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Lynn Hunt’s The Family Romance of the French Revolution* is full of gems. More of a cultural studies work than straight-up history, but.

*’family romance’ is a Freudian term for the fantasy of being freed from one’s family and being able to join a better one. Well, in his own context, better meant “with a better social standing”, but obviously it’s more complicated than that.

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I’ve read just below 50-ish pages of research today in total (split between two non-fiction books, that is), which is not super productive for a whole non-working day inside, I know, but I *have* also written 1200-ish words, so there is that

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It’s Sunday and +27 Celsius… hence I’ve read (and copied relevant stuff from) ~50 pages of a clothbound library book on the life (mostly that of the 99%) in 16th century Scotland.

Because my sapphic Outlander riff saga WIP has GOT to be realistic.

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This 6th century Arabic warrior poet would have done numbers on Tumblr tbh.

(Note: his name was Antarah ibn Shaddad, he was half-black on his mother’s side, and Literature and History podcast has just done a wonderful long episode on him here)

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45k words written

In my epic fantasy-with-romance-and-historical-inspiration WIP since last November.

In case you are curious about it

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…they created an Aubrey&Maturin riff open-world video game ???

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/capstangames/ahoy

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43k words done...

...in my epic/historically inspired fantasy WIP that I started in, yeah, November 2024. In my defense, part of it was spent in research and outlining, and I write it kind of in spurts, too.

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The load of… actually creating the project out of an idea you presumably love??

I swear, the pro-AI writing crowd sounds like that of aliens mimicking human beings (with great clumsiness) at times.

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She is actually the one who published this post:

Here I am agonising over the quality of my writing and worrying whether I'm even any good when there are actual published authors blatantly leaving AI prompts in their ARCs....

You know, maybe I'm doing just fine, actually!

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Wait, Kate Seger? I know this author! She's been bragging on FB that the notoriety only helped her sell more copies.

Here I am agonising over the quality of my writing and worrying whether I'm even any good when there are actual published authors blatantly leaving AI prompts in their ARCs....

You know, maybe I'm doing just fine, actually!

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How about both are pathetic. Just how dim does one have to be to need a chatbot to come up with challenges for a casual video game?

@theladyelizabeth re: your recent post about authors and AI

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And other authors claiming AI use is just fine because “the readers don’t care”. I see SO many of them on Facebook

Here I am agonising over the quality of my writing and worrying whether I'm even any good when there are actual published authors blatantly leaving AI prompts in their ARCs....

You know, maybe I'm doing just fine, actually!

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Do you know the 75 Hard/Medium/Soft challenge? Like, drink X litres of water a day, 2 workouts, ABC diet, etc, for 75 days.

I’ve composed a sort of writerly equivalent of that challenge for myself. Namely:

Write for at least 15 min a day;

Brainstorm (can be a different project) for at least 15 min a day;

Do at least 5% on Kindle/1 chapter (depending on what is longer) of research-related reading a day (I write historical fiction and historical fantasy, so that might not be applicable to you);

Do 45 min of fiction reading a day to refill the well.

The last point is kind of the hardest for me, because I’m something of a workaholic who has trouble allowing herself any pleasures. But.

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I suspect that, if I ever do a custom 75 hard challenge, instead of “read at least 10 non-fiction pages every day” it would include doing the same for fiction books, because I am okay with working, it’s pure leisure that I have to strongarm myself into.

Well, and a “write at least for 15 min every day” or some variation thereof.

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Thinking of the way there had been early Ancient Greek cosmetics boxes found painted with figures of (most often, for obvious reasons) Helen looking into the mirror, or her sister Clytemnestra holding a perfume bottle, or Cassandra with a basket of wool, or Iphigenia sitting around. God, what I wouldn’t give to own a good replica.

(The info is from Bethany Hughes’ amazing study of Helen of Troy and her possible historical underpinnings.)

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Why do all these bastards sound like mediocre Doctor Who villains.

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There is more banter!

Ghost Achilles, about bby Alexander: “He is going to be tall. Taller than I was, even.”

Ghost Patroclus: “That isn’t saying much.”

Still thinking of that Alexander the Great BBC radio play (it’s on Audible now) narrated by the ghosts of Achilles and Patroclus, where the following dialogue happens between the latter two:

‘The rosy fingertips of dawn, as they used to say when we were young and alive…’

‘We have never been anything *but* young’.