Reminds me of how David Rakoff put it "writing is like pulling teeth.
From my dick."
I really really really love his writing. I'll go and read one of his books when life deals me a hard blow and I just need to read someone who gets it.
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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Having finished two, shitty, self-published books, I'm envious of anyone who can write well.
Create wonderful people that you care deeply about, and then kill them.
This is part of why I'm a shit writer, I think. I can't stand to put my characters through any major torments. I also hate it when writers kill off major characters at the end of a story. Doing so often feels cheap and gratuitous.
I suppose I haven't written enough. I need more practice, maybe.
I do think a lot of modern media embraces “unexpected death” tropes a bit too much. When done well, it can emphasize the harshness of a world and drive ambition to right things. Done wrong, it actually depletes the stakes because a lot of the motivation and interest was in saving the person that was just killed.
Breaking Bad, and Danganronpa V3, are some examples of where I felt the latter.
That said, it suspends belief sometimes when readers realize anyone in the main cast has plot armor. To me, part of that remedy is occasional deaths, but part is to just not invent frequent hanging-by-thread situations, and then frequent deus ex machina to exit them.
Everyone loves having written but everybody hates writing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's like running
Obligatory shift of perspective.
There’s several pieces of media I’ve consumed lately where on a second review, I can see: “This makes little sense. This is a lazy connection, this line could’ve been worded much better” yet it doesn’t matter since I still remember my heavy reaction on first viewing, and can see other strong reactions.
A big part of that is how well the story itself sets up for core moments, even if some of the pieces are clumsy.
Thats genuinely helpful to see, thanks
What if the author (me) is actually trash though :(
I have to tell you, I've read objectively bad writing and enjoyed it. As long as someone is trying to say something there will be a spark of that in their writing.
And if you're an amateur you're only bound to get better.
Cheers. Yeah I write from the heart, so there's that at least. I wish I had more time to write and improve, between work and relationships and other life obligations its hard to carve out slots in my day where I dont feel the pressure to be productive.
It's hard. I'm even in a writing club on my server and many months I struggle to devote time to it. I keep plinking away though, so that's something.
If My Immortal can be literally immortalised. So can you.
Good point, fuck the prepz!
God this is such a good analogy
I thought writers were actually drinkers with a writing problem?
LOL same with programmers. In fact I think moments of extreme frustration are pretty common for people who are really passionate about their work, because when you're that way you innately push yourself to the limit for it.
Does this apply to programming? Because I make those expressions/faces all the time when I code
It applies to all art, at least.
Having done both, I feel like for writing you need to dig deeper. One is logical instead of narrative, but I'd say yeah there are similarities. They're both mentally and sometimes emotionally exhausting anyway.
In English, I can’t write to save my life. My brain just refuses to make any narrative.
... but you can do it in code?
/j
I don’t think code qualifies as English, does it? lol. Also, it’s the idea of creating the narrative of the story in English that I find almost impossible. Another thing, I can never ever sing in English. Like not even one line. Even if I were to somehow to make it work, you’ll easily tell I’m a foreigner whose native language is definitely not English. Also, there are English words I can never enunciate, first one and my most annoying word that I hate the most is “vulnerabilities”. I choke when I say that word. Lmao.
SEQUEL?
No, the joke was that the only other language you could write stories in must be a programming language ... aaaaand I'm only now realizing this isn't a c/programmer humor. Sorry, I was tired.
And I'm also a non-native English speaker. Building narratives is hard enough without tripping over another language - using your native one is fine, no? You could always have the story translated later if you want it in English. However, I disagree with the idea you seem to have that if you have an accent then that disqualifies whatever you just did in English. As long as it gets the point across, it's good enough. But if you're really struggling, you could probably seek out someone to help you work on those hard-to-pronounce words.
I think those expressions are universal. I'm a stone mason and I do those expressions twice a week minimum.
I’ve never heard of a Stone Mason, but that sounds so fucking cool. What do you actually do?
I build stuff out of stone.
Here's a picture of something I've been working on.
It's actually completely done, I just keep forgetting to take a picture of it. If my ADHD lets me remember I'll post a picture tomorrow. I'm going back to site to clear out rubble sacks, no guarantee I'll remember.
Damn, that looks awesome. Thank you for the pics. My brother is a carpenter and I love his work.
When I arrived at site this morning I kept reminding myself to take a picture. And then nearly drove away before I did.
Here's it done:
Just hammer it home
Writing is hell. Not writing is hell. The only tolerable state is having just written.
Then at least it's over and you can go hide somewhere yeah
For a day, maybe two. Just don't read it ever again. But, that doesn't help much, because you know. You know.
Writing is fun until you read what you wrote.
Then you hate yourself for being such a garbage writer, delete everything, and start again.
I was watching a stream from simon clark and he said one of the worst things he's done is an audiobook for his own book because he had to read through all of it and couldn't change anything because it has to be read exactly as it is printed.
I would hasn't definitely started a copy with my edits though. How could you not
delete everything, and start again.
Kill your darlings. As long as you start again.
I wish you could have seen my face melt onto the floor reading your first sentence. It hurt.
that guy is writing
that’s what writing looks like
the mechanical process of putting the words down isn’t what people like about writing
it’s creating the words, and that is what that looks like (in the pics)
"I hate writing, but I love having written."
Dorothy Parker, as quoted by Oscar Madison
The writing isn't that bad.
The editing is fucking brutal
That's because you need to read what you wrote. You need to face it. There's no deluding yourself during editing.
I think he's waffling on finishing it himself or dying and letting Brandon Sanderson do it.
Software engineering