Mastodawn

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 18

RE: https://retro.pizza/@trixter/116084514290429066

Okay so back to this novel-I-wrote thing...

So if I've become disillusioned enough to give up on traditional publishing, do I want to just make whatever little changes I'd like to make coming at it several years later and then self-publish? Just to let it be out in the world and maybe get a tiny trickle of validation? (I will be honest, I desperately need some validation at this point.) Traditional publishing money would have been nice, but that's not a real thing so much anymore, and the truest reason anyone has for writing is to share all the nonsense in their head with other people. I still love these characters and I want other people to love them with me.

What I've written so far is, *of course*, only the first part of a trilogy, because that is how things go, but maybe I could find it in myself to keep going if it felt like a single fuck was given by the world.

#AmWriting #AmWritingFantasy

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 18

My favorite thing about bringing up self-publishing is the people/bots watching the keyword searches waiting to tell you that what you really need is their $2,000 Professional Self-Publishing Services Package.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 19

Thinking about the whole novel thing some more and wondering if I want to rewrite the romance subplot as sapphic or just be satisfied that the male love interest is absolutely the kind of male love interest a lesbian would write, just big Hozier energy here.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 20

*opening up my old novel project folders and immediately going to the text files of smutty non-canon drabbles*

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 20

Look, this isn’t monsterfucker romance, it’s adventure fantasy with a monsterfucker subplot

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 20

There are two important reasons why this is not a “romance” or “romantasy” novel and one of them is that the main plot isn’t about the romance, it’s about the main character rescuing her twink brother from his evil boyfriend, and the other is that everyone is absolutely miserable at the end.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 20

Yes, it’s planned out as a trilogy. Does that mean that it takes until the end of the third book to get to the Happily Ever After? No, of course not, you absolute fool.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 20

(The romance is just the raven-man psychopomp she tragically falls for on the way.)

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 22

Doing my best to fight the urge to just make a new playlist for this novel instead of working on it. That Transformers fic I was getting back into is currently all of 3 chapters and about 3 hours of playlist.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 22

(The new playlist would be entirely Hozier.)

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 22

(Actually it would just be this song, which came out over a decade after I started working on it, on repeat:)

https://youtu.be/-32-6FqGW2E

Hozier and Bear McCreary - Blood Upon the Snow (from God of War Ragnarök) - Lyric Video

YouTube

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 22

When I try editing or even rereading my own fiction writing, I run into a problem where I'm not so much reading the words as I am letting the words trigger the memory of the story as it existed in my head. Also because of this I tend to speed-read because I know what's going on, I know what happens, I'm just trying to savor the meaty bits, but that makes it very hard for me to tell if something is paced well or not.

I'm going to work on that as I go back over this novel one more time. I'm tempted to compile it into an epub or PDF to see if that helps, but if I don't at least let myself do line-edits I'll go mad.

Maybe sometime soon I'll toss the first chapter out here in case anybody wants to see what I'm on about.

#AmWriting #AmWritingFantasy

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 23

I am *struggling* against the urge to use this novel project as an excuse to buy that wee e-reader Aftermath just had a post about.

I want it so much but I am so broke.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 23

Gonna start describing my novel as “Hawkwind meets Wardruna”.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 23

(Look at it tho, it’s so neat)

https://aftermath.site/xteink-x4-cheap-hackable-ereader-crosspoint-review/

The Xteink X4 Is The Cheap, Hackable eReader That's Just Enough

It has no touchscreen, no light, and it's under-powered. But the Xteink X4 has a devoted community that wants to make it sing.

Aftermath

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 23

Making sure I have enough good queer representation in this story to allow for one (1) Evil Gay

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 24

Giving theme songs to my supporting cast but I'm stuck on one because his song would be, like, something from Darius Rucker's country phase or some shit.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 25

All right, any of my buddy-pals here interested in reading my first chapter? I’m open to feedback but mostly I need encouragement and accountability at this point. Also I will warn that this is dark fantasy and not exactly cozy.

I have the whole thing written, btw, but I’m doing one last round of revisions.

Jury Nullification Feb 26

@trixter I used to be one of ABurt's Critters ( critters.org ), but I mostly limited myself to scifi stuff. If you want a reader that's not exactly 'in your demo', send me your stuff 👍

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 26

@GabeReal I remember that group! Submitted some stuff back in the day, long, long ago. I'll send a link.

Jury Nullification

@trixter Thanks, I got it :)
How do you want reviews sent back to you? I'm used to doing crits though email, so this is new territory for me.

I was in Critters for a couple years or so, and had a 1 (-ish) crits/week ratio when I left. I eventually left because it got to be a chore, making myself do at least one crit every week. I don't begrudge it at all, though, it definitely improved my craft and I got to read lots of different short stories and novels that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten access to.
But I wasn't subbing to markets nearly as much as I had hoped I would be, and the aforementioned chore-y-ness of it, made me decide to cut ties.

Trixter of the Moon Council Feb 26

@GabeReal You can just DM me here, though if you’ve got more feedback than will fit in a couple posts here, I might be cooked. 😅 Keep in mind this is pretty far along in the process, so it shouldn’t be too rough.