Just be me, just
a tree, with a path
and a brook, and
infectious shade
that cajoles you
into smiling. At me.
At that tree.
And my only
eccentricitree
is you am you
and me am me,
and I’m working
on ambulating,
but evolution
takes time.
#WordWeavers 2404.27 — Who's blaming who in your story?
The MC blames herself. She either didn't solve the problem, misjudged her superior, didn't delegate properly, or taught others inadequately. She's good at getting rid of incompetents, which is anyone who repeats the same mistake twice. In the big picture, she does blame the main antagonist for making her life intolerable and causing her to run away from home. (This is not a relative.) She owns running away as her choice, however, including that she got savaged because she was naïve and took too many chances as a result. She looks back at her mistakes only to ensure that the next time it's a new mistake.
This resilience and self-reliance doesn't make her Buddha-like. She deals with people mechanically though efficiently. She doesn't let people into the shell this allows her to make because she doesn't trust easily.
Even in our litigious world, changing over 10% of an idea makes it derivative, though how would we quantify it for a story? Really, there aren't any unique ideas, only our approach to the idea as well as our characters and world building that make our writing unique in fiction. In non-fiction, some very high-profile people have recently been caught copying passages (or more likely having copied for them) and passing off as their own ideas. With people not learning enough to cross-check, and especially now with the advent of AI that plagiarizes by design, I expect a lot more people are going to find themselves outed as stupid or ignorant.
Clichés are a minefield. Someone coined them. Some of them are actually quotes, and if you happen to remember one and write it down perfectly, someone could point to you and say the p-word. I have inadvertently done this, and I hope I've caught all my instances during revision. If not, it's been /much ado about nothing./
There are people who react to situations and people who think through the problem. My female MC's are like the feline in this comic, because that seems natural to me.
Help ! J’ai un temps de latence quand je frappe au clavier sur #LibreOffice 7 sous #Linux, bug exclusivement sous #Writer. J’ai cherché sur le net et je ne suis visiblement pas le seul mais pas trouvé de solution... Quelqu’un a une idée ?
26 Apr 1671: d. Anne Cary, Dame Clementia #otd (BM) foundress, daughter of Henry Falkland, Lord Deputy of #Ireland & Elizabeth Cary [Tanfield], #writer at Our Lady of Good Hope #Benedictine Convent in #Paris
#WordWeavers 2404.26 — In your story, who’s hiding (literally or metaphorically?)
In one story, the MC spent the entire story hiding her identity. As a runaway, she feared being found and carted back to fulfill a role she felt unearned and onerous. Identified as who she was, she'd cease to be judged on her merits but on her station in life; she'd cease to exist because being praised for her real accomplishments is the only thing that gives her pure joy. Only once does she confess, gambling everything to win over a teacher she really needs. I won't say how that works out!
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 26— Do you write stand-alone stories, series or both? Which do you prefer?
In the beginning, I thought I'd write only standalone stories. I considered sequels lazy, though for purposes of this discussion trilogies are just one big book. More recently, I've become a fan of episodic storytelling. Exploring the same worlds through different adventures with the same character or a cast of characters that trade off being MC. It's been fun writing prequels and sequels, and even writing multiple novellas into one novel. My current two works are designed as serials. In one, I've written stories with the intended MC and with her supposedly evil antagonist as the MC in different stories. I'm liking the possibilities.
Whether readers will like it remain to be learned...
Treading on toast points,
stepping carefully, ensuring
marmalade impressions
aren’t anew. Reuse the
sticky paths from ago.
Feet going “schmuck”
in and out of deep
depressions. “Why, that
imprint alone is decades old.
Preserve the
landmark!”. What a
jam.
One was a prizefighter and later a bodyguard before she clobbered the greatest thaumaturge of all time. The devil-girl is capital F Fit, and because she works at it, you can tell.
The other MC hunts with a pack of wolves. She's supple, fast, and dangerous though never quick enough to make the kill. She's also well fed, and unreasonably beautiful, which hides how fit she is.
#WordWeavers 2404.23 — How much of an age range do you have with your MCs?
I tend to write coming of age sagas. Mid-teens to mid-twenties? I did recently write a number of stories where the MC looked 24 years old, but was substantially over a 1,000. Immortals make good tragic characters.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 08 — Do you think of your books as having a particular length?
A publisher told me 80K to 100K for a novel and I aim for that, but get what I get. In practice, I'm ending up with what feels like four strongly related 25K novellas. I haven't strong feelings about story length, more about not letting anything artificial get in the way of completing a story.
#WordWeavers 2404.22 — What two senses are the most natural for you to include in your description?
The POVs see and hear most things, and I'm not sure seeing comes first as hearing precedes looking. Most of my descriptions are visual. That said, the POVs in both WiPs have been doing a lot of sniffing of the SCs recently. One MC's "gift" does make her sense of smell better, but that doesn't explain why the other finds certain scents pleasant.
#WordWeavers 2404.25 — Do your MCs have any luck in love?
I'm LMAO with this question. The women in both my WiPs, rather uncharacteristic of my earlier stories that don't delve into the details, are definitely getting what they want from the men in their lives. That goes doubly for the one who discovers she has two boyfriends not one (and it's way too complex and spoilery to explain right here). I will say she's pleased by the discovery...
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 25 — Do you add a message from the author to your work?
When I serialize online chapters, I sometimes include author notes. I usually do it encourage comments and to prevent down votes; it's kinda advertising the way jacket blurbs are, and helps maintain the publishing microcosm. I recently published a chapter with the content of a subsequent chapter, which incidentally spoiled a cliffhanger, so I added an author note to apologize to the few that had quickly read the chapter before I repaired it—including the three who up voted during the interval!
I don't think I'd add author notes to a book, unless there were things like research or pertinent history I thought might enhance my readers' understanding of my book's message beyond the story. Otherwise, a work ought stand for itself.
FOLLOW ME: You might not like everything I have to say but I’ll make you think. Of course, that might include thinking I’m an idiot. I write about politics, culture, writing, and quite a lot of random shit, but it’s almost always my original thoughts and insights. Funny, apoplectic, or morose. But honest.
Maybe I could ask you to boost so I may continue my effort to conquer the world.