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i wrote this post over on bluesky today and, after receiving a few of the predictable "but what if i Want to write badly" responses you get to any opinion that can be taken as prescriptivist writing advice, i thought i'd talk more about what i'm getting at.
basically, it's an issue of suspension of disbelief. there are a lot of things in fantasy and historical writing that we're willing to look past. dragons, potatoes, the divine right of kings. we are able to suspend our disbelief that a monarch could be anything but a despicable tyrant if the story we're being told is convincing enough, or plays to our comforting worldviews about nobility and Great Man theory. we can also suspend it if we straight up didn't know that europe didn't have potatoes pre-columbian exchange. basically--it means it doesn't bother you that these elements aren't perfectly realistic. fiction is not required to be realistic. clue's in the name.
but there are some things we just can't ignore. some things hit us as out of place for the setting we've been presented, or the world as we understand it. it pulls us out of the story by reminding us, in that moment, that we are reading a constructed narrative made of a series of choices by an author. and for whatever reason, they made a Wrong choice, like plucking the wrong guitar string.
bdsm safety protocols are the classic example, since a majority of people that encounter this sort of thing often enough to identify it online are reading fanfic and romance. things like a red light/green light system appearing in a chinese fantasy world where cars have not been invented, or cowboys intuiting the concept of a safeword while having spit-lubed anal sex in the desert. absurdisms that break suspension of disbelief, because who is teaching these cowboys the principles of consent. nobody.
now, we've beaten the dead horse of 'don't write like you're afraid of a callout post' a million times when it comes to including bdsm best practices in writing. you are allowed to write whatever you want forever, and if what you want to write is perfectly safe, negotiated sex between two adults who would have never received sexual education and probably thought a woman's uterus wandered in the body depending on the temperature, you are free to do that. i'll think your writing is bad, but you don't have to care what i think. you don't have to care about the people who'd get upset at cowboys doing unnegotiated "lasso tricks" either.
anyway, i'm getting off track. the actual point of the post above was that i see this same kind of thing with modern terminology for queer concepts in completely incongruous settings, and it pulls me out just as bad as any cowboy therapyspeak. i simply do not believe the local dirt farmer who binds his chest and changed his name from helen to troy would call himself "trans". i do not believe the wizard who has no time or interest in sex would call himself "asexual". and 1800s english dandies would not be calling themselves "gay" unless they were in a holiday mood.
that doesn't mean they couldn't understand those concepts, but it's not the language they would use to express them, because they would not have it. you see this with discussion of actual literal history--we technically cannot call historical figures "gay" or "transgender" with 100% confidence, even when their behavior lined up very closely with our modern idea of those concepts, because those people did not have our modern idea of those concepts. would they have identified that way, if a time traveler taught it to them? possibly! but we can't know that. they might like "transsexual" better, even if it's no longer in vogue.
and much like nobody is teaching cowboys the concept of aftercare, nobody is teaching our dirt farmer troy the word "trans", which is itself a shortening of several words that have come in and out of fashion as recently as the last century. troy would be calling himself something else, if he even has a word for what he is.
and that's where you, the author, have a Choice. there's plenty of reasons to default to the modern term--you're writing for a modern audience, you want to be clear about your representation, you're afraid of getting yelled at for getting something wrong--but i think it's the wrong move in any serious writing. because what you're losing by doing that is an opportunity to get creative and actually say something with the character, rather than tick a box.
troy might describe himself as a man trapped in a woman's body, because that is how he experiences it, and that experience informs his character. or he might think of himself as a man who just has breasts, because he's always been a man and has been treated as a man, and he's never had to examine it. or he might call himself a "rock", because he lives with dwarves and that's the dwarven word for masculine-presenting.
or he can just say he's "trans", and you don't explore what it means to the character in the world he lives in, while also implying somebody sat this boy down on a stump in the dirt fields and said the word "transgender" to him, and then said it often enough he shortened it to "trans". while living on his dirt farm. where he would never have seen a pineapple.
