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

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: In your opinion, name a book, movie or TV show where the ending spoils the story.

The ending of _Quantum Leap_ was famous for how it infuriated fans. I was only a very casual fan — hell, more of a casual *watcher*, not even really a fan — and it started off by confusing and annoying me, until the closing text card made my blood boil.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: How does it feel knowing that strangers will read your work?

Kind of wild, actually. Like a big undertaking, and also a really cool one.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: Do you prefer to write protagonist-driven stories or ensembles? Why?

Definitely ensembles. I like multiple people working together, bouncing off each other, and different people having different styles and viewpoints. I'm not so much a fan of "this one person is the only one who matters, and everyone else is just a side character in their story." That, to me, feels so narrow and almost confining.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: What are your grammar rules to live by and grammar rules to break?

I want faux "rules" imported from other languages to immediately go back where they came from.

And I'm fine with beginning sentences with conjunctions.

Comma splices, however, drive me nuts; I can't abide when people use them instead of semicolons!

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: How do you keep track of your work? Do you have a system?

Right now it's all background material, so there's a folder for each character, which at minimum contains a .txt file named for them, and may also contain extra files like family-history, schooling (i.e., HS and college, often formative years and experiences), music-stuff (for musicians; this'd be the history of bands they've been in, etc.), social-scene, and so on. 1/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

There are also top-level .txt files like plot, characters (notes on ones who aren't developed enough yet to get their own folders), magic-system, magic-spells-list, divination-system, and the all-important !unresolved-issues file. (The ! makes it sort at the top of the folder, too.)

Soon there will be folders like "Ch. 01", "Ch. 02", and so on, with scene1.txt, scene2.txt, etc. files. 2/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 31: Do you work from premise to world or world to premise?

I think in this work, the world *is* the premise.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: What's your favourite Easter egg in your own work and/or another work of fiction?

I'll go with the bit in the _Expanse_ book series where there's a Martian ship named the _Mark Watney_.

My own work will be chock full of Easter eggs and shout-outs, but I'm not giving them away before publication; that would ruin readers' opportunities to find them on their own!

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: Do you keep a journal? Would you?

I used to keep a Livejournal, then moved it to Dreamwidth. Sadly, I've gotten out of the journaling habit; that pretty much happened with the rise of microblogging. My "accounting of life as it happens" energies started going to Twitter, and now Mastodon, instead.

I miss journaling. I keep trying to revive the habit, and failing.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: Do you use semicolons? Correctly?

I do! Indeed, I did in both yesterday's entry and the one before it.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: Do you feature real-world political and social issues in your work?

Oh, hells yes. They underpin a lot of the conflict in my WIP, in various ways.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: What's the best thing about being a writer?

You get to create whatever you want — worlds, people, events, aliens, magic spells, dragons, mysteries, love, *anything* you can think of or imagine. All you have to do is string some words together.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: What have you learned from past projects that you're using in your WIP?

I don't have any past projects; this is my first writing project (not counting some juvenilia that I can hardly even remember).

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 7: Write a poem in no more than 500 characters which describes you as a writer.

An aspiring writer named Kagan
is obsessed with cities, though Pagan.
He writes night and day,
though he doubts it'll pay,
but the story, his brain it is plaguein'.

(alternatively...)

Kagan, an aspiring writer,
hoped his tales could make spirits lighter.
Though it seems urban mages
are what fill up his pages,
his true aim's to make the world brighter.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 8: Do you think of your books as having a particular length?

I'm shooting for roughly 100,000 words for the current book, which will be a first-time novel in the urban fantasy genre. So, basically, "roughly mid- or average-length for my genre and fame level".

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 9: Do you use a dedicated proofreader, or is one provided by your publisher?

I'll find that out when I find a publisher.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 10: Do you have favourite words you like to use? What are they?

I specifically try to avoid over-using any particular word.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 11: How effective are your newsletters in creating sales?

I have neither newsletters nor sales nor anything *to* sell, as yet.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 12: Do you reread things you wrote some time ago? How do they stand up today?

How long is "some time"? All my old writings are lost to the mists of time. The oldest thing I've got is the first brief scene I wrote for the WIP, less than 2 years ago.

Okay, I just looked at it again. It stands up okay. I think. I hope. Parts certainly do. Others might need a little polishing.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 13: Which "unfilmable" novel do you think has worked best on screen?

Since you said "novel", I can't pick Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life", which Denis Villeneuve brilliantly turned into _Arrival_. I'm going to go with either Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_, or else Peter Jackson's _Lord of the Rings_ (because Tolkien's story *was* one novel, and only released in 3 volumes due to post-WWII paper rationing).