The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In other news, I fell into writers YouTube and it's extremely ... something.

Lots of millennial women in blindingly white backgrounds with cut flowers and "live, laugh, love" decor on the walls, talking earnestly about being a full-time writer. Looking at their Amazon sales, though, it looks like they're pulling in only about $100/month at most from book sales, which doesn't match up with their rhetoric. They're enthusiastic and successful hobbyists, not full-time writers. (For one thing, most full-time writers don't look like they're living in a Nora Ephron film.)

A lot of the actual writing advice ranges from fine to actually good, but the disconnect between the rhetoric and what's actually happening is weird.

Yet another odd subculture I had no idea existed until I put in the right search terms into YouTube.

 

[CleverNickName]

In other news, I fell into writers YouTube and it's extremely ... something.

Lots of millennial women in blindingly white backgrounds with cut flowers and "live, laugh, love" decor on the walls, talking earnestly about being a full-time writer. Looking at their Amazon sales, though, it looks like they're pulling in only about $100/month at most from book sales, which doesn't match up with their rhetoric. They're enthusiastic and successful hobbyists, not full-time writers. (For one thing, most ull-time writers don't look like they're living in a Nora Ephron film.)

A lot of the actual writing advice ranges from fine to actually good, but the disconnect between the rhetoric and what's actually happening is weird.

Yet another odd subculture I had no idea existed until I put in the right search terms into YouTube.

Check their number of subscribers, and the number of views each video gets. For the ones who have numbers that are 100K and up, those book sales aren't where they are making their money...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Check their number of subscribers, and the number of views each video gets. For the numbers that are 100K and up, those book sales aren't where they are making their money...

Yeah, I know. It feels like a bit of bait and switch.

For the writer nerds, I used to have a subscription to Writers Digest back in the day, so I'm used to all this advice and "I've published two things, so I am now an expert" kind of stuff. But with the ability to self-publish nowadays (mostly a good thing, I think), that changes who can say they're a published author and if their version of "make your professional writer dreams come true" is make $100/month (which ain't nothin', let me be clear), it's all pretty strange for me to reengage with after all this time. (My version of "professional writer" is someone who doesn't have to do anything other than be a writer for a living. That probably means technical writing or doing PR or something less than glamorous, but it's writing and it also builds up the skills for fun stuff like fiction or poetry.)

I stumbled into this looking at videos about how to better use Scrivener, which I downloaded, in part, to do #dungeon23 with and will probably use for NaNoWriMo at some point, along with my regular everyday writing, as it matches how I work better than trying to wrangle a long document in Google Docs or Word. But it's a bit like asking for a product demonstration and finding myself falling through the looking glass.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, I know. It feels like a bit of bait and switch.

For the writer nerds, I used to have a subscription to Writers Digest back in the day, so I'm used to all this advice and "I've published two things, so I am now an expert" kind of stuff. But with the ability to self-publish nowadays (mostly a good thing, I think), that changes who can say they're a published author and if their version of "make your professional writer dreams come true" is make $100/month (which ain't nothin', let me be clear), it's all pretty strange for me to reengage with after all this time. (My version of "professional writer" is someone who doesn't have to do anything other than be a writer for a living. That probably means technical writing or doing PR or something less than glamorous, but it's writing and it also builds up the skills for fun stuff like fiction or poetry.)

I stumbled into this looking at videos about how to better use Scrivener, which I downloaded, in part, to do #dungeon23 with and will probably use for NaNoWriMo at some point, along with my regular everyday writing, as it matches how I work better than trying to wrangle a long document in Google Docs or Word. But it's a bit like asking for a product demonstration and finding myself falling through the looking glass.

I use Scrivener. I’m not an expert with it but I might be able to help. What do you need help with?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I use Scrivener. I’m not an expert with it but I might be able to help. What do you need help with?

Just getting up to speed. It's front-loaded with a very different way of working. I'm 99% sure I get it, but wanted to look through the videos to make sure there wasn't anything big I was missing.

 

[Asisreo]

Why do people who love anime and manga think that everyone on Earth also does, and understands the random Japanese words they sprinkle into discussions? Is this a thing where Japanophiles typically associate mostly with fellow Japanophiles and think that everyone else does love this stuff?

I don't actively dislike any of this stuff, myself, but it's always jarring when there's an expectation that I know subgenres or conventions being referenced in Japanese. I can't think of anything comparable like this for other hobbies. Even the most ardent NFL fan doesn't expect someone who doesn't watch American football regularly to be able to explain what a "cornerback" is, for instance.

Sounds like you're not sushi enough to fully konichiwa the conversations going on in japanese. Maybe study a Kawaii or two.

 

[Malmuria]

Scrivener is excellent. I would say you can only learn the features you want to use at the moment to get writing. As you go along you'll learn/use new things (or not). I still haven't gotten my head around all the different things Scrivener can do when you export, but then I don't really need those features so I haven't spent that much time learning.

 

[overgeeked]

Scrivener is excellent. I would say you can only learn the features you want to use at the moment to get writing. As you go along you'll learn/use new things (or not). I still haven't gotten my head around all the different things Scrivener can do when you export, but then I don't really need those features so I haven't spent that much time learning.

Yeah. Export is wild. Took me several tries to get the hang of it and all the functionality it has. Very robust program and man are there a lot of options.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Sounds like you're not sushi enough to fully konichiwa the conversations going on in japanese. Maybe study a Kawaii or two.

"Desu tsundere," or whatever. Gesundheit!

 

[Guest 7034872]

"All this egg and only one face -- how will it ever fit??"

"Oh, it'll fit."