sfwrtr

EZLorenzImagery, 5 hours ago to Birds

Captured these photogenic, fast Tree Swallows on the chase, most likely territorial dispute, in a three part series.

Prints, Cards, Mugs etc. available: https://ez-lorenz.pixels.com/featured/tree-swallows-on-the-chase-2-ez-lorenz.html

#Birds #birdsofmastodon #Wildlife #Photography #Nature #Prints #WallArt #HomeDecor #GreetingCards #Giftideas #FediGiftShop #MastoArt #Washington #PNW

sfwrtr, 48 minutes ago to random

Why does it feel like reality just broke? I'm pinching myself, and it's not changing things. Holy f**K.

andymckay, 2 days ago to random

I gave Jira AI a try. So I typed this into AI to see what would happen. Was not disappointed. Well alright I was. Haven't found it give a useful or correct answer yet.

sfwrtr, 19 hours ago to escribiendo

#PennedPossibilities 330 — How does your MC go about expressing or not expressing their sexuality? CW: Sexuality?

Intellectually? Tactically?

She was reputed to have the kiss of death, but that gets ahead of that she used it to control the Doña's underlings in the mob. She even arranged for her own teacher, a mob lieutenant, after she'd throughly studied for the test and felt she was ready. She didn't kill him, don't worry! She found she enjoyed kissing, and used it aggressively on men (and women) as a tool until she discovered the whole thing could be fun—then incidentally found herself "expressive" with two boyfriends in two days.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

sfwrtr, 20 hours ago to escribiendo

#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 30 — How do you achieve a sense of wonder in your stories? CW: Intimacy

I don't have a formula, and it isn't something I try to create arbitrarily. It's usually written by accident (or incidentally), and almost always requires tuning of the found passage to make it truly wondrous. It's the right words in the right order. [Not helpful, R.S.!] If anything, wonder is usually tied up with emotion, a sense of achievement, or something well deserved, maybe even something so perfectly crafted by people or nature that it would make a person stare or feel goosebumps. However, I find simply being human can evoke the best sense of wonder—for example:

#Excerpt: (revised)

I woke to dawn rays filtering through lace draperies. A cool jasmine-scented breeze tussled the soft fuzz on my arms and brought the sounds of twittering robins and sparrows. My bombastic bedmate had not molested me. Perhaps she had heard me when I said I preferred men. That, however, did not prevent her from snugging up to me in her sleep.

I grew aware of warmth against my back. I commended myself for not flinging myself from the bed like a crazy person this time, but instead lifted my head and looked back. She lay there, sheets kicked off by one of us, her golden back against my paler one, making us a pair of Cs. Her usually poofy hair matted against her face and spread out in night-sweat glued-together curly tresses across her pillow. She snored imperceptibly, and somewhat daintily for such a large-boned woman.

When I shimmied to break contact, she began to shiver. Even after I gently replaced the sheets over us, she continued. She twitched. After a few moments, I heard the faintest whimper.

I lay my head on the pillow and felt bad. I shimmied back, until our skin made contact. In a minute she quieted and fell deeply asleep. I didn't move. Didn't want to. Because, I knew. She had felt terribly alone—worse, I realized, so had I.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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sfwrtr, 21 hours ago to random

Well, I visited a museum today. One I had never been to. By myself, and I feel doing so is kind of special. As a #shy person, such things are difficult.

Thinking about it, I decided I could explain the feeling this way: Shyness is the opposite of addiction and the same. Both leave a sense of not being in control. You can't help yourself. One is not being able to make yourself do something, and the other is not being able to make yourself stop.

sfwrtr, 21 hours ago to escribiendo

#WordWeavers 2405.30 — Are you comfortable writing from the POV of a child? Written any?

I'll answer it this way: I recently wrote a novelette in the POV of a headstrong 7-year old girl. The story was neither medieval nor urban, simply modern, with the child convincing herself she's been both tricked into being where she doesn't want to be, and lied to. In a make-a-wish scenario, circumstances grants her the djinn's powers. I found it easy to write since I had a good feel for her mentality and her understanding of "pretend" aka "the magic." I kept having to rein in my vocabulary, however. It wasn't a matter of dumbing it down so much getting her clever sophistication right.

