![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
#amquerying again & random rambles
Apr. 22nd, 2024 04:54 pmWell, I'm officially in the query trenches again. It seems that querying has gotten slower every year, so I'm desperately trying to figure out what to do to occupy my mind so I'm not just sitting around anxiously waiting for news.
In theory, my backup plan if Novel #5 dies in the query trenches is to rewrite Novel #4 and query that. Currently, though, I feel like I'm still too close to that book to effectively think of ways to rewrite it. I'm waiting for my critique partner to return from a trip so we can brainstorm together.
I've definitely been feeling too tired (and burned out by the publishing industry) to write something new. It doesn't help matters that I don't feel like I've read a good book in forever. I find myself rewatching The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi and Scumbag System to entertain myself. :')
Speaking of, while I still dearly wish and hope to see Scumbag System season 2 one day, the shine has rubbed off the story as a whole for me, mostly because I feel like there are just way too many consent problems with the latter third of the book. Honestly, maybe a censored screen adaptation would fix the relationship issues, in a way...?
It's also fun for me to think about how MDZS and Scum Villain really feel like two sides of the same coin. It feels to me like Mo Xiang Tong Xiu started Scum Villain as a parody of tropes, and then decided to write MDZS to play the tropes straight and justify them. Both stories have a "villain protagonist" (who dresses in red and black, to boot!) who were orphaned at a young age, were thrown off a cliff and thereafter gained "demonic" power.
In theory, my backup plan if Novel #5 dies in the query trenches is to rewrite Novel #4 and query that. Currently, though, I feel like I'm still too close to that book to effectively think of ways to rewrite it. I'm waiting for my critique partner to return from a trip so we can brainstorm together.
I've definitely been feeling too tired (and burned out by the publishing industry) to write something new. It doesn't help matters that I don't feel like I've read a good book in forever. I find myself rewatching The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi and Scumbag System to entertain myself. :')
Speaking of, while I still dearly wish and hope to see Scumbag System season 2 one day, the shine has rubbed off the story as a whole for me, mostly because I feel like there are just way too many consent problems with the latter third of the book. Honestly, maybe a censored screen adaptation would fix the relationship issues, in a way...?
It's also fun for me to think about how MDZS and Scum Villain really feel like two sides of the same coin. It feels to me like Mo Xiang Tong Xiu started Scum Villain as a parody of tropes, and then decided to write MDZS to play the tropes straight and justify them. Both stories have a "villain protagonist" (who dresses in red and black, to boot!) who were orphaned at a young age, were thrown off a cliff and thereafter gained "demonic" power.
