So outright "plagiarism" in fiction would just be "literally copying someone else's work and trying to claim you wrote it". This hardly ever happens.
What's more of an issue would be "writing something that's very obviously based on someone else's work, and not even doing anything new and different with it". Which we'd generally call "a ripoff" rather than "plagiarism". 2/3
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As an example, I understand that Terry Brooks's The Sword of Shannara is generally considered a ripoff of Lord of the Rings (though I haven't read it myself and so can't confirm that).
Anyway, given all that, I've already said where I think the borderline is: how much you do new and different things with the material you reference.
(This is important to me because I have an homage to a major fantasy writer in my WIP.) 3/3
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: To what extent does technology impact your story? (Bearing in mind that technology is just "a set of methods and practices to do something")
Given that clarification, it impacts it a lot. At various times, magicians analyze certain spells or charms — magical "technology" in the meaning of this prompt — to see what they do. Other wizards are trying to come up with spells to do certain things, or trying to obtain certain items.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: Do you incorporate poems, songs or letters in your work? How do you format them?
There are various times when my characters sing special songs for magical (or more like ritual/quasi-religious) purposes, and there's a standard chant that gets used in certain types of spellcasting. Those, like the emails (i.e., modern-day "letters") and text messages that I mentioned on day 25 (https://wandering.shop/@kagan/113025058725586049), will get indented in the style of block quotes.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: What's your favourite story structure? Three-act, four-act, eight-sequence (8-reel), or what?
"The one that works best for the story I'm telling." That said, the story I'm currently telling works well as a three-act... and it may turn out that most of the stories I ever decide to tell will be three-act ones. That's something I'm going to have to find out by doing it.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: Would you consider using AI for a book cover design or an audiobook?
No. I am more than happy to pay human artists for their work, and I think they'd do a better job anyway. Furthermore, I refuse to contribute to devaluing human artistic work.
Even furthermore, I refuse to contribute to any demand for the large-scale plagiarism machines that power AI "art".
Even still furthermore, I refuse to burn down half a rainforest just for one book cover.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 31: What would you pick if you were forced to write in a genre outside of your speciality?
It's hard to say what "my specialty" is when I haven't produced anything yet. Is it urban fantasy, because that's the thing I'm working on first? Or is it SFF, because the various ideas I have in mind are all either fantasy or sci-fi?
Let's go with the latter. Then I'd love to try my hand at either romance or mystery (which has gotta be Fair Play! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FairplayWhodunnit).
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: What have been your writing-related achievements in the last year?
I've developed a ton of world-building material, character backgrounds, etc.
I've written over 60,000 words of vignette material to practice my craft, find my characters, and get myself ready for the first draft.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: What is your favourite part of the writing process?
So far, what I've enjoyed most has been writing first drafts.
A lot of other stuff has been fun as well. I know I've complained about building background material, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it, just that I'd done an awful lot of it and wanted some variety.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: Do writers read differently from non-writers?
I think this is sort of like, is same-sex attraction different from opposite-sex attraction? And I think the answer is yes, because:
If I'm looking at an attractive woman, I just think she's attractive. She's someone I want to be with. But an attractive man can be someone I want to be (as well as wanting to be with). I've also heard it phrased as, "Do I want to do him, or be him?" 1/2
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Not always, of course; there are guys I look at who I'd never want to be, but who I want to jump in bed with anyway. But it's possible to add that extra layer of attraction, in a way that doesn't make sense when I'm attracted to a woman.
Similarly, when a non-writer reads something, they're just reading it for itself. But when a writer reads something, they at least have the option to compare it to their own work, and to potentially learn from it (by imitation or avoidance!). 2/2
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: Do you have specific goals when creating a scene?
Any scene should serve some purpose in the story: to introduce a character or plot device; to have characters relate to each other somehow (whether in conflict or in cooperation); to set up or resolve some conflict; etc. [Edit: folks have mentioned fun, lifting mood after/between heavy scenes, etc., and yes! That too!]
