There’s tons of affordable paid providers too. You get a lot for the cost of one bubble tea per month.
And of course there’s the option to run your own site, which is probably easier and cheaper than you think. It’s worth giving it some thought.
But whatever you do: definitely keep a copy of your writing in a place you control, even if it’s just a bunch of text files. You never known when or for what you’ll need it.
@design_law
Thanks for the clarification. I was going to say disarming, that isn't right for this situation.
Perhaps "take the wind from their sails"? Similar connotations of taking power away.
@NaraMoore
I only use those images as visual clues of what I want to describe, but never write what's in the image as is. I'm not that shameless…=)
I used to draw but lost the ability like 20 years ago. I can still do it but it takes me forever to draw a person, while then I could draw pages and pages in one day. I'm sure that's part of a conspiracy against me…=)
@Klepsis@NaraMoore
Yes, you can do that here, too. But it's more difficult if you don have at least bionic limbs because magic here is a healthy as radiation if you try to use in its unnatural state…=)
And computers are already magical things. Dark, evil magical things, that is! =)
#PennedPossibilities 313: Is your MC or SC one to confess romantic feelings early on, or to conceal them for long periods of time?
I have one side character who can't pretend not to have a crush when he has it. It's written all over his face. My intention is that he's so goofy and harmless about it that it comes off as cute, but I'll need women beta readers to help me make sure that's the case, I think.
Writing routine, not really, but I have a drawing one : after breakfast, I start my day with about one hour of drawing as warmup before starting my daily job.
#WritersCoffeeClub#Writing 25 How do you feel about writers who write outside of their gender/sexuality/race etc?
I feel extremely concerned by this one, having a black female character who appears to have a lesbian relationship while I am an old white cis heterosexual male (but I’m left handed!) Also racism is an important topic of the story, Erie having been the object of segregation all her life. 1/2
Why having a black woman as main character? Just because I like to draw dark skin. But Esther’s a lady of the upper class in a Victorian world. I end up with a character that is not the stereotype of the black woman. Lately a black Muslim woman has discovered Esther and she loves her. I’m quite proud that black people love Esther. (2/2)
Right now, I am in Boston for a conference and I definitely don't feel good enough.
I'm a speaker, and this event should be a wonderful moment of celebration. Except, I spent most of my first day here crying. I cried in the conference bathroom, I cried by the front entrance, I cried in my Lyft when leaving early, I cried in my hotel room, I cried at the Harvard Book Store, and I cried at the ramen shop a block over.
@mariyadelano Thank you for putting pen to paper and sharing this with the outer world. It's terrifying but (in my experience) ultimately relieving to finally find the words to express what your feelings actually are when they've been buried so deep down for so long.
I think one of life's lessons is realizing that it's okay for things to sometimes just not be okay. It's what makes us human, regardless of 'the pile of bags in the corner' as you described it. 💖
I wonder what tense you've all chosen to write in and why.
I know past tense is likely the most common, but I have experimented with both and decided that present tense offers more direct immersion for my purposes.
This also ties into who the narrator is. In my WIP, it is a person in the room invisibly tagging along with the MC.
How did you decide, and is it reflected in the identity of the narrator?
I can see how that could be fun. I've read some books like that, but I can't do that all the time. I like my more gentle-paced stories—especially romance.
(FWIW, my debut novel, The Way of the Wielder, is a romantic fantasy told in 3rd person past tense.)
Linux and the Free Software movement are built on the foundation of individuals contributing their work for the enjoyment of everyone, without restriction.
Celebrate the hackers and hobbyists who have enabled even massive corporations to generate billions in wealth.
Discarding the tagging system is not entirely fair, as one could use #hashtags to show the topic(s) of intent. I think what @julia tried to point out is their excessive or purposeless insertion.
Another point to consider is the remaining servers that don't have full-text search landed or it's simply too expensive for one tiny cozy instance that your friendly administrator might be hosting.
Also, it is long overdue that accessibility tools catch up with the times - or for platforms to optionally strip # characters for screenreader's sake. Let the technology serve, not people nudge their freedom of expression, fanatism aside.
So I was writing a story the other day and realised that my go-to trick for getting out of any plot hole that I've dug myself into is “throw in some Cthulhu”. Struggling with a time travel story? Bring in Cthulhu. Thriller plot gone awry? Throw in some Cthulhu.
I may have to write this up as a self-help guide for writers.
This has been known for about 25 years or so as @azundris law of Roleplaying: About any story can be turned into a Cthulhu storyline within 2 sentences and it usually improves the story.
Yes and no. Our Hero can eat all the junk food you can throw at him with no ill effects, beyond the Godzilla-Class burps he emits when he eats more that decency allows. Same for healthy food. He can eat all the fruits and vegetables in the supermarket, and the only side effect will be those damn burps. The Standard Body™ can process all the nutrients in food, and, if needed, it can convert in energy the 100% of whatever the user eats…=)
@NaraMoore
Don't worry. That Lawyer's datafile is so old there's no system that can load it, and if they manage to do it, you can argue that they altered its code and it isn't the real Mr. McNab…>=)
It feels like the world is ending from every possible direction.
