YABookgate

[Shaneequa]

The amount of poorly written good ideas far, far, far outweighed the well written boring stories.

Share with us the skill floor of "well-written". Like, what does a piece have or lack that makes you categorize it as well-written or poorly-written.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

The amount of poorly written good ideas far, far, far outweighed the well written boring stories.

This made me laugh, if I can be pemitted an off-topic post?

Not at all YA, but after listening to the audiobook for The Country of the Pointed Firs it dawned on me that I had just spent several enjoyable hours listening to a story that started nowhere, ended nowhere and did very little in between. Yet I loved every second of it.

Literally all that happens is the main character (a thinly disguised self insert for the author) goes on a summer vacation in Maine, meets a bunch of eccentric locals, wanders around the town, meets a few obnoxious tourists, meets a few more eccentric locals, then goes home at the end. That's it. That's the whole book. 19th century local color, guess I can't get enough of it.

Then again, I'm also the one weirdo in my high school class who loved The Scarlet Letter, so what the hey.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Well this is... worth a read.

https://www.thecoddlingmovie.com/p/why-do-you-only-write-about-gay-men

It's almost similar to why it was Banana Fish has two male characters as protagonists and still played out in a romantic way, because the creator decided to change the girl character into a boy to be more "interesting" (and yet Eiji still retained those feminine qualities). But with Zoomers, that decision is taken up to eleven by our shitty academia and society.

Really glad she's come out to say the quiet part out loud. She doesn't sound like an actual fujoshi like I was fearing.

 

[Chandelier]

Then I realized that this is probably a big part of the reason for the absolute state of publishing now. Soy reddit-type culture lends itself naturally to the lowest common denominator, and artificially rewards participation over merit. I know this isn't some staggering and insightful revelation or anything, but I was personally shocked at how quickly this aspiring author shut down at the first sign of any serious pushback to his masterful creation. God help him if a real editor ever tells him to tighten up his fucking story, and stop exposition dumping instead of having his characters actually do things in the plot to justify the reader's time.

You reminded me of an incident that happened at a writers group I attended years ago. It's not super serious, people offer helpful critique (my writing improved after going there) and we had a relatively new guy read a piece. We usually set a word limit because a) we have a time limit and b) people will get bored. This is a guarantee. So the recommendation was 1500 word pieces, and if you had more you could read it the next time.

The guy reads his piece. I liked the concept - think 'Annihilation' with 'Lost City of Z', but he droned on and on and his descriptions were bogged down with exposition. I mean paragraphs on paragraphs, and the dialogue was flat. So me, trying to be honest, explained what I liked and what I disliked. Basically told him his concept wasn't bad at all - but it was boring to hear. I tried to be thorough in my criticism vs being a bitch. Well I guess he saw me as a bitch anyways, because he never returned after that. In return, I was given dirty looks and made to feel bad. And this dude resembled an IRL Redditor (he was an accountant) so I guess it fits.

Twilight isn't really about who mister right really is, the love triangle shit is contrived because Meyer is a Mormon and a hack. There is never a moment where Bella questions whether or not she loves Edward, she just also (gets sexually assaulted) into admitting she "loves" Jacob too (not enough to give up Edward though, so who cares). If it was written today, dents would be calling it so heckin validating for their polycules.

Twilight would've been better if it was a dark paranormal fantasy like Underworld, leaning into the Pacific Northwest heritage and culture. Instead of being a forever teenager, Edward should've been an adult, and Bella a college student trying to reconnect with her father (Charlie was the best character, fight me). Bella is just reactive; she's not an agent of desire like Evie from The Mummy. She doesn't even have a personality. She's just...there. But yeah, it's crazy to see how that book would be roasted today when the fanfiction it was based on and inspired has grown more explicit.

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

And this dude resembled an IRL Redditor

Nah, you did good. Redditors suck the soul out of everything they touch. Him being an accountant explains why he has to have so much detail.

 

[Wodanaz]

Bella is just reactive; she's not an agent of desire like Evie from The Mummy. She doesn't even have a personality. She's just...there.

That was the point and what teenage girls liked, so they could project themselves on to a passive protagonist, like Link in the legend of Zelda. Only, instead of the world being interesting like Dante's Inferno, it's boring as shit with a romance drama that drags on for pages and pages with nary an end in sight.
50 shades was written on a blackberry by the way. el james was a literal phoneposter.

And this dude resembled an IRL Redditor (he was an accountant) so I guess it fits.

The guy who I spoke to had BLM and LGBTQIA+ (he forgot the P) in his twitter bio. If only I had seen that first.

