One was a prizefighter and later a bodyguard before she clobbered the greatest thaumaturge of all time. The devil-girl is capital F Fit, and because she works at it, you can tell.
The other MC hunts with a pack of wolves. She's supple, fast, and dangerous though never quick enough to make the kill. She's also well fed, and unreasonably beautiful, which hides how fit she is.
#WordWeavers 2404.23 — How much of an age range do you have with your MCs?
I tend to write coming of age sagas. Mid-teens to mid-twenties? I did recently write a number of stories where the MC looked 24 years old, but was substantially over a 1,000. Immortals make good tragic characters.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 08 — Do you think of your books as having a particular length?
A publisher told me 80K to 100K for a novel and I aim for that, but get what I get. In practice, I'm ending up with what feels like four strongly related 25K novellas. I haven't strong feelings about story length, more about not letting anything artificial get in the way of completing a story.
#WordWeavers 2404.22 — What two senses are the most natural for you to include in your description?
The POVs see and hear most things, and I'm not sure seeing comes first as hearing precedes looking. Most of my descriptions are visual. That said, the POVs in both WiPs have been doing a lot of sniffing of the SCs recently. One MC's "gift" does make her sense of smell better, but that doesn't explain why the other finds certain scents pleasant.
#WordWeavers 2404.25 — Do your MCs have any luck in love?
I'm LMAO with this question. The women in both my WiPs, rather uncharacteristic of my earlier stories that don't delve into the details, are definitely getting what they want from the men in their lives. That goes doubly for the one who discovers she has two boyfriends not one (and it's way too complex and spoilery to explain right here). I will say she's pleased by the discovery...
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 25 — Do you add a message from the author to your work?
When I serialize online chapters, I sometimes include author notes. I usually do it encourage comments and to prevent down votes; it's kinda advertising the way jacket blurbs are, and helps maintain the publishing microcosm. I recently published a chapter with the content of a subsequent chapter, which incidentally spoiled a cliffhanger, so I added an author note to apologize to the few that had quickly read the chapter before I repaired it—including the three who up voted during the interval!
I don't think I'd add author notes to a book, unless there were things like research or pertinent history I thought might enhance my readers' understanding of my book's message beyond the story. Otherwise, a work ought stand for itself.
#PennedPossibilities 294 — What, to you, are the most important elements of good writing?
I'll keep it simple and singular: /Transparency./ Good writing fades into the background and lets the story flow into the reader's mind with a minimum of friction. Anything that makes the reader aware of the words on the page instead of the story interferes with getting your message across, and should be avoided. All good writing stems from this principle. How you implement it is up to you.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 24 — When older novels use outdated or racist language, should they be edited for the modern world or left alone and viewed in context?
Every author is welcome to come to their own decision about their own works. As a reader, however, were I to learn a previously published story had been changed to assuage modern readers' sensibilities, I'd refuse to buy or read it—but that's me.
My stories address things like racism, elitism, misogyny, patriarchy, and willful ignorance. Whilst they are completely made up worlds with made up people and social systems, they are by no means perfect or utopian. People baldly use epithets that are demeaning. People are discriminated against for their gender. It can be worse. It's all to make a point, and is never gratuitous. I'd never change what I'd written, lest the message be lost, or worse, corrupted.
When you change a story so it offends no-one, you teach nothing. Unvaccinated, these readers become vulnerable to viral manipulation by the unscrupulous.
I feel that novels that are written for their time, with all the worts and an inequities that were considered normal (or not understood) at the time are instructive to modern audiences. People change. People unenlightened living in their own "modern" context can become enlightened, or can in their foibles enlighten newer audiences.
With that said, to ensure modern audiences would buy and read "difficult" subject matter, I'd be okay with me (not the publisher) writing content warnings. Furthermore, I think a preface (or afterward) addressing the content isn't a bad idea. I might write one for challenging stories. I'd make sure it didn't pander to unthinking idiots, however.
#WordWeavers 2404.24 — Do you include characters from all socio-economic classes in your story?
Yes. Homeless. Students. Prizefighters. Princes. Common laborers. Military. Handicapped. Gangsters. All in one novel.
Well, I wanted a prompt to point out that even a pantser can plan things out for a payoff much later in a story. Having written the first event—pretty much like guiding a story toward a known ending—I guided the subplot to a known payoff that wasn't the ending. Yes, They're in totally different social classes, the MC now an elite and the SC a poor woman who joined the military (and is the MC of another story).
A quarter of the way through the story, a pissed-off never-promoted SC ensign—assigned the command of a museum piece frigate in what she sees as an attempt to delay her discharge, a further insult discriminating against her—is asked by the MC (now a "prince") if there is anything that will prevent her from commanding the ship. The ensign points out that she is handicapped (which is why she's been discriminated against, but the handicap isn't visible). The MC, desperate to find any means of fighting to protect the city and is being disregarded because she's a newbie, goes off on the ensign, pointing to her reconstructed leg and nerve damage that she never lets prevent her from fighting. The two come to an understanding.
Late in the story, the two meet again. The MC is recovering from wounds having nearly died. The ensign is now a lieutenant having become a hero for saving the city. This time, the MC /sees/ the handicap (and it is horrible in the context of the story). She concludes it's her fault for having ordered the ensign into danger for selfish reasons. Filled with guilt, the MC [does something both miraculous and spoilery] to make it right.
Wintereyes isn't someone you'd offhandedly call passionate; tenacious about what's she's decided to do, perhaps. But actions demonstrate otherwise. She has a gift that may well be a curse; to use it is agonizing. Yet, she suffers it when the opportunity presents itself. It lets her communicate with beasts by making her be more like them, and them more like her. She has to. She's just too curious. Still, who needs smarter cats? Cats may well be a curse, but they are a stepping stone toward leopards and lions.
