Jtmoriartywriter

golgaloth, 2 months ago to books

Okay, so what's your favourite last line of a book? I head a lot of good first lines, but what's a good last line?

I'm going with, The Willows, by Blackwood: And when I turned my eyes again from his ghastly face to the river, the current had done its work, and the body had been swept away into mid-stream and was already beyond our reach and almost out of sight, turning over and over on the waves like an otter.

#books #reading #AmReading #AmWriting

Jtmoriartywriter, 2 months ago to bookstodon

#amreading @bookstodon
Thank you to the lovely german who read my book! What did you think? (Amazon tells me these things like "country x read y pages of your book.")

Have a cute cat (Simon's Cat specifically) as thanks.

Ink_Soul, 2 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 16: How much do you edit as you write, and how much do you leave until the 2nd draft?

Editing while writing has proven to be boring and inefficient, so I've trained myself to follow the mindset that the most important thing is to put the story down on paper.

It doesn't matter if the words are clumsy or the scene isn't working as I expected: I have draft 2 (and beyond) to polish the story and how I tell it.

And I like noting down Ideas for improvements on a separate file.

Jtmoriartywriter, 3 months ago to bookstodon

#amwriting @bookstodon hello friends!

How has writing gone this year, you ask? Well it feels like "not at all". While I got a YA sf fun story edited, and began planning full life 4 ("W-ix and Worry") I still feel I've gotten... 10% of the words I expected to have written by this point. It's March already!

But take heart. A lot of this time has been spent planning, which is just as critical to writing as words on a page/screen. Some ppl plan for 8 months, literally nothing but plan, then they can write the whole book in 4 months. I'm aiming for 1 book a year, and right now I have mis to heavy planning only.

It also depends on who you're writing from, their pov. Is the character flighty? You can just begin writing with a vague idea and see where it ends up. It costs nothing to decide a piece was a good experiement but will wind up on the cutting room floor.

There is also Other Life Considerations, and I mean Geoff a job (before and after school hours care), which takes time to secure, then learn, then adapt to, but that's all energy away from writing.

Excuses, right? I'm keeping myself accountable by telling you, dear Mastodon friends.

And yet there's something very nice about having time away from writing, to let my subconscious mind do all the figuring out while I work a daily job and dream of my robots while looking after kids.

Lord knows they run into enough things, poles or one another mostly!

Cheers all, Moriarty.

Jtmoriartywriter, 3 months ago to random

Update, I went for a before/after school hours care job. Did 2 successful trials then got the call. Yay!

Jtmoriartywriter, 3 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon Thank you USA person who bought my book =)

It's always a delight to find sales on a day when I haven't done any active advertising, but clearly I'm doing something right when I get a sale without any active presence (very hard to do, nothing sells itself beyond chocolate!).

I had also sold a copy in person, meeting an old friend from school. I love the support I get in person, #amwriting how about you? But I will meet people I haven't seen in 20+ years, we swap a catch up and a What do you do? And when I say I'm a writer they always want to see, then want to buy.

It will take baby steps, but only you can take them for your writing and books, and the steps are all 1 size bigger than the last.

You can do this.

#amreading how many people do you know of in real life who you have supported, creatives (art, craft, not just writers)?

Jtmoriartywriter, 4 months ago to Cat

Dear old #kitty #cat Furgs, 16.

"What do you mean 'move'? I'm 16! That's like 112 in human! YOU wrap your legs awkwardly around ME."

(Can I cheat and put this in #bloomscrolling ? Cats are nature...)

jessica, 4 months ago to random

I am begging people, talk to your artists that you appreciate.

Give them some encouragement. Tell them what you love. Gush a bit even.

If it wasn’t for some random DM in my inbox this morning, I’d be taking my internal compulsion to close up shop a lot more seriously tonight than I am.

Artists are tired, exhausted even.

I am lucky to do this as a glorified hobby.

Others’ abilities to get bread on the table depend on coin that isn’t coming in.

Don’t leave words left unsaid as well.

Jtmoriartywriter, 4 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon #amwriting
Great news, friends! I just wrote The End on my first story of the year. It was begun last year as what should have been a xmas present to one of my younger relatives, but writing seldom goes to plan (or timing).

Share your own progress so far! I have another 2 stories planned this year (a prequel and part 4) but this one felt really good to get done.

Moriarty.

Jtmoriartywriter, 4 months ago to bookstodon

#amwriting @bookstodon
When you ask your writer friend for help with just one question but they take 45 minutes to answer it.

Jtmoriartywriter, 4 months ago to Bloomscrolling

#bloomscrolling
Here's my two daughter-kitties. Lenina, tabby, just turned 10. Her sister/pest, torti, is Elspeth, who is 3 and loves to bite hands.

It is very hot today.

Two cats chilling on the same couch.
Lenina, dozing on couch. Lovely long tabby.

Jtmoriartywriter, 5 months ago to bookstodon

2/2
But they all still find the screen when they were in a scene. If anything I noticed how much the rest of the world rotated around them. Dirk had a whole half a book dedicated to building him up before he appeared. Porco was a famous pilot before he was the only pig- faced human transformed by who knows what moment, and Molinari literally runs the world, defies time screwing drugs and confuses the reader and every other main charge as well.

In other words, the works they inhabit revolve around them. So I just need to do that too.

Simple, really.

Anyway, enough chewing your ears off. How does your 2024 reading plans look? I think I'll work on a 12, use the pc m previous few lists I've made, then delete them! The old lists, not the newest one.

@bookstodon #amreading

My reading this year.
My planned list for this year.

Jtmoriartywriter, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon #amreading #2024readinglist

Hullo friends, and all those of you still enjoying Dec 25! I got another book, which will also go straight onto the reading list for 2024.

I'm making easy progress of Behold the Man, but Moorcock is always* easy to read.

(* - Revenge of the Rose was utterly regrettable, nothing else in his decades long career.)

At this rate I'll have a full 2024 list before I've consciously picked anything!

How do you pick your reads for the upcoming year? How many do you read?

Love you all, Moriarty.

Jtmoriartywriter, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon

O, well, I couldn't find my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so grabbed another powerful, shirt read, Behold the Man.

Jtmoriartywriter, 5 months ago to Bloomscrolling

#Bloomscrolling the dearest sweet King parrot that flies by my front door for some seed and a chat every day.

My child-bot actually fed it yesterday too, it's the first time bebe actually used opened hands flat so the parrot could reach the seed and not have to pick between clutched fingers =)

We washed our hands afterwards, always do. They're beautiful but we have no idea what they can be carrying.

Busted! Parrot can see I'm taking its picture.
Cozy and warm hand with a tasty seed offering. Ho yes please!

Jtmoriartywriter, 5 months ago to bookstodon

Dear friends,

@bookstodon #amreading etc. Here is my Tentative reading list for 2024. I am for 12 novels a year, but life, writing, my family, it can all get in the way. For '23 I read 12 things, but they weren't all novels, so thats a half pass. The list:

Any sequels I'm up to (3 trilogies in this case), lotr i read recently but I loved it so much I'm thinking of doing it again. Dispossessed was on 23s list.

Have you read any of these, what's your take? Any suggestions or definite 'don't read that!'

Cat tax, Elspeth hiding behind a Christmas tree. A naughty torti up to no good.