#WritersCoffeeClub (Sep) 1: Intro: Shameless Self Promotion.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 11: How close is your final manuscript to your first draft?

Hell, I don't even have a first draft yet! I can hardly guess how close the final version will be to it (or how far away from it).

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 12: A game developer wants to base a game on your book. How do you feel about it?

I think my book might actually be a fairly good basis for a TTRPG, actually. I'd be cautiously in favor, depending on the developer/company.

I'd be more lukewarm or "meh" about a video game, but could be convinced.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 13: Do you write to a specific word count, or do you let the story dictate the length?

I'm just shooting to try to be in good "first-time urban fantasy novel" length. That has some range to it, thank goodness... but for the first draft, I'm planning to just see how long it comes it out, and then see if I need to do anything to expand or pare it down.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 14: What's the biggest edit you've ever needed to make to your work?

It's too early for me to have nearly anything to respond to this with. I guess there's this one case of a setting description, where I wrote it just to see how well I could describe a place that will figure prominently in the plot, and then later I realized I wanted to start my story earlier in the year, so I needed to change the trees from leafy and green to bare branches, just beginning to bud.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 16: Are there any writing tropes you dislike, without insulting other club members?

Writing tropes or story tropes? (What's the difference?) Anyway, loads! One quick example is that any kind of forced pregnancy situation will infuriate me. I hate when creators do that to their characters. (Yes, that includes Steven Moffat.) Also mystical/alien/whatever children who grow up abnormally fast (ST:TNG *and* V, I'm looking at youse.)

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 17: What aspects of your life do you bring into your writing?

My love of cities, my belief that the future is what we make it, and hopefully a little of my sense of wonder and love of heroism.

On a smaller level: fairly little of David's job and workplace are likely to show up on-page, but if any do, I'll certainly be pulling in my own career web-dev knowledge to provide verisimilitude.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 18: Do you intend to read a book over the holidays? What will you choose?

I'm still working on finishing Cassandra Clare's _City of Lost Souls_ (the 5th in the Shadowhunters series). Not sure when I'll finish it; I don't exactly have a "holiday break", more just a pair of three-day weekends back-to-back.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 19: If you could remove one rule of grammar, which would you choose?

Hell, I'd rather *add* one. Like, given how often my partner and I bemoan the lack of #clusivity in English, that might be what I'd go for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity TL;DR: It's the ability when saying "we" to indicate whether the person you're talking to is or isn't included. (Frex, "We're going to the store, do you want anything?" (excl.) vs. "We're going to the park, grab your coat!" (incl.))

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 20: Do you name or number chapters? If you name them, how do you decide on a name?

I want to name them, but I'm afraid I'll have too much trouble coming up with titles. If that turns out to be the case, I'll just number them... but I'll be disappointed in myself, and grumpy about it.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 22: Change one word in the title of a famous novel to change its meaning.

Fahrenheit 212 (The temperature at which water boils — maybe it'd be a novel about making tea?)

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 24: Do your family and friends expect one of your books for Christmas?

Hahaha, no. I'm nowhere near published yet.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: What positive things do people say when you tell them you're a writer?

Nothing very specific, they generally just make approving noises and say things like, "Oh, that's cool."

Although there was one person (getting away from the general "people" now) who asked what my magic system was like, then said it sounded like something she'd want to read if it she found it in a bookstore!

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: If you write in more than one genre, which is your go to?

So far, I'm only writing in urban fantasy. I do hope to do some hopepunk sci-fi someday. I also have the beginnings of some ideas for a modern (though not necessarily urban) fantasy, and a space opera.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: What are your thoughts on using real brand names in your writing?

I plan to use at least a few as characterization aids. Like, the fact that Ángel's car is a 1985 Cadillac Eldorado convertible *says some stuff* about them, and also is a great image that readers can have in their heads. Whether Travis Winter wears suits by Armani or Brooks Brothers (to take just two options — but very different ones) says some things about his style, and those hint at his personality.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: Do you have a favourite letter of the alphabet? How does it feature in your work?

Not a letter, necessarily, but I like the hard /k/ sound. Okay, I also like lowercase descenders, like on j, g, and y.

I wouldn't let that affect, or show up in, my work though. Like, I'm not going to have lots of characters whose names have prominent K sounds in them, or use lots of words with j, g, and y in them. That'd be super weird.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: What POV do you mostly write in? Why?

(Ack, forgot to post yesterday!)

In this WIP, it's close 3rd, rotating among people. I like getting near to, or even entirely inside, characters' heads, but not having them be the narrators. (Because then I ask myself who they're telling the story to and why? Though I like what Roger Zelazny did with that 1st-person voice at the end of the first Amber series. And the way it's foreshadowed when the narrator 1st walks the Pattern.)

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 31: Will you be writing today? How do you feel about your writing journey over the last year?

Absolutely; I'm getting to that in a few minutes, after I post this.

I feel like my "writing journey" has been way too slow. I am STILL working on character backgrounds and histories. I'm getting close to where I can start the "actual" writing, but I'm still not there yet, and it's honestly getting really frustrating.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: What are your writing related New Year Resolutions?

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, and if I did, I'd do them at Samhain (October 31st) — except @Issi makes a cool case at https://pagan.plus/@Issi/111675304273354533 that we should do them at Imbolc, February 2nd!

Anyway, my main goal this year is to get my novel finished and start shopping it around to publishers. That's all.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: Do you have other artistic leanings? How do these affect your writing?

I love music, and used to want to be a musician. There are lots of places in my WIP where I'd really like to use song lyrics or references to add some emotional "oomph", but I'll have to be careful to avoid copyright issues.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: What's your writing routine? If you have one.

No real routine, just "open my editor and start writing some kind of stuff". Sometimes I'll check and see what the most recent things were that I was doing when I stopped the previous session, but other times, I start off with something in mind that I want to do and just dive in there.