Snakenaps

Let me know what you think when you're done... >:D All interesting people are consistently strange.

This is exactly what I wanted! More the merrier! My brain is already going a mile a minute!

Dude, your faces are awesome. Luckily for you, I've been reading webcomics since high school. I'm very fond of them because they are free, mobile, and combine art and storytelling. Nothing is in any particular order. I wouldn't normally note which ones have LGBTQ+ relationships (a good romance is a good romance, imo), but I'll note it in case anyone has any particular interest. I'll bold my favorite favorites. EDIT: Okay, after I posted this, I realized HOLY SMOKES MY LIST IS WAY TOO LONG for this forum. So I created a Google Doc instead: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kn_jR0hWsfFbXoS0C4e6306XMcYErrS8rEsgz4vZU2k/edit?usp=sharing Have 55 of my favorite webcomics, with brief descriptions.

So, out of curiosity, I decided to count how many chapters it takes me to provide a real definition for the Fey. Sixteen chapters. I don't really introduce a pivotal part of the world until 36% into the book. Like, Jesus, yikes, no wonder I've been confusing the hell out of everyone.

The only experience I have regarding boats is my Dad's bass fishing boats. I've been on a sailboat a whooping two times. Wow, makes me such an expert /s. The dinghy I gave the family is primarily based off of the Wayfarer dinghy, the wooden recreational version, not the racing style. The capsizing scene is based nearly step by step on this YouTube video, which, granted, isn't Wayfarer, but is a small, 2 person dinghy. I definitely need to go in and make sure all of my terminology (as you pointed out with the ropes) is correct, and, preferably, have an actual sailor take a look at this scene and make sure I'm factually correct. I've got some east coast relatives who have been sailboating for decades. I haven't talked with them since high school, but I bet they'd be willing to lend a hand. Since you have experience living on a sailboat and knowing more than I do about sailboats, can you think of any little details I could put in that would really make it seem that I have more knowledge than I really do? As Sanderson says, a little smoke and mirrors to make it seem like I'm an expert when I'm not?

@kais @shatteredsmooth @Turin Turambar @aeromancer Thank you for so many excellent book recommendations! I'm so excited!!! This is going to be fun! I can't wait until Lore Olympus starts up again. Have you read Under the Aegis? It's finished now, but one of my favorites. I have a long list of webcomics, but one of my favorite non-Webtoons comics is Tiger Tiger, which has made me weirdly fond of sea sponges and mollusks.

That looks like the cutest book ever. Yes!

Completely agree. My sister and I fight when we butt heads (we also love each other massively), and that's still lacking here. The first version had Sue going, "The palace is bad and I'm worried, but la ti da, I'm sure it'll all work out!" *tosses out sparkles and rainbows of joy* I took a good step in the right direction with this version, and I just need to give it another good crank. The ending conflict early habit admittedly stems from the fact that I avoid confrontation in real life and therefore struggle with adding it in books because, ho boy, I just end up wanting to hide and leave. It's something I'm definitely working on.

This book has a firm happy-ish ending. You can still have a loving family that is strained by in-fighting but makes it in the end. One of the major themes of this book is family. Her parents can be solid rocks (and stay that way), but what about her younger brothers? What happens if your two older sisters are fighting? How does that affect you, especially when you are the youngest at ten? Things have to go wrong before they can go right. I bomb out chunks of the city from war? Opportunity for them to rebuild into something better. Things might go wrong, but, in the end, this is a happy ending book for most characters.

I read The Help freshman year of college (so, five years ago), and I'm admittedly rusty on it. I pulled it off my bookshelf because I went "Hey, I remember strong women in this, especially the pie scene." Now that I'm looking back...you're very much right. It's all about Skeeter playing the benevolent liberator. I'd much rather switch it out for something that doesn't have the...poisonous literary stereotypes. I'd like to get away from white saviors, wise old Native Americans, "here's my one black/gay/insert any minority here friend which makes me woke" and that such jazz. This is good for me two fold: it helps me promote quality literature, and helps me eradicate the misconceptions I know I still carry. I feel very aware of the mistakes I make here (I mean @kais you caught me white defaulting just this last submitted chapter, which I have now fixed), but I think that's good for me. Makes me grow. Hopefully reading these suggestions and adding them to the recommended reading list will help.

