Afterwards

protect “not x, not y, but z” format.

protect short sentence stacking as a stylistic choice.

protect fanfic writers—who are kind enough to share their works with people to read for free—from ai witch hunts, speculations and accusations.

“don’t like don’t read” also applies to any fic that is ai-generated and any fic you think is ai-generated by the way. if you don’t like what you’re reading for any reason, you can always stop reading and exit the fic at any point. but harassment is never ever justified. no matter if you think you’ve found a noble excuse to do it. and also…

not five pages earlier: gideon waxing poetic about how harrow tenderly wrapped gideon's sunglasses (that harrow allegedly hated btw) and sealed them tightly in an envelope for eight months on the OFF CHANCE gideon came back in some way shape or form

They're smudging each others clown makeup

ive seen some folks lately talkin on NEGATIVE REVIEWS and how to deal with them as authors or artists. personally i have not cared about reviews for several decades. negative reviews do not bother me in the slightest and buds often ask me HOW. ill explain a bit here and why this applies to everyone

first, the reason this matters to more than just authors and artists is because GUESS WHAT WE ARE ALL CREATORS. a book can get one star but so can a walk in the park or a sandwich we made. we are all in a state of critique from the world in some way because we are all creators

to narrow it in on AUTHORS however, ill start with something everyone already knows: ART IS SUBJECTIVE. in the most ZOOMED OUT sense, there is no good nor bad art. there are certainly methods of quantifying like 'is it effective?' 'did it move me?' and these are important but not some COSMIC truth

i think a lot of buds realize this and thats great. they say 'i think my book is FIVE STARS and this buckaroo thinks its ONE STAR but its subjective so it really is neither.' this is a great first step but personally its not ENTIRELY how i look at it (and probably where i will lose some thats fine)

i do not see a one star review of my art and think 'art is subjective so that is wrong'. i think 'art is subjective so that is the truth.' because it is. the subjective nature of art does not just mean everyone is wrong, it also means everyone is right. every takedown of my work is correct

i think there is a power in truly accepting this, not in some 'well let me TURN IT AROUND and use these mean quotes as promo' kind of thing (although that is fun too, trot your trot) but in an almost spiritual way, for lack of a better word. to ACCEPT these many truths is a blessing

theres nothing to be bothered by when you recognize that your creation, whether a painting or song or book, is ALL THINGS. it is not about your art being NEITHER good or bad, it is BOTH good and bad. it is BEYOND quantifying and when you start trying to do that you are simply playing a game

and HEY playin games is fun. reviews and critique are important (they are ALSO art). its a dang treat to be reviewed. BUT in the grand cosmic sense it is still a game of trying to put something ethereal into a coherent shape. there is absolutely no reason to get upset over a game

I'm going to try it.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

That means that when you read a line like

John saw that the curtains were open.

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

The curtains were open.