Do you ever devote #writingtime to #daydreaming?

#WritingCommunity #WritingFiction #WritingFantasy #AmWriting #AmDaydreaming

The is an open mic set @southhillpark (Bracknell #Berks for the Golden Festival of Food and music,
Appropriately enough for @BracknellForest the poets will be on the Woodland Stage.
Poetry will be on 11:00 to 11:45 on Monday 8th. (2nd day and day after next #slam)

Some of the Dreading #Slam Poets will be performing, why not join us.
#writingfiction #festival #poetry #WritingCommunity

Aaand we are back to square "the keyboard is nice for content but if you want a voice you'll use a pen (and suffer)".

But damn, this story (on which I'd almost given up) is flowing and it is soooo good.

#writinglife #writing #WritingFiction

Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Say and I am part Irish so buy my book. This guy in Costa Rica did.
https://sometimescreek.com
#writingCommunity #writing #writingfiction

@orionkidder @allisonwyss @darrelm

This is the first time I've heard of m or em dashes. I looked it up and apparently there's also n or en dashes and the usual hyphens. Plus a 3m dash.

-
--
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Is it necessary to know about his sort of thing to write fiction?

I've written essays and an art degree dissertation without any issues. Maybe only experienced writers and advanced Eng Lit students learn this stuff.

:blobcatbook:

#WritingCommunity #WritingFiction

Here's a brief instructional article I wrote about the physicality of writing characters and scenes. It's on Medium.
https://medium.com/@sheilabender/the-physicality-of-writing-scenes-and-characters-6348f1cfa5b0

#writingfiction #writing #writingscenes #writingcharacters #creativewriting

Had a good writing week.

Finished the introduction to the Ultimate Miki Radicci Omnibus at 3,000 words. Oddly, not an easy feat. I’m a slow writer for nonfiction. Yet, I can do 10,000 words of fiction a week. Maybe I find the organization of metaphors and lies easier than telling the truth.

More work on my IP spreadsheet. I should be done with published works in another week or so. Almost 100 books in various channels. Next I’ll list my shortstories sold and unsold. That should take longer than published books.

Was thinking of writing something long next week but I think the formatting of the ebook omnibus and the paperback of Vol 1 may take up a lot of time and I have a deadline going.

But I’ll definitely do a tsunami of fresh material starting March first, damn it!

#writingcommunity #patreon #amwriting #writingfiction #indie #indiepublishing

As always, it's good to revisit tired axioms. "Show, Don’t Tell Disambiguation" by Tim Storm

https://www.stormwritingschool.com/show-dont-tell/

#writing #amwriting #literaryfiction #writingcommunity #writingfiction

I'm actually enjoying the work of reading the first Malazan book, but the prose itself, I do not like. The amount of character blocking bothers me. I get why the author does it (you can find his analyses of a scene or two online) but...it doesn't read well.

Character blocking is something most writers I know do. Including myself!

I say "blocking" in the manner of a stage play. It is describing many small gestures of a character that doesn't meaningfully add to a scene, or just doing it to excess. Character blocking is a broader way of describing something that is *usually* Eye Choreography. lmao

X looked at Y. He looked away.

Y's gaze cut to the ground.

X looked at the thing, and then he looked at his sword.

He walked to the bar with his gaze averted.

There are two issues here.

1) A book is less like a stage play and more like an impressionist painting you create in a reader's mind. Broadly describing behavior will allow readers to fill in gestures themselves.

2) Gestures don't mean the same things to everyone. It's unclear. I just touched a hand to my chin. What am I doing?

Is this a thoughtful hand?
Surprised?
Am I messing with a blemish?
Am I hiding the cleft in my chin?
Maybe I'm about to say something.

Looking at things or moving your hands or whatever can definitely be relevant, necessary scene information...sometimes. *Writing* it can also be totally necessary for *you*, the author, to work out where things are in the scene and what is happening. YOU know why the character is Looking.

A character's mood and physicality can be conveyed throughout the scene in MANY ways. It should form a greater picture for readers. Save specific gestures for when you wanna "zoom in."

In editing, I get rid of all blocking except the stuff that makes a scene *less* confusing.

If he absolutely needs to look at the window or nobody is going to realize he's talking about someone outside instead of inside the room, then yes! Block that. It zooms us in on that "look."

But remember: Gestures mean different things to different people. A lot of people can't read body language at all, even on the page. You are adding gestures that "zoom focus" without adding more information or experience for the reader. I am exhausted constantly zooming focus on characters' faces when their whole bodies exist and inhabit a setting.

There are alternative beats you can use, if you want to confer a pause in dialogue (though I think you can let readers infer a lot about dialogue cadence too). I will favor beats that embody characters in their setting in meaningful ways.

I really like beats that add *new* description to a character or setting. That breaks up big blocks of description and adds color and vivacity.

I also like character-specific beats. One character might mess with his ear a lot. Another has antsy feet. One can't stay sitting.

Using character-specific beats consistently across scenes, chapters, and books helps fix a character in the reader's mind. And the reader will bring biases about the character to fill in smaller gestures (X looking at Y, then away) as appropriate to their personality.

