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Author: S.M. Carrière

When S.M. Carrière isn't brutally killing your favourite characters, she spends her time teaching martial arts, live streaming video games, and cuddling her cats. In other words, she spends her time teaching others to kill, streaming her digital kills, and cuddling furry murderers. Her most recent titles include 'Daughters of Britain' and 'Skylark.' https://www.smcarriere.com/
Don’t Quit

Don’t Quit

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Image by PDPics from Pixabay

Goodafterevenmorn!

You may recall that I once said that all writing advice is bunk (sort of). I hold that to be mostly true. Knowing this, I’m still going to offer some advice to anyone out there who happens to be a struggling writer (hello, I’m your resident frustrated author who thinks of giving up three times a day. Welcome to my little support group. Do take a seat), because it’s something I desperately need to remind myself. Repeatedly. If there’s one piece of writing advice you should follow to the letter, it’s this:

Don’t quit.

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The Content Warning Debate

The Content Warning Debate

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This is a trigger fish, apparently: Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn!

In an effort to try and get myself “out there,” so to speak, and figure out what marketing tricks I can use that don’t feel horrendously icky to me in order to try and inch towards making a living from my writing, I spend a lot of time on TikTok. I sometimes attempt to get my books out there, but those videos never get any views. When I’m just fooling around with the various filters they have, I often get far more views; in the hundreds or thousands. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the algorithm, or how to take advantage of it. I am terrible at marketing. Still, I try. And I’ll keep trying. Maybe I’ll have it work out randomly. Mostly, I just waste hours of my life scrolling through my feed, which currently consists of international news, Hozier (I watched two videos and TikTok has decided I’m obsessed), and a lot of book content. As is usually the case in BookTok, there is a debate raging right now regarding content/trigger warning appearing at the front of the book.

It’s quite an interesting debate.

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The “AI Revolution” Problem

The “AI Revolution” Problem

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Image by Thomas Meier from Pixabay. Pixabay has a policy of disclosing AI images. This did not have the indicator that it was AI.

Good afterevenmorn (whenever you’re reading this!)

I’d like to talk about AI. I can hear your collective groans. I’m quite annoyed by the subject, too, but perhaps for different reasons. Still, let’s talk AI from the perspective of an actual writer (struggling, but still a writer).

The news has been filled with nothing but discussions of AI in creative spaces… or, at least, that’s what my news feed has been full of. It’s as if all of the various algorithms are doing their darnedest to keep me as depressed as possible… stupid AI, but I digress. I’m sure you’re all quite familiar with the chime of the bells of doom that creatives have been ringing since AI reared its head in our spaces. There is considerable debate raging all over the internet about where AI fits, where it doesn’t and why or why not. Many authors are feeling threatened, and not without reason. There are a myriad of reasons why. Let’s explore just a couple.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender; A Worthy Adaptation?

Avatar: The Last Airbender; A Worthy Adaptation?

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Why hello!

Well, Netflix has dropped the first season of its live-action adaptation of the much beloved animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. It just so happened that it dropped just as I was falling very ill and had no energy to do anything but binge television. So, naturally, I’m going to talk about it. A few caveats before the hard-core fans come after me for what seems like a controversial opinion on the show (based on what I’ve read).

First, I came to the animated show quite late. I was already a full adult, with a fully formed pre-frontal cortex and everything. AtLAB was not, by any stretch, a formative part of my childhood in the way The Transformers or The X-Men cartoons were for me (aging myself here). I do adore the animated show, but I’m also not connected to it in the way that those who grew up watching it are.

Second, I’m much more lenient for adaptations than a lot of folks, I’ve come to realise. Certainly, there are just some that are horrendous (looking at you, M. Night), but most of the time, I’m okay with the changes made, so long as the spirit of the thing remains intact.

With these things in mind, let’s crack on, shall we?

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Maybe We Should Give Up on GoodReads

Maybe We Should Give Up on GoodReads

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Hello, Readers!

As I blaze through my reading goal for this year (two books ahead, baby!), I’ve been thinking about the app/site I now use in order to keep track of my reading, and the functionality of how I’m able to interact with other readers. You see, though I still have an account, and I check in very occasionally, I all but abandoned GoodReads shortly after it was purchased by Amazon.

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The Creative Friends Problem

The Creative Friends Problem

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Image by Elisa from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn!

In a rather dangerous pastime, I’ve been thinking. I’m a writer, you see (like I don’t mention that as much as possible. How insufferable. Anyway…), and as a writer, I’ve made a good many friends who are also writers. We attend conventions together, we join writing groups, or go out for coffee and chat. In fact, I’m quite certain that the majority of my friends are creatives of one sort or another, and the vast majority of those are fellow writers.

Which, frankly, is fantastic.

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It’s Magic

It’s Magic

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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Good day, Readers!

Well, that sounded more passive-aggressive than I intended. Let’s ignore that. One of the beautiful things about social media is the discourse that can be had about all manner of things. Some of it is awful — alright, a lot of it is awful — but it isn’t always. What crossed my feed this week was not one of the awful things, but rather brought up a really interesting discussion about magic in fiction; and how people prefer to consume it.

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The StoryGraph: To Help My 2024 Goals. Join Me?

The StoryGraph: To Help My 2024 Goals. Join Me?

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Hello, Readers!

It’s 2024 already. How? How did that happen?!

Like many of you (I suspect), I’ve added ‘read more’ to my goals for this year. I try not to make resolutions, but rather goals. It feels a little less pushy and more gentle. You still have something to strive for, but it somehow feels less harsh. Anyway, I have very limited time, so reading so often finds itself on the back burner.

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Must It Be Your Favourite?

Must It Be Your Favourite?

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Image by Patrik Houštecký from Pixabay

Why hello there!

On my last post, I received a question that I want to take the time to answer fully and so, with the commenter’s permission, I’ll do so here. It’s a great question, but it is also indicative of a broader issue with writing advice that I also want to touch on. But first, the question:

There’s a piece of writing advice that I know is well-meant, but I never know what to think of it: the work you are writing now should be your favorite work yet. Any perspectives on that one?

Why yes, yes I have a perspective on that piece of advice. Primarily, this one:

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