At the cafe where I'm writing the people next to me were disagreeing about the origins of Men in Black & I said "If you'd like, I could clear that up for you" & one responded: "I'm sorry, we do not need an old white male's mansplanation." So I apologized and that was that.
More from Writing
I can second this observation through personal experience. I was only able to start writing because "it's just dumb weeb fanfiction quests, who cares." 100,000 pages of dumb weeb fanfic later, and I actually got better... but only because I was trying my best with every page.
"It's dumb weeb fanfiction" gave me permission to be bad, to vomit things onto the page that I knew fell far short of what I wanted it to be. To just write and write instead of laboring over six paragraphs for weeks like I'd always done before.
But I still *wanted* to be good.
Writing is HARD. And unfortunately, most people don't appreciate just how hard writing (or communication in general) is, and that cultural attitude infects writers, too.
You must give yourself permission to be bad. And realize that all writing is practice.
IT. COUNTS.
And as the folks in my mentions are pointing
... it's an excellent way to find out what actually resonates with other people - putting work out there. Even your early bad stuff you'll cringe at later.
What resonates is NOT easy to tell, because we all, inherently cringe at ourselves, a lot.
I think the mistake a lot of people make is that they write to make a good work instead of writing to make themselves a better writer (who will eventually be able to make good works). The second promotes training and builds humility while the first is just narcissism.
— Dan Kim (@CloneManga) October 31, 2020
"It's dumb weeb fanfiction" gave me permission to be bad, to vomit things onto the page that I knew fell far short of what I wanted it to be. To just write and write instead of laboring over six paragraphs for weeks like I'd always done before.
But I still *wanted* to be good.
Writing is HARD. And unfortunately, most people don't appreciate just how hard writing (or communication in general) is, and that cultural attitude infects writers, too.
You must give yourself permission to be bad. And realize that all writing is practice.
IT. COUNTS.
And as the folks in my mentions are pointing
It gave us hellcow, so it clearly worked
— Argatson (@warhammer651) October 31, 2020
... it's an excellent way to find out what actually resonates with other people - putting work out there. Even your early bad stuff you'll cringe at later.
What resonates is NOT easy to tell, because we all, inherently cringe at ourselves, a lot.
\u201cDumb weeb X\u201d is a concept with a lot of power.
— J (@Becquerl1) October 31, 2020
In 2013, I woke up and said, "I want to write a book about Pokémon."
In 2017, I finally wrote it.
In 2019, thanks to the fine folks at @DelReyBooks, you'll all get to read it.
I'm pleased to announce my epic fantasy debut. Formerly: "Fullmetal Pokémist." Now:
STEEL CROW SAGA.
Seriously, everyone, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to share this one with you. The world is far-flung and weird, and the characters live lives so far removed from mine, but STEEL CROW SAGA is honestly the most personal and autobiographical thing I've ever written
Yeah, I guess I should address that early. STEEL CROW SAGA is not a trilogy. This is a standalone book. I left doors open for someday, but my plan right now is for each of these three books to be its own
Last thing I'll say here: I couldn't have asked for a better team than @DelReyBooks to work with--particularly @tnarwani, who just Gets this book. In our call, she casually cited a semi-obscure Korean movie from ten years ago, unaware it'd been a key influence. That's when I knew
Anyway. Plenty more to tease in the coming year. Thanks again to my friends who got me through it, and especially to @dongwon who saw this weird Toonami regurgitation and immediately believed in it. Today is my triumph, but it's also theirs.
In 2017, I finally wrote it.
In 2019, thanks to the fine folks at @DelReyBooks, you'll all get to read it.
I'm pleased to announce my epic fantasy debut. Formerly: "Fullmetal Pokémist." Now:
STEEL CROW SAGA.
Seriously, everyone, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to share this one with you. The world is far-flung and weird, and the characters live lives so far removed from mine, but STEEL CROW SAGA is honestly the most personal and autobiographical thing I've ever written
Yeah, I guess I should address that early. STEEL CROW SAGA is not a trilogy. This is a standalone book. I left doors open for someday, but my plan right now is for each of these three books to be its own
holy crappppppp i see A THREE BOOK DEAL hidden in there too!!!!!!!!
— do i dare to eat a \U0001f351 (@NicasioSilang) October 31, 2018
Last thing I'll say here: I couldn't have asked for a better team than @DelReyBooks to work with--particularly @tnarwani, who just Gets this book. In our call, she casually cited a semi-obscure Korean movie from ten years ago, unaware it'd been a key influence. That's when I knew
Anyway. Plenty more to tease in the coming year. Thanks again to my friends who got me through it, and especially to @dongwon who saw this weird Toonami regurgitation and immediately believed in it. Today is my triumph, but it's also theirs.