#writerscoffeeclub June 10. Do you revise and add more plot if you feel your story is too short?
I try not to unless my agent or editor tells me to. I tend to write long, so it's a constant struggle against fictive weight gain. (Caveat: my next novel was originally going to be a novelette, then a novella … then my editor decreed "more back-story, make it a novel", so there goes any hope of it making the Hugo shortlist in 2026.)
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 10 — Do you revise and add more plot if you feel your story is too short?
Inklings was supposed to be a sudden fiction story, but 800 words proved insufficient to express a shy person's predicament with attraction. Adding more words developed the characters to where I could see a further ending, first to where they might misinterpret themselves into bed, and then again to where the love interest's past breaks into the present and the MC has to save his life with her magic. Now I see an epilogue, too.
Yes. Each change required a revision and backfilling earlier parts to create foreshadowing. This allowed me to add more plot.
Was it because it was too short?
Um... except for the 800 words in the beginning, well... dunno.
#WritersCoffeeClub
How do you select ideas from all the ones floating around?
My stories usually come when some person, or an image of them, an action they're doing, a location they're in, etc, gets stuck in my head. Usually there's a strong emotional feel attached. My new book, for instance, started when I was dozing away one morning and in my head a woman woke up next to a dead body and said, "Oh, no. Not again." That made me sit up.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 09 — How do you select ideas from all the ones floating around?
I require a character I can relate, to with an agenda to fulfill and a problem to solve. If that generates an ending I can write toward, it's "Tag yo it!"
Sadly, I sometimes write without an ending. Those rarely end well.
#WritersCoffeeClub June 8
Do you agree with Michael Moorcock, who said: "Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say"?
I feel he has said something profound, after reading his works; he ignored the things which would've made his stories stale but embraced that which makes them great reads!
There is a balance between accepting the rules which make sense and ignoring those which are constraining the creative vision that lives within. He was a maverick.
#WritersCoffeeClub 5.7 — What do you do first when you start a new writing project?
I... err... write.
That's usually what I do. The world tends to grow as I write, the characters begin to show themselves, and eventually, the full plot is revealed.
I don't plan.
I know a few things (for the Wolves, I started with the three McMullen siblings), but with Connor? I just knew he took over bodyguard jobs, as told in Book 3.
#writerscoffeeclub Jun 8 Do you agree with Michael Moorcock, who said: "Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say"?
Since I'm not sure I even know all these rules, I guess I agree 😅
The only rule I follow is - if I want to publish it, it must be readable. And here are some guidelines that will help you make it easier for the reader to follow your thoughts.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 08 — Do you agree with Michael Moorcock, who said: "Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say"?
The advice boils to down to learn how to write and practice enough that you understand the basics (items 1 through 9), and understand what about all that gets in the way of you telling your tale... then tell your tale the way you need to tell it instead. I kinda agree...
To the extent you can be truthful with yourself and keep your ego at bay. This took me decades.
@sfwrtr@orionkidder That’s my approach. You’re bound to make money either way. It depends on how much you need/want ;) Publishing and marketing force you to write to rules and in narrow genre lanes so they can better classify your writing. Without classification, they can’t target “your” audience. In doing so, you’re forced to lose a level or creativity and story telling. Writing is about fostering and spreading creative thought and imagination.
Then I write. It can be a scene, a character description, a plot thread, worldbuilding, a simple or "complex" idea, a more or less faithful description of the dream that spawned the new project, etc…