sfwrtr

sfwrtr, 6 days ago to 13thFloor

#WordWeavers 2405.12 — Who is the best friend in your story?

The MC is incapable of seeing that it is her.

For most of her story arc, she's suspicious of making friends having been a prizefighter and then working in the mob. She's also somewhat autistic, but trained to deal with people. The problem is that when she's amongst people, working with them, even the baddies, she's the type that gets the job done, teaches those that need teaching how to get the job done, and will always protect her teammates and subordinates, taking responsibility. You don't get in her face, however; certainly only once, anyway. Strangely or not so strangely, those in her orbit see her as a leader and personable. (All she wants is to go home to be alone with her books, but she'd never complain.) She goes along with it when others are friendly with her, not really knowing how to say no and understanding this was what she was trained to do.

To say she's well liked is an understatement. Not many people support you as she does, or will straighten you out and make you fly right when things are bad for you. She saves one marriage by punching the husband in the nose. She's there for others. She'll enjoy a meal with you if that's what you need and listen to you vent. At least one guy has a crush on her. Others fight for her. Some will risk their life for her...

She doesn't understand it though.

Ask her if she had friends and she'll say. "No."

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

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

sfwrtr, 6 days ago to 13thFloor

#PennedPossibilities 313 — Is your MC or SC one to confess romantic feelings early on, or to conceal them for long periods of time?

It's hard to know for sure. She has worked in a world were such attactions are a tool to control others, and she's controlled others with them. Having transitioned from being a criminal to operating in a similar capacity on the other side of the law, she ended up tailing a snobbish dandy... who went on, after various provocations, to being someone quite different than his affectations indicated. She thought to pin him in a wrestling hold to get information out of him, but he threw her off and she fought him only to a draw (not easy for anyone to do since she's a former prizefighter). When later that day she got him to drop his façade, she found him actually adorably vulnerable. Not really knowing her own reactions, she obsessively took him from dinner, to dancing, to... um... dessert in one evening.

Okay, she's very transparent in her feelings.

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

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

sfwrtr, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago) to writing

Well, that's done. First draft of the hard chapter, the one I kept on sticking on for these last few months. Complete! 5,500 words. Wintereyes even surprise kissed him! It is a romance after all... The rest of the novella ought be much easier.

#writer #writing #fantasy #romance #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon

andrewplord, 6 days ago to random

#writerscoffeeclub

When did AI cross the line?

With this guy

"Hi there! It seems like you're trying to write something slightly more difficult than what you're really capable of. I'll sit here and make passive aggressive comments about your non-American spelling and the passive voice until you realise that you're probably not as good a writer as you seem to think you are."

It was like writing with your Mother making helpful suggestions.

Clippy the Windows office assistant saying "Hi there""

sfwrtr, 7 days ago to random

Q: How do you market your work A: Meh.

This response makes me want to LMAO, yet it also makes me want to cry...

Gravewyck, 7 days ago to random

#wordweavers 12MAY2024: It is Luna, ever the vigilant guardian, unwaveringly shadows Lyria, who, in turn, chafes under such devoted scrutiny. Yet, it is in Luna’s presence that Lyria’s spirit soars into realms of untamed adventure.

Alas, a grim future looms for this entwined pair, a shadow that darkens their doorsteps, and I am left to ponder the cruel hand of fate. Shall Luna’s demise come prematurely, a harrowing harbinger of the misfortunes that awaits these souls? Or shall it tarry, allowing the anguish to ferment, deepening the sting of the ultimate demise? A dreadful decision lies before me, one that shall shape the contours of their tale in the most poignant of ways.

sfwrtr, 7 days ago to 13thFloor

#PennedPossibilities 311 — What is a memory that makes your SC swell with pride?

That armor. The black dragon armor, light as an autumn breeze. The last who owned it, legends say, a million died to take it away from her, but failed in the end.

She gave it to me: The ruler of the world, the most powerful thaumaturge alive. I was the one who nearly killed her, when we fought for our lives incidentally breaking the Curse of Harmony upon her.

I didn't break the curse but was the one who nearly killed her. Yet...

My friend—whose life I saved by pushing her out of the way of a plasma bolt and getting my flank burnt as a result—reminded me of the legend. Made me test the magic, which let me fly like an arrow and loop and dodge more agilely than a sparrow. She added, "She told me it's the first time anyone's got that close in a century. It's a bribe, you know, A loan. She wants you to work for her. You impressed her. "

/Me./

I impressed /Her./

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

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

sfwrtr, 7 days ago to 13thFloor

#PennedPossibilities 312 — Is your MC or SC a leader, a follower, or something in between?

