#WritersCoffeeClub day 4: Share a tool of your trade.
I'm being slightly unusual (for a writer) by repurposing a couple of the tools of my professional trade (software development) and using them for writing. Namely, VS Code and Git. VS Code is a code editor, and it doesn't bother with things like fonts, margins, and so on. I'm writing my WIP in Markdown, so I can italicize things, and other than that? I firmly believe that other formatting... 1/3
...is something that writers shouldn't concern themselves with at all, but should leave them to the layout people.
Git is what's called "source control" software, which allows one to "check in" files and data, and then save updates as they're made. And roll back updates. And even make "branches" in the data, so one can try out multiple different changes at once. (Then one can merge them back together, if desired.) 2/3
I think a lot of writers could benefit from being able to branch their WIPs and try out different ideas... unfortunately, the learning curve on Git is notoriously steep and I doubt it would be worth the hassle for most folks. 3/3
#WritersCoffeeClub day 5: How do you choose the point of view for a new story?
So far, I only have the one story, and it's multiple POVs. I chose that because it's the story of a City, and a very diverse one at that; there's no way any single POV could possibly do it justice. Also, the diversity of viewpoints, of experiences, in a City is why I wanted to write stories about Cities in the first place. 1/3
That said, each scene requires that I choose a single POV for it.¹ In that way, each scene is its own little story. And I've been working off the advice that I read somewhere online recently (I'll have to see if I can remember where), that said to tell it from the POV of the person who's got the most at stake emotionally. 2/3
1. Okay, technically, I *could* opt for omniscient 3rd and bounce around, but I want to avoid confusing my readers, so I've deliberately chosen to stick to close 3rd, only 1 POV per scene. 3/3
#WritersCoffeeClub day 6: Process-wise, what’s improved for you over the years?
My process hasn't really changed that much since I started (partly because that was only a couple of years ago).
#WritersCoffeeClub day 7: Continuing from yesterday’s question, what’s gone downhill?
Again, things really haven't changed much.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 8: While editing, what most clearly signals a pacing issue?
Heck if I know. I'll try to be on the lookout and see if I can learn that when I get into my first round of editing.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 9: What’s your top tip for writing authentic dialogue?
Hear it in your head. Read it out loud.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 10: How do you steer a reader’s emotional journey?
This feels like the kind of thing one could write entire books about (and I think various people have).
#WritersCoffeeClub day 11: Name a poem (or poet!) which has influenced you.
William Butler Yeats and Edgar Allan Poe were both major influences in my youth.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 12: How do you get to know your characters before you start writing?
I work out things like when they were born, where they grew up, any formative events that happened in their past. I get to know what they want out of life, what they struggle with, what they worry about and long for.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 13: Are you actively building your working vocabulary? How?
My working vocabulary has been very large since I was in high school (the product of a whole lot of voracious reading at an adult level by the time I was, say, ten or so). I feel little or no need to work on increasing it at this point.
That doesn't mean I won't take note of a new word if it presents itself. But the question said "actively".
#WritersCoffeeClub day 14: What’s a service or skill you’d like to offer your fellow writers?
I wish I could get everyone¹ set up with a good backup regime. My heart aches when I hear people's horror stories about losing all their writing. And modern tech platforms can make it hard for people to even know where the hell their files are stored, so they don't even know *what* to back up or how!
1. who writes electronically, anyway; people who write by hand are all set
#WritersCoffeeClub day 15: How human are your protagonists? What about your antagonists?
All of them are every bit as human as I can make them. Even the antagonists who are supposed to be kind of monstrous (in a metaphorical sense, not literal!); I am making them nasty and monstrous in ways that I think are (sadly, even painfully or disgustingly) very human.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 16: Name a non-anglophone writer who has really lit you up.
Charles Baudelaire.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 17: What’s frustrating you, writing-wise?
How much I still have to do before this draft is done, and how slowly I'm going.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 18: Are you comfortable making a reader uncomfortable? How far will you go?