Oh, yeah... And she was the first person narrator. Rather than making it harder, it helped narrow everything down to a singular often exasperated voice that made the twist that much more heart-rending.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R..S.]

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sfwrtr, 22 hours ago to Funny

These signs are real. All of them. Including THAT one. Is the telephone number divisible or factorable by 666? Found in LA.

#Funny #Humor #WritingPrompt? #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCommunity

davidtoddmccarty, 1 day ago to random

Cars have gotten so stupid. So expensive. So overbuilt. It’s insanity.

sfwrtr, 1 day ago to escribiendo

#PennedPossibilities 329 — How is your SC typically seen by others? Does it ring true to who they really are?

The roommate SC in a previous story is seen by others as an imperious arrogant bully who is always correcting people and not at all friendly. To say her adoptive mother runs things is an understatement of epic dimensions. The SC, as a controlling person by nature, accepts and amplifies the sense of power her mother lends her. Since she is rarely, if ever, seen around her adoptive mother and then seems both cowed and agitated in her presence, many consider her a bossy blow hard. She's proven herself the smartest student in school and holds a TA position in practical magical arts.

Is this who she is inside?

Hardly.

She has the expected problems with self-esteem. Her mother is her mentor, but she's unable to demand attention despite needing it, and instead drinks (and will take drugs). She feels horribly lonely. Boys run away at their first opportunity, despite the status they could acquire befriending her. She even considers letting herself be used—not that anyone would have the temerity to try, which turns it into a fools quest.

The MC ends up in a situation where the SC offers her a bed when the MC loses her job (okay, quit the mob) along with her apartment (which becomes unsafe). A bed. Literally. The SC's.

The MC discovers her roommate only sleeps well when held.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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sfwrtr, 1 day ago to escribiendo

#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 29

You: What's the average time to complete a writing project between the idea and publishing/making it available?

Me: ...

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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sfwrtr, 1 day ago to escribiendo

#WordWeavers 2405.29 — How would your MC handle finding a spider in their home?

Technically, Wintereyes lives and runs with wolves in the Fell Woods so she doesn't have a home. However, in the worst couple of months of winter, she puts up a lodgepole tent and invites the wolves to stay with her around her cook fire. That means fire wood. That means spiders. If I know her, that probably means blowing them from the wood and safely away.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R..S.]

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JoanGrey, 2 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub

Advice I don't see often? Hmm.

Don't get attached to your writing. It's just words.

They might be words that are scraped from your soul, but ultimately, they're NOT YOU.

This means you should be able to separate critique of your words/writing/art from CRITICISM of your SELF.

Your writing will be stronger for the distance, and so will your psyche.

Also, stop sitting like a shrimp (stand up, twist around), have some water, and go pee.

cheribaker, 2 days ago to Seattle

The #Seattle public library catalog, computers, website, and ebook checkout are currently down after a ransomware attack. They're still manually lending paper books while it's sorted out.

https://shelftalkblog.wordpress.com/today/

sfwrtr, 2 days ago to escribiendo

Question for the #WritingCommunity and #WritersofMastodon, and the rest of us who fancy themselves a #fiction #Writer or #Author. Do you think this is possible? If so, are you going to try?

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool.

https://www.tumblr.com/novlr/751365388319801344

FeliciaDavin, 2 days ago to random

I desperately need to unsnarl my novel timeline—whyyy did I make book 3 of the series overlap with book 2?—but it's such a tangle that I hardly even know where to begin.

sfwrtr, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to escribiendo

#WordWeavers 2405.28 — Did your MCs have comfort objects they carried as a child? Now?

I guess if you could run away from home and fear being dragged back again, you must be a child? Right? The day she ran away, she took only one thing that wasn't essential. It wasn't a doll. She was tutored on how to govern and had people (not dolls) to practice with everyday. It wasn't a remembrance of her parents. Their celebrity had made them shy away from photography, and then they died. Taking a vinyl record was a nonstarter; listening to it, if she could, would have made her cry. Not comforting. No, what she took was a very obscure book! I'll let her talk about it for you:

#Excerpt: (revised)

My books lay thrown on the counter, on top of the messenger bag, on top of my clothes. I felt a spike of anger. I looked from them to him.