Wintereyes is not a leader, nor is she a follower. She knows her mind and will state it when needed to help someone, or protect to herself. She's human, but also a member of the Blue Feathers wolf pack—and she's bitten its leader when he's abused pack mates. She's not omega, not low status; wolves respect her knives in the hunt. She knows when to help, and when to stay back. She's a mediator, as she's demonstrated between a dragon and people. It's that she truly cares to do her best for others. Those that know her know this; they listen; they protect her.

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

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sff #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSInklingsStory

sfwrtr, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

Watermelon radishes grew this time. Adding sand to the soil worked! It's the size of a softball. 1/2

#photography #photos #gardens #food

sfwrtr, 8 days ago to 13thFloor

In praise of broken heroes and Davids and their Goliaths. Yes, coached as comics, but short and worth reading.

Thank you @taur10

https://www.tumblr.com/paragonrobits/658036435458359296/hulk-has-a-similar-problem-to-superman-in-that-as

#writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon #writer #author #fiction

sfwrtr, 8 days ago to Writers

#psa Okay, learned a lesson today. I either missed this or the setting changed in an update. Both #OneDrive and #Dropbox have a setting for keeping all the files in the cloud rather than on your Mac, downloading them as you need them. This means that if you need them and the service is responding poorly, or you have no connectivity, you can't get to your files. If you use #scrivener, for example, which syncs through dropbox, this can cause sync errors between devices!

Both services appear to set all files online only. Both services have a way to change this to ensure all files are downloaded for offline use.

#Writers, #authors, as well as #artists, I strongly suggest you keep your files on disk as well as in the cloud. Change these settings now!

#writersOfMastodon #writingCommunity

sfwrtr, 8 days ago to random

Okay. Interesting. Moving files from Dropbox creates placeholder files that are empty but take up space. There's a little cloud symbol beside the files in the dropbox directories, but they refused to download. Sheesh. Luckily, the files exist online. I've logged on to the online dropbox and downloaded all my files to my hard disk in a separate directory as a backup. I'm trying bypassing the dropbox refused to sync issue by signing out of dropbox and orphaning the current directories. Signing on again, but creating new dropbox directory tree on disk that must be downloaded again from the #dropbox #cloud.Hoping that this fixes the #sync problems I'm having between platforms, at least from the Mac perspective.

#writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon #scrivener

sfwrtr, 8 days ago to random

Today I lack synchronicity. Neither my OneDrive or Dropbox are syncing my files today, so I've different versions of #scrivener on different platforms. Mood: Sad.

sfwrtr, 9 days ago to Artist

Why you don't want to piss off a #novelist (#writer, #author) or an #artist (or people who have them as friends). They may get #creative all over your face.

#writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon #painter #funny #humor #streetart #art https://www.boredpanda.com/homeowner-petty-response-paint-eyesore-driveway/

jograhamwrites, 9 days ago to random

#WordWeavers Antagoinist pov: What do you like most about yourself?

Ascanio: What's not to like? I'm intelligent, handsome, powerful, and clever?

Rodrigo: You've described me perfectly.

Ascanio: You have a nose like a duck.

Rodrigo: So do you. If your nose is handsome, so is mine.

Giulia: Saint Bibiana, not this again! So modest, these prelates!

You be the judge! Who has a better nose?

image/jpeg

sfwrtr, 9 days ago to 13thFloor

#PennedPossibilities 310 — MC or SC POV: What was your favorite day or holiday when you were a child? Favorite Day Remembrance CW: Sad.

Why are you making me remember this now? My favorite day? When I was a child? It was /that/ day, each time Mom returned home. She would sing to me, but she belonged to the world, the theatre, to the concert hall. Plenty of her albums proclaimed that. "Midnight, the Voice and the Heart of the Nation." Those albums, they're all I really have of her. She wasn't one for family pictures. Or family. It's why I can't listen to them any more, and walk out of restaurants when any of her show tunes play.

I do sing her songs in the shower, unthinkingly. My roommate doesn't know who I really am, but she's told me my voice is just like hers. Stupid memory. Stupid reflexes.

I remember being /so happy/ when she'd return home. She'd sing to me, but wasn't at all "hands on." She'd sing and she'd listen to me telling all the things that happened that day with friends and nannies—always with a smile, but I was always on the floor or in my bed or in someone else's lap. Her manager—with whom I share my hair color and skin color so he likely fathered me—would hold me while she sang sometimes. He'd read to me. He'd call me his little tomato, since that was the hair color we shared.

I remember the pair once laughing after I'd been put to bed, not sleeping. I'd peeked through a barely opened door to see. /Him/ she held.

I loved them both.

You've made me remember. Are you happy now? How many times could it have been that I remember her returning? A few dozen? They died before I was five, and now I remember /that,/ too.

[That's the Aurora Midnight, the devil girl from the Reluctance stories. Author retains copyright (c)2024 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sff #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

sfwrtr, 9 days ago to 13thFloor

#WordWeavers 2405.10 — Antagonist POV: What do you like the most about yourself?

