this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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✍️ 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.

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Writing Club - December 2024 (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 week ago by grrgyle@slrpnk.net to c/writing@slrpnk.net
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Welcome to the sixth writing club update!

I hope everyone has had a good November (and part of December (these posts keep taking me longer and longer into the month to post - they're basically mid-month posts now lol)). These increased indoorsiness is often good for the types of projects we're embarked on.

So without further ado, here are our dashing Participants for the month!

Have a great December and new year!

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

For my update, while I have not got much progress on my actual short story, I did manage to do a good bit of writing. I tried this "morning pages" approach, and was surprised to get a couple of chaotic paragraphs out of it. Anyway, I managed to do that 8 times, and feel really good about it. Feels like I might actually be working the practice of writing back into my daily life.

Here's a link to one of the more voluminous outputs. I wish I could reign in my wordiness somewhat, it's a bit of a shield, and limits the kinds of characters I can portray. Just a matter of practice, I suppose. :)

For my next goal, I think I will continue tugging on this thread of seat-of-the-pants / almost stream-of-consciousness writing. So, since my last update I did 8 "sessions" - so just for fun, I'm going to put a number to my goal: I will complete 10 to 13 similar writing sessions, producing at least... 3 paragraphs each.

[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm glad the sessions approach has been useful for you :)

And i liked the little snippet too. I dont think it feels overly verbose when reading, it more so feels like a stylistic choice. I think it works especially with the frame of being an internal monolog.

Also any tips for using etherpad (the app you used to share your writing)? It looks really cool & I've never used it before.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you! I would still like to get better with other types of voices, but I'm glad this one works for this situation.

I'm still new to etherpad myself, so I'm sure I'm using it pretty bluntly. The documentation online z looks like it was made for a pretty technical audience, so is not super inviting, but for the most part it looks like you use it like a typical text editor, like you'd see when sending an email.

The ability to track revisions does look cool. I think you bookmark a "version" of your text by pressing the star icon. Would be need to see a snippet evolve over time this way, idk.

[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

I like your voice, but i also understand the appeal of having different modes of writing. It's a good way to grow as a writer and explore different ways of communicating. Itll be cool so potentially see you experiment with new voices in the future :))

[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This month, I've continued trying to make small times somewhat regularly to write. It's been fairly successful, though there were defiantly weeks I didn't write anything. I want to continue to keep up the momentum this month, though I know it will be hard since I'll be spending quite a bit of time with my family at the end of this month. My goal is to continue making time to write twice a week (both weekend and work week).

In the spirit of sharing, I also was to share the prolog for one of the books I've been working on. Some specific questions: how does the writing tense feel? Is it too strange, does it feel overly ungrounded? Does opening on a dream work, or does it feel a bit overdone? I hope that because its a description of inspiration is doesn't feel as over used as the wake up from a nightmare scenario. I am a big fan of my opening line, but am curious on how other people might feel about this opening.

Anyways. here's a link I hope will work :)

edit to add: I don't know why its highlighted in green. If you know how to change that, please let me know lol

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that's a good goal, and reasonable if you're going to be spending time with family (me too! I am too!), and good to keep up the habit of writing during both the week and week-end.

Anyways. here’s a link I hope will work :)

Woooo! We're doing it - sharing our writing! I'm so excited. :D Okay, on with the feedback:

I didn't really think about the writing tense, so I'd say it fits.

It doesn't feel too strange at all. I think the strangeness of the dream opening works in its favour. To your other question, maybe it does feel a bit ungrounded? I'm not sure, I feel like the protagonist's yearning to integrate with the robotic intelligence is the grounding, but it's only stated in the last sentence, so hard to tell from this sample.

I agree, it's a great opening line. I like this kind of dreamy, poetic writing, so opening on a subjective works for me. I was a bit confused by the outline of silver light, and had to read that part a couple of times (not unusual for me). My unsolicited hot take is that it's perhaps missing a simile, just to give the mind's eye something to picture. But that's just me backseat writing lol :P definitely follow your own intuition first, if this ambiguity is part of what you had in mind.