 

[Shaneequa]

Him being an accountant explains why he has to have some much detail.

There's a certain "genre" of books written by literal autists that present a window to their internal life that I enjoy occasionally. Like, someone describing their characters with literal RPG stats when the book isn't a litRPG ("+6.08% above median muscle density" is something I remember reading quite vividly.)

You could try to apply the fundamentals of good prose when offering feedback to them, but I find that it's more productive (read:entertaining) to just lean into their weirdness, it'll at least result in some extremely unique works if nothing else.

 

[Wodanaz]

(he was an accountant)

books written by literal autists

 

[Shaneequa]

Empress Theresa is exactly the type of book I was thinking of. I haven't read any autism-core recently because I have this fear of any work I read spilling into my writing somehow. My recreational reading in general is way, way, WAY down because of this.

 

[Rich Evans Simp]

Holy shit, Mikki Kendall, that’s a real blast from the past. I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but she’s been an asshole on the internet since Y2K.

ETA: username Karnythia if that rings any bells for former LJers

 

[Tragon Dirtle]

Well this is... worth a read.

https://www.thecoddlingmovie.com/p/why-do-you-only-write-about-gay-men

We were treated like victims in almost all classes. Basic professionalism like brushing my hair was instead explained to us as being an oppressive, patriarchal standard.

If that's true, then that school is just failing at being a school.

Such a comment is horrible to make about any group of people and would’ve probably netted punishment if said about any other gender.

There are some good points but I don't think this article is that based after all. Like it's very free speech but completely avoids any and all differing opinions on gender while still clearly believing in gender identity.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

The #4 best-selling YA novel of the week, per the NY Times...

"Sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian," too, per GoodReads. All my favorite stuff. Apparently "he" is going to best the ciswhite heterosexual county sheriff who is a meany mcbeanie, etc.

I haven't looked yet, but I'm assuming the author is a pooner.

 

[Gnillik Yot]

The #4 best-selling YA novel of the week, per the NY Times...
View attachment 6416942
"Sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian," too, per GoodReads. All my favorite stuff. Apparently "he" is going to best the ciswhite heterosexual county sheriff who is a meany mcbeanie, etc.

I haven't looked yet, but I'm assuming the author is a pooner.

Ah, he's (or I should say, she's) trans too! 16 year old trans socialist trying to overthrow the patriarchy:

"On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him..."

Unrelated, but this post gave me the feels:

 

[Cryptojew]

Empress Theresa is exactly the type of book I was thinking of. I haven't read any autism-core recently because I have this fear of any work I read spilling into my writing somehow. My recreational reading in general is way, way, WAY down because of this.

It's been the same for me, at least as far as reading contemporary books go. The result has been that instead of being influenced by the books I've read lately, I'm influenced by the kiwifarms threads I read and now Ethan Ralph is a character in my fantasy book oh god please help I mostly read classics and nonfiction.

 

[Shaneequa]

The Hog of Holler, guardian of the House of Avacado

 

[Welf Welf]

Lolcows make for great characters because they're so often larger than life (literally, in the gunt's and Patrick's cases). If I was a normie and you told me half the things the hog formerly known as Ethan Ralph or the pig they call Titty Two-chins have done, I'd think you were making things up. Patrick could legitimately be a Newman-type character on a sitcom.

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

The #4 best-selling YA novel of the week, per the NY Times...
View attachment 6416942
"Sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian," too, per GoodReads. All my favorite stuff. Apparently "he" is going to best the ciswhite heterosexual county sheriff who is a meany mcbeanie, etc.

I haven't looked yet, but I'm assuming the author is a pooner.

Andrew Joseph White is a trans, autistic, best-selling author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022. His debut novel, Hell Followed With Us, was a William C. Morris Award Finalist, and his second, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, received a 2024 Stonewall Honor. Compound Fracture is his third novel.

He can be found at andrewjosephwhite.com or on Twitter and Instagram at @AJWhiteAuthor.

She looks exactly like you'd expect her to look. I lol at the thought she would spend years to get a degree in creative writing. Talk about falling for a scam. Than again, she is a socialist.

 

[Mola Ram]

grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too

"And that's why I sliced my tits off to leave a gruesome line of scar tissue and built a meat-tube out of flesh peeled from my forearm to sew to my natural genitals!"

All makes sense now, don't it?

 

[Kari Kamiya]

grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing (s)he could be one too

She's a goddamn monsterfucker, isn't she.

 

[Flexo]

https://open.substack.com/pub/raconteurpress/p/raconteur-press-wants-you-to-write

For those who are interested.