#WritersCoffeeClub 3/15: Talk about an experience you had sharing your writing with a group.

I've been to two writing groups here in Pittsburgh. Both of them had at least one person who gave useful feedback (...and several who didn't), but I didn't enjoy either of them because ther was just no sense of closeness.

Writing to me is not the same as, like, plumbing. I'm not interested in treating it like an engineering task. So I left those groups and now I get useful, personal feedback elsewhere.

#WordWeavers 3/14 - Is selling your work for money important to you when you write?

Yeah, for sure. But is it the most imporant thing? No, not even remotely.

And that's hard for me, because if I'm honest with myself I have to recognize that I'm constantly making tradeoffs between my strong desire to sell and my stronger desire to write good, truthful, original work.

Don't get me wrong: I choose the latter. I always choose the latter. But there are absolutely times when it hurts to do so.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3/14: Do you think readers want new experiences in structure or narrative, or do they prefer what's familiar?

I do think that audiences tend to have rigid preferences about structure, although I also think that most people don't have the insight or vocabulary to say so.

As for narrative, I think it's a toss-up. There are definitely some people who just wash-rinse-repeat, but there are definitely other people who want novelty.

Either way, you should write what you want 😝

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/24. What’s your greatest challenge in fleshing out your setting?

Er, what's the challenge of a Dark-Souls-like setting?

Well...

There's the present setting. But the present is built upon an idyllic past setting, so there's that, too. But the idyllic past wasn't actually idyllic, so there's that, too, too. Then there's the intervening period that connects the present and past (too, too, too).

...all of which has to be discoverable by the reader, at least in principle.

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/23 What techniques help you write a difficult second act?

Sometimes, near the middle of a story I'm writing, things start to sort of tumble together. This can make it hard to connect the dots, trust where I'm going, or even keep my focus on relevant parts of the text.

Is this a "second act" thing? Got me! I don't really do "acts" 🙃

Either way, I work through it with help. I show, I ask, I listen, I experiment, I repeat. Eventually the clutter clears up and I can move on.