[A short tootfic. Likely canon. Her Highness speaking. From /Inklings:/]

My jaw almost dropped at the shear gall of the question, but the Midlands plenipotentiary was, if anything, expert at being jovial. His smile was disarming. He was a diplomat. I didn't gape, but put the tea cup down carefully.

"You're referring to the dragon incident, aren't you?"

He nodded. He plunked a couple lumps of brown sugar in his tea, stirring. It accounted for his corpulence, something rare amongst his gaunt brethren who spent much of their day running on forest paths. He'd made it from the Midlands in just weeks, on horseback I guessed. Poor horse. "It's on everyone's tongue. You'd mobilized the militia. Detailed reports hit the Forest Ridge High Tower as if carried by a thunderstorm."

He was making sure I knew "people" kept him well informed, and that my military wasn't what interested him. Much, anyway. I sighed, crossing my legs as I sat back.

I'd mobilized the best and most radiant of my magic users. None could best me, but we expected to face a wyvern the size of my in-town mansion. It had burnt up part of the Fell Woods. A good thing, thinking about that unassailable haven for monsters and wild beasts. Then it attacked a farm.

"The attack on the farm was an accident," I said off-handedly, steepling my fingers.

He paused. Blue eyes speared me. I'd never announced the details of what happened because if I made them official rather than rumor, the public might panic. Nobody died.

The Midlands ought know, I decided then and there. It'd be to my advantage. I'd let him decide the implications. "The grain silo had a moisture problem. It had started to ferment. Who would have thought a dragon might like beer?"

He chuckled, then, "You're serious? You know this? /How?"/ He put down his tea cup with a loud clink, spilling some of the reddish liquor.

I'd rode in with an elite company of my army, through a wood arch that proclaimed "Cornfeld," into a farm yard. I'd been ready to use my radiance to repel fire; dragons of all shapes breathed fire. My troops had the best spears, but it had been centuries since anyone had needed weapons against dragon scale. Would newiron even work? Drowning the beast by swirling airborne the farm's pond was almost our best offense, if the magical beast decided to fight. I knew they disliked fighting. I hoped that I had that much correct. If I had to resort to radiant kinesis to heave rock from a stone fence, it might decide to retaliate against my Townships—if I failed.

What I found was a half-naked girl, barely a woman though very tall, mollifying a distraught farmer and mediating with a red dragon who looked to be hanging on her every word. I could tell this, even though the dragon had the form of a giant bat.

Apparently, with her mediation, both parties were apologizing to each other!

Worse, though covered with mud and ash, visibly scarred, the young woman was devastatingly beautiful. The type of beautiful that made a seasoned and well worn woman like me think of a different kind of bedmate. I wasn't a man...

Wintereyes was her name. She had befriended a dragon.

Innocent and kind.

And immeasurably dangerous.

The ingénue now attended my magic university, despite being uncomfortable around people and wearing clothing. Learning to be human. One of mine.

I said, "What I like about myself is that I know when to fight and when to make friends."

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

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSInklingsStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

sfwrtr, 9 days ago to writing

Displacement activity: A fancy word for unwitting #procrastination, when you are in the middle of writing something terrific, you're in the flow, and all your senses are over stimulated (#actuallyautistic) and you simply must go do something else. Sweeping the floor, maybe? Writing a mastodon post? Check!

Back to #writing?

#writingCommunity #writingsOfMastodon #author #fiction #writingLife

sfwrtr, 9 days ago to apple

#Apple #iPad: So, now, full screen isn't. Not sure what recent update did this, but it feels that I couldn't have taken more than a month or so to see that Full Screen is no longer Full Screen. Instead, there is a set of three dots, •••, at the top of screens. In Safari, HTML pages, like the #mastodon #web #ui that apparently expect a certain screen size, will start scrolling up when keying into the toot box.

Of course, this isn't #apple's problem. Web app developers must always measure and not assume sizes. The Mastodon app, however, isn't one of these. This has even broken how the Advanced Interface determines how to deal with device rotation on the #iPhone, which worked perfectly until a recent update.

nancywisser, 10 days ago to photography

Beauty this morning at the park. #photography #landscape #pennsylvania

writerobscura, 10 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub May 9
What's the minimum time you can work on your writing? Do you need a long, clear period?

I've done quick writing sprints but they're never satisfying. I must have my uninterrupted 4 hours every day or I get a bad case of NWS (not-writing syndrome) and get cranky.

clexy, 1 year ago to random French

Was reading some things about chemicals storage. And I saw this shit.
That can't be an error, right ?
Like the person doing it was like "uwu don't stowe with your flammable gas. Ow else ! Kaboom ! OwO"