Man, We Have Got To Stop Treating Art Like It Has An Expiration Date. That Show Stopped Airing? Doesn’t

Nothing like a halfway decent incomplete fanfic to crawl into my brain and lay eggs. At some point between now and when I die, I will be writing some sort of paranormal situation, forever peeved that I didn’t come up with this world building first and can’t just rip it off because morals.

One thing I don't see show up as a consideration in worldbuilding a lot is what things are professionalized.

By that I mean how (and whether) certain activities or focuses are conducted in an organized, professional manner or treated as a career path or industry (often with set standards or training involved) rather than those that are treated primarily as hobbies or conducted in an ad hoc manner.

Standing armies, for example, are professionalized in a way that temporary armies or militias aren't. Being in the military is a profession that is organized and has specific standards and training and that clearly distinguishes between people who are or are not in the military. If we look at a lot of past wars, though, as well as many militias, being in the military was not a career for most people (especially most enlisted) and the time and effort between deciding to join and being on a battlefield was significantly smaller.

A professionalized military will generally be a stronger, more cohesive, more effective military--but it is also far more expensive to maintain, because as it is a profession the military servicemembers pull their salary from the military on a regular basis, and it takes away hands from other tasks such as manufacturing and farming.

Over the last few hundred years a lot of countries have seen (to varying degrees) professionalization of fields like firefighting, policing, pharmacology, emergency response, and search and rescue. In these cases, it reflects 1) a recognized need for a standing trained force that can respond quickly; 2) a recognized need for standards and credentialing; 3) the ability societally to have individuals who might otherwise be contributing to manufacturing or food production not do that indefinitely; 4) a dedicated ongoing effort to maintain standards, trainings, etc.; and 5) organizations (generally governments) that can pay for these services.

We also see the professionalization of other things, like youth sports--the push to treat youth sports as either primarily a system to develop professional athletes or a career on its own.

When you're doing worldbuilding, consider what roles would be treated in this professionalized manner, rather than those that would be viewed as temporary positions or conducted on an ad hoc basis.

Is there a standing professional military? How does the professionalization differ between officers and enlisted?

Is emergency preparedness, response, or recovery a professionalized field? Is the focus of that profession on planning? On search and rescue, triage, or other immediate response activities or coordination? On rebuilding following disasters? On managing grants, tax relief, or other monetary aspects of rebuilding?

Is pharmacology a regulated industry that requires training or credentialing? Is medicine?

Is firefighting generally conducted by individuals in the neighborhood? By private industry? By unpaid volunteers managed by a governmental or non-governmental organization? By full-time paid staff?

Are these positions generally a full-time job or an ad hoc/as needed job that can be called on? If it is an ad hoc position, what are the credentialing requirements to be put on the roster?

I've got a lot of respect for smut writers. you write something incredibly sexual, it's probably somewhat of a look into your own soul, and then bitches are too scared to leave kudos of comments half the time, so it looks as though everyone hates your work. And yet yall still do it, and I love that

Writing is like a hard video game level

You’re bitching and screaming at the screen as you try and fail to make progress

But when someone concernedly suggests you take a break?

“Oh no, it’s fun and relaxing!”

me: i’ll just write a short story also me: *accidentally creates a 7-book saga with complex lore*

if you feel like you forgot how to write: good. forget the rules. be ungovernable. invent a new genre.

Have I written every day since I made my schedule?

Yes.

Did on work on any of my wips?

No.

Did I start a new story and get way too invested?

Hell yeah!

I just made an actual schedule for what writing projects I should focus on each day for the next week. So that way I can hopefully make progress on my fic and on revising poems for my slam team at the same time. We’ll see if the adhd cooperates.

my beloved writers,

you need to seriously challenge your mindset of writing for likes and such. You already know you should write for yourself, so do it.

It does not matter. They are numbers.

If your productivity and motivation are tied to how much positive feedback you get, you are killing the artist inside of you. To be an artist means to not be chained down by anything - not opinions, not feedback, not an audience.

It is no complex, hard task to stop caring. Just stop. Stop caring for it. I promise, it will be the most freeing thing you can do for your mind.

Sincerely,

a long recovered Wattpad-Reads-Obsessor.

I always tell myself I’ll keep it cute, keep it light, and by the end of draft one it’s always dark and or tragic.

Writers be like: "I love my characters!"

Also writers: "What if I made them suffer horribly for no reason except my own entertainment?"

"Why didn't they just communicate?? They're so stupid!" Have you considered that communicating with someone you love and value and don't want to hurt is scary and that vulnerability takes practice and that perfect characters with perfect words make the most boring stories of all