young. she self published it and the first one is free on Apple Books, and she encourages people to download it free if you cant buy it, the way the fandom grew was pretty much just word of mouth, and no one i know thats read it isnt obsessed with it, i couldn’t read new books for years after finishing it, thats how much i love it. So, yeah, write the trash thats in your heart, you might surprise yourself
I feel like I have been too serious and judging of myself, and this approach - hey just write for fun under a different name - is super beneficial. I am really trying to convince myself that this is fineeee.😂
YES! Creativity is (mostly) about fun! Who gives a fuck what other people enjoy? As long as it isn't hurting anyone.
12 minutes into the video and it finally hit me. I really should write "trash." As in, write whatever the fuck I want! I've been watching a lot of writing advice, and it's aimed at writers who want to make a story for the public and I thought: "Well, this story idea that's based on something deeply personal to me might be popular if I write it right." And then I realized that's dumb. Because I would have to squash and stretch it into something I don't like, I even stressed over deleting central ideas because they were "cringe" but it would destroy the point of writing it. If I can't make something people love without butchering my ideas, I will make slop.
Not a writer, illustrator, but i clicked this immediately because i remember as a teen i was so much more prolific. Nowadays i work with art for a living and one compromise gave way to another and i dont know how to do personal work anymore. "Be indulgent", i dont know how. I fear i will be cringe or pretentious, that it will be a waste of time i could spend on other things to deliver work thats bellow par... So many insecurities.
Especially when you need multiple skills, like comics require drawing AND writting. I've never written prose longer than a couple pages for school. But maybe i'm just delaying the first step. Maybe treating writting as a practical skill, a "necessity" or toll i have to pay before getting into comics is exactly the approach thats stopping me. I ight have to rewatch this one again to absorb more.
This year I choose to write a toxic relationship in a cozy and I have so much fun writing a character that was complex but also a bit a lot unlikeable it's my lovechild because I don't do romance but it have me wanting to editing an tackle that project to publish I guess maybe the next year but when I write that first draft I was so happy that was all I needed at that time
There are a ton of gatekeepers in the art and literature world that need to have a clear gap between fine art and commercial art or trashy novels and fine literary fiction. They do this because it is a marketing tool that drives up the cost of everything beyond their gatekeeping. Unfortunately, the general public often takes its cues from these gatekeepers. We can see this a lot with art in TV and movies where the average person looks at a piece of art and likes it until someone “educates” them and says it’s commercial art and then redirects them towards a fine art piece that is ugly and they don’t like but they buy it anyway because it’s fine art. Art is subjective and the value comes from what the viewer/reader gains by interacting with the piece. Until someone reads it, even the most amazing literary fiction is just a collection of pages and ink.
you're confusing 2 different groups of people for a single collective.
gatekeepers are there to prevent the creative space from being oversaturated with slop, since it's produced at a much higher rate than non-slop and this can hurt the artform by making it into a social blemish.
people who argue something that has no artistic value to the average spectator is actually fine art are engaging in money laundering or a tax scheme. the average person can almost always appreciate actual art even without in depth knowledge and this is a well known procedure.
I can assure you these 2 groups hate each other very much.
Thank you so much for this. 💖
Love the thumbnail. You should always write what you want to read.