[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 1 Where are you on your writing journey? Goals for 2025?
I really wanted to have finished a first draft of a novel by now, but my life has been too busy for that. Plus, I have a chronic injury that--get this--makes it really hard to sit at a desk for more than half an hour at a time. So. Ugh.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 2: Have you ever made up something in a story which has come true in real life?
I based a character on someone I know. I made that character a sort of a savant. Turns out that person scored extremely high on certain cognitive tests. I think it was coincidence--what easier storytelling device is there than, "I know! I'll make them a genius!"
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 3: What form do your stories take? Flash, short, novella, novel or other?
I've written flash, shorts, one novella, and I'm working on a novel.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 4: As a writer, what do you get from social media?
On the one hand, a HUGE amount of exposure to other writers. Their techniques, their points of view, their support.
On the other hand, it is a MASSIVE time suck. I've heard writers say that social media is writing, so it makes tricks you into feeling as if you've got your "proper" writing done. That's a problem.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 5: What's your worst writing month, and why?
Recency bias wants to say "December," because I'm a dad and Christmas is just an absolute shit-tonne of work, but I'm also a prof, so September is also hard, but then final exam season is a bear, so that's late-November, April, and July (when I teach summers). It's a whole lot of bad. I miss working part time. :(
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 6. What’s your current writing project? How’s it going?
A novel that started as Star Wars head canon and turned into a treatise on how certain institutions create a threat of violence that they claim only they can protect us from in order to rationalize their abuse of children.
It's about mental health and policing, for the most part, although that description could point to so many groups, the Catholic Church among them.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub
And how it's going is I'm stalled out at 90% of a first draft because I have kids and a job--both of which I actually really love--and haven't had the time to really clear my head and finish that draft.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 8. Do you agree with Samuel Johnson, who said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money”?
Quotes out of context don't really mean anything.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 7: What are your biggest hopes for the writing world in 2025?
Ugh! Finish the first draft in the spring. Do a real second draft in the summer. I already know there are going to be MAJOR revisions. They're good! But they'll be a tonne of work.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 9 Do you borrow settings, plots or characters from other works (without plagiarism)?
I try not to. I've stolen one joke, which I'll have to take out of the final edit, and I quoted Shakespeare once without realizing, but I can leave that one in. It counts as homage.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 10: Do you use dream sequences in your work? How do you feel about them?
A lot, yes. My main characters all have recurrent, violent dreams of harming themselves, their families, their friends, etc. I feel they're a storytelling device and can be used well or poorly. The thing to stay away from is leaning on dreams too hard because readers don't think of them as "real." There are loads of exceptions, of course.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 11: Do you write or imagine a backstory for your secondary characters, or do they pop into existence as required?
Mostly I create them as required. I like to keep it loose. If I lock myself in, I can't pivot as necessary for the plot. The only backstory I invent outside of the book itself is here in these hashtags. :)
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 12: Do characters use words not in the language you write in? Italics for this, or not?
I would use italics the first time it comes up and then stop after that. That's the formatting code for: "This is a new word. Got it? Great. Now it's not a new word any more."
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 13. What’s your favourite trope? Do you lean into it for your work or shy away?
The one that I enjoy subverting the most is "chosen one." I really hate when main characters are shpeshal.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 14 Jan: Are you a pantser or a plotter?
I prefer George R. R. Martin's metaphor, architects and gardeners. I'd say I'm 3/4 gardener and1/4 architect. I like to have a sense of waypoints and an endpoint. Then, I improvise my way from one to the next to the next, inventing new waypoints as I go.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 15 Jan: Would you ever hide your politics to avoid alienating some readers?
No. I'm fortunate to not rely on my writing to make a living, so I don't have to pretend I'm not who I am in order to put food on the table. Some people do have to do that, and it sucks, but I get it. I just saw a brief interview with D.C. Fontana, a prolific writer of Star Trek who went by "D. C." so people wouldn't show she was a woman.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 16: How would you describe the way you create your stories to a non-writer?
I day dream. I imagine conversations. Then I write that down.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 17: What are your biggest fears for the writing world in 2025?
Further consolidation of publishing into a smaller and smaller number of companies, thus making published work even more narrow and bland as well as locking out millions of great writers whose works we'll never read. And the corollary: Amazon gets nastier and nastier, thus blocking the major outlet for self-publishing.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 18: Would you serve as a judge for a literary award?
First, I would ask about the other judges. If it's just a bunch of white men, I would tell them to replace me with a woman, POC, queer/trans, disabled, or otherwise marginalized person. If it's already a mixed group, then yeah! Sounds like fun, looks good on a CV.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Day 19: Did you find a way through the maze of traditional publishing to get your book published? What’s your secret?
I have done nothing of the sort. I have no secrets. I think it's just really really hard out there,and some people get through the bottlenecks and some people don't. It's not an indication of skill,talent,cunning,or "hustle." It's basically random. If you're out there pitching--nothing happens if you don't--then past that,it's dumb luck.
Sorry.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 20 Do any of your stories take place on the sea?
No, not really. One chapter of my novella involves some sea travel, but it's a transitional space, not a space where story happens.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 21: What difference do you find in your process if you write both short and long-form?
Short form, I can write straight through and really "find" the story without a plan. Long form, I can find all kinds of elements--motifs, character traits, etc.--but I do need a plan of some kind, but I can also write out of order (hazzah!) and assemble the story after the fact. I love it. :)
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 22.What prompted you to begin writing?
Literally an idea I had while brushing my teeth. I still remember the exact moment, working through the idea as I left the bathroom, thinking through where the idea had some from: as always, substandard TV that I thought I could do one better.
I had an idea. I could feel what it was about. I had to make it exist.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 23: Do you think it’s vital for a fiction writer to have empathy?
I mean, I would argue it is, and yet, lots of writers have none and have careers! So. I dunno.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub: Jan 24: How long is the longest story you’ve ever written? Can you link to it?
"Story" as in "not a novel/novella," about 6000, and unfortunately, it's not anywhere I could link to it. Longest thing: ~60K and counting.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 25 Jan: Do you have a worked-out magical system (or advanced technology in sci-fi)? Or do you make it up as you go?
My WIP is has a combination. For the SF elements, I'm grounding them in real-world physics as much as I can; eg, rotating stations for artificial gravity, not "anti-grav deck plates." I also have a magical element, though, that I haven't fully nailed down. My hand-wave is it's a form of very small-scale telekinesis that affects basically only one's own body.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 26. If people tell you they’ve always wanted to write, what do you say to them?
Do it! There's no reason not to. If you write, you're a writer. Publishing is immaterial. So is supporting yourself with it or making any money at all. Writing is an art form we all have access to any time. It's one of the least expensive and lowest barrier to entry.
Stick words together; make art. Simple as that.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 28. Would anything stop you from writing, or do you have the bug for life?
Only if I had no time. As long as I have time for it, I'll keep writing.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 29: How do you format your drafts? Is it the same as the final manuscript?
Palatino, for the round friendly shapes, and then 1.1 spacing and 6 pt after each paragraph. Gotta let it breath or else I get antsy.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 30: Do secondary characters sometimes get promoted to main characters?
Sure. If they're interesting.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan 31: How’s your writing progress so far this year? What are you working on?
I am no longer lamenting my lack of progress towards a first draft. I am now making painfully slow progress towards a first draft.
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