Ancestors

Written by Kagan MacTane on 2024-12-29 at 16:14

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: What are your feelings towards readers?

I've always loved people who read a lot, even before I started trying to become a writer. But I guess that's my feelings toward bibliophiles, as a random person. My feelings toward readers, as a writer? 1/3

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2024-12-29 at 16:14

I love 'em even more! I know some people are writing just for themselves, and to be honest, yes, I am doing that to some extent... but I am definitely also writing in the hope that people will read my stories and enjoy them. I am not writing in a vacuum; I'm writing as an act of communication. 2/3

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2024-12-29 at 16:14

Without readers, I could complete my story and feel proud of what I'd done, but it would also still feel like the loop hadn't really been closed, like a part of the thing was still slightly incomplete.

It'd feel lonely. 3/3

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2024-12-30 at 15:34

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: Do you like a book that is challenging or just carries you along?

I'm okay either way; they both have their places.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2024-12-31 at 14:57

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 31: What were the big writing moments for you in 2024?

I don't think there have really been any. I've just been plugging away, keeping on going, but I haven't had any big milestones with it this year.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-01 at 16:14

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: What are your writing goals for 2025?

Number one: finish my first draft! Good grief, I've been working on background and supporting material for so long...

So, yeah. Finish the first draft. Hopefully in time to be able to let it rest for a month or two and then do at least one editing pass on it. 1/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-01 at 16:14

I can't imagine that a mere two drafts would be enough to have it in submittable condition, so I guess setting "submit it for publication" as a goal for 2025 would probably be very foolish. Which truly sucks. I want this thing out there, in the world, so people can enjoy it! 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-02 at 15:20

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: Have you ever made up something in a story which has come true in real life?

Not yet, no.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-03 at 15:35

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: What form do your stories take? Flash, short, novella, novel or other?

Novels. I'm writing vignettes for practice, but they're not really "full stories" in my opinion, they're just snippets or scenes or suchlike.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-04 at 17:25

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: As a writer, what do you get from social media?

Conversation and maybe even a little bit of community with other writers.

Maybe someday it can also be a channel to advertise or promote myself, but that'd be way premature at this stage.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-05 at 16:53

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: January can be a dull month (especially in the UK). What’s your worst writing month, and why?

I don't have a general month of the year that's bad. This particular year, November was kind of bad for my writing, but that's because it was a particularly bad month for my mental health in general, due to the awful US election results.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-06 at 15:26

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: What’s your current writing project? How’s it going?

The urban fantasy novel about people who can talk to the spirit of the City and do magic as a result, the one I've been talking about since I got on Mastodon in the first place.

It's going... far more slowly than I'd like. But it is going.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-07 at 16:04

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 7: What are your biggest hopes for the writing world in 2025?

I have a fair amount of hope that it'll continue rejecting attempts to cram AI down everyone's throats. I also hope that smaller publishing houses thrive and prosper.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-08 at 15:34

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 8: Do you agree with Samuel Johnson, who said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money”?

Regardless of who said that or what the context was, no. I disagree with the basic proposition. What kind of grind/hustle-culture bullshit is that? Not everything needs to be monetized.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-09 at 15:46

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 9: Do you borrow settings, plots or characters from other works (without plagiarism)?

I'm not borrowing any of those at the moment, but I am borrowing (and slightly tweaking) a particular book from another work. It'll be a noticeable homage to that work, which is set in San Francisco.

And that's all I'm saying about that until it's published.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-10 at 15:50

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 10: Do you use dream sequences in your work? How do you feel about them?

Curiously, I've wound up in a situation where, because of some stuff about how magic works, certain characters must be getting prophetic dreams. So I'll need to depict at least 1 or 2 of those on the page, although more can simply be described after the fact. 1/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-10 at 15:50

In general, I'm a little wary of dream sequences, as they're easy to do poorly — especially for beginning and less-skilled writers.

