Rory Price @RoryPrice@writing.exchange

Hey everyone. My name is Rory Price and I'm a science-fiction writer. I recently self-published my first novel, Opt Out. It follows a group of free software activist who get very worried about a new form of invasive proprietary technology known as smart implants.

Other than that, I'm a dedicated free software user and take privacy very seriously. I'm very interested in storytelling in general.

Check out my website at https://roryprice.net/

I find that the more experience I gain as a writer, the less I rely on detailed outlines. I still take a lot of notes and structure my story before I start writing, but I find that a looser structure works better, and I tend to dismiss a lot of the early details as I craft the story.

Building entire settings or creating complex characters? No problem, but don't ask me to name a single ship or space station.

I wish there was some equivalent to baby name websites for places, haha.

I wasn't feeling inspired lately, so I spent more than a week working on the first draft for a single chapter. Usually, I have them out in 2 or 3 days. That resulted in a lot of funny plot holes, including a robot jumping from 3 arms to 2 for no reason, and the protagonist learning the same thing in two different scenes and being surprised twice.

Don't get me wrong, first drafts are always garbage, but it's been a while since I messed one up this badly, haha.

Recently, I've had moments when watching movies where I get annoyed at the characters for not social distancing and not wearing masks. I realized that it's dumb a second later, but it still happens regularly.

I don't know how I feel about it.

Saying "I don't understand technology, it's too complicated for me," is a dangerous mindset. Big tech is banking on users being too lazy to understand. I'm not asking people to learn how to program, but rather to question how things work and why they work the way they do.

Even more insidious is this mentality of not using more secure tools because "it looks complicated." We're all expected to learn about car safety. The same should be true with computers.

I really need to stop hoping I magically sell more copies of my first book and concentrate my effort on the second one. It's probably not very healthy to constantly check how many copies have been downloaded, and then get disappointed when it turns out to be bots.

Also, this new project is pretty cool. Part of me wants to tell everyone about it, but I also don't want to make false promises when it's still in the first draft stage.

I usually get up early when I have to do groceries to avoid all the morons who don't understand social distancing. I got late today and went in an hour and a half after opening. Man was it stressful.

At least people wear masks in my area. I feel really bad for those of you who have to deal with anti-maskers on a regular basis.

I just watched "The Social Dilemma" and it made me think a lot. Honestly, even though I don't use Facebook or Twitter, I still spend way too much time on the Internet, staring at a screen.

We should all make the effort to call one another more often. Actually form human connections, share ideas, and hear each other's voice. Especially with Covid, we communicate too much via online platforms.

Am I being naive here or idealistic here?

I often wonder how political I can allow myself to be, considering I'm trying to make it as a writer. On the one hand, I don't want to alienate potential readers. On the other, I figure most people who read Opt Out and other projects I'll publish in the future will get a pretty good idea of how I feel about capitalism.

Well, I got my first "We're not interested in reviewing your novel" corporate form letter. I don't even remember submitting it to that website.

I just had a weird thought. Twenty years or so from now, people will start making really bad movies about Covid and confinement, and they'll romanticize the shit out of it.

Me, I'm looking forward to the 2053 Doctor Who episode where we find out that Covid was created by aliens.

New blog post. https://fediverse.blog/~/RoryPricesBlog/a-study-of-criticism-cynicism-and-negativity

This is the third installment in my series on criticism. This time, I focus on one of the things that bothers me the most: cynicism and negativity.

Letting people pay what they want for my book is proving an interesting experiment so far. I'm nearing 300 downloads, and so far 16 people have donated various amounts of money. I'm not sure how viable it'll be in the long run, but I'm glad I did it for my first book.

I wonder how many readers I'd have if I hadn't done it. Somehow, I don't think it would have worked as well.

Anyone else tried something similar? How did it work out for you?

Every time I try to get help on Reddit's self-publishing board, I'm baffled by the sheer amount of corporate shilling going on there. It seems like half the posts are poorly masked advertisements, and the rest are Amazon fanboys who never looked at what's going on outside of big corporate networks.

Sorry, had to vent. Self-publishing shouldn't be Amazon publishing.

I wrote a new blog post: Approaching Diversity in Fiction.

https://fediverse.blog/~/RoryPricesBlog/approaching-diversity-in-fiction

Hey everyone. My name is Rory Price and I'm a science-fiction writer. I recently self-published my first novel, Opt Out. It follows a group of free software activist who get very worried about a new form of invasive proprietary technology known as smart implants.

Other than that, I'm a dedicated free software user and take privacy very seriously. I'm very interested in storytelling in general.

Check out my website at https://roryprice.net/