Maybe you feel like your world is ending too. And neither of us benefits from putting on a fake smile and keeping on as if we aren’t dealing with deep, existential, debilitating fear.
So here’s an uncomfortable question: does #marketing work even matter during an apocalypse?
@mariyadelano I’m feeling it, too, and struggling with all the chirpy messages. There’s too much at stake to pretend everything is the way it used to be.
Are you in a position to pick and choose the clients and products your firm markets?
That would give your marketing skills some purpose beyond providing for yourself and your family (which is, of course, purposeful).
But if you can use your skills to market things (or perhaps behaviors) that help solve a wicked problem, then your work is as important as all the other people’s work involved in providing that thing.
#WordWeavers May 1: Introduce your setting as if it’s a character in your story.
The Greater Cascadian Megalopolis was born from the need to house the population of the Pacific North West but leave the bulk of the continent free of humanity,"re-wilding." The fetal megapolopolis started as superblocks and then arcologies,multiplying until they formed an urban organism that now stretches from the middle of British Columbia all the way to the California border.
#WordWeavers May 2.What are your MC's living conditions like? Are they better or worse than average?
Yes, by world standards, absolutely. She's in an arcology, all her needs are met. Her city/region provides all the services anyone could need. Medicine,education,housing, and transportation are all administered collectively. It's functional democratic socialism. Much of the world does not have that,in the book. She's privileged.
Proposal of the day: anyone writing a thesis, proposal or description of their scientific work should first be made to stare at a large sign that goes something like this:
“We are tired of having to work out whether there’s any actual thinking going on inside the nozzle producing these fountains of pompous words. Stop trying to sound clever and just say what needs to be said as clearly and simply as possible. We can see through you.
@golgaloth
I worked in the automotive field for about 5 years as a bumper to bumper technician. I learned a lot in that time. Before I started my 9 month automotive technology class (where I learned the basics), this is what I thought was under the hood. 🤣🤣🤣
#WordWeavers Day 1/24. Out of all your writing, what was the hardest scene for you to write? Why?
"Wind in the East", the 4th Maliha Anderson book, is a difficult one for a lot of readers.
One scene has stopped many readers going any further because it's difficult to understand with violence between two people who love each other. It's not a BDSM thing, it's about shame and the expiation of guilt.
Writing it put me into shock for two weeks. I kid you not.
@faduda@UnCoveredMyths You could be right. If they were limited to Twitter, I wouldn't give them a hope – or even if they were restricted to social media. But they've spread to other domains. It's a fun one to ponder
@siblingpastry@wendyparciak I currently have nine alpha readers, although I usually invite a few extra readers in case some have to drop out (it happens).
If you like classic movies you should. The movie is Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. It is one of the true greats.
Ok, this is pretty funny.
From Josh Gauthier (@JG_Writer on twits)
Let's try this. Give me the opening line of a book, but add "and then the dragons arrived."
In the beginning, the universe was created, and then the dragons arrived. This has made a lot of people very angry, and been widely regarded as a bad move.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, and then the dragons arrived."
I'm shattered, I have chronic bum-ache from sitting at my laptop so much, the husband forgot what I look like, and my exercise routine went out of the window. However, I have a whole draft of a new novel, which would normally take me years (going by previous efforts). I also learnt loads.
They're at home, wondering how they could possibly have let their little girl die like that, even though she's very much alive, trapped, a long long way away...
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18: Have you written sections where action occurs against the clock? How did you do it?
I have a short story about a man and his toddler son that spans the length of a day. I 100% cheated and put "2pm" and such in as scene headings. It got the job done.
My novel had a vague countdown to a tournament that I have tried to hint at through dialogue and narration, but also cranking up tension before the big day. I have not got that working the way I want it to.
"Yeah. It's where we ended up after the Harbinger. We tried to explain but you were kinda loopy going in the cocoon. You kept singing that song about Brad the Drunken Fish."
Jennifer guffawed disbelievingly.
"Emma kept trying to come up with a drum riff for it," Travis added.
I tried the strange juice and the weirdest thing happened...
I believed that I was an author who had this unhealthy obsession, an irrational anger really, to people leaving ladders on roofs.
So strong were his feelings on this subject, I too felt very angry when I came down off the trip. And now, when I see one my vision goes red and black like a chop socky flick!
@golgaloth Decisions. Sometimes a decision lays before you and there are so many possibilities, so many ways that it could go good or bad, that it actually makes it easy to choose. Simply take the first reasonable option that pops into your brain, and hope for the best. And if it's the wrong option, well, it won't be too bad. You can probably just choose again.
Sometimes a decision lays before you and there are only two options. Yes or no. Go or stop. Live or die. These are the decisions that can twist your brain into a pretzel. The wrong decision is the wrong decision, and there is no turning back.
I'd heard about the Chicken before. Rude and unreasonable was the consensus, and I just wasn't in the mood. A few people had told me the Juice was a bit strange, but what can you expect from Juice? I'm not even sure if it has a brain, so sure, it will be strange. I had to choose a companion, someone to watch my back, and the pickings were slim. I chose the Strange Juice
