It's not often that I get a hankering for some pre-war, English upper-class wit and banter. But when I do Wodehouse fills that niche nicely. The Prince and Betty starts a bit slow, but picks up and earns itself 4/5 stars 😁
What is that one thing that makes your character stick out?
She's quiet, tries not to stand out, is beyond competent at whatever task she's set to, and when she finds any free time, she can be found reading some arcane book full of mathematical formulae and theory that would make a regular person's brain ache glancing at it. Each page is highlighted and annotated in impeccable cursive with colorful gel pens in the margins (assuming it's not a library book, in which case she scribbles it all down in her notebook). She's still a teenager, so some of the ink sparkles. She's done this since she ran away from home because she'd been told that learning magic wasn't ladylike. This latter accounts for her trying not to stand out.
#PennedPossibilities 5 — What is something your MC deserves but doesn't currently have?
A true friend and a lover (riding partner as she'd call it). As her author, I know eventually she'll get them, in confusing quantity, but she isn't open to that now. (Refers to SF novel version of MC.)
#WritingWonders 7.9 — What are you good at when it comes to writing?
People have complimented me on my dialogue.
Recently, I've switched from 3rd person to 1st person narrative. That's essentially the MC talking to the reader, which may explain why my writing feels so much more fluid and natural.
I read most everything I write aloud. It has to pass the speech test. Getting tongue-tied is a bad sign.
So...
My answer to this one is what I am doing now. Talking to the reader. What do you think? Does it work for you?
I’ve been putting off writing more of my book for a while now, but have recently become more motivated to write it. I got on Atticus and wrote a few sentences today, but then my cat distracted me and I stopped.
How often do you work on your writing? Sentences a day, paragraph a day, section/chapters? Or a few times per week? What keeps you writing?
It’s a non-fiction book. If that makes a difference.
How often do you work on your writing? [Other questions on how much you write.]
I would advise to put in your mind that any writing you get done is good, and it is all excellent practice no matter how small.
The bad word is fail. Setting goals is good, but it is bad if it allows you to define what failing is for you. It has been pointed out to me numerous times until it mostly sticks that comparing oneself to what others do is searching for the definition of failure. Let's not do that.
Like all the other authors answering this thread have related, we all write except when we don't. It makes us a writer. Personally, when I am in a groove, I can write thousands of words. Then again, I also burnt-out for 14 years and wrote nothing during that time. I do write stuff for Mastodon more periodically than I am actually writing for sale or online publishing, but that's just seasonal. Sometimes the need to write is so intense, characters wake me up in the middle of the night and won't let me sleep.
I am #actuallyautistic, so I've had to learn what works for me, learn how to (in your parlance) lock the cat out of the room, and be okay with writing when the feeling hits me—willing to put the world on hold to do so. Keep focused on you and what you want to do, writing so it feels good and not writing when it doesn't. The rest you'll eventually figure out.
Adding a few more hashtags to see if others will read the original post and add their thoughts.
I’m learning to work [when to write] when I feel like it instead of forcing myself onto a set schedule.
Absolutely agreed! We need to figure out what works for us.
What you reported, and I quoted, I just learned to do for myself. Just in the last couple of years after decades writing. This is self-kindness, self-care, and self-confidence. That last part, self-confidence, is coming to the realization that one will write when the time is right, and it is okay not to fear when or if that will happen. I'm there now. Sounds like you are there also.
My character's knowledge ends way before my knowledge of the subject ends.
#Fantasy#magic systems often fail to impress because lots of detail, except where the reader can intuit a logical loophole, is a bad thing! The reader will often assume the gaps for you. I must remind myself every so often that a story is entertainment, not a treatise or thesis on speculative science, sociology, or engineering, especially after all time I spent on the research. When I wrote from a prize-fighter's POV, I learned how training felt, and the injuries, but I didn't presume to write the coach working their miracles. Only enough to convince.
I try to be imprecise, even about what I know a subject very well. Well, heck, I recognize I could misunderstand somethng! I then lampshade enough to ensure the story makes sense and to keep the plot logically together. I would, for example, make sure to understand the limits of a submersible pressure vessel (I don't) and get that much right. I'd also work on the jargon. My character would then be passenger told not to touch anything, and not an engineer or pilot.
A tactic I use is to consider secondary characters to provide "details." I include lieutenants, clerks, and engineers to do real work, maybe letting them talk down to the MC because the MC couldn't possibly understand and is wasting their time. This excuses lack of detail.
Everyone is a lay person about something, many many somethings, IRL. To the extent that I don't know how to maintain my car, build my house (I actually did), generate my electricity, butcher my meat (thinking about which turns me into a vegetarian for a few hours), and piloting an airplane, I make my characters the same way. Builds a sense of #Verisimilitude
I just finished reading "How to loose friends and alienate people."
It wasn't my kind of book exactly and was a thrift store impulse buy. I think fomr the title I was hoping for more of an instruction manual than a memoir 😂
It had some slightly introspecitve, and perhaps even satirical moments. Those made it good enough to earn it a 3/5 stars.