I'm actually going to quote you where I want you now. I'll give it a read and see if it fits the guidelines. I put Chains and The Help in there because I do think that one of the best ways of tackling racism is by cutting at the roots with understanding and sympathy. Books have an amazing ability to toss you into another person's shoes and make you think outside of your own limited life.

If it's good romance, I'll always read it, no matter the time period, no matter the pairing (or pairings. I'll happily read romances with poly relationships. That only means there is more to love). Admittedly, most of the romance I've been reading lately has been webcomics, but that's because I've never had a lot of people to recommend me good romances. Sorry to the very popular Jude Deveraux, but I can't read her stuff after the nearly rape scene between the love interests in The Raider, or the disgusting way she handled obesity in Wishes. So, so many romances are bad. I tend to read them on a suggested basis from the simple fact I'm not patient enough to dig through all the heaps of Hallmark-level romances. For me, romance comes first over sex. I'll happily read books with plenty of fun between the sheets, but if the romance isn't believable, *yawn* I'm out.

As soon as I saw this, I slapped my forehead. This series is awesome and illustrations are GORGEOUS!!! Thank you so much for the recommendations!!! I need to read I, Robot, because I know it's a classic.

Shoot!!! Argh, it's so difficult to see past my own biases/prejudices! I should know better!!! Look at me, trying to get more representation into book lists but failing with my own novel! Thank you!!!

This...this actually really works. P traditionally receives the raw materials, makes finished goods, ships them back out. But if the BK starts pushing the raw materials north to M...well, if M is stealing your livelihood, that'll make you mad. Considering Ir's mother is a basketweaver...maybe that job is going up north to M...maybe she'll be fired, adding pressure to the family. Not to mention, long-term wise, there is an excellent reason for the BK to push importing little but exporting as much as possible...he'll want the finished goods coming him, not the other way around. Colonialism and mercantilism would only serve to strengthen Book Two...and would absolutely pummel Book Three when everything goes wrong. Which, frankly, is exactly what Book Three needs. After reflecting hard upon this (this entire conversation has pretty much consumed my brain for the day), I think the reason I'm having a hard time coming up with a better solution is because I failed to recognize what the BK is. I started thinking about him as the good guy again. And he's not. He's a ruthless manipulator that will do everything he can to set up his plans for the future and make them the reality. I lost sight of that. He isn't necessarily a bad guy, but he isn't good, either. I kept trying to say "bad, evil monarchy", when I then made it good. I need it to be tolerable enough that Ir will be confused on which side she's on, but controversial enough that Sue knows exactly which side she is on. And then I need to make the rest of the family members pick which sister they'll lean with. Today, I think I'll research mercantilism, imperialism, and colonialism. I have a starting point! Maybe it'll lead to a solution, or maybe it won't, but will inspire a new direction!

You have middle school??? Yeeeeees... I'm not as familiar with contemporary, so, yes, toss me a few of your favorites. I love widening my own perspectives through the lenses of books.

Booooooks, glorious booooooks!!! This is amazing!!! Thank you!!! I'll take whatever you'll give me, as I know a lot of these titles may be difficult for me to track down on Libby or at the library. Hopefully I'll be able to scrounge up some funds and add some to my bookshelves.

So what I need to do, is tear this apart. A loving, supportive family? Alright, time to up Sue and Ir's headbutting, threaten that their loss of relationship is going to poison the entire family dynamic. Adding more the to Revolutionaries definitely helps this, and I'm going to push the spy-finding gig harder. A good job? Time to up the stakes where she might lose it. I've already got an idea to make her chose Sue or the restaurant. Time to test that out, and then go in a make it and even more difficult. Hardship or oppression. Okay, I'm not writing grimdark here, but it's time to figure out how I can really make people suffer... I'm already bombing the city, destroying a lot, trying to emphasize "hey man, a war happened here." I think we need an extra sprinkling of orphans, and I like @TheDwarfyOne's idea of knocking down and replacing some statues. I think I definitely need to stop relying on what I know, and start doing more research on what I don't know. The Black King was inspired by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk back in the day...I think it's time to revisit totalitarian dictators and such.