i am more interested in a troy who doesn't have a perfectly modern understanding of what he is and what he wants, because that's where a story lives. i don't read to see my understanding of things perfectly mirrored back to me, i read to experience something different. i want to read about the guy who calls himself a slur because it's the only language for himself he has, and what that means to him. i want to read about the guy who never calls himself a man, but understands implicitly that he's something different. i want to read about messy, complicated people who don't know shit from fuck. it'll absorb me a hell of a lot more.
anyway.
this is all opinion and i am just one guy so you're allowed to disagree with me. i just won't be interested in your work if you do. and that's only a loss if you make it one.
“You write the beginning and then you go back and rewrite the beginning, and you never got off page one. It’s kind of a syndrome, and I have a rash piece of advice which is — Go on, page two, page three, and never look back. Get something finished, no matter how lousy it is. […] Perfectionists cannot get going unless they kind of do violence to their own instincts, and just blast ahead.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Last Interview and Other Conversations
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We're thrilled to reveal the fantastic cover for Cosmic Consequences, illustrated by the supremely talented Nicole Alessi!
The theme of this anthology is whump ... but in space! There are over 30 space-whump themed stories, covering everything from equipment malfunctions to hostile aliens. The table of contents includes:
Shield Fall by Kras Nebula @scrawlingmouse
Between Darkness and the Void by John M. Campbell
Subject 371 (Homo Sapien) by Scarlett Skyes
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, As Interpreted by An Ex-Space space station, by Yasmeen Ambro
The Specimen by Dr. Suvajeet Duttagupta
A Lesson in Cooperation by Marti @galaxywhump
Thunderstorm by Marti @galaxywhump
The Gamble by Nox Spacey @not-a-space-alien
In the Event of Total Annihilation, Please Take Some Calming Breaths by Scarlett Skyes
Flesh and Bone, Wires and Steel by LadyWallace @lady-wallace
Test Mission by Moss @mossteriouslydrawn
Shine Bright For Us by Scarlett Skyes
Courier by Nate Jaros
Adrift Among a Quiet Sea of Stars by Lorelai Deasy
World Eaters’ Return by Booker G.A. Feniks @up-in-flames-writing
To Take an Order (to take a life) by Scarlett Skyes
Microbial High by Sarina Dorie
It Can Still Play Card Games by Nox Spacey @not-a-space-alien
Last Night by Zi Trone @whumpshaped
Sneezes and Space Pirates by E.J. LeRoy
Celestial by C.L. Urbana @pigeonwhumps
The Rediscovery of the Starship Aurora by Kay Hanifen
Martian Wallpaper by Wen Wen Yang
Echoes of the Lost by A. E. Pillow @nature-wants-you-dead
Insults from the Universe by Leanne Albilar
Ananke by T. Lane @t-lane-writes
Kenophobia by Booker G.A. Feniks @up-in-flames-writing
Specter by Aiden E. Messer @aidenemesser
The Great Red Frontier by Asidian Morris @asidian
The Cost of a Life is Measured in Blood by Lux Thorn @whump-me
Lost by Zi Trone @whumpshaped
Found by Mil Cohen @whumpsday
Cosmic Consequences launches on BackerKit on May 28, 2026! You can check out the project here.
The Whumpy Printing Press books are available on many different platforms and retailers. Here's a handy overview of where you can pick up your next whumpy read!
Public libraries
Did you know that you can read WPP books for FREE through your local public library? Our books are available in ebook through hoopla and Overdrive/Libby. You can suggest that your local library purchase a WPP ebook right in the Libby app. Just search for the title and click the "Notify Me" button. This lets your library know that you're interested in them acquiring a copy!
You can also suggest that your library purchase a paperback. Each library has a slightly different process, so search "suggest a purchase" on your library website to find instructions. The majority of our books are distributed through Ingram, which is the system that most libraries order from.
