#WordWeavers 4/4: Choose a character to invite to a party. What kind of party is it? Does it have special rules (dress code, bring alcohol, etc.)?
It would have to be someone who’d join me in forming an escape committee and making a discreet exit to the nearest decent pub at the first opportunity.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 4/4: Do you switch between past and present tense? How do you make it work?
I’ve written a lot of experience-based articles in present tense, including some that I’ve resurrected on Substack. Yet I have a mild aversion to fiction written in present tense. I can’t readily explain this anomaly.
I fiercely dislike flipping between tenses in the course of a narrative and unless there’s a very clear rationale, I’ll probably put the book down.
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Another damning piece of evidence in the case against AI.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2521256-ai-data-centres-can-warm-surrounding-areas-by-up-to-9-1c/

Continuing this serialised novel of murky goings-on in the great outdoors… what happened after last time’s cliffhanger?
Free to read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/the-kanchenjunga-manifestochapter-c59

#WordWeavers 3/4: For which characters do you come up with a backstory?
I don’t ‘come up with’ backstory for any of them. They tell me, when they need to, or it emerges organically, or, somehow, it’s ‘just there’. There’s a lot of Jerya’s backstory in the the first chapter or two of Three Kinds of North, but I didn’t plan, devise, contrive, or ‘come up with’ any of it.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 3/4: Have you studied writing? Did it prepare you, or did you learn more by doing?
The only formal writing course I ever did was one week on ‘writing for outdoor magazines’. It was useful in terms of understanding that particular market, at that time, in the UK, but it didn’t teach me ‘how to write’. Teachers’ comments on school essays were some help, but by far the most valuable training I’ve ever had was from voracious and eclectic reading.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 2/4: Visual presentation: how do white space and typography become meaningful elements of literary form?
Having worked extensively with designers in my photography career, and as I now do my own covers for my novels, I’m well aware of the importance of these elements. But I think we can overstate the case for the text of a story. When reading, the design elements should be as clear and unobtrusive as possible; essentially they disappear.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 1/4: What arrangement of plots do you have? No plot? Only one? A main plot and a side plot? Something else?
Characters let me follow their stories. Stuff happens. That’s all I know.
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#WordWeavers 1/4: Your opinion on April Fool's Day & do you incorporate the day into your work?
April Fool's Day is a fine thing when the spoof is done well. And as the originator of the Spaghetti Harvest story on the BBC, and of the San Serriffe feature in the Guardian, you can believe every word I say.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 31/3: What are we celebrating regarding your writing this month?
That I’m back in the groove after a period of disruption (as recounted yesterday), and that the latest book is coming together.
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