In Malazan, Character Blocking is frequent. I know from reading the author's analyses of his scenes that he does intend these lines to confer information. "By looking at the sword, Tattersail is thinking xyz." He doesn't actually intend for anyone to know what that means though. The author generally doesn't care if anyone knows what he's talking about. While I respect the attitude, I find that his reliance on blocking to express information he doesn't care about conveying isn't NEARLY as well-thought-out as his worldbuilding details.

I dislike the insulting connotations of "lazy" when I mean "convenient at the expense of quality," but lazy is the word I think reading a lot of this dialogue. Perhaps less lazy, more cursory? Like "FINE I guess people have to inhabit this world I'm writing, and they talk."

Likewise, I can't say the prose on Malazan is bad when what it actually is, is that the writer and I have way different priorities. That's all.

I see my prose on this level as the Welcoming Center of my book. It needs to get out of the reader's way so that my story and world can thrive. I want my language efficient and my meaning clear.

Efficiency of language can be so beautiful.

Malazan is legendary for its complexity, opacity, and demands upon the reader's patience. The world and experience of conquering the books makes this worthwhile. For my writer friends, I suggest editing out Character Blocking in draft 2 because you aren't writing Malazan, probably. Don't worry about the rough draft. Write whatever you have to write in the rough draft. But consider taking a scalpel into your scenes to excise all but essential blocking.

#amWriting #Writing #writingFiction #writingCommunity #writingFantasy

📢 Info dump for folks writing apocalypse/post-apocalypse fiction.

I've mentioned the macgyvermedical Tumblr acct before. Ross Vee, an RN-BSN & EMT-B. writes it as service to fiction writers.

Their recent post "Treating Diahhreal Illness" may be of interest. It is clearly & simply written & very detailed. Just the sort of thing that, if included in story, would be entirely credible.

Here's the link: https://at.tumblr.com/macgyvermedical/treating-diarrheal-illness/v6yj4futvwzh

#WritingFiction #Apocalypse #PostApocalypse #WritingCommunity

Resuming working on my #SFF/ #spaceopera #shortfiction tonight. I've had a two-day break from writing/revising fiction after sending my novel to crit-partners and blurb givers. While I'm really tired, I'm also really jonesing for my #writing fix.

#writingfiction #amwriting #writersofmastodon #authorsofmastodon #writingcommunity #writinglife

PURPLE PROSE MONDAY is now a thing. I decided just now. #PurpleProseMonday

Search your manuscript for the words "like a" and post THREE SIMILES you wrote in your manuscript.

I'll start.

1) Wind from the Deep beckoned the Dwarrow down like a hand tugging on cloak hems.

2) Esor could not retreat into his robes like a turtle into his shell, but he made a marvelous effort at stuffing his chin behind his cravat.

3) Ilare quietly sang, "I have been so lonely," whispering from her like a brook rippling between stones.

Get purple with me! Post a simile or three, like a child pinning the tail on the donkey! #WritingCommunity #amWriting #Writing #writingFiction #simile #WritingGames

#writing #WritingFiction #DescriptiveWriting

https://youtu.be/RSoRzTtwgP4

Anyone write anything other than fantasy and sci-fi?
#mastowriters
#writingcommunity
#writingfiction

Another 2000 word day! And I'm loving the story, still. I really dig this "let them wonder" thing I've got going, and I'm told that I do "frustratingly mysterious" pretty darned well.

#writing #writingfiction

I wrote about my TBR books for inspiration and research for the novel I’m writing! https://oliviaannegennaro.substack.com/p/my-tbr-for-inspiration-and-research

#bookstodon #books #WritingFiction #kidlit

2022 writing resume:

I wrote a lot and submitted some. (It is possible that my stuff was not dismissed on sight).
I critique partnered and found critique partners.

I also read a (for me) insane over 170 new books, reread a lot more, analysed, read again, ...

I would be pouring myself a drink even if 2022 had not been the year from hell, health wise.

#AmWriting #WritingFiction #WritingPoetry #WritersOfMastodon #Writers

Being tearful over my own poem.

Mind you, I am almost ankle deep in torn out note book pages. For this one thing.

#AmWriting #Writing #WritingFiction #WritingPoetry #WritersOfMastodon #Writers

So, I've just done my writerly accounts for 2022 - 290 pieces published this year (200 last year) out of the 580 pieces published since I started this submitting business properly in October 2019.

Obviously, there is always more to achieve and that book deal isn't going to magic itself out of thin air, but - given the year I've had and some of the difficulties - the turning up every day thing has worked!

#AmWriting #Writing #WritingFiction #WritingPoetry #WritersOfMastodon #Writers

Happy Christmas to the wonderful and inspiring #writers of Mastodon. Additional to my promise to provide a brand new piece every single day, here is a favourite from recent times that I hope you enjoy:

https://medium.com/the-fictioneers-treasure-trove/cloning-f17decb8360e

#Writing #AmWriting #WritingFiction