Um, I'm Trying To Be Good.
"Trying To Be Good at what", you might ask? Writing? Poetry? Critiquing? Morally? Yes.
I'm working on trying to genre, sub-genre them without being getting very upset that the novel doesn't match whatever they expect the novel or novels to be.
I wrote on NationStates for a very long time, like seven years, but I got hopelessly burnt out a long long time ago. I've written a lot of bad stuff from that era, going back something like 12 years, and I can't use almost all of it.
My favorite thing to write is patchs for my homebrew D-20 Modern / D&D 5e system, along with lore / statblocks for units in the event the players want to wargame or whatever.
• What do you like to read?
I used to read a lot before I became an adult, and I don't mean like geo-political articles or academic stuff (I'm trying to get a teacher certification right now), like actual novels or stories. I used to really like Artemis Fowl, I used to read a lot of Harry Turtledove. I don't want to get into how I liked two books by Orson Scott Card, it was a different time and I didn't know.
Right now, it's Tom Clancy. Op-Center is pretty good, and that's half him. Red Storm Rising is a breath of fresh hair, but the stakes are so high it intimidates me. Ghost Recon (Not by Tom Clancy) has functional action, even for me, Mr. "I don't have a mind's eye, this wind blowing through her hair thing makes me feel very bitter and empty inside". However, I'm very salty about how people keep expecting my second novel to be like Ghost Recon and just be full of pulp action.
One of my favorite books is "The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander".
I have like four or five books about how to write sci-fi or how to write it period. One of them is full advise from some magazine and Orson Scott Card, the other is full of advise from a magazine and Isaac Arthur.
• How long have you been writing?
So badly it makes you want to cry? 12 years at least.
So badly you think English isn't my first language (It's my own language)? About two years. I've learned how to reduce my rate of comma splicing just two weeks ago. It's sad.
• Do you beta read?
Yes. I am known in multiple circles for being a very very bad writer, but generally people on the receiving ends of my critiques seem to find me very helpful and useful.
However, I have this problem with being selfish and lazy or whatever, so I only "Trade for Trade". I struggle to read much of something, and to examine it line by line (Which is how I was taught to do this, it's a long story), and to go into how the characters work, when I learn plot twists, ect ect.
I can usually read 1K and process it very thoroughly before I lost interest.
• Do you have any particular hobbies? Are you expert in any particular field or craft?
History, History, History, History. Every single History video game. I own soooooo many books.
I GM two gametop games a week on Roll20 and Discord.
I research and write mechanics and descriptions for two modules for a free wargame. I do the Dark Ages and WW2 sections. I love me some Dark Ages.
•What is with the negativity
I seem to have what we in the business would call "A learning disability", concerning grammar and spelling. This problem wasn't as bad in my academic days, with my 10-30 page papers. However, it's really really bad in the type of writings used for a novel. I am learning the process insanely slowly. There are things that I should've known 12 years ago, that I learned literally in the last seven days.
This makes my writing really hard to read, which obviously is very demoralizing on my end.
My work is very experimental and bad. From my perspective, I'm "dumbing things down", but my work is seen as extremely technical. Tom Clancy could get away with this, but I don't have the reach to find people who can more easily understand that kind of writing, nor the skill to make that kind of writing work. Also, it seems reading, like church, is deeply more popular with women/girls... Who you know, aren't statistically/typically in a rush to read novels with guns and politics.
Oh, and just on a basic survey of past readers, my work is almost never understood. Like yeah, It's bad, I know, but it's not written "to punish the reader" or because "you were drooling over an arms catalog for a week".
But we will see if I grow more optimistic later. I have a book where a person was supposed to write a promise to themselves a year later, and I see they never followed up. Thus reading their comments is rather sad.
•So you don't write for fun?
Why would writing be fun? It's a huge amount of work, and you feel like you're wasting your time if you don't post it, and then you feel like the worst person ever, because people say it's so bad.
Going over the same chapter over and over, having people look at it over and over, and then still finding "obvious" mistakes with it, just plain sucks.
Writing is like smoking or like that girlfriend in the noir novel who is insanely dangerous, but incredibly attractive. I wish I could stop having ideas for chapters, or IDK, actually be good at writing.