I'd expect nothing lease that a really good suggestion from Mandamon. This is would certainly increase S's credibility as a revolutionary. I do like that she has only recently joined though. What if her husband the smith was active before, and now she has decided to join too? Dunno, but I like the idea. I was also moved to comment on the fact that the BK's government actually does not sound that bad at all, so I know it's something you have in mind. I think it remains probably the biggest issue with Draft2 that I'm reading. I completely agree that the largest, most concerning foundation problem the book has is the former government, the current government, and the Revolutionaries. @Mandamon has a fantastic idea and I'm totally going to test it out. It actually works out why S wouldn't be able to join, because before the war, she was pregnant with her first child, and would have been hesitant to join. Now that both of her children are pretty much out of diapers, she'd want to get involved. As for her husband, he may have been playing around with the idea before the war, but then ended up being enlisted because he can work iron (and therefore make weapons) for his country. Which, despite the hatred he had for the previous government, he would have done to protect his country. As I mentioned briefly earlier, I'm testing out new forms for the governments as well. I'm going to summarize them here and see if anyone can pull them apart or notice anything I may have missed: Former Government: In Draft Two, I made this government bloodthirsty, and it didn't work. So I'm taking the monopolies and instead focusing on more of an Industrial Revolution-inspired system. Capitalism cranked up to a high degree with no regulations. As long as the wealthy can cover it up and pay the bribes, the government will look away as long as its pocketbooks are gilded. The working class has no modern day unions to fight for them, and no rights to protect them from being hurt. The Revolutionaries began to arise because they wanted the common people to have a say, instead of only the wealthy. I might pull in some of @TheDwarfyOne's peasant representation knowledge (see, and @TheDwarfyOne you thought I'd get bored) and see how the former government would have spun the working class to make them seem worthy of subjugation. Those lazy louts! Drunkards, all of them. They deserve to be stomped on Current (BK) Government: Is now inspired by my own California government. Monopolies are torn down, while tariffs control the previously barely-regulated trade. Permits and licenses, as well as record keeping (in a highly illiterate society, how is that fair, Sue now grumbles in Chapter 1), are now a must. All T's must be crossed, all I's must be dotted, except the government is involved, so nothing is done efficiently (in an attempt to arrest some officers for bribery, the entire docks are shut down for most of the day). The people bristle, as they feel like they went from a government that wouldn't protect them at all, to a new government that pretends to care, but won't even let anyone sneeze without paying for a permit. Now their freedom is a bunch of chains holding them down. What are they, babies that can't take care of themselves? This fits in well with the planned Book Two, as not only is the BK a manipulative control freak, but he also has a solid reason to begin laying such heavy regulations because spoilers. I also think I want to spin the national pride of Country P much higher, and give them a xenophobic disdain towards everyone else. M is smaller, with only one major city. I can see Country P people calling them the equivalent of rednecks and country bumpkins, filled with no class. That, I can pull from with personal experience. And, of course Country B was defeated by the BK. Weak, the lot of them, from infighting and those black markets! Country P knows how to run international trade, unlike them. Leaky ships smelling of rot! Who'd want to buy from them. As usual, my biggest enemy is going to be anachronistic phrases and finding alternatives.

See, this is what is driving me nuts, because there are some books that I would love to recommend, but would have too many parents clutching their pearls. I mean, I put Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness with hesitation because it mentions sex. I feel like the only PoC representation I had that wasn't preschool is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. More than half of my preschool recommendations are PoC, with my favorite Ada Twist, Scientist, right on top. I'll still take that list, for my own enjoyment at the very least. If it is something that I can add to the list, I will. @TheDwarfyOne @Mandamon @Robinski Thank you so much for your recommendations! So many of them I was like, I can't believe I didn't think of that! Especially the Binti books, because I thoroughly enjoyed them when I read them last year. I'm happily updating the list. Thank you all!!!

