#scribesandmakers 8 Dec Share a single line from a song you like. Ask people to identify the song. "Lucid as hell" (Different versions of the lyrics online break the lines in different places, so that's either a line or half of one) I'm not asking anyone to identify it, do what you like. It's […]

#writerscoffeeclub 8 Dec How does your work compare to the earliest work in your genre? I write in different genres, usually off-centre, with a certain amount of genre-unawareness. Also, genres were labelled retroactively only when there were enough works in them to need a label, and branched […]

#writerscoffeeclub 7 Dec What future writing goals are you working towards with your present work? 3 goals in increasing timescale: * edits for an SF anthology submission * finish a draft of The Trovador, wrapping up all the storyline I've thought of so far in that world * short story […]

Advent calendar of nativity scene figures but between 9th and 24th of December all of them are El Caganer.

#writerscoffeeclub 6 Dec How has your past writing shaped your present writing? It's a journey. I suppose what I've written before feeds into the selection process for what I'll write in the future: ideas I want to revisit maybe from a different perspective, ideas I have nothing more to add to […]

#scribesandmakers 6 Dec 6 If the internet permanently stopped functioning, would you still share your creative work? If so, how? Probably, with a much smaller (potential) set of readers. Assuming this wasn't a total civilisational collapse scenario, I guess I'd print short runs of zines and […]

Mods are stuck behind Cloudflare, post feet.

#writerscoffeeclub 5 Dec What’s a no-longer popular trend in writing you’d like to see make a comeback? I'm not aware of the trends. And I bet anything I say people don't write much any more, they probably do. People write all kinds of stuff, but not everything gets published.

#scribesandmakers 5 Dec Do you have a special bookmark? No, I usually just remember the page number I was on, or use the receipt from the bookshop if it's a new book.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-government-lawyers-use-secret-evidence-justify-ban-palestine-action I can't believe anyone has to point this out, but if an organisation is banned for Secret Bad Reasons, nobody you arrest for verbally supporting the organisation can possibly have known […]

#scribesandmakers 4 Dec Tell us about your audio recording experience(s) I used to read Shakespeare plays into a tape recorder with my big sister. I bet it was terrible. I also wouldn't recognise my accent from then. 3 of my stories exist in an audio version, none of them narrated by me. The […]

If after we blow your boat up you still float, you are a witch, so we can kill you. If you drown you are not a witch.

Asking me questions can be tiring but I don't know why you think it should be free

Soylent Brown Product Recall

#scribesandmakers 3 Dec Describe an action scene involving only non-sentient inanimate objects. I'd go for the end of the first scene of The Source of Fire...

Got editing notes back for my anthology submission - very exciting. Many good suggestions, and I really appreciate all the ways to make it better. For example an editor spotted there's a tense problem that I've realised exists *entirely* because I started one paragraph with "Now," as a filler […]

#writerscoffeeclub 3 Dec Do genre conventions provide an essential framework, or stifle original storytelling? No. Genre conventions don't *do* anything. They're a description of what people mean by genre in terms of what you might often find in a book labelled a certain way. The conventions […]

Since it's still illegal to support #PalestineAction I must instead offer a critique of their actions. A proper terrorist organisation would have sprayed superglue into the Pitot tubes of those jets, or mercury into the turbines. A proper terrorist organisation would have burned the offices of […]

I would love to write something after which the reader is like "WTF did I just read?" but in a good way. I define "a good way" as they liked it, unless they are a horrible person, in which case I define it as reading it physically gave them diarrhea.

Our peace proposal to end the war on Christmas has again been rejected by the Right, who find our condition of also ending the war on Christ's actual teachings wholly unacceptable.

It's well known that Kekulé was inspired to propose a structure for benzene when he had a dream of snakes biting their own tails. But his earlier dream about tiny donuts that give you cancer was ignored, setting organic chemistry back for years.

#scribesandmakers 2 Dec Whatever? night in the city was once a quiet yellow place, not day, not dark, not indoors, not the wild outdoors an alien space, keeping the gold of sunset through to the dawn.

#writerscoffeeclub 2 Dec What do you dislike as a reader and thus avoid in your own work? The temptation to make a list of pet peeves is strong. But what do I consciously *avoid* that I would otherwise do, despite disliking it when I see it? Obviously this doesn't include tropes and styles I […]

"Socially conservative" just means bigoted, doesn't it? We can just say they're bigots, right? Unless there's a counter-example I've missed. If someone wants to keep to their own values, they can already do that. But the very project of insisting *society* not change too much is inherently […]

#scribesandmakers Dec 1 What creative projects do you hope to work on this month? More writing of course, but also finish carving and painting this:

#writerscoffeeclub 1 Dec Inspiration for your current WIP? Concretely, the idea to write a "next book" following on from The Source of Fire came from a bunch of world-building ideas I had left over. The "inspiration" was aesthetic. I wrote The Long Knight and didn't have anywhere to sell it […]

Last night I had a dream there was a game development tool that was more or less BBC Basic but with sprites as a basic data type and a large library of built-in game functions. It was pretty cool. I'd probably hate it in real life. I think there was also a game that was kind of Kessler […]

Måndag!

