I wrote this on a car ride home, so that's 50% of why it's as short as it is. But the other 50% is, as you noted, that there's only so much that can be done with this. The circumstances simply don't lend themselves to more of a struggle or more details. They could have, if I wanted to delve more into the mind and perception of the boy, but that would risk making it into overly full of flashbacks or exposition. I wanted to avoid that. I feel like there's only so much of that I can put in a work before it would stop being sexy and become tedious for you as the readers. I never want want I make to be work for people to read, I want it to be something you can enjoy.
I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I was a bit unsure how audience reception would be to something shorter, but I really feel like you understood my reasoning and approached it with an open mind. That's something I think is really valuable not just in online literature but in literature in general, especially these days where people binge read stories and authors often feel forced to make things longer even if the story doesn't call for it. Being able to approach something and appreciate it on its' own terms is the foundation of media literacy, so it's really nice to see. I appreciate the support.
You too. Stay hydrated if you live where it's been crazy hot this summer - which is a statement that encompasses large chunks of the Earth, this year - and wear sunscreen. (Seriously, my sister is a nurse and she has seen so many people get preventable skin cancer or blistering, it's ridiculous.) Although also remember that SPF isn't FDA regulated or legally enforced so there's no need to shell out for sunscreen with the highest SPF, because it isn't necessarily better than the mid-tier stuff.
Short works seem to have a chance of not being enough and reader end up wishing it was longer or chance of work being just right, I can see how it can be difficult and even challenging to get it to be just right, I think you managed to do it well! (Also, I think, with it being short, it's easy to read again which is always a upside for me, plus you can imagine alot of the scenes in this work, especially with the ending and what was happening to the boy before flint found him, I imagine reading it again will be really fun because of this!)
I don't really know about that but I'm happy you think it like that! I'm pretty much the kind of audience that would enjoy anything really, I have alot of your works downloaded since they're always worthy of reading it again (I really mean this btw!! I yesterday reread happy healthy holes and even tho it's my 4rd or 5rd time reading it, I still enjoyed it as much as I read it first time!), and the only ones I haven't is the ones that I haven't read yet fully either because I haven't seen the franchise of yet or just haven't gotten the time to read fully haha, I'm not sure if this kind of opinion is really valued
Haha, in jeddah where I live, the only season is summer and the weather is always hottest XD so I have to always keep this in mind, even in "winter" it still feels like fucking summer ... I should be used to it by now since I've stayed for over 10 years at this point but yesterday, it was 42°C or 43°C and I could feel it even tho I had a fan on, it stopped me from doing my daily exercise and made me resting early, I woke up at 3am sweating my balls off XDD ( I really envoy those who can experience more than 1 season tbh, especially those who can experience actual winter... It sounds like heaven where here it's always 37-44°C, in Saudi Arabia, I'm pretty sure there's only like one side of the country that experiences snow, others no or extremely rare and I never experienced any snow when I was in Pakistan, and from the books I've read or animes I've watched, winter seems like the most romantic season ever and fun too with how you can build things with snow, it makes me really jealous! I wish to see snow one day irl when I go back to Pakistan haha, sorry if I went off topic here, I'm just really envious! I used to love summer but as I continue to live in this country, the less I can handle it...)
How long a story should be is something authors debate amongst ourselves constantly. Personally I think different stories feel right at different lengths. There is no one perfect length all stories should be. I hadn't thought about it, but you're right that something shorter is easier to reread. I'm happy that the length actually works in that regard.
AAAAH that's so flattering, gah, I'm honestly at a loss for words. The idea that someone is out there rereading what I wrote because they like it so much is wild to me. When I reread my own work, I think, "Wow, that sentence is too long. Oof, I should've gone with a different verb there. Am I overusing certain words?" I always see the flaws in what I make. The reminder that yes, actually, some people really, truly do like what I made really makes me smile. The fact you have my stuff downloaded is truly beyond my expectations. Thank you for always being so positive and supportive. (Also for what it's worth, you can 100% read my Rainbow High story without knowing the franchise, since it's set prior to the start of the show. You don't need to know anything about it for that specific story to work.)