"Trying To Be Good at what", you might ask? Writing? Poetry? Critiquing? Morally? Yes.
- What genres do you write?
I'm working on trying to genre, sub-genre them without being getting very upset that the novel doesn't match whatever they expect the novel or novels to be.
I wrote on NationStates for a very long time, like seven years, but I got hopelessly burnt out a long long time ago. I've written a lot of bad stuff from that era, going back something like 12 years, and I can't use almost all of it.
My favorite thing to write is patchs for my homebrew D-20 Modern / D&D 5e system, along with lore / statblocks for units in the event the players want to wargame or whatever.
• What do you like to read?
I used to read a lot before I became an adult, and I don't mean like geo-political articles or academic stuff (I'm trying to get a teacher certification right now), like actual novels or stories. I used to really like Artemis Fowl, I used to read a lot of Harry Turtledove. I don't want to get into how I liked two books by Orson Scott Card, it was a different time and I didn't know.
Right now, it's Tom Clancy. Op-Center is pretty good, and that's half him. Red Storm Rising is a breath of fresh hair, but the stakes are so high it intimidates me. Ghost Recon (Not by Tom Clancy) has functional action, even for me, Mr. "I don't have a mind's eye, this wind blowing through her hair thing makes me feel very bitter and empty inside". However, I'm very salty about how people keep expecting my second novel to be like Ghost Recon and just be full of pulp action.
One of my favorite books is "The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander".
I have like four or five books about how to write sci-fi or how to write it period. One of them is full advise from some magazine and Orson Scott Card, the other is full of advise from a magazine and Isaac Arthur.
• How long have you been writing?
So badly it makes you want to cry? 12 years at least.
So badly you think English isn't my first language (It's my own language)? About two years. I've learned how to reduce my rate of comma splicing just two weeks ago. It's sad.
• Do you beta read?
Yes. I am known in multiple circles for being a very very bad writer, but generally people on the receiving ends of my critiques seem to find me very helpful and useful.
However, I have this problem with being selfish and lazy or whatever, so I only "Trade for Trade". I struggle to read much of something, and to examine it line by line (Which is how I was taught to do this, it's a long story), and to go into how the characters work, when I learn plot twists, ect ect.
I can usually read 1K and process it very thoroughly before I lost interest.
• Do you have any particular hobbies? Are you expert in any particular field or craft?
History, History, History, History. Every single History video game. I own soooooo many books.
I GM two gametop games a week on Roll20 and Discord.
I research and write mechanics and descriptions for two modules for a free wargame. I do the Dark Ages and WW2 sections. I love me some Dark Ages.
•What is with the negativity
I seem to have what we in the business would call "A learning disability", concerning grammar and spelling. This problem wasn't as bad in my academic days, with my 10-30 page papers. However, it's really really bad in the type of writings used for a novel. I am learning the process insanely slowly. There are things that I should've known 12 years ago, that I learned literally in the last seven days.
This makes my writing really hard to read, which obviously is very demoralizing on my end.
My work is very experimental and bad. From my perspective, I'm "dumbing things down", but my work is seen as extremely technical. Tom Clancy could get away with this, but I don't have the reach to find people who can more easily understand that kind of writing, nor the skill to make that kind of writing work. Also, it seems reading, like church, is deeply more popular with women/girls... Who you know, aren't statistically/typically in a rush to read novels with guns and politics.
Oh, and just on a basic survey of past readers, my work is almost never understood. Like yeah, It's bad, I know, but it's not written "to punish the reader" or because "you were drooling over an arms catalog for a week".
But we will see if I grow more optimistic later. I have a book where a person was supposed to write a promise to themselves a year later, and I see they never followed up. Thus reading their comments is rather sad.
•So you don't write for fun?
Why would writing be fun? It's a huge amount of work, and you feel like you're wasting your time if you don't post it, and then you feel like the worst person ever, because people say it's so bad.
Going over the same chapter over and over, having people look at it over and over, and then still finding "obvious" mistakes with it, just plain sucks.
Writing is like smoking or like that girlfriend in the noir novel who is insanely dangerous, but incredibly attractive. I wish I could stop having ideas for chapters, or IDK, actually be good at writing.
Hello and 
to Absolute Write, Trying To Be Good! 