I plan to approach mine carefully, and with respect for their difficulties and the ramifications of getting them wrong. 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-11 at 17:59

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 11: Do you write or imagine a backstory for your secondary characters, or do they pop into existence as required?

Absolutely the former. I figure out how old they are, where they're from, what they like to do in their spare time, all that kind of thing.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-12 at 17:25

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 12: Do characters use words not in the language you write in? Italics for this, or not?

Nearly all of my characters speak at least two languages. In fact, using a non-native language can be useful in spellcasting in my world, since it forces you to concentrate more on your words.

Also, 3 of my 5 MCs are natively bilingual. 1/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-12 at 17:26

My current plan is to use italics when a character speaks a language that is a "second" language for them, but if they speak a language that's native for them, I plan to keep it in Roman lettering. In a sense, italics will mean "a language unfamiliar enough to its speaker that they could use it for spellcasting." I realize the effects will be a bit non-standard, but I think it'll be worth it, and subtle enough not to be jarring for most people. (Editors, OTOH, are a rare and special breed…) 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-13 at 16:15

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 13: What’s your favourite trope? Do you lean into it for your work or shy away?

I don't have single favorite things. But I'll pick one from among the many tropes I like:

Five-Man Band. I'm very much leaning into it for this WIP. And also doing some non-standard things with it.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand (Beware, TV Tropes links can eat your entire day!)

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-14 at 15:22

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 14: Are you a pantser or a plotter? Have you always been this way? What brought you here?

I seem to be way more of a plotter at this point, but I'm hoping (and planning, haha) to do some pantsing once I get six chapters into this book.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-15 at 15:30

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 15: Would you ever hide your politics to avoid alienating some readers?

No.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-16 at 15:45

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 16: How would you describe the way you create your stories to a non-writer?

I sit down at the keyboard and I start telling myself a story. Except that instead of saying it out loud, I type it.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-17 at 15:45

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 17: What are your biggest fears for the writing world in 2025?

That it'll get bamboozled into accepting gen AI, either as "this will help us out somehow" (no, it won't, I assure you) or as "well, it's inevitable, so we might as well surrender to it." Nothing's inevitable! At least, not on its own! But it sure becomes inevitable if you just shrug and give up.

I'm not very afraid of this, but... a little. It'd really suck.

[Edit: Added following post. 1/2]

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-17 at 15:51

I see lots of other people are talking about censorship. Yes, I'm worried about that! But I guess I interpreted the question as being about things within the publishing world. Politically-motivated censorship is an external force, so it just didn't enter my thoughts.

But I'm far more worried about that than I am that the writing world will buy into AI.

Also, I'm just now noticing that I took it as "publishing" world, but the prompt clearly says "writing". Oops. 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-18 at 18:37

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 18: Would you serve as a judge for a literary award?

I suspect that would require taking a lot of time to read all the entries. If the award were for novel-length works, I don't think I'd have the time.

[Edited to Add: Also, https://writing.exchange/@orionkidder/113847602997228638 makes a very good point that I wish I'd also thought of.]

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-19 at 17:19

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 19: Did you find a way through the maze of traditional publishing to get your book published? What’s your secret?

I haven't got anything ready to publish yet.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-20 at 17:37

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 20: Do any of your stories take place on the sea? In what way?

No, not yet. And the various story ideas I have percolating in my head for the future don't include any maritime concepts either.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-21 at 15:03

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 21: What differences do you find in your process if you write both short and long-form?

I only write long form.

Unless you count these vignettes... in which case, I still don't see any real difference in my process. I figure out a good foundation and starting point for it, get my base ready, and then start going according to plan.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-22 at 15:37

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 22: What prompted you to begin writing?

The confluence of two things:

1. I'd been kicking around the idea of cities as magic, and people talking to cities and operating as magicians in/with them, for some time; and

2. I got out of a job that had been sucking my soul, and found that I had creative energy to put into writing a book about the idea I'd been playing with.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-23 at 15:47

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 23: Do you think it’s vital for a fiction writer to have empathy?