The thing about living way up in the Rocky Mountains in the US is that we functionally have two seasons. There's summer, where it will get up to 36°C, drop down to 13°C at night, and the wind is rough during May. Then there's winter, where it gets to be -10°C some days, down to -15°C at night, and there's usually a point in January where even during the day, it's -39°C (which is also -39°F! It's the same in both systems) for two to three days. (If those days fell on school days on the calendar, we got them off from school. When I was 12 we had five days of it, meaning we had an entire extra week off. It was incredible.) I cannot imagine living in Saudi Arabia. I'll be honest, most of the Middle East is too hot for me to handle. At least here there's rivers and lakes to swim in that are all over the place and much colder. The river nearest to me gets a lot of its' water from melted snow from the mountains higher up, so it's always icy cold. (My dog hates the water, but when he gets overheated, he'll dunk himself in the river to cool off. He's smarter than some humans in that regard.)
Winter can be romantic. Winter can also be dangerous. I've known people who've broken bones slipping on ice, and it makes driving much more difficult. Every winter, without fail, there's always someone new to town who nearly gets frostbite - not even foreigners, I'm talking people from just a state over who should know better! Still, despite that, it's my favorite season, too. Sledding, skiing, snowball fights, and ice skating are fun, even if I'm really not very good at ice skating. When my brother and I were kids, we used to build a snowman and position it so it was staring into our dad's den window. We'd sneak out early in the morning to do it so that when he woke up, he'd go down there, sit down, pull up the window blinds and BOOM! Eye-to-eye with a snowman.
Although the US is often terrible, the snow in this part of it lasts from mid-October to late April. So it does have that going for it. I like summer, but my body has adapted to this level of cold. I am no longer suited to summer like I used to be.
Sorry for rambling. I am always ready to gush about winter.
You're right about that! you get alot of kudos on your stories, you must also get alot of bookmarks, there's alot of people bookmark so they can go back to the work one day, plus why else does the download exist? I hope you'll be able to gain more confidence one day to realize how great your works truly are! I'm happy to hear that my feedback can make you feel this way tho! :) Since To be honest with you, I can't provide the best😅, I often use the translation in my browser to translate your works from English to Urdu which fucks up the work a bit or ALOT, when it happens, I try to make sense of it with my poor English skills XD so I often get wrong details or details missing because of the translation mistake (same also goes for comments, they're often translated from Urdu to English) (but last year, I got a English tutor so I'm getting better now! For this work, I didn't even use translation! (but.. I did have to look up some words but that's how it always is when I don't use translation, I always find a new phrase or new word I've never seen before or used like that before! Haha, if I say it like this, it makes it sound like you're also helping me learn which feels weird since I'm just reading porn pretty much XDD))
It feels funny that 36°C can be the highest for you guys in US meanwhile here it's about average weather in jeddah... Yeah, don't come to Saudi Arabia or any Middle Eastern country unless you're ready to be fried or ready to have AC or fan on all times! (I feel even more jealous now btw because when I was a student, there's no free days outside of holiday or when rain storm happen and we rarely get those despite jeddah being coast city, we only get rain two or three times in a year in the city and it's always heavy... When a rainstorm happened, it was the happiest day for me as a student... (afterall, only 1 month of vacation and so many fucking tests and exams in our schools...) I really wished for more free days)
You and me man! 🤝🤝 yes, despite all those dangerous things, I love winter too, I always wish to see it one day! Ice skating sounds really fun, snowball fights and building snowmen too, everytime I read about it or watch it, I really wish I could go out and do it too! I wanna build the biggest snowman and show it off! XD I imagine if I got the opportunity to ice skate, I wouldn't be very good at it either but it would be because of my mobility issues, I have alot of trouble with my balance and it's very painful to walk or run for me.... I'm not sure if I could even do it but maybe! I shouldn't rule it out so easily when I haven't even experienced it yet! Also, I gush about winter too XD how could you not when it can be so beautiful?
btw I'm curious, was iran any better in terms of weather/season? I remember you said you went there but my memory isn't the best, I don't know if iran is one of the Middle Eastern countries with non hot climate, if isn't, I hope it wasn't too much torture for you XD I remember when I first came to Saudi Arabia, I was like "is it too late to turn back??" because of how hot it was, both me and my siblings and my dad were sweating so much, I could see the regret in his eyes too XDD as soon as we got a place to stay, we immediately turned on the AC and sat near it for like 30 minutes XD (my mom has been to Saudi before so she handled it better) hopefully it wasn't that bad for you and you had a fun time!
