#WritersCoffeeClub (Sep) 1: Intro: Shameless Self Promotion.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 30: What single book had the greatest impact on your writing?
There's no single book that stands out in my mind for this.
And I'm not sure there should be, either. That sounds like taking too much inspiration from just one source, instead of from a diversity of them. Even if that source is a book on how to write, I still think one should learn from *many* of those.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 31: What is your greatest strength as a writer?
I haven't the foggiest clue.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 31: What is your greatest strength as a writer?
I haven't the foggiest clue.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 1: Why are you writing your current work?
Because I want to. Because I have things I want to say, people and ideas I want the world to get to know.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 1: Why are you writing your current work?
Because I want to. Because I have things I want to say, people and ideas I want the world to get to know.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 2: What's plentiful in your writing?
Characters, and relationships between them. Hell, even my *setting* is literally a character. (It speaks its first line of dialogue around page 2 or 3, depending on layout and pagination.)
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 2: What's plentiful in your writing?
Characters, and relationships between them. Hell, even my *setting* is literally a character. (It speaks its first line of dialogue around page 2 or 3, depending on layout and pagination.)
#WritersCoffeeClub day 3: How heroic are your protagonists?
Fairly so. TBH, I haven't yet figured out all the things they're going to (have to) do, but I get the impression it will involve some amount of combat (both physical and magical) and some high-speed motor-vehicle stuff, but probably *not* any hanging by their fingertips from high things or swinging from ropes or whatnot. Definitely no crossing jungles, deserts, or other hostile terrain; the setting is 100% urban.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 3: How heroic are your protagonists?
Fairly so. TBH, I haven't yet figured out all the things they're going to (have to) do, but I get the impression it will involve some amount of combat (both physical and magical) and some high-speed motor-vehicle stuff, but probably *not* any hanging by their fingertips from high things or swinging from ropes or whatnot. Definitely no crossing jungles, deserts, or other hostile terrain; the setting is 100% urban.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 4: How violent is your work?
Moderately. There is both physical and magical combat, although it's not the central focus of the story. There will probably be little, if any, gun violence, but hand-to-hand combat can get pretty bloody, and magical combat can do serious pain and damage. I plan to have at least one fight that leaves the combatants utterly wrecked and near death.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 4: How violent is your work?
Moderately. There is both physical and magical combat, although it's not the central focus of the story. There will probably be little, if any, gun violence, but hand-to-hand combat can get pretty bloody, and magical combat can do serious pain and damage. I plan to have at least one fight that leaves the combatants utterly wrecked and near death.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 5: How much misdirection is unreasonable?
I think that's really something the *reader*, not the writer, gets to decide. If the reader thinks the writer's gone too far, they can DNF, and the writer's SOL. 1/3
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 5: How much misdirection is unreasonable?
I think that's really something the *reader*, not the writer, gets to decide. If the reader thinks the writer's gone too far, they can DNF, and the writer's SOL. 1/3
So if I answer the question with my reader hat on... well, some is okay. Red herrings are a normal, accepted part of plotting, especially in mysteries, but audiences know they can happen in other genres, too. Frex, romances often have at least one potential suitor who the MC does *not* end up with. 2/3
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So if I answer the question with my reader hat on... well, some is okay. Red herrings are a normal, accepted part of plotting, especially in mysteries, but audiences know they can happen in other genres, too. Frex, romances often have at least one potential suitor who the MC does *not* end up with. 2/3
I think the line, for me, is: does it feel like the writer is spicing things up to make the story more interesting, more fun for the audience? Or does it feel like the writer is just playing with us, deliberately making it impossible to predict where they're going, making it so they can say, "Ha! Fooled you!"?
In other words, is the writer _on the audience's side_, or are they in an adversarial relationship with us? 3/3
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I think the line, for me, is: does it feel like the writer is spicing things up to make the story more interesting, more fun for the audience? Or does it feel like the writer is just playing with us, deliberately making it impossible to predict where they're going, making it so they can say, "Ha! Fooled you!"?
In other words, is the writer _on the audience's side_, or are they in an adversarial relationship with us? 3/3
#WritersCoffeeClub day 6: When is _deus ex machina_ warranted?
Almost never, IMO. Basically only if it's there to make a meta point, or for humor or suchlike. I can't think of any satisfying examples where I've seen it used seriously.
And it's often easy to fix! Just put in something earlier on that sets up whatever your eventual solution is!
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 6: When is _deus ex machina_ warranted?
Almost never, IMO. Basically only if it's there to make a meta point, or for humor or suchlike. I can't think of any satisfying examples where I've seen it used seriously.
And it's often easy to fix! Just put in something earlier on that sets up whatever your eventual solution is!
#WritersCoffeeClub day 7: Have you always written, or was there a tipping point to get you to start?
I definitely had a tipping point, and it was only a few years ago. It was two things at the same time:
1) I'd been kicking around some ideas about magic and cities, and those ideas finally hit a critical point;
2) I left a job that had been draining my soul. -
#WritersCoffeeClub day 7: Have you always written, or was there a tipping point to get you to start?
I definitely had a tipping point, and it was only a few years ago. It was two things at the same time:
1) I'd been kicking around some ideas about magic and cities, and those ideas finally hit a critical point;
2) I left a job that had been draining my soul.#WritersCoffeeClub day 9: Have you ever encountered a work uncomfortably similar to one of your own?
I'm not sure. I get the feeling N.K. Jemisin's _The City We Became_ is the closest anything else gets to what I'm working on, but I've deliberately avoided looking at it until I get my first draft done, so I don't yet know if it's "uncomfortably similar" or just "closer than anything else gets, but not really that close". (I hope to Goddess it's the latter.)