Yes. At least, they should have empathy for their characters. But I think building the characters requires at least a little bit of understanding of other people.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-24 at 14:26

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 24: How long is the longest story you’ve ever written? Can you link to it?

So far, my longest vignette is "A Day in the Life: David Hartmann ('Good Day' version)", at 10,846 words. It's not in a place where it can be linked to, and that's deliberate. It's internal, background material. I might make it public someday, after publishing the novel, but that's still a "maybe".

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-25 at 19:22

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 25: Do you have a worked-out magical system (or advanced technology in sci-fi)? Or do you make it up as you go?

It's not like, Brandon Sanderson levels of "worked out"; it has what I call "room for jazz" in it. I'm very much making sure that in my magic system, there's more than one way to do most things, and there's not just improvisation but hopefully also enough mystery to produce a little wonder. 1/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-25 at 19:22

But yes, the general bones of it are worked out; I can tell you many of the spells that exist, and what sorts of things are normally used to cast them, and so on. 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-26 at 16:15

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: If people tell you they’ve always wanted to write, what do you say to them?

Go for it! It's not something that takes a lot of start-up capital or a big investment. All you need to put in is time and energy, and some of your heart. I encourage you to go for it!

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-27 at 15:10

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: What unpaid marketing sites have you found helpful?

I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it doesn't much matter; it's way too early for me to do any marketing. I have diddly-squat to market yet.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-28 at 15:36

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: Would anything stop you from writing, or do you have the bug for life?

If life got busy enough, and there were enough other drains on my time and energy, I can see myself regretfully putting my WIP aside for a time. But that'd just be a pause, not a stop. 1/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-28 at 15:37

I currently have only a limited number of story concepts (like, roughly a half-dozen). If I got through the whole list, and somehow didn't come up with any new ideas along the way, then I guess I'd stop. (Why write if I have nothing to say, you know? That's part of why it took me so long to start.)

But that seems unlikely; I think more ideas would come to me along the way. 2/2

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-29 at 16:25

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: How do you format your drafts? Is it the same as the final manuscript?

"Formatting" and "drafts" hardly even belong in the same sentence.

A draft should be as close to raw text as possible. Sure, italics for emphasis. Things like indentation and dates for letters (e.g., in an epistolary novel), or indentation and alignment for SMS messages (like I'm using). Maybe a character writes a list or something, and you might... 1/3

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Toot

Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-29 at 16:25

...want to format it as a numbered or bulleted list. But seriously, just do it either with mere asterisks in your text, or else the absolute default formatting that your word processor provides.

Don't fuss around with formatting in your manuscript. You're the writer. Just write. Formatting is part of the act of publishing, not writing. Leave that for the typographers and layout people and editors at the publishing house. 2/3

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Descendants

Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-29 at 16:26

That's presuming you have a publisher, of course. If you're self-publishing, then you'll need to format stuff and lay it out — but do it as an entirely separate phase, 100% distinct from the writing. They are not the same activity. 3/3

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-30 at 16:09

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: Do secondary characters sometimes get promoted to main characters?

It hasn't happened yet... but I'm still too early in my writing process for it to have happened! 😆 Who knows, maybe it will?

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-01-31 at 16:21

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 31: How’s your writing progress so far this year? What are you working on?

I'm still working on the same WIP I've been doing since this hashtag began: the urban fantasy about San Franciscan magicians who talk to the City. I'm working through 2 different vignettes right now, exploring how certain groups operate and getting a little more comfortable with certain side characters.

I've written 6485 words this year (month), and done some background work.

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Written by Kagan MacTane on 2025-02-01 at 17:17

[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: Shameless self-promotion. What writing project are you working on?

As per yesterday... My writing project is still the same one I've been working on since Writers' Coffee Club started: the urban fantasy about people in San Francisco who can talk to the City.

There's not much to promote yet. If things go spectacularly well, maybe it'll be on shelves late next year? 😫

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Written by Orion (he/him) on 2025-02-01 at 21:56

@kagan "Talk to the city"!?

Go on.

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