I love the general idea of making readers uncomfortable; I think that can be a spur to reflection, and then maybe to change. But in actuality, I think it needs to be applied very sparingly. Especially in genres like mine (urban fantasy), where people aren't really signing up for discomfort, it can be a bit much to take. I won't get anywhere if I make readers so uncomfortable they DNF the book.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 19: Talk about something (even if very small!) from your own life which made it onto the page.
Practically every restaurant, bar, or club that my characters visit is someplace I've known from my own life.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 20: Figuratively speaking, do you travel with the caravan or solo over the hills?
Pretty much solo.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 22: Share a recent advancement in your craft of which you are proud.
I'm sorry, I can't think of anything. I'm just at a stage of keeping on going, doing slow and steady stuff. I'm not making advancements, I'm just doing the work.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 23: There’s satisfaction in crafting a good sentence. What satisfies your writer's ear?
Just having it flow smoothly and say what it needs to say, I guess?
#WritersCoffeeClub day 24: Share something you’re proud of but had to cut from a work.
I haven't gotten to the cutting stage yet. When I do, I'm going to have to cut something like 75% of it, so I'm sure there will be *tons* of material that would fit this prompt. But not yet.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 25: What comes first: setting, character, plot? What comes next?
For my WIP, definitely the setting. It's a very setting-based work. (For those who are new or who have forgotten, it's set in a San Francisco which is alive and magical.)
#WritersCoffeeClub day 26: Do you include things you personally find repellent in your work?
Absolutely! Lots of the things my villains do are quite repellent. That's a lot of what makes them villains rather than heroes.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 27: What’s a technical skill you think should be more widespread?
Taking this to mean "for and among writers"... knowledge of where your files are stored, and how to set up backups. Far too many writers (indeed, far too many *people*) these days don't understand what files and directories are, and can't even tell if their work is being stored on their own computer or in the cloud somewhere. 1/2
This is largely not their fault! The tech industry has worked hard to make this detail irrelevant, and I'm not even sure they've meant it in a nefarious way. They may simply be trying to make people's lives easier. But the end result is that people sometimes lose all their work, and have no idea even where it was, never mind how to get it back. It's tragic. 2/2
Added after seeing others' answers: Heh, I thought of technical skills for writers (as opposed to, say, gamers or plumbers or whatever), but I also thought of it as meaning "tech-oriented", not "having to do with technique"! Whoops. For the latter, yeah, basic grammar and punctuation, like many others have said. 3/2
#WritersCoffeeClub day 29: Which phrase, paragraph, or page are you most proud of writing this month?
I can't think of anything in particular. I might find something if I took the time to go back and re-read everything I've written this month, but I'm trying not to do that kind of thing, and also I don't have the spare time for that right now.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 30: This month, how did you successfully navigate a challenge or a sticky point in your writing?
There's one scene I'm working on where a main character and his best friend have nicknames for each other that are based on stuff from a book series they both enjoy. I decided to simply tell, not try to show, all the back-story that involved. (I am coming more and more to the conclusion that "show, don't tell" is... 1/2
...much better advice for screenwriters than novelists. And a little research bears that out; it was originally promulgated by playwrights! While there are times when we novelists should use it, there are many other times when trying to show would take far too many words and/or be way too awkward, and we should just through the bullshit and tell our readers what's up.) 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub day 31: What did you learn this month about your writing process or habits that you want to carry forward?
Well, there was yesterday's thing about telling instead of showing... but that's more about writing itself, not about *my process or habits*. So, how about:
I learned not to fear re-ordering and re-numbering scenes. It's not as much of a hassle as I thought it would be.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 1: How satisfied are you with your current writerly ‘voice’?
Reasonably so. I expect it'll grow a little and firm up some, but I think it's okay as‑is for now.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 2: How satisfied are you with the rhythm of your works?