"Show users on this pad" button with user "grrgyl" highlighted, naturally, in grey

To change your text colour in etherpad, you go to the top-right of the screen and click the icon that looks like 3 people. Then you press the circle next to your name that's the same colour of green. I just use it to paste my work into for sharing right now, but I could see how it would be neat for more collaboration. Like for example, I see there is a plugin that would let us leave comments on each others' stories! That would be cool imho.

[–] hazeebabee@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback! I see what you mean on having a hard time picturing things. I think that's what I meant by ungrounded. I often write in a poetic way, but it can leave my prose lacking in detail. Maybe I'll revisit that area and add in some more physical descriptors.

I'm hoping to share some of the first chapter next month, and it is much more grounded since it's starting the actual story and has more specific events going on.

And it would be cool to be able to leave comments and other things on people's stories (as long as they request it).

So glad to finally be able to share some of my writing with you :) also I'm glad you like the first line as well, it's a little pet of mine lol

[–] okasen@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

IIIII did not progress on my climate fiction. I might literally do so today after I put the baby to bed.

My goals this month are business related. My other pen name (the cli fi sci fi one) needs a bit of love. I am currently selling 0 books because it’s impossible to buy them… because I was refusing to put them on Amazon. I hate Amazon with a white hot fury. If I do put my books up there it will be angrily. But… well my author storefront fees just went up Too High, and I haven’t had hardcover books for sale in a Minute because I haven’t been able to ship them out. Because I had a baby. But that was in June and I wanna be a more authory author again.

My romance is doing well under that pen name. I’ve got a few subscribers on the serialisation platform. And some on bluesky now. I’ve been writing consistently, too!

So goals: figure out a way to sell e- and physical- books again. If that’s via Amazon… so be it. But I’m gonna try hard for it to not be.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 week ago

The pull of Amazon is mighty, and I deeply respect your struggle to stay as free of its influence as you can. I'm just a "consumer," so it's easy for me to stay away and just go without, but as an independent author, it's I'm sure, much more costly to remain principled.

So would you say that the romance is easier to write, or maybe more rewarding? I can only speak for myself, but when I have trouble writing out a scene/character/story, it's often because there's some internal resistance. Like maybe some more "work" to be done before the writing goes more smoothly (which is also work, but different, lol).

I am not at all an author, so you would know better than me, anyway.

PS. Do you write personal letters, emails? You have a great correspondence style!

[–] JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been making good progress on the Fully Automated! solarpunk TTRPG campaign! We got a group together to play it and we've done four or five sessions now.

At first I'd been thinking of the play sessions as the cost of getting the campaign guide finished and out the door but I've been having an absolute blast running it. It helps that my players are awesome - two are devs from the game, one is an experienced player, and one joined recently but has been great - their collective knowledge has basically allowed me to run the story and lean on them for the gameplay. It's worked surprisingly well.

I've never GM'ed before, played a couple DnD sessions but that's about it. But I've watched tons and tons of Actual Plays and read a lot of world building and session running guides because they were a good source for writing advice, so I guess I picked up some GM tricks a long the way. It's so fun! And they seem to be quite enjoying it - it's been lovely getting to watch them occupy this world I put together and we're looking at doubling how often we meet per week.

The sessions have been a great motivation for making more content and an awesome way to find gaps I need to fill. It's going to be a much more thorough document after the rest of the playtesting.

I've also made a lot of character artwork (in a kind of old comic book style) and an additional map for one of the main locations which has been very helpful.

It's just been great and I'm looking forward to working on it more.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

At first I’d been thinking of the play sessions as the cost of getting the campaign guide finished and out the door but I’ve been having an absolute blast running it.

Wow what a great surprise. It sounds like you have a terrific group! A group like you're talking about is truly special.

I've probably mentioned this in the context of this writing club before, but the concept of "practising in public," and soliciting others for feedback. That kind of fast feedback loop is invaluable in all creative endeavours, even if it can be uncomfortable at times! That's the whole point of this writing club.

It’s just been great and I’m looking forward to working on it more.

I'm so happy that it's been a rewarding time for you, because we know you've absolutely been putting the work in. Always great to see effort rewarded! I hope the new year brings even more good times - and I can't wait to hear about them. :)