The insider

Roy's prose is fire. It melts down the big lie covering so much inequality: that some people just don’t have voices to be heard. This quote is for anyone here who’s been talked over, sidelined, or punished for speaking their truth...or telling any truth at all.

— 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬

— 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬

Is Imperfection the New Perfection? The Rise of Handcrafted Design

Have you noticed this rising shift? It’s everywhere. People are moving away from the sleek, sterile precision of the digital world. Instead, they’re seeking something real—something they can touch and feel. There’s a growing hunger for authenticity, and it’s fueling a powerful resurgence: the return of handcrafted design. But why now? What is it about imperfections that feel so compelling? Let’s dive into why the world is embracing the beauty of the imperfect.

In our digital era, perfection surrounds us. Algorithms smooth every edge, AI refines every detail, and software eliminates every flaw. Yet, in this pursuit of flawlessness, something essential is lost—humanity. The warmth, the irregularities, the subtle traces of a creator’s hand. This is where handcrafted design comes in. It offers a much-needed contrast, celebrating imperfection as a mark of authenticity and reviving the uniqueness that only human craftsmanship can provide.

More here.

Isn’t feedback important for a writer’s growth?

I want to preface: this isn’t a response to any of my reviewers in any way. It’s just something I didn’t think about until I got around to publishing, and I imagine many other writers and readers are the same. 

So, why don’t most published authors bother trying to learn from their negative reviews?

Publishing a professional quality book takes a long time. For traditional publishing, it can be years after the writer picks up an agent. Self publishing often requires the writer to go through all the things the traditional publish would do, only they do it all on their own, so that too can take a long time. 

This often means that writers will have written one, even two or three novels between the time they write the rough draft of their first novel and the time they publish it. (I wrote 100k words, ran two beta round, and edited a novella, just between the time I formatted OBP for print and actually put it on amazon.)

In this time period, a writer who’s actively striving to grow can learn a lot — a lot they would have liked to implement into the book they’re publishing, but can’t.  

Often, reading those negative reviews doesn’t actually teach them anything they didn’t already learn themselves months ago. It just makes them feel like they let readers down by publishing too soon.

And the catch is: this never changes. A truly good writer never stops learning and growing and improving, and never stops believing that, hey, if they’d just rewritten that book one more time, maybe it wouldn’t have those issues they only learned how to spot two months after it went to the proofreader. 

The negative aspects of reviews aren’t meant for the writer — they’re meant for potential readers. So don’t fret if your author friends don’t want to read that awesome constructive criticism you put together for their published works.