I translate things for a living. Even I sometimes just use a translation app to read things when I'm not working. Sometimes you just don't want to work that hard to read. Also, English is hard! English has borrowed words from many, many other languages. Our grammar is inconsistent. We have so much regional slang and expressions it can be hard even for us to understand each other sometimes. I used to have to translate my mom's West Virginian dialect English for people, because she speaks (like most people from West Virginia) extremely quickly and uses abbreviations most people in the US don't use in English. (Y'all'd've is only used in West Virginian English. It's a contraction of 'you all would have' into a single word. It has the same effect the word yumpta (from the state of Georgia) has on people - they just don't know what you said, at all, even a little bit.) It's actually very common for reading in a language you're learning to help you. It doesn't matter what it is. My dad read a lot of manuals on things like home maintenance and car repair in English, and that helped him. At least what you're reading isn't quite as boring.
It's the highest heat in my part of the US. I live in the Northwest. In the Southwest, Las Vegas reached 120°F/49°C last year. People native to Las Vegas were furious that the mayor said to stay inside. They walked, they went dancing, they did all their usual things. I feel like most people from Las Vegas would be fine in the Middle East. I saw one woman on the news that day walking around with a coat on. On a tier list, I have the worst heat resistance, you're in the middle, Saudi Arabia is above that, and then way up at the top is the city of Las Vegas.
Piece of advice for building snowmen: you want to use snow that isn't powdery. If it feels a little like sand, it isn't the right kind of snow. If it feels slightly wet or it clumps together well, it's the right kind of snow. Also, regardless of how big the snowman is, try to stick to three sections. The more snowballs you add onto it, the more likely it is to collapse as the weather warms. Ice skating isn't impossible for people with mobility issues. You just have to learn with a friend. It's safest to learn to do it with someone who already knows how, so they can keep you from falling. Just sign up for lessons and don't attempt any fancy jumps, and it should go alright. Winter isn't as awful as the internet often says it is.
One caveat about winter (a caveat is a warning, or the one important exception to the previous statement): avoid places where it gets thundersnow. 'What is thundersnow?', you may be thinking. It's when a thunderstorm and snow happen at the same time. I'm not joking when I say that you are not prepared. Anyone with mobility issues should avoid anywhere with a history of thundersnow at all costs.
Iran felt a lot like Saudi Arabia to me in terms of climate. It's not just heat, it's dry heat. Humidity can make heat easier to deal with. Iran has none. At one point, the AC in my hotel room broke. When a man showed up to repair it, I was so happy I blurted out, "You are a wonderful man. Marry me." Fortunately he didn't speak enough English to know what I just said. Once he fixed it, I locked the door, stripped naked, and sprawled out in front of it. I have never felt anything so wonderful as AC after fearing I'd go without it.
But Iran was still easier to deal with than Mauritania. My friend talked me into going there with him for his sister's wedding. It ended up being 117°F/47.5°C the day we arrived. I turned to him, put my hands on his shoulders, and said, "You have two options. You let me pay for a hotel with AC, or I will have my revenge. Curious, he asked, "What would you do?" And I looked him dead in the eye and said, "I'm going to seduce and then fuck your dad." He gagged, because something I've found out is that for most people, their dad is the ugly parent. The better-looking parent is always their mother. They can understand you wanting to get with their mother; moms are the nice parent, the kind one and often the good-looking one. Everyone looks at their own father and thinks, 'That's disgusting! Who would ever want to touch this guy?!' We got a hotel room. It was the longest three days of my life. Iran at least wasn't that hot.
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