I guess it's okay? Rhythm isn't the same thing as pacing, so I think it's probably okay. (The pacing *definitely* needs work, at least when measured in terms of words rather than chapters or percentage-of-the story; I'm overwriting like crazy.)
#WritersCoffeeClub day 3: What signature marks your work as definitively and effectively yours?
I can't think of anything. It may well be something that I'll never notice on my own unless and until someone points it out to me (or mentions it in a review, or something).
#WritersCoffeeClub day 4: How much detail do you use to describe your settings?
It varies depending on how important the setting is, and whether I expect there to be any action in it that requires the reader to really understand things about the setting that'll be relevant (layout, items available, whatever).
#WritersCoffeeClub day 5: What’s a trait of other written works you admire, but don’t seek to incorporate in your own works?
I highly respect when a horror writer can put an image in my head that lives there, rent-free, still giving me the creeps from time to time even decades later.* But that's not what I want to do to my readers. (If it were, I'd be writing horror, not urban fantasy.)
* For example, Clive Barker's short story "The Body Politic", which I read sometime around 1990.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 6: From start to finish, how much time elapses in your current WIP?
Just over 7½ months.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 7: Share a pair of consecutive lines of a current or recent project. Everyone: What does the first line promise? Does the second line fulfil that promise?
The dreams had been going on for a few months before things came to a head. They had crept into the waking world, and they’d gotten stronger, until David Hartmann could no longer deny that he was hearing voices.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 8: How imperfect is your pacing? Do you consider imperfection a sign of your humanity?
To the extent that pacing could mean "how many words does it take me to get X percent of the way through the story", my pacing is so far from perfection, they're on different continents.
And yes, I think it's very human to ramble and take too long to tell something. That still doesn't mean I don't need to rein it in.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 9: Do you subscribe to ‘show, don’t tell’? Why, or why not?
I'm learning more and more that I should subscribe to it far less than I've been doing.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 10: Talk about a work which subverted your expectations, in a good way.
I know I've said a few times before that Rosemary Kirstein's _The Steerswoman_ is really good, and I keep on not being able to say why, because it would be a massive spoiler. Well, part of that spoiler (and part of what makes it so good) is the way it subverts the reader's expectations.
Really, just go read it!
#WritersCoffeeClub day 11: What time of day is most productive for you? Why?
Evening, because I'm a definite night owl.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 12: How unique is the setting of your current WIP?
San Francisco? Loads of people have set stories there!
A magical San Francisco that speaks to people? Hmmm, I haven't heard of *that* one being done before.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 13: Do you use maps as reference materials as you write?
I use Google Maps and especially street view *extensively*. Also the SF Muni system map (many of my characters take the bus instead of having their own vehicles).
#WritersCoffeeClub day 14: Share a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) of raw prose: the more unpolished, the better. Everyone: What’s the most prominent signature in this draft?
"Totally raw" means I'm pulling it from from my current efforts, in chapter 10. So, things previously established:
* this apartment's layout
* the fact Jessie's been avoiding calling her mother because she doesn't want to tell her she's lost her job
* Jessie's 29 years old
* she drinks a lot
#WritersCoffeeClub day 15: How big are your settings?
My current setting is city-sized. Specifically, the city has around 830,000 people, and occupies roughly a 7×7-mile (just over 11 km) square.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 16: What’s the most ridiculous place you’ve tried to sneak in some writing?
Not sure. Some people would say that my habit of writing in bars is kind of ridiculous. Other than that... I've done a little bit on the subway, but that's kind of rare; I don't often take uninterrupted trips long enough to really get much done. Or there was the time an idea hit me while I was walking from I-forget-where to I-forget-the-other-place-too, and so I had to just... 1/2
...dictate some stuff into a voice memo on my phone. But I feel like even that is something most writers have done... right?
I think maybe I just don't have much for ridiculosity in this field, but I'm looking forward to seeing other people's answers. 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub day 17: How do you write about ecstasy, in a spiritual, artistic, or sensual context?
