@neve
Just a little note of praise for using an image card on all your #writephant questions. When scanning a feed, or my timeline, it makes it exceptionally easy to find each canonical question so I can answer it. I really suggest it for anyone posting prompts.
#writephant Q3. We have lots of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers here. Have you ever invented a sense/ability/unique skill for one of your stories?
When you posted this question, I passed with nothing really interesting to relate beyond the hackneyed telepathy and the usual sixth senses. However, between then and now, I have a definite, yes. It woke me in the middle of the night. It's obvious for my Wintereyes character after her interactions with a cat, which I've just started writing. The story is a magical fantasy.
Vibrissae: A sense of range, texture, and heat centered on one's head, disconcerting because the sense is facial. The main character is very shy; her reactions in crowds ought range between interesting and NSFW. I don't think she'll be able to stop herself from feeling the people around her, but I'm not sure yet. She'll be hesitant to tell anybody she does.
#writephant Q1. Do you tend to be concise in your descriptions, or do you favour the lush, multi-sentence descriptions of people, places, and things?
I used to be very concise. I got used to it from flash fiction. I had to force myself to slow down and describe spaces, and the way I did it was by imagining a roving camera eye, and then once I'd written it, some part of it would become relevant. That's how I improvise.
#writephant Q2. The less used senses are sound, smell, taste, touch. Of these non-visual ones, is there one that you rely on the most in your fiction writing?
I mean, it's sound. Dialogue. Machines that go beep. Etc.
#Writephant Q3. Have you ever invented a sense/ability/unique skill for one of your stories?
The one I'm having fun with is having to learn how to do telepathy. Instead of words you hear in your head, they have to figure how to put a collections of thoughts together in order for them to communicate something coherent. Otherwise, it's the equivalent of, like, a bunch of yelling.
#Writephant Q4. Are there emotions/sensations/feelings that you find tricky or difficult to describe?
I mean, not really. Describing emotions come really easily to me. Always has. The stuff I find hard to articulate is the very specific visuals I sometimes picture.
#writephant Q2. The less used senses are sound, smell, taste, touch. Of these non-visual ones, is there one that you rely on the most in your fiction writing?
#writephant Q1. Do you tend to be concise in your descriptions, or do you favor the lush, multi-sentence descriptions of people, places, and things?
When I'm describing a setting, it's often what you'd call lush, especially if the action is moving there. I try not to do that initially in a chapter, and NEVER in the first half page of a book, removing it in revision if I slip. When action is involved, I'm concise, preferring narrated POV opinion and observations as description peppered within things happening.
In the age of social media, websites like Tumblr engage with silliness. This year, Tumblr is letting users send infinite "boops" to those that opt-in. What has been your favorite special feature on a website that let you have fun? #Writephant
#Writephant Q2 How do you go about creating intentional awkwardness in a scene?
Awkwardness results when the /reader/ realizes the expectations of the on-stage characters differ but, typically, the characters are either not aware or not fully cognizant of the extent of what they don't know.
In the current WIP, the male SC is from a tropical society and resembles a pre-colonial Pacific islander. The female MC lived amongst wolves where clothing wasn't important. Both are doing their best to conform to the European-style society where they temporarily live. The tension in one chapter (at his house) revolves around articles of clothing and what's proper to wear—and the dichotomy between what's right for here versus what intuition and reflex say is right.
Awkwardness ensues.
It works because it is (theoretically) an erotic romance novella.
#Writephant Q5. What is your favorite grammar resource? Why?
Copyeditors. Because of how things work in publishing, my books have had different copyeditors, but they've all been fantastic and I've learned something from each of them.
This is the end of the "official questions" hour. Please feel free to keep
chatting on this topic and hashtag throughout the week!
For now, it's self-promotion time! What links, pieces of writing, art, and so
forth would you like people to see in this chat? Post as many as you like within
the character limit! #Writephant
It’s the subconscious ones that you don’t need to explicitly teach native speakers, because they give us such insight to how the language centres of our brains work.
In English, examples include:
Why tock-tick sounds wrong (something to do with the vowels)
Why red, little house sounds wrong (we have a very structured way to string adjectives and we all implicitly know it)
@adriabailton
It's a bittersweet beginning of the week.
The big news: I can put a name to my eye problem: keratitis aka inflammation of the cornea. Cause unknown--focus on treatment.
My eyes are so out of whack I can barely work (+250, -175 & changing all the time, so no new glasses). New eyedrops + ointment + change my usual dry eye stuff & see the doc in a month . . . but it feels so good to know the name of my enemy.
#Writephant Q3 What do you rely on in adding a book to your TBR pile? Reviews? Word of mouth? Other?
I use award lists, books my reader and writer groups are talking about, website rec lists, potential comps ... Really any number of avenues to add books to my TBR, which is massive and not truly achievable to ever fully read.
@neve#Writephant 3. What do you rely on adding a book to TBR pile? Reviews, word of mouth, other?
Hmm, definitely word of mouth and other. I think most of the books I pick up are from just reading the back cover, being interested, then flipping to a random page and seeing if I like the prose. I don't put much stock in reviews, I have come across plenty of terrible books that had glowing 5-star reviews, and a fair few that were excellent with middling reviews.