Melissa Charles author

I’m not as active on social media as I could (probably should) be. I pop in and out like a demented jack-in-the-box because my energy levels vary wildly… and because life has forced my feral house goblin self to be social for the last two weeks and *gasp* leave the house.

That said, I’ve heard a number of odd things on Threads lately. I may try and break it down over there, but for now, a blog post seemed reasonable.

1. No Big Words!

This one baffled me, because of the way it evolved. Originally, someone posted about having to look up the word ‘scrying’ and how they wished authors wouldn’t use ‘big words.’

This somehow morphed into other people picking it up, deciding that ‘big words’ were ableist and discriminatory, and demanded authors limit their vocabulary.

Isn’t it more ableist and discriminatory to assume that disabled people have a limited vocabulary? That they cannot use a dictionary, Google or other search engines to look up words they don’t understand? I’m told that ereaders have a built in program that allows people to highlight and look up the word if need be. Why would anyone assume that someone’s not capable of learning new words?

Authors were fairly unanimous in their response:

2. Agents are all using AI!

No. No they’re not. Are there agents somewhere who do? No doubt. But the vast majority of agents are vehemently and virulently against AI. They’re not feeding queries, requested materials or client work into AI. That’d be kinda like running a lemonade stand and adding cyanide into the water. Agents are very aware of the thread AI poses to their clients and careers, they’re not going to deliberately encourage the usage of it.

3.The Trad Vs Indie Debate

I don’t know if this debate will ever end.

Trad and Indie have their own strengths and weaknesses. One is not inherently better than the other, or evil vs good. What one author absolutely wants or needs from their publishing career might be an absolute NO for another. We all have our own journeys. Authors choose the path that they feel works best for their career. Some want both and are hybrid authors.

All is valid. All is good.

Rather than tear each other down, we need to be cheering each other on, supporting one another.

It’s rough enough out there without sniping at one another.