He said, "Stop with the playacting. This—" He tapped a hand on my Marlin's Tertiary Primer for the New Age Thaumaturge."—is a month's basic for most!"

I shook my head. Over the last nine months, I'd learned the first edition was worth magnitudes more.

He pushed aside the book revealing the stained blue paper-backed journal. "And this: Thaumaturgical Review Letters. That's nobody's idea of light reading."

I snorted at how wrong he was. "I dumpster-dived that one. I hiked up to the university a few weeks ago. You'd be surprised what moneyed folk throw away!"

"I was saying—"

"My Marlin's is kind of like a plush bear for silly girls. And yes, I do sleep with it. Give it a sniff. It smells like silly me—"

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R..S.]

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orionkidder, 27 days ago to writing

#PennedPossibilities 301: What are some of your MC's other (lesser) fears?

Getting lost in the bus system. Her brother getting mad at her. Her dad making a kind of chilli she doesn't like.

Am I doing this right?

#Writing #Writers #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #AmWriting #AmWritingSF #AmWritingFantasy #AmWritingSFF #Scriberspace

sfwrtr, 2 days ago to escribiendo

#PennedPossibilities 328 — If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

I'm way too #shy to meet them, even the kind and beautiful one... a white wolf with a gold collar that reads HUMAN follows her around. These people live a life on a different level from someone like me. I'd need someone to introduce me, and then I'd probably lock up.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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sfwrtr, 2 days ago to random

Re: Ideas

#writingcommunity #writersofmastodon

https://www.tumblr.com/incidentalcomics/95099934378

RubyJones, 3 days ago to random

#WordWeavers 27 May: What would your ideal writing group be like?

I'll be honest, because my subject matter is steamy, I wouldn't be comfortable sharing it with a writing group.

I've been in a lot of writing groups over the years and they all worked differently. To be honest, as I and my friends have got older, we rarely have the time to do each other's work justice and enjoy the experience.

The ME/CFS unsurprisingly, also interferes. I can't go out and Zoom calls are overstimulating>

sfwrtr, 3 days ago to apple

WWWOOOOWWW! Wohoo! Just discovered that control+Option right or left arrow will scroll my Mastodon advanced UI right or left on the iPad I am airplaying to a monitor and keyboard. Game changer!

#apple #ipad #keyboard #keyboardshortcut #writersOfMastodon #writing #writingCommunity

sfwrtr, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to 13thFloor

#PennedPossibilities 327 — How much does your MC value other people? Do they wish to have many friends, lovers, and / or associates? Are they an easy person to love?

Both my MC's have difficulties with how they value people.

Wintereyes views people and beasts through the same nonjudgemental prism. She understands beasts' natures' intuitively. Where her gift allows her to live amongst the beasts she's befriended, she is prohibited from using her gift on humans. A decade of living with wolves, thriving, has rewired her social understanding of her species with no magical map to ease her way. It's unfortunate how people are attracted to her—and that she doesn't understand them or her body's reactions to them. She has met a boyfriend who she thinks will make her experiences in the human world better.

The devil-girl is autistic, but was raised with this being one of her best features. She isn't wired for dealing with people; it's a learned skill that her tutors drilled into her until using it became natural. Well, natural with a few glitches, if you were looking from the outside. She can be stiff. She can be undiplomatic. She really will only give you one chance. She finds too much glee in fighting (though her target needs to give permission to fight them, but implicit is good enough). The reader knows her struggle. Dealing with people is exhausting but a challenge; it's often a self-dare. Were she given her druthers, she'd say she'd rather be reading a book. Deep in a university library stacks. Alone. Helping people is a culmination of her skill, and part of her very much adores seeing people safe and happy. In part, this may be an achieved reduction of drama, but it may be her human heart. Now that she's discovered the concept of lovers—and that her brain is delightfully wired for it—and is learning the give and take that requires to make that work fabulously, her world is shifting toward really understanding those around her on their terms.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

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kagan, 3 days ago to random

There are rivers of rain pouring down the (nearly floor-to-ceiling, panoramic) windows of my apartment. It's like being in the reverse of a fishbowl: a little bubble of air surrounded by water. 🌧