My purpose in a scene is to make it fulfill that purpose as well as possible.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: What kind of birthday cake would your MCs enjoy?
I don't think any of them have particularly strong birthday cake preferences. Chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, whatever.
Maybe David kinda likes German Chocolate cake, but I'm not solid on that yet, and he wouldn't turn his nose up at a vanilla one or even a funfetti cake.
Maybe Ángel kinda likes lemon cake, or vanilla with lemon frosting, but doesn't expect anyone else to like it. Again, just a vague idea, not sure.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: Where is your book listed?
Nowehere, the first draft isn't written yet.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 7: What genre are you least likely to write? Why?
Westerns and military sci-fi both bore me to tears. Ergo, I wouldn't want to write either of them.
[Edited to Add: I have been reminded that there is at least one, and maybe multiple, genres of Christian... I dunno, stuff? Anyway, I'd be far less inclined to write that, having never been Christian.]
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 8: The Hero's Journey is garbage. Discuss.
Nah, not the Hero's Journey itself. But the idea that it's the best or only way to structure a story? Yeah, that's garbage. So is the attempt to hammer stories that clearly don't fit it into that mold anyway (whether that be while writing, or while analyzing an existing work).
The HJ itself is kinda mid. Its fan club, though... they're the reason I generally hate the thing (and am restraining myself from an anti-HJ rant rn). 1/3
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New addition: Having seen some posts with more info on the Hero's Journey that I didn't previously know... never mind, both the Hero's Journey and the idea that it's the best/only way to structure a story are garbage. Wow. It's just garbage all the way down. Hot garbage.
(Why is there no "flaming dumpster" emoji? We need one!) 2/3
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Something I just read points out that "On the very first page of the prologue of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell explicitly claims that all stories from all cultures follow the exact same outline", so I'll stop blaming HJ/Campbell fanboys, and just blame Joseph Campbell himself.
Fuck this garbage. 3/3
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 9: Do you go to book festivals?
No. (Not yet? Maybe I will when I'm published? What happens at them, anyway?)
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 10: Do your characters have birthdays or anniversaries during your story?"
One of my MCs, Jessie, has her 30th birthday near the end of the book. Her dread of it as it approaches is an important part of her plotline.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 11: Do you write old-school or digital? A mix?
Digital. My handwriting sucks, and writing by hand makes my hand cramp within 5 minutes.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 12: How do you visualise a scene when writing it?
By using my imagination?
A mix of "from the character's POV" and "as if it were a movie"?
I'm not sure I understand what this question is asking.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 13: Do you reuse characters?
I haven't had the opportunity to yet.
If my WIP becomes a trilogy, does having a few characters from book 1 show up in book 3 count as "reuse", or is that just a completely expected thing?
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 14: Do you read non-fiction, and if so, for pleasure, research or both?
Not really.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 15: Name-check any Writers' Coffee Club members who've inspired you or helped you in the last year.
@orionkidder gave me some good advice a few weeks back.
[Edited to add: I swear, I wrote this when I first saw the prompt, before I saw him name-checking me!]
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 16: Name-check your cover artist, even if it's yourself. Share your best cover.
I don't have a cover yet, that's way premature.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 17: Do you agree with Somerset Maugham, who said, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
No. I think huge numbers of people "know" what the rules of writing are... and they disagree with each other on most of the particulars.
Luckily, there are lots of other people who realize that guidelines beat the heck out of rules.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 18: Do you believe the magic happens in the edit, or do you have a different approach?
I think it can happen at many stages of the process.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 19: Do you include bodily functions in your stories (do your characters poo)?
If they're relevant, sure. Otherwise? Skip 'em, just like you'd skip anything else that's extraneous.
(In most of what I'm writing, they're really not relevant. But I can imagine situations where they might be.)
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 20: how do you commemorate hitting a milestone?
I haven't yet hit any milestone that I felt was worth commemorating with more than just taking a moment or two to go, "Okay, cool, that's off my plate... now what?"
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 21: Do you ever get inspiration from dreams?
