Statistics don't lie, go for the cocaine!
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
531 points (99.6% liked)
Comic Strips
23513 readers
1744 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
Rules
-
π Be Nice!
- Treat others with respect and dignity. Friendly banter is okay, as long as it is mutual; keyword: friendly.
-
ποΈ Community Standards
- Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.
- Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances.
- Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.
- Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as appropriate. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.
-
𧬠Keep it Real
- Comics should be made and posted by real human beans, not by automated means like bots or AI. This is not the community for that sort of thing.
-
π½οΈ Credit Where Credit is Due
- Comics should include the original attribution to the artist(s) involved, and be unmodified. Bonus points if you include a link back to their website. When in doubt, use a reverse image search to try to find the original version. Repeat offenders will have their posts removed, be temporarily banned from posting, or if all else fails, be permanently banned from posting.
- Attributions include, but are not limited to, watermarks, links, or other text or imagery that artists add to their comics to use for identification purposes. If you find a comic without any such markings, it would be a good idea to see if you can find an original version. If one cannot be found, say so and ask the community for help!
-
π Post Formatting
- Post an image, gallery, or link to a specific comic hosted on another site; e.g., the author's website.
- Meta posts about the community should be tagged with [Meta] either at the beginning or the end of the post title.
- When linking to a comic hosted on another site, ensure the link is to the comic itself and not just to the website; e.g.,
β Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
β Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/
-
π¬ Post Frequency/SPAM
- Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 π) comics a day. This can be any combination of personal comics you have written yourself, or other author's comics. Any comics exceeding five (5 π) will be removed.
-
π΄ββ οΈ Internationalization (i18n)
- Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
SΓ, por favor [Spanish/EspaΓ±ol]
- Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
-
πΏ Moderation
- We are human, just like most everybody else on Lemmy. If you feel a moderation decision was made in error, you are welcome to reach out to anybody on the moderation team for clarification. Keep in mind that moderation decisions may be final.
- When reporting posts and/or comments, quote which rule is being broken, and why you feel it broke the rules.
Banned Artists
The following artists are banned from the community.
- Jago
- Stonetoss
It should be noted that when you make reports, it is your responsibility to provide rational reasoning why something should be removed. Saying it simply breaks community rules is not always good enough.
Web Accessibility
Note: This is not a rule, but a helpful suggestion.
When posting images, you should strive to add alt-text for screen readers to use to describe the image you're posting:
Another helpful thing to do is to provide a transcription of the text in your images, as well as brief descriptions of what's going on. (example)
Web of Links
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
- !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
There are only a couple pieces of writing advice I see people consistently agree on:
-
Write something consistently, even when you donβt want to. If youβre a full time writer, that might be at least one page a day. If itβs just a hobby, it could be less. The important thing is to keep what you are writing somewhere in your head to keep the creative juices flowing eventually.
-
Read. Read good books/stories to give you an idea of what to do and whatβs been done when writing. Read mediocre or even bad books/stories to give you an idea of what not to do and whatβs been overdone in writing.
-
Learn about or experience some stuff to help spark ideas for writing.
- Maybe 3a. If you can afford, go someplace new and see if the new environment, new food, new people, if it sparks something in you. Best cure for a writing rut is a new rut
What does this mean ?
It means authors recommend what works for them, not necessarily what will work for anyone.
Stephen King's book On Writing is a pretty good resource for advice for aspiring writers.
For the high level points, writers should write. A lot. That's his biggest piece of advice.
Writers should also try to "expand their toolbox", meaning they should be able to use different methods. Just keep practicing writing with the tools you have and the techniques and tools you discover. Eventually, you'll find what works for you. You can't just expect to use a tool proficiently without practice. But everybody is different, so in the case of outlining, for example, if you practice with it and it just doesn't work, then you'll eventually know that it won't work for you.
The last big point is to develop writing habits. Like, follow a specific daily schedule. Write a certain number of words each day.
I love to write but I also love doing lots of things so I only end up just writing verbose internet comments sporadically instead.
Sometimes I don't even have time to
Time to...what? Sell me your book?! I'm a publisher, sell me your book! Sell me- gah, just missed him.
Wait really? Because I have a half finished book I've never had the heart to finish because that style of book has gone out of style
It's a bathroom reader about bathrooms. I have STORIES. Everyone has phones now
The secret to how King achieved those three objectives (especially the first one)..? Cocaine!
IIRC, in On Writing, the bad habit he spends most of his time talking about is his drinking. And he claimed that when they took his booze away, he started drinking mouthwash. He was so blackout drunk for so long that he doesn't remember writing one of his books. I think it was Cujo.
I outline, then I write, then I update the outline, then I write. Then I ignore the outline.
But when do you do the cocaine?
Cocaine gets recommended to writers / creatives all the time because (in my experience) cocaine makes it easier to write without editing / criticizing in real time. Your internal critic just gets overwhelmed by your internal cheerleader telling you everything you're doing is awesome and it makes it much easier to just get something onto the page. It is possible to learn how to do this much more economically without cocaine, but a lot of writers who start using cocaine never figure out how to do that part without it. And there's the whole addiction thing that makes writing a lot harder the longer you use it. Really tough to try to be creative when you're jonesing.
This is how you end up writing about kids running a train on a girl to escape from an evil clown with a balloon.
His internal editor screamed "no they were supposed to be playing with model trains. Like weird 55 year olds. Or cool 55 year olds who get way too into it so their sets are badass. It's a sign of them turning into weird slash cool 55 year old men look I like model trains" and instead we got, well, Cocaine Stephen
"Yes."
-Stephen King
The outline is like a scaffold for a building. Very helpful early on, but if it's still standing when you're done, you've done it wrong
I think as long as you're constantly rewritting you're moving in the right direction.
However sometimes it's better to put it down for a while and go to something else. Just like with anything, you can get burned out and fixated on details, redoing things over and over in a circle.
Patrick Rothfuss confirmed greatest author of our age
Ow wow she got to meet Stephen King?
If you want to write effectively, you need to sit by a cafe window and look out at the street while itβs raining. If someone asks you what your book is about, sigh heavily, then say that itβs a think piece about furries in space.
Aren't all furries in space time already?
Do a barrel roll!
You're becoming more like your father!
As a writer, yes.
Brainstorm with shrooms. Always outline. Use cocaine to write.
One of those works better than the other 2 combined.
This is all good advice