#writerscoffeeclub 30 Nov Share some good things about how your work went this month. I did some writing for The Trovador. I've got an outline design for a wood carving for the living room (we need a round thing to hang at the other end of the room from the clock to balance it).

#wordweavers 30 Nov When writing, do you consider your topics to avoid book bans or fallout of any sort? No. I try not to publish what I'll feel bad about personally according to my own moral compass: essentially, have I treated this in a way that might hurt someone? I rewrote one scene in […]

#writerscoffeeclub 29 Nov What do you need to simplify in your work? I don't think that's a valid goal. Every idea has an inherent complexity to it; if you simplify below that line, it's not the same idea. I'd like to be able to express more complex ideas more elegantly to move them into the […]

So back in 1944, a German U-Boat Commander named Heinz-Wilhelm Eck did exactly what US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered US military forces to do - kill the survivors of a destroyed boat at sea. Now, as then, this is considered a War Crime. In 1945, Commander Eck was tried, found guilty […]

Just watched that really uncomfortable Star Trek TNG episode where everyone in the crew is playing the computer game that jerks you off. Sorry if you'd forgotten that one and didn't want to be reminded that it exists.

Thanks youtube I hate it "Cave in Europe Is Full of 110,000 Social Spiders Living in a Web City" https://youtu.be/BNTGpuqaeWo?si=s-f4lsDDyWGaUpCx I don't need to watch this, Anton, just put where the cave is in the description so I can never accidentally go within 100km of it.

It’s time! Blackout Friday! Please join unions 💪 & organizers 🤝 worldwide and BUY NOTHING 💸🙅from big chain stores this weekend (especially Amazon, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Home Depot, Target, Apple, Walmart). Instead support small & local businesses 💵 🙌 while sending the message: the People […]

#wordweavers 28 Nov Your MC gets a free bag of candy corn. How do they react? "These are so sweet, they must cost a fortune. But why would rich people want a delicacy like this to look like a bag of yellowed teeth?"

#writerscoffeeclub 28 Nov In what ways do you see yourself reflected in your own work? I see things described or said in the way I would describe or say them. I don't have a surprising answer to this question.

#wordweavers 27 Nov When it comes to your writing, what are you thankful for? That my Mum taught me to read. Beyond that, that my life is mostly comfortable and safe and not a living hell that would make writing impossible, and that I have people to leave my thoughts to, without which it'd be […]

#writerscoffeeclub 27 Nov Do you prefer writing serialised, sequential, or standalone works? Why? I find I like interplay between stories. It can be sideways references to greater works like Frankenstein or Gormenghast in otherwise stand-alone pieces, or links between my stories in the same […]

Keep getting stinging pains in my shoulder and arm since my flu jag yesterday, and next time I'm going to ask them to do the right arm so I don't keep worrying about it being a heart attack. (although I assume those are much more unambiguously painful)

Had a few thoughts about whether we should stoop to the right's level and engage in personal attacks, or take the high road and stick to a policy message. And the answer is yes.

#writerscoffeeclub 26 Nov How do you keep yourself sharp? I don't. I'm soft and thinky. On rare occasions I need to sharpen myself to a scalpel-like edge, but I don't keep myself like that. It'd be exhausting.

HOT TIP: How to make the most of Black Friday! DON'T BUY ANYTHING!

#writerscoffeeclub 25 Nov What are some tips you can share to avoid 'clunky' phrasing? I second all the other responses saying: read it aloud to tell if it sounds clunky, and split up overly-long sentences. I'd add: it matters what order you present the parts of a long sentence. You can have […]

The Overton Window has shifted and increasingly wanton overt bigotry and evil are mainstream. Don’t accept it. Fight and defy people like this. www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-colu...

I wrote another mini-story for The Trovador while I was out for a walk and now I'm not 100% sure where it gets inserted in the structure. The idea is each story is thematic and hints at the next location Marya goes to or something she (or the reader) should learn there, but this one I'm drawing […]

#writerscoffeeclub 24 Nov How do you make sure a reader has room to process and absorb ideas? I don't make *sure*, especially in short stories. The idea can hit them later, or they can scan back and re-check a thing they didn't get (if they want: they can just not get it, that's also a valid […]

Yesterday I bothered to look it up, and apparently the conference pear is named for the National British Pear Conference of 1885 where it won first prize. OK, but. I haven't heard of this conference ever happening again (no Wikipedia article for the event itself), and there aren't any better […]

J just combined "you have to kill your darlings" with Death of the Author, as "you have to kill the author" and honestly, fair.

#WordWeavers 23 Nov Finding good cover artists, beta readers, & editors is hard. Shoutout who has helped you. Writers' groups: @gsfwc and @GlasgowWriters for helpful feedback. Support and encouragement from Mark Nixon and the other Shadows at the Door writers […] [Original post on mastodon.scot]