sfwrtr

sfwrtr, 8 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.

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sfwrtr, 8 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.

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sfwrtr, 9 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, 9 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.

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sfwrtr, 10 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.

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