Ebook Retailers
Our books are available on most major ebook retailers, including Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Bookshop.org. Select titles are also available on Amazon and Google Play.
Subscription Services
You can also grab WPP ebooks through subscription services such as Kobo Plus and Everand. Both of these programs offer free trials.
Paperback Retailers
The best place to purchase WPP paperbacks is bookshop.org. Full disclosure: we are a bookshop.org affiliate, so we receive a small commission for any books purchased through their site using our link, at no extra cost to you.
Our paperbacks are also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Booktopia, Foyles, Thalia, Waterstones, and more!
Direct
We offer paperbacks and ebooks of select books over on our ko-fi. We also hold crowdfunding campaigns on BackerKit for larger projects like anthologies.
been stewing on an analytical approach to fiction which I call "is this book afraid of me?" and in order to answer this question you determine how hard the book is trying to make sure you don't come after the writer on twitter
Please keep making art. Please make it for yourself. Please don’t let everything become even more of the same flat general appeal nonsense that doesn’t seem to have anything to say
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@creekfiend was very kind in sharing some writing resources with me, and I thought I'd pass along the kindness by listing them down below.
N.K. Jemisin's article 'Describing characters of color in writing'
Mary Anne Mohanraj's article on approaching characters of colour
Renee Harleston's article How to 'Write Characters of Color Without Using Stereotypes'
Working with Colour, a resource site for writers
the book Writing the Other by by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, which had a description that cut deep, because I've definitely fallen into this trap out of fear:
and then a video recommended by @sheprd (thank you!) about pitfalls in descriptive language
if anyone else has more resources to add, feel free to reblog with them! this is something I want to learn more about.
I was talking yesterday about how I should probably change the skin colour of a character in a not-yet-written book, because that character is a large, aggressive dragon-shifter and I was worried about her being read with unintentional and offensive subtext.
I haven't gotten my hands on Writing the Other yet (it's still in the mail!) but from reading my way through these articles and watching the Princess Weekes video, I now understand that 'white-ifying' a character you're worried about is a lazy and cowardly solution. so, if I do ever finish the book Eres loses Everything, I'll keep her as is, do my best to be thoughtful, and hire a sensitivity reader to pick out any blind spots.
thank you to everyone who passed on resources, I really appreciate it!
[freeze frame] yeah thats me. you're probably wondering how i got here. me too. i dont remember anything ever so i need to see this as much as you do [unfreeze frame]
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I've already said that my number one piece of writing advice is to read.
But my number two piece of advice is this: be deliberate.
Honestly this would fix so many pieces of bad writing advice. Don't forbid people from doing something, tell them to be conscious and deliberate about it. This could help stop people from falling into common mistakes without limiting their creativity. Black and white imperatives may stop a few annoying beginner habits, but ultimately they will restrict artistic expression.
Instead of "don't use epithets": "Know the effect epithets have and be deliberate about using them." Because yes, beginners often misuse them, but they can be useful when a character's name isn't known or when you want to reduce them to a particular trait they have.
Instead of "don't use 'said'" or "just use 'said'": "Be deliberate about your use of dialogue tags." Because sometimes you'll want "said" which fades into the background nicely, but sometimes you will need a more descriptive alternative to convey what a character is doing.
Instead of "don't use passive voice": "Be deliberate about when you use passive voice." Because using it when it's not needed can detract from your writing, but sometimes it can be useful to change the emphasis of a sentence or to portray a particular state of mind.
Instead of blindly following or ignorantly neglecting the rules of writing, familiarize yourself with them and their consequences so you can choose when and if breaking them would serve what you're trying to get across.
Your writing is yours. Take control of it.
It probably sounds like I'm preaching to the choir here because most of my mutuals are already great writers. But I'm hoping this will make it to the right people.
theartofmadeline
stormborns
areudirty
kaledo-art