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 9: Have you ever encountered a work uncomfortably similar to one of your own?
I'm not sure. I get the feeling N.K. Jemisin's _The City We Became_ is the closest anything else gets to what I'm working on, but I've deliberately avoided looking at it until I get my first draft done, so I don't yet know if it's "uncomfortably similar" or just "closer than anything else gets, but not really that close". (I hope to Goddess it's the latter.)
#WritersCoffeeClub day 10: How much of your worldbuilding extends beyond what's shown in the text?
I'm not yet sure just how much will make it into the text, but I suspect the answer is "shit-tons". I'm taking Larry Niven's "Building _The Mote in God's Eye_" as my guide, where he says that he and Jerry Pournelle wrote a quantity of background material roughly equal to the size of the novel itself (135,000 words, IIRC), and that while only about 10% of it actually... 1/2
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 10: How much of your worldbuilding extends beyond what's shown in the text?
I'm not yet sure just how much will make it into the text, but I suspect the answer is "shit-tons". I'm taking Larry Niven's "Building _The Mote in God's Eye_" as my guide, where he says that he and Jerry Pournelle wrote a quantity of background material roughly equal to the size of the novel itself (135,000 words, IIRC), and that while only about 10% of it actually... 1/2
...made it onto the page, _every bit of it_ underlaid and informed the text, serving as a foundation that every piece of description, dialogue, and action rested on. 2/2
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...made it onto the page, _every bit of it_ underlaid and informed the text, serving as a foundation that every piece of description, dialogue, and action rested on. 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub day 12: How does the morality of the characters you write differ from your own?
My protagonists' morality doesn't differ notably from my own.
My villains' morality, OTOH... they feel that it's not just acceptable, but desirable, to do things like throw people in jail for being homeless. One is even a cop, and isn't averse to using her police powers for her own self-enrichment or other personal ends.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 12: How does the morality of the characters you write differ from your own?
My protagonists' morality doesn't differ notably from my own.
My villains' morality, OTOH... they feel that it's not just acceptable, but desirable, to do things like throw people in jail for being homeless. One is even a cop, and isn't averse to using her police powers for her own self-enrichment or other personal ends.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 13: What regrets do you have regarding your work?
That I haven't finished it and gotten it published yet.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 13: What regrets do you have regarding your work?
That I haven't finished it and gotten it published yet.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 14: What causes distance between your characters?
In many cases, differing interests — some people just prefer to have fun, while others want to save the world (or just the City). Sometimes, differing ideals, in terms of contrasting or even conflicting ideas of what's right and wrong.
And sometimes, someone's just not ready to share a secret, and it keeps them from being as close with someone else as they'd like.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 14: What causes distance between your characters?
In many cases, differing interests — some people just prefer to have fun, while others want to save the world (or just the City). Sometimes, differing ideals, in terms of contrasting or even conflicting ideas of what's right and wrong.
And sometimes, someone's just not ready to share a secret, and it keeps them from being as close with someone else as they'd like.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 15: From which real-world events have you taken inspiration?
Everything from the pair of recent Dot-Com Booms in San Francisco to Justin Herman's '50s/'60s urban renewal to the Covid Pandemic.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 15: From which real-world events have you taken inspiration?
Everything from the pair of recent Dot-Com Booms in San Francisco to Justin Herman's '50s/'60s urban renewal to the Covid Pandemic.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 16: What's the most drastic alteration you've made to a work?
I'm too early in the process to have made much alteration at all; I'm still writing the first draft. 🤷🏻
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 16: What's the most drastic alteration you've made to a work?
I'm too early in the process to have made much alteration at all; I'm still writing the first draft. 🤷🏻
#WritersCoffeeClub day 17: What's changed for you from when you started writing to now?
The big thing that's changed for my WIP, at least, is that the November 2024 elections resulted in tragic outcomes for both the US and for San Francisco and my beloved District 5. That's forcibly colored my feelings about how the ending will work out, partly because I know it's changed how the ending — any ending — will land with readers.
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#WritersCoffeeClub day 17: What's changed for you from when you started writing to now?
The big thing that's changed for my WIP, at least, is that the November 2024 elections resulted in tragic outcomes for both the US and for San Francisco and my beloved District 5. That's forcibly colored my feelings about how the ending will work out, partly because I know it's changed how the ending — any ending — will land with readers.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 18: Have you ever hidden the fact that you're a writer? Why?
No, I haven't seen any reason to.
In fact, kind of the opposite: sometimes when I'm writing in bars, I can tell people think I'm working for an employer (and outside business hours!), so I'll make a point of letting them know I'm writing a novel. I want people to know they're seeing someone enjoying their own hobby, not being overworked for someone else's profit! (And yes, people do appreciate knowing that.)
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@BathysphereHat it says not to eat it! There are so many other things to eat!
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Have you ever eaten silica gel?
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Loops has recently increased the duration limit from 60 seconds to 3 minutes.
Looking at loops.video data, the average duration of a video from the past 2 weeks is 57 seconds!
The average duration of all videos is 30 seconds.
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Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend. (also: you are important and are not alone 🧡)
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@Ulrich (Hubzilla) also have a look here!
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@stefano Where is that hosted?
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Happy Birthday @stefano, thank you for the awesome community building work you keep doing, for all the technical and non technical notes you share, for the inspiration you are and because in a world full of tech bros you keep showing the gentle and smiling side of IT.
