vinegarvapors

[vinegarvapors]

Gil Buchanan: Before the ones and twos.

Origin: Fandom. Fan-fiction of the best ad-guy in the world, 1979-1986, Gil Buchanan, currently living in Jake Johnson’s garage and making appearance on the We’re Here to Help podcast. He and Gareth Reynolds are never seen in the same room, which is odd given how close in proximity they must have been. Was originally going to be titled ‘Gilly-Bean: Here To The Help-Verse, but my girlfriend…

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Forgotten

Origin: Tiredness Prompt: Wanting to sleep lol. Writing Time: 30-45 min? Word Count: 660ish? Notes: I’m not looking to pass on to the afterlife, but I’m ready to pass into dreamland because I’m just wiped. She doesn’t remember me and I don’t hold that against her, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt a little. Not like I’m owed any space in her mind, I know that, but I was still holding…

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Pal-igator Pt. 1

Posting more short fiction, this one a two-parter about someone who tries to take home an alligator as a pet. It turns out to be a bad idea.

Origin: Stress Prompt: The word ‘alligator’ popping up again, it comes up a disconcerting number of times in my life. Writing Time: Probably too long Word Count: 493 Notes: It’s just been a rough week between car trouble and family stuff and endless things that need scheduling. I’m blowing off steam, this is not autobiographical. If I edited this I like to think I would like it more, but I…

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Ergonomic Furniture

Hello, #writers! I've posted a new bit of microfiction about a sadistic employer bringing someone in for a chat and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Origin: Six-word prompt Prompt: Company. Stool. Trust. Beer. Blast. Confession. Writing Time: 20 Minutes Word Count: 579 Notes: I was just tired writing this one, today has been endlessly tired. The stool sat in front of the desk radiating an aura of maliciousness despite the fact that it had no soul, but maybe that’s what made it so good at its job. He knew he’d have to sit on it; rest, if…

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The Ever-Pregnant Sea

I wrote a story about a man on a boat who is good at what he does, and the younger man who hasn't learned that yet. The sea really is terrifying.

Origin: Streamed writing on Twitch.Prompt: Six words: fisherman. shadow. bomber. bad. publish. ditch.Writing Time: 10-Minutes first draft. Further ten for editing and rewrites.Word Count: 385Notes: I know absolutely nothing about the sea and I imagine that it shows. The sea had a reputation as a harsh mistress and it was deserved. Everything said about her, and Leo had heard most of it by now,…

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I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got paid to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

Update: This is literally just a thought exercise to help you be more intentional with how you critique media. I'm not enforcing this as some divine rule that must be followed any time you have an opinion on fiction, and I'm definitely not saying that you have to structure every single sentence in a review to contain zero negative phrases. I'm just saying that I repurposed a rule we had at that specific reviewer to be a helpful tool to check myself when writing critiques now. If you don't want to use the tool, literally no one (especially not me) can or wants to force you to use it. As with all advice, it is a totally reasonable and normal thing to not have use for every piece of it that exists from random strangers on the internet. Use it to whatever extent it helps you or not at all.

[vinegarvapors]

Death Roll.

I posted a short story about Crocodile Hell I started writing within 20 minutes of waking up.

Origin: Reddit. Prompt: People who have died get an afterlife made especially for them. (Reddit) Writing Time: 20-30 Minutes Word Count: 927 Notes: Needs another pass or two, but I'm posting it raw. Waking up was easy, both surprising and disconcerting given how much tequila Todd remembered pouring down his throat last night. Given that, he had either: a) Not drank as much as he thought he did;…

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A list full of writing tips!

I was sitting in front of a blank page, ready to write.

But instead, I decided to procrastinate and make a compilation of links to writing tips :D

Advice from Authors!

20 Pieces of Writing Advice from Stephen King

5 Great Writing Tips from J. K. Rowling

Quentin Tarantino's top 10 Rules for Screenwriting success

Neil Gaiman's Top 13 Writing Tips

11 Writing Lessons from George R. R. Martin

5 Quotes by Rick Riordan to Make you a Better Writer

Writing Advice by Brandon Sanderson

Advice on Reddit

Sub Reddit: Writing Advice

5 Rules for Writing Books

Is writing personal experiences in a fictional story okay?

How to Come up With Character Names

How much detail do you add in a novel?

Concerning Art Block

7 Ways to Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's Block: 7 ways to defeat a writer's worst enemy!

How to Overcome Writer's Block: 14 Tricks that Work

25 Ways to Overcome Writer's Block

Concerning Procrastination

How To Beat Procrastination in Writing: 10 Proven Strategies

11 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get Writing

27 Ways to Beat Writer's Procrastination

Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination

If you have any suggestion or want different types of advice, feel free to write it in the comments!