Anyone have any book recommendations for any age starring literary heroines? With some good, solid representation, preferably? Okay, this isn't about how to write, so I'm not going to put this in Craft Nook. It isn't also about how to get published, so it doesn't belong in Business. I'm helping update a badge for Quest Clubs about Literary Heroines. The original badge had been written by a middle-aged, white woman in the mid-2000's. I've met her, she's a wonderful woman. But, oh boy, her book recommendations were out of date. I mean, the most "modern" readings on her recommended list was Anne of Green Gables (1908) and Charlotte's Web (1952). Not to mention, every. single. protagonist. was. white. I'm white. I have no problem with white protagonists. But when children read books, so many of them are about boys. Are girls not allowed to go on adventures? Then most of them are white. How is a child supposed to believe they can do anything too, when all they see is white people having the adventures? How are they supposed to find representations of themselves? So, I'm trying to update this book list to range from preschool to adult...and I am finding that not only is it nightmarish trying to find books starring actually heroines instead of whiny women (lookin' at you, Twilight), let alone books that show representation. Diversity! I'm actually having an easier time finding literary heroines in children's books than high school. I thought this was going to be a fun adventure. Instead, now I'm just sad and more than a little mad. I wish I was still planning on becoming a teacher, because I always had the plan to create a classroom library where every child can find a mirror of themselves, and instead...instead I'm changing careers. I dunno, it's just a frustrating night with a heavy dose of bitter reality. If you happen to think of any books, please let me know. Nothing too political/controversial/dark, since this is for a business. Thanks, y'all.

After four weeks, I'm finally posting a new chapter! This chapter is one I am particularly proud of. Not because it doesn't have flaws (it does), but because this chapter was completely overhauled for Draft Two. It used to take place in a public bathhouse with no confrontation and no tension. I'm proud of how I've completely managed to turn this chapter on its head and make something so much better. All comments, questions, and feedback welcome!

I personally use Scrivener. I no longer have Word for free since I've graduated college, and I refused to get another subscription service. It's already bad enough I spend $10 a month/$120 a year for Photoshop. There was no way I was going to do another $100 a year for Word. I tried Google Docs, but with my internet, the poor program began getting slower and slower to load. By the time I reached 56 pages, I was noticing a definite lag when typing and began looking into other programs. Scrivener for $50, one time, with a free upgrade to Scrivener 3 when it comes out for Windows? Yes please! I absolutely adore its corkboard and the little index card summaries. I find that its methods of organization are fantastic for what I need. Google Doc's outline was handy, but I love being able to see a quick summary of an entire arc in the blink of an eye. Not to mention, Scrivener's customizable full screen mode keeps me from reading webcomics when I should be writing. I also love how I can set targets for myself to reach, such as wanting to writing 1,000 words a day, and watch that bar grow green as I type. Not to mention, I have a folder full of cut scenes, and I love seeing that grow (over 26,000 words of cut scenes, whoo!). I also have keywords, where I can track Plot A and Subplots B, C, and D, or visit locations or characters to make sure I'm staying consistent. The major drawback to Scrivener is that it doesn't have a grammar checker. As I'm revising, I now have a page on Google Docs dedicated to copying and pasting scenes, checking for grammar errors, fixing them in Scrivener, and then deleting that scene in Google Docs before starting from scratch. It's a pain in my rump. I think it is all a matter of preference, and what sort of writer you are. I'm highly organized, and so the capabilities of Scrivener really help me.

For the first time in three weeks, I'd love to nab a spot for July 7th if there is an opening!

I haven't touched revisions in three weeks, so you're fine. I was in the middle of tearing apart Chapter 4, the job hunting chapter, when the apartment fiasco hit. You're still many chapters ahead of where I'm revising.