I haven't decided if she's evil, yet. She's already befriended a very nice wyvern. She's prohibited from using her gift on humans, but sometimes they're more inscrutable than beasts and the temptation is there as her passions grow...
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 22 — Change one word in the first sentence of a famous novel to change its meaning.
[Maybe?]
It was a dark and stormy knight; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
[Wintereyes] Her Highness told me that for me to be her friend that I had to attend her university. I had to become "more human," whatever that meant. I /am/ human. I was /born/ human. Because I live amongst wolves doesn't make less human than a shepherd who lives with their flock. Yet, somehow, she convinced me—frightened me into complying, and I don't understand how. She's always been nice, jovial, even hospitable.
More frightening, Her Highness told me that if I use my talent on any human, she could /no longer/ be my friend. I've made friends with beasts small and large, from mice and wolves, up to including the red dragon who was very /very/ sorry about nearly burning down the Fell Woods where my pack lives. The wyvern had a fever. I've even started making friends with people at school.
Why is her friendship important? Why does she scare me so?
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 21 — Do you agree with Rose Tremain, who says you shouldn't plan a book's ending; it must be earned?
These two quotes of hers go together:
Respect the way characters may change once they’ve got 50 pages of life in them. Revisit your plan at this stage and see whether certain things have to be altered to take account of these changes.
In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.
In the planning stage of a book, I gather:
Knowledge about the character, especially their problem and their desires.
Detail of what eventually needs to happen so I know when the story ends. It allows me to know what I am writing toward.
As such, I don't agree with her statement about not planning the ending. I do agree with the sentiment that a writer should respect how the character has changed as you write the story. Character development can change the ending. For that reason, sometimes it's good to nip certain changes in the bud and get the story back on track. Usually, I don't change the ending I've planned; however, in the current WiP, the story metamorphosed from a one act story to a three act story. Based on story events, it got a new ending. Twice.
Note, however, "new ending." Composing a story never ends well (pun intended) when I don't know /an/ ending for the story I am writing.
#PennedPossibilities 291 — How does your SC feel about babies, children, and teenagers?
Caramello comes from a tropical islander culture where he can't marry until she's pregnant and it isn't official until she gives birth. Since it's politically dangerous for her if she's tied to him, he's trying not to have an opinion because he might resent his ancestry more.
#WordWeavers 2404.17 — What personal expertise of yours makes it into your books?
Creative cooking and food prep. Meals and rituals around eating play important roles in many stories. In longer ones one or the other character ends up cooking or concocting something interesting. I've choreographed a potato chip fight. Have you? (Saw one IRL, too.)
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 12 — Do you reread things you wrote some time ago?
I do. Usually in thought of authoring a sequel or prequel, or because circumstances make me think of a particular work. I recently reread a short in the style of an interview of Awkwafina in The New Yorker for that reason.
How do they stand up today?
I've found myself rereading for hours having forgotten what I was actually skimming to find. Most anything from the past isn't as well written as new work. I love the stories, though. They seem designed for my tastes in fiction. Who'd of thunk?
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 8 Nbr 20 — What genres would your work fall into if you could make up new genres? Fun answers only.
I am at my heart a SF fan and an SF author. What I am writing now is fantasy, and have been through four decades. It obeys the strict rules of SF with discernible limits. Were I able to make up a new genre, I'd call it Magic Science Fiction.
#WordWeavers 2404.20 — Do you plan out your themes or allow them to develop as you write?
For this answer, I'll consider "themes" to be the messages I wish to sneakily insert into my reader's subconscious.
Yes, I plan out my themes. For example, in /Inklings/ a major theme is shyness, and that shy people aren't antisocial but, for reasons, can't interact expertly but want to. Since I also planned the story as an erotic magical fantasy, the other theme is that the woman can take the lead in love and fight off being made to think that being sexual is wrong. Depicting the latter is difficult to balance and do properly, without letting our societal tropes take over, even in a world with rules somewhat different from our own.
Does this mean I work from an outline? Heck no! I started with an idea of what I wanted to write about—a woman raised by wolves forced to learn to live amongst humans—and a general idea where I wanted the story to end. I'd planned it to be an 850 word (hashtag)Writever short. It's turned into a novella. I've extended the ending twice beyond the original end point.
#WordWeavers 2404.19 — Do you tend to connect with your MCs or antagonists more?
I connect with whomever I empathize with.
In one WiP, I empathize with both the MC /and/ the antagonist. For the MC, it's a lot of coming of age and being frustrated in becoming what she wants to be type stuff. Always good for connecting with them.
For the antagonist of the same cycle of stories, however, she's forced always to factor the survival of humanity into anything she wants to do. She can't retire because [spoilers]. She's immortal, and, after millennia of always being young woman, is distantly related to /everyone/. (They don't know it.) Everybody dies, and sometimes she needs to make that happen. She does get to rediscover love, over and over and over /and over/ again... (Some of my Mastodon shorts are about her.) Yeah, I connect with her, especially since I recently retired. Imperfection of situation, prospects, and choice—with /character/—is a recurring theme in my stories.
#WordWeavers 2404.18 — Do you write primarily in the same genre you read as a child?
I read /science/ books as a child.
It was as a teen that my Uncle introduced me to SF, /The Foundation Trilogy/ by you know who and /A Breed to Come,/ a very catty book by André Norton. I hated Tolkien (talk about dry and boring!), but latched onto the dragonrider books by Anne McCaffrey. In the current WiP, in the last dozen paragraphs, I mention a "gushing" red dragon and deal with an intelligent cat. So... Many people consider /teens/ to still be /children,/ yes, I do I write the same genres as I read back then. They call it science fiction fantasy.