Smoke Gideon

You know when you see a favorite band of yours and a few days after seeing them you just kind of don't feel real?

Yup. That's where I'm at after the Sleep Token Concert last week. Gonna write, and listen to Sleep Token until I get so tired of them that I never want to listen to their music again.

Might just write a dark academia book about how education is one of the first things to go when a fascist government starts to take over. And there's magic. And chemistry. And gods and a myth with parallels to the MC's story.

Just feeling like I don't want to "shut up" like the Yarros haters want

I think I'll be stepping away from TikTok. Booktok was a great place to meet people and see what everyone is reading, and writing, but I don't want to get sucked down into the rabbit hole of addictive algorithms anymore 😬

Long form content might just be my jam. I took some time away from TikTok because I wanted to figure out if the short form content world is what killed my creativity.

Considering that I've been off TikTok since July, and I've written more, read more and even filmed more...

I have three chapters left to write in my manuscript before I get to type out the words "The End."

It has been a wild ride. I've faced inner demons. The path is laid out before me, and I will take it.

-dramatizing my experiences as a fantasy writer so that I may be a protagonist too

There's nothing better than spending the morning working in a cafe in your favorite booth while making huge steps in your manuscript.

I feel my fall personality is defrosting, and I am not mad about it.

"omg what brush are you using" i ask hayao miyazaki as he stabs me repeatedly with a pencil

I know I can't change the publishing world by posting to my social media, but I wanted to share because this book made me sad for contemporary romance readers who have trouble finding quality works out there. They exist, I assure you. Sometimes, you just have to look a little harder.

But I do want the publishing world to take more time with books. I want things to be treated less like content to consume and more like stories being told. I want authors to feel invested in and not like their quick cash, for readers to have access to quality books in the market place.

Simple prose that everyone can relate to? Not the issue. Prose that are confusing and make the story hard to follow? That's the issue.

Again, reading is subjective, and we all like what we like. Sometimes, we just like books that aren't good, and I won't hate you for that. I'd be a hypocrite.

It's books like these that give Booktok a bad rep. These books are poorly edited and published for quick cash, and romance readers deserve better. Specifically, contemporary romance readers deserve better. The authors who wrote this deserve better editors too to help their books come to life.

The prose were significantly more simple than I was prepared for in an adult romance, but that doesn't mean anything. When books reach huge success like this, they are often easy to market to a lot of people, hence simple prose that everyone can relate to.

I find it difficult to connect to romance books, so I know I am not the target audience here, but I feel as though romance readers deserve better. This book's writing style is like that of a note's app short story. I believe there's a possibility for better from it, but it's not edited well at all.

I am reading one currently that I will leave unnamed. I don't want to leave anyone feeling insulted for enjoying this book, because I believe thoroughly that reading is subjective.

However, I am finding this book to be VERY difficult to read, and I think it's more than just the subject matter.

Before you read this, I am very pro-romance books. I believe it is a solid genre and I don't think anyone who reads romance is less of a reader than someone who doesn't.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...

Sometimes the popular romance books on Tiktok are extremely hard to get through.

Any of my friends or followers have Fable? I'd love to connect and talk about books with you all!!

Find me as Smokegideonwrites just like everywhere

#Fable

Why, you might ask? Because I like chunky books. I love me a good world that's built and explored, and most importantly, I'm writing these books for me.

There are readers out there who have similar tastes to me, so I'm writing these books for them too.

Industry standards for debut authors in my genre (fantasy) are around 100k to sometimes 110k. This happens to be one of the reasons I am pursuing self publishing because my draft is 200k words and while I plan to cut at least 50k from it, I'm writing above the industry standards.

Every so often I remember that this app exists...

And I just came on here to say:

I only have 7 chapters left to write of this draft of my book and let me tell you... I'm excited
#smokegideon #indiewriter #indieauthor #writersky

Anyway, thought about the ending of Babel again today almost 24 hours after I finished it and I started crying again.

No book has ever done this to me.

#rfkuang #babel #darkacademia #booksky

You would think, after watching so many people absolutely SOB after finishing Babel by R.F. Kuang that I might have prepared myself for that sort of reaction.

I did not. I sobbed. My husband held me. I haven't cried that hard over a book in a long time.

Anyway, read Babel.
#Booksky

Gotta love disappearing off of social media to actually write my book. There's a YouTube video sitting in my library, waiting to be edited. I've sworn off posting on TikTok until I actually finish my book. Definitely forgot this platform exists...

Anyway, 12 chapters left. Only 12
#authorsky

I fear my favorite type of story that has come out of the dark academia subgenre is the story that absolutely wrecks the status quo, especially when it comes to the elitism in academic circles.

Give me Babel by R.F. Kuang. Give me Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang. Give me more like these.

ANYWAY, did you know there's an extension you can put on Chrome that will connect with your local library system and when you go look at a book, say on AMZ, it will tell you if that book exists in the library system and if it's available?

It's literally called Library Extension.

Sometimes, all you want to do is day dream about writing your books full time and never having any employment obligations other than that.

Especially while you're working your day job that you don't hate but if you didn't have to work it...

#writersky #indieauthorproblems

I have 12 chapters left of the 4th draft of my book. 12. It's the final part of my book. Then, it's off to editing. It means I get to print out this draft and compare it to my first draft that I printed out this weekend. I cannot wait to see how I've grown since writing the first draft 4 years ago

Coming back to a story right before a big fight scene (which are my favorite to write) is always so fun because it feels like past me left now me a gift 😭💕

Just uploaded a YouTube video to my channel!

I talk all about the books I read in January of this year! Feels good to ramble about books to be honest with you #booksky #booktube

Editing a new YouTube video today, and I understand now why editing takes forever.

You're telling me my viewers are going to consume this video that took me like almost six hours to edit in less than an hour? That's a joke right?

(P.S. it's not a joke.)

Starting off the morning with my magical chemistry book, and I just have to say...

Keep writing because someone needs the stories you are writing, ESPECIALLY right now. 😊