That's a question I'll be able to answer better after I write an upcoming scene where an MC goes to a rave (and will probably take molly there, which will not be his first time doing that). But for now... I try to give the sense of it, both viscerally and psychologically.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 18: How balanced are your finished works? What do you do to achieve that balance?
I can't say right now; ask me once I've finished something.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 19: What’s your biggest challenge when crafting a satisfying ending?
So far? Getting through the beginning and middle so that I can even get to the ending.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 20: How has a setting surprised you?
By interjecting in a conversation two other people were having.
My setting can do that. It's sentient and can speak to other characters. I just wasn't expecting it to chime in on that particular convo.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 21: Share an unexpected critique you’ve received. Why did it surprise?
When my alpha reader told me one character trying to comfort another fell completely flat (and asked if I was intentionally trying to make a point that the comfort-giver was really bad at it). No, that hadn't been my intention at all! Oops.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 22: Are there types of settings you avoid writing? Why?
So far, I've only written one type of setting (a modern major city), but it's not like I've "avoided" writing others. I just... have been focusing on one thing. That's all.
Still, I don't feel any particular pull or desire to write about rural life. But is that "avoidance"? I think it's just apathy or disinterest.
#WritersCoffeeClub day 23: What techniques help you write a difficult second act?
Funny, I've just gotten into my second act. That means I'm still working on what my techniques are. Also, I'm not even sure if my second act is difficult or not. I think what difficulties I am encountering are just because I've run off the end of what I had outlined, and am now in very murky, uncharted territory. (Which is what I'd originally planned: I plotted the first 5 chapters pretty… 1/2
…tightly, had vaguer ideas up until the event that signals the end of the first act, and then I figured I'd be pantsing it from there on out. I didn't realize at the time how bad I am at pantsing.)
Anyway, my strategy has been to just keep on going forward. Write what I can, outline what needs it, and generally see what characters feel like doing in reaction to that first-act-ending event. Have the story continue growing from the ground I laid before. 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub day 24: What’s your greatest challenge in fleshing out your setting?
Ensuring that *every* *little* *detail* is right. Like, making sure not to have anyone go to a restaurant that didn't open until a couple of months later, or that did close a couple of months earlier. Making sure I don't accidentally say it was foggy on a night that historically was clear and warm. That sort of thing. 1/4
It's a challenge because it sometimes slows me down or even derails me in the middle of writing a scene, as I suddenly have to go and double-check that I'm not muffing a detail. It can break my flow, and I need to get better at remembering to check these things when I'm outlining, rather than when I'm writing. 2/4
And yes, I know, I don't have to adhere to such a ridiculous level of detail! I choose to, because I like the idea that actual San Franciscans might read this and remember going to that very same restaurant, or enjoying that warm summer night, or whatever. And if I ever find that minor details like these are getting in the way of the plot, I'll discard them on a case-by-case basis — i.e., if it would really help... 3/4
I have no idea what is meant with the signature. I get a feeling of nervousness from the text. Nervousness and indecition marked by the pacing you described in detail and the drinking in the end.
@gahlearner Yeah, I was quite uncertain about "signature" as well — among other things, how much of that can one get from a max of 5 sentences? But I tried to do the best I could with giving people feedback anyway.
Thank you for yours; that nervousness is definitely what I was trying to communicate! That and reticence to place the call. (But in the next paragraph, she does press that button.)
Was it clear that the button was on a phone, that she's dialed but not hit "call" yet?
Yes, that was clear. But I was a bit confused about the description of the button that drew my attention a bit away from the emotional part. For me old-style handset would have been description enough, but you may have a reason to point out that she has never seen anything like it before. You're absolutely right, a few lines can't tell us all that much.
Good stringing of the locations. Lenda to the feel of anxiety without straffing towards a manicness
Kagan MacTane (he/him)
G H Learner
Aware-wolf
Klepsis
Emma Sofia