I rarely remember my dreams, except when they're particularly bizarre. I do sometimes think about my WIP and world in my sleep, though, and ISTR that I've once or twice made a little bit of progress that way.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 22: Would you ever pay for a review? Or have you? Do you feel it's worth it?
Is this a thing that can be done in a way that isn't, for lack of a better term, sketchy or dubious? Is paying for reviews an accepted practice?
Maybe I'm betraying my lack of knowledge of the publishing field, but my initial thought was that that sounds incredibly unethical. But the matter-of-fact phrasing of the question suggests that it's standard. So, what am I missing here?
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 23: Ursula K Le Guin said that Earthsea began when she drew a map. What's your starting point?
For my WIP, it was loving cities and feeling them as alive, and wanting to do something with that.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 24: How do you feel about fan fiction?
About reading it? About writing it? About other people writing it about other people's works? Or about other people writing it about my works?
I'm not too interested in writing it myself. I have hardly enough time to write "my own" stuff, in my own worlds; I can't spare any to write stuff set in other people's worlds. 1/3
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I'm rarely interested in reading it, either; again, my TBR list is far larger than I'll ever get through (insert that comic about the ghost whose tsundoku pile is still growing even after death) — though there are occasional exceptions!
I 100% support people who want to write fanfic doing so! It can be good practice before writing one's own worlds, or it can just be fun for its own sake, and I support both! Anyone trying to shame fanfic can just bugger off. 2/3
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As for people writing fanfic set in my world(s)? Wow, I would love to have fans! I'd love to have fans want to play in the worlds I'm creating!
I understand why every IP lawyer ever advises authors to never ever read fanfic set in their worlds, and it makes me sad. I would so want to read fanfic of my works! (Okay, some of it would suck. That's the nature of everything; see Sturgeon's Law. But some would make my heart sing.) 3/3
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 25: Are there any celebrations or festivals in your writing?
Definitely! I'm just not sure which ones.
Frex, Jessie loves sakura matsuri (the cherry blossom festival). Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I can wrangle the narration in such a way as to be able to depict her attending it. It's a whole thing, about who's the POV character at what time, and while I may be able to make it work, I may not. 1/2
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But there's Pride, and Folsom, and I absolutely MUST work in the annual commemoration of the Great Quake and Fire (okay, maybe that's not a "celebration or festival", but it's a super-important observance for San Francisco city shamans). There's probably at least 1 or 2 things I'm forgetting. It's just a question of which ones will make it onto the page, and how.
(Lunar New Year will not; the action begins in mid-March and extends until early November.) 2/2
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: Did you come to writing from an avenue other than reading?
Mostly reading, but I have to admit, there is a definite strain of TTRPG in my WIP. Not so much in the written product; it is nothing like a LitRPG¹. I just mean that the initial world-building sprang from some stuff I recall from an RPG I used to play.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: What's the elevator pitch for your current WIP?
It needs a lot of honing; it's not a very good one. But it's what I've got so far:
It's an urban fantasy about people who can hear the voice of the City, and it teaches them to do magic.
(See? I need to learn how to write elevator pitches, honestly. My forte is spec-fic, not sales copy, and the latter is what elevator pitches really are.)
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@kagan
That's a decent pitch. It feels insufficient because you don't enjoy compressing your work into, as you correctly said, a sales copy teaser.
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@CatFoxBirdLady Thank you very much for the encouragement! But I think it also feels insufficient because it doesn't even begin to touch on any of the characters, it doesn't hint at the plot... heck, it doesn't even mention which City it takes place in, which I think is crucial.
Maybe I should remind myself than an elevator ride can be more than just one floor? This one is really, really short. 😅
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@kagan
Long elevator rides are an idea. I'd also try elevator pitches for sections, or acts, or however you think of your main building blocks.
I also wonder if a different image might not help. Don't think elevator ride, think "breathless synopsis by very excited reader".
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@CatFoxBirdLady Oooh, that last paragraph may be exactly what I need. Thank you! I'll think more about that tomorrow morning.
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