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

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: Do you analyze structure and technique in other writer’s work?

Sometimes. When I notice that they're working particularly well, or badly, or have something I could learn from. But most of the time, no, I try to *mostly* read for the enjoyment. But even as I do so, sometimes I spot things that are important, or craft-related.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: Do you agree with Thomas Mann, who said, “A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”

Good grief, I'm so tired of writers constantly bellyaching about how hard writing is. There was that guy who talked about "stare at a piece of paper until blood comes out of your eyes" or whatever. There's various other hyperbole. I'm sick of it. 1/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

I don't think writing is any more difficult than any other creative endeavor. Which is to say, it's no walk in the park (although a literal walk in the park can oftentimes help), but it's not the kind of torture some writers make it out to be.

Can it be difficult to sit down and get started sometimes? Yeah, sure — just like with *nearly any activity* that requires a little concentration or motivation. But the "woe is me, writing is such agony" shit just needs to stop. 2/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: Do you ever read back your work and surprise yourself with what you’ve written?

Yes, sometimes.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: Would any of your stories make good TV shows or movies?

I kind of hope so. I'd love to see my city shamans on either the big or the small screen, if they were done right.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: Have you tried creating your own book cover designs? Share your work/attempts.

Oh, hell no, I have not! Visual art is not my forte.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 7: How many stages of editing do you go through? What are they?

I really don't know yet. I'm still messing around with vignettes and haven't started my first draft. I haven't yet discovered what my editing process is like.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 8: On a Venn diagram of your writing, what’s the common factor?

I don't understand this question at all. How many circles? What options for the non-overlapping areas?

I just don't think about my writing like this at all.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 9: Tell us about a writer’s block that scuttled a project. Would you like to revisit it?

I'm a baby writer on his first project, so this hasn't happened to me yet.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 10: Who is your narrator

My WIP is an ensemble work (and I expect most of my stories will be; I just prefer multiple viewpoints). The viewpoint is close 3rd person, so the "narrator" is technically impersonal and omniscient, but the viewpoint will be very close to one person for any given scene or chapter. That will usually, but not always, be one of my 5 MCs.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 11: How do you market your work?

I don't have anything ready to market yet, and I suck at marketing. Once I have something that could possibly be marketed, I really hope I can find a publisher to handle that for me. (I realize this is a very unlikely thing. But I'm going to give it a shot, and then form a backup plan if and when that one falls through.)

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 12: What percentage of your first draft ends up in the trash?

I'm still messing around with pre-first draft stuff, and haven't even properly started my first draft yet. So I have no idea how much of it will get junked and how much will go into the final version.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 13: How do you organize your writing projects?

I've only got the one project so far. It's a ton of text files in a Git repository. There are top-level files for things like the magic system, groups, plot outline, notes on minor characters (that's one file w/many characters), etc. And there's a characters folder with subfolders for every character who's major enough — not just the 5 MCs, but also the 5 villains, and... 1/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

...roughly a dozen other folks who I hesitate to call "side" characters... maybe "secondary" ones?

Then there's the drafts folder, currently only populated by the draft01 subfolder, which in turn has vignettes, and will also get ch01, ch02... chXX folders with each scene being its own file. There's also an archives folder, for stuff that's become obsolete. 2/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

Addendum: I see people are also talking about their backup regimes, and I firmly believe that should be considered a *de rigueur* part of writing and conversations about it. In software development, the common attitude is that if something isn't in source control, it doesn't exist. I'd like to see writers come to the consensus that if you don't have a backup of something, you might as well not have written it yet. (Maybe that should be digital-only; stuff that's... 3/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

...written longhand in a notebook is way less fragile than something that's only on a single hard drive.)

Anyway. I did mention in part 1 of this that the stuff is in a Git repository. The canonical instance of that repo is on a server I rent from Tornado VPS hosting: https://tornadovps.com/. I check out a copy onto my own laptop, but the place I do so is inside my Dropbox directory, which means every time I hit "save", my changes are immediately backed up on Dropbox. 4/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

(I keep checking to see if they're trying to push AI "features" on me, but haven't seen any yet. So that's not an issue ATM.)

That means I have 2 *off-site* backups at any given moment. I also have an external USB hard drive, and a habit-tracking app on my phone that reminds me to make a backup at least every 3 days. I've written a DOS batch script that backs up a bunch of things for me with a single click; naturally my writing is on that list. 5/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

This means the usual situation is that I have:

1) The working copy on my laptop
2) The very up-to-date copy on Dropbox
3) The canonical copy on my VPS
4) The backup (up to 3 days stale) on my external drive

And items 2 and 3 are accessible from anywhere in the world, if necessary.

I think it's robust enough. (I wouldn't mind moving that VPS out of the USA, though...) 6/2

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 14: Is failing as a writer a worry? Is failure an option?

As long as I can finish the thing and get it published — even if I have to self-publish — then I won't have failed¹. I'm fairly sure I can do all of that, it's just a matter of how long it'll take me.

1. Though I really hope I don't have to self-publish.

[kagan@wandering.shop]

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 15: What’s the easiest emotion to write?

I don't see how any of them are any easier or harder than the others.