@cavyherd Oh, absolutely. That's perfectly standard. Everyone has something they don't get without a lot of effort and revision, but knowing where it should go is very helpful, and putting down what you know, which is often wildly different from just knowing it, can cast shadows that the shape of what you're missing.

#writing #WritingSF #WritingSFF

@PamelaDean

Okay, actually got some movement on this particular conundrum this morning. (i.e., content to plug into the empty socket).

I guess the (well, one) answer to this is to write the scene, leave a [placeholder] for the part you haven't fleshed out yet, and then have faith that all will become clear in time?

(The part that's tricky is when the particulars of the [content] affect the tone of the character relationship.)

#writing #WritingSF #WritingSFF

@PamelaDean

Oh, no, I got the characters. Very vividly! And the rough sketch of the setting. It's just the actual *content* I'm missing. Mostly because I don't care 😆

Like—how does that even *work*??

(How it works is #adhd

#writing #WritingSF #WritingSFF

@cavyherd Oh, interesting, that beat doesn't come with characters per se? I usually, not always, start with characters, and they have lives and relationships and contexts attached, though sometimes parts of that are hard to get at.

#writing #WritingSF #WritingSFF

Look more practice!

@PamelaDean

Oh yes! Thank you! Have now subscribed to those as well.

Yeah, I'm kind of sitting here thinking about the fact that my favorite failure mode is: I come up with character/relationship beat I want to hit, and I have the structure in mind so clearly I can taste it. But I don't have any actual /content/ for it, so I just sit spinning my wheels in frustration.

#writing #WritingSF #WritingSFF

See? Me! Practicing! Aren't ya proud of me? 😊

@cavyherd It's definitely more fun to ask a friend. There's also #writingsf and #writingsff, but those don't get a lot of use. Should I have a writing thought other than ARGH, I could try using them.

I have returned from the apocalyptic void that was the LOL server to scream about my fiction creations! What are #writingcommunity people working on? #writingsf

I'm trying to meet my characters. While I have a good sense of my main character, none of the others started as more than a name, age and basic job. I hit upon using an image as a visual touchstone which helps.

I've gone back to the beginning and am writing each scene a character is in from their POV. It's a fascinating exercise; they are making themselves known in a way I didn't anticipate, including insisting on background that can't go into the book. So besides writing the scenes, I find myself writing vignettes of interactions between characters.

I now have 3 Scrivner projects for this: the main project holds the novel, as well as all the research and character sheets, one project for the character's view for each scene, and the last contains the vignettes.

I still don't understand my process. It doesn't feel like it's coming from me, but it seems to be working for me.

#writingsf #WritingProcess #writingNewbie #Writing

It's crunch time. Just sent my first novel off to an agent. Following up with half a dozen more tomorrow. Time the little fella walked by himself!

#writingsf #writers

I got nearly 1,100 words done tonight on my WIP, and it's over 25,000 words. Good for me! #amwriting #writingsf

Friday morning essentials.

#writing #amWriting #writingSF #scifi #fountainPen #literature #coffee

Writing in analogue about the digital. With digits.

#writing #amWriting #writingSF #scifi #fountainPen #literature

Wednesday business: turning coffee and a biscuit into plot notes.

This is my “flow” manuscript, a science-fiction story about an 18 metre tall, 60 tonne cyborg who hides her trauma behind dutiful efficiency.

I’ve no idea if it’ll work, but it’s an engaging side project.

#writing #amWriting #writingSF #scifi #fountainPen #literature

Boys have soccer practice down the street, so I'm getting ready to transcribe opening of chapter 4 and character objective conversation as I relax with some coffee. #writingsf #writing #writingcommunity

I’m really enjoying this Writing Excuses series on writing & disability.

Some of it will be familiar to anyone who knows about the social model (which they define in two episodes). But the conversations about authors describing *and* living with disabilities are very good. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/writing-excuses/id990871441?i=1000587639424

#amWriting #writing #disability #disabilities #writingWhileDisabled #writingSF #writingFantasy #speculativeFiction #books #literature

This essay by Ursula K. Le Guin asks the question: if 80% of the food is provided by the gatherers, then why is it that only the hunters are prized and revered?

"The skillful hunters would come staggering back with a load of meat, a lot of ivory, and a story. It wasn’t the meat that made the difference. It was the story."

#Writing #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #WritingFantasy #WritingSF #Writer #Writers​
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction

'No, I don't voice my own opinions through my characters, because one of them is that each character should be true to himself or herself at all times; and if one of them isn't it hurts like a boil until I fix it.' - Gene Wolfe

Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe, ed. by Peter Wright (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007), p.21.

#writing #amWriting #writingCommunity #writingFantasy #writingSF #writer #writers

Do you have complementary writing projects?

My main manuscript is nonfiction, due 2023. Its research & composition take up most of my time.

I’m writing a murder mystery, now 2nd draft. This is informed by nonfiction research (e.g. on 17thC), but provides a tonal & stylistic break.

And I’m free-writing a sci-fi tale, which wipes the novel from my mind. Different world, little research.

#amWriting #writing #writingSF #writingFantasy #mystery #murderMystery #nonFiction #philosophy #fountainPens