When Beta-Reading & Forum Communities Do Not Turn Out As Planned

With classes out for the semester, I have decided to return to my writing. This post I drafted several months ago, but I will post it now to explain my hiatus and because it is worth mentioning. I have not edited any phrasing, so some statements may not be current.

So my time at WriYe has drawn to an end before even completing one year on the forum. I'm sure I've already reached my goal but I have not updated my word count since starting grad school. I've fallen behind on my writing because of my environment changes, one of them being that I will no longer be on WriYe. The culture of the main demographic of many hobbies I partake in has an outward welcoming aura but always turns out to be extremely closed and somewhat rude.

My first beta reading experience was also at WriYe and it was a complete disappointment. Neither of the beta readers that I selected, both fairly active and well-liked members of the forum, upheld their end of the bargain and the moderators did little to help (click below for details).

All in all, I'm putting this out there to say there are two writers who are holding on to my first ever completed manuscript and that this has been my first experience with beta reading. There is really no way to say "be careful." One of the readers I was decently acquainted with myself and still this fiasco.

Yes, life happens, but, short of a dire long-term emergency, nothing excuses you from the responsibility of a contract or keeps you from sending a note of "I'm sorry but I can't do it" or "I need more time."

I am very thankful that the forums motivated me to complete two manuscripts, but I am quite sure I do not owe them my longest manuscript as collateral.

Sweet Yams and Mashed Potatoes

When I was a child, I thought yams and sweet potatoes were two different things.
And then I learned they were the same.
And then I learned they were different.

Moral of the story: Seek and ye shall find. Look it up for yourself, even when you aren't that curious. Misinformation is everywhere.

Saying the two vegetables are the same is another example of cultural appropriation, where White people tell you that's just what dem Africans call it. Conversely, Africans will tell you they are most assuredly different vegetables.

It's like comparing a purple cabbage (yum) to bok choy.

Because US sweet potatoes are sometimes incorrectly called yams, some big-headed "experts" took it upon themselves to basically say yams don't exist. Cougar, puma, moun'in lion.

And that concludes this random bit of micro fiction from a page in my life.

A Musical: The Five-Second Rule is So Overrated

Once upon a time, in September 2012, a friend dared me to write a musical script involving "giraffes," "a loaf of bread," and "the five-second rule." And so, a horrible disfigurement was born.

Fun Fact: I use Japanese quite randomly sometimes, despite my verbal Japanese being poor. (Hence the name of this blog!) This work contains a short burst of nonsensical Japanese. The original file is signed in Japanese, but here I simply omitted my name.

Comprehension Warning: The script below is meant as a joke. Comprehension is not expected. Also, I'm horrible at rhymed poetry, so I thought that bit worked out nicely with the atmosphere. I also did not revise it in any way from the original 2012 file (besides removing the Japanese name).

Enjoy!

I reserve all rights to this work. Please do not use or repost in any form without my permission.

Old Legends Make Good Jokes

I spent an entire day rolling on the floor laughing at the first story I wrote when I got my first computer at 12 years. It doesn't have a plot at all and broke 26,000 words before I finally flung it away. It isn't as bad as I make it sound, but I developed a caricature (minus exaggeration) of the main character.

Yes, the main characters in this story were named Kaden and Damien and the characters were a lovely mix of angels, vampires, kemonomimi, and demons.

These are not actual excerpts from the story. I'd be much too embarrassed to include those.

***

The sun peaked over the mountaintops, justifying Kaden's growling stomach. He shook Damien awake. "Why does the sun rise?"
"That's because it revolves around the Earth."

***

An angel strolled across the street towards them.
"Why are you walking?" Kaden asked. "Couldn't you just fly?"
The angel massaged his own shoulders. "My wings are a bit tired."

***

"Why did you do that thing to me that time?" Kaden asked Damien.
*magically knows exactly what he is talking about* "That's because I have a hard time feeling."
"Did something happen?"
"..." *spills guts about everything negative related to love and emotions in his life*

***

"Why don't you just beat me into a bloody pulp when all I do is ask questions that should make you uncomfortable?"
"How could I be uncomfortable when you're so friggin' cute?" Damien enveloped Kaden in a bear hug.

***

All the time, he asks the most ridiculous questions that everyone eventually is forced to spill the beans and answer. I have to give myself a little bit of credit and say they didn't always answer right away, but they usually answered within a page. When the characters aren't knocking back the z's or hugging each other and straying from sexual contact, the pages are filled with chunks of emotional history (which again, giving myself credit, never occur randomly).