✍️ Writing

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A community for writers, like poems, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, long books, all those sorts of things, to discuss writing approaches and what's new in the writing world, and to help each other with writing.

Rules for now:

1. Try to be constructive and nice. When discussing approaches or giving feedback to excerpts, please try to be constructive and to maintain a positive vibe. For example, don't just vaguely say something is bad but try to list and explain downsides, and if you can, also find some upsides. However, this is not to say that you need to pretend you liked something or that you need to hide or embellish what you disliked.

2. Mention own work for purpose and not mainly for promo: Feel free to post asking for feedback on excerpts or worldbuilding advice, but please don't make posts purely for self promo like a released book. If you offer professional services like editing, this is not the community to openly advertise them either. (Mentioning your occupation on the side is okay.) Don't link your excerpts via your website when asking for advice, but e.g. Google Docs or similar is okay. Don't post entire manuscripts, focus on more manageable excerpts for people to give feedback on.

3. What happens in feedback or critique requests posts stays in these posts: Basically, if you encounter someone you gave feedback to on their work in their post, try not to quote and argue against them based on their concrete writing elsewhere in other discussions unless invited. (As an example, if they discuss why they generally enjoy outlining novels, don't quote their excerpts to them to try to prove why their outlining is bad for them as a singled out person.) This is so that people aren't afraid to post things for critique.

4. All writing approaches are valid. If someone prefers outlining over pantsing for example, it's okay to discuss up- and downsides but don't tell someone that their approach is somehow objectively worse. All approaches are on some level subjective anyway.

5. Solarpunk rules still apply. The general rules of solarpunk of course still apply.

founded 1 year ago

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ellie@slrpnk.net

grrgyle@slrpnk.net

Writing Club - July 2024 (slrpnk.net)

submitted 5 months ago by grrgyle@slrpnk.net to c/writing@slrpnk.net

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Welcome to the inaugural writing club update! This is a brand new writing club, first proposed here. I have some ideas about what I want from this club, but where we go from here is open ended.

So feel free to start new posts or spinoffs in between my monthly posts, as long as they jive with the rules in our gracious host community's sidebar, you have my full support. :)

On to the whole point of this club! The following brave things set to text concrete goals for themselves (linked beside their names, just below). If you'd like to join their number, simply say so in the comments, along with your goal for this month. Okay, here are the stars of our show: 👏👏👏👏

Participants

You don't have to share any of the actual material you've worked on unless you want to (you could even use our local Etherpad to share writing stuff - for example).

Here are some questions to start you off. I'm genuinely interested in your answers, but don't feel you need to follow my script. This is just a prompt:

How do you think you did on your goal(s)?
What would you like to accomplish for our next check-in in August?
Is there a part of your project that you'd especially like feedback on?
Is there anything about this writing club you'd like us to do differently?

No stress if you didn't accomplish everything you set out to (I fell short and I'm still here hehe). I would love to hear your updates no matter how things went!

I'll share my own progress in a comment below. What I'm hoping from this step is that we treat this as part check-in, and part conversation. This is your chance to really dig into each others' projects (and if someone has done so for you, maybe it would be nice to return the favour and take an interest in their own project? ;))

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[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My outline would have it be 3 books, or maybe a book in three parts depending on how long things end up.

First one is set in the current-ish era (origins, main conflict is MC vs self), second book set a few decades later (growth, main conflict is with a specific individual), last book set a couple hundred years in the future (redirection, main conflict is with manipulative corporations/governments), epilogue is in the far distant future (transcendence, main conflict is with meaning/the universe in general).

Some of my inspiration for story structuring comes from star maker by olaf Stapleton, where self discovery of an individual leads towards bigger and bigger understandings until it encompasses the universe.

&& I definetly think centering stories and projects within one universe is a great way to handle creative ADD, & it helps with world building & audience retention (if people like one series, they'll probably read a spin off series set in the same universe). Though, I do still fall victim to the shiny object syndrome when I write lol & have a few stories started that are set in entirely different universes.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

epilogue [...] main conflict is with meaning/the universe in general

Heavy! I love that kind of conflict/theming, when the writer gets philosophical, using the events of the book almost as a classroom, secreted away in a work of fiction. I agree epilogue is a good place for this. I always enjoy these parts of more complex books, because they give you a chance to contextualise what you've read.

Some of my inspiration for story structuring comes from star maker by Olaf Stapleton, where self discovery of an individual leads towards bigger and bigger understandings until it encompasses the universe.

Cool, I have Stapleton's "The Last and First Men" on my to-be-read list! His stories do seem like rich inspo-fuel. I haven't read any of his work myself yet, but the sense I get from hearing about them, yeah; it's really starting to drive home the scale of your book(s).

I'm currently reading Cloud Atlas, which also seems to take place over a large swath of time... Anyway, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but I think I'm getting a little bit of a similar vibe from it, too.

Pardon me going on about other books. I know some people can find these kinds of comparisons draining, so I'll just put my brakes on here.

[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago

I love philosophical aspects in books too, when done well they can be really powerful & stick with you even when details of the book have faded. It's a real balancing act of not getting too heavy handed in things and bogging down the story. I'm hoping I can do justice to the ideas bouncing around in my head.

& I dont mind the comparisons at all :) I think all writing exists within context & recognizing similarities doesn't diminish the value of an original work.

&& I haven't read cloud atlas, but I'll add it to my list. I love a good scifi epic