jeff the tiller’s crops are green and flourishing today
herbs to bring to jeff the griller so he can use it as a garnish for his steak. they’re bringing it to jeff the iller who is unfortunately not feeling well today
When you think about it it’s nuts what doctors can get away with in our society. If you’ve got an appointment with like an architect or a lawyer & they’re two hours late & they don’t even give you a cursory apology for making you wait most likely you’ll just take your business elsewhere. I’ve had doctors talk to me in a way that if an interior designer or a banker did that to you it would be a one-strike-you’re-out kind of deal. Like even among white-collar professionals doctors are kind of unique in terms of how casually disrespectful they can be to their clients.
I think one of the worst things a story can be is unproblematic.
Nothing makes a story more unreadable than being able to see the author squirm apologetically for the story they actually want to write—wringing their hands and imploring the reader please, please don’t be mad, I know it’s ideologically questionable but I need you to not be mad at me!
For example: a Good King™️. It’s one thing for a story to present a fictional monarchy and ask me to root for it. It’s another thing for a story to say, hey, I know what you’re thinking—but don’t worry! I can justify this premise! I have introduced a lot of convoluted self-aware political justifications for why my king is good and likable without actually asking any risky ideological questions! These characters aren’t actually problematic! Don’t be mad at me!
Commit to the bit. Apologetic, defensive writing designed to bypass obvious criticisms often winds up offending me far more than stories that are just kind of surface-level problematic. If I’m gonna be a hater you cannot stop me; the more you insist that a character is actually a good oil tycoon because of all these exceptional situations and beyond my reproach, the more I resent you and hate your stupid book.
People are getting annoying and obtuse in the notes so I want to make a totally pointless clarification that this is not me saying “it’s wrong to write likable characters and it’s wrong to tell stories with ideological messages”.
This is me saying that no amount of anxious apology and avoidance is going to place your story beyond criticism and interrogation; art critics are a fact of nature. Of the untold billions of ways your art can suck, “the author was petrified with fear of Twitter discourse” has got to be one of the most annoying and uninteresting flaws a story can have.
