#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 19 - What's something (even if fantastical!) which could improve your process?

Not fantastical at all: earlier this year the Irish government made their experimental program of basic income payments for artists (including authors) permanent. Generates more economic productivity than it costs, reduces precarity and stress. I really think we'd be better off if this scheme was adopted worldwide:

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/campaigns/basic-income-for-the-arts-pilot-scheme/

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/1007/1537249-budget-2026-basic-income-for-artists-scheme-to-become-permanent/

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 19
What's something (even if fantastical!) which could improve your process?

A massive improvement in my and my partner's health, so i have more energy and am not doing all the parenting and housework alone along with trying to do my writing.

For a less depressing and more realistic wish, a solid alternative to Write or Die would be absolutely AMAZING. I miss that thing so fucking much. Stimuwrite gets me halfway there, but I really need the other half for best effect.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 19 - What's something (even if fantastical!) which could improve your process?

Not fantastical at all: earlier this year the Irish government made their experimental program of basic income payments for artists (including authors) permanent. Generates more economic productivity than it costs, reduces precarity and stress. I really think we'd be better off if this scheme was adopted worldwide:

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/campaigns/basic-income-for-the-arts-pilot-scheme/

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/1007/1537249-budget-2026-basic-income-for-artists-scheme-to-become-permanent/

#WritersCoffeeClub 18 Do you include real-world quotations in your work?

Part of the over all conceit of the current WIP series is that the story is happening elsewhere in the Multiverse and things are more likely to rhyme than to repeat. I am more likely to wave in the general direction of a familiar (or possibly unfamiliar) quote than to use it exactly.

Alt-Shakespeare is probably going to rely on description rather than quotes: Florian performs in plays by 'the Bard of the Isles' on tour.

To #writers of fiction set in more historical times, do you use words from that time period that may have more recently taken on different or negative connotations or do you substitute a more modern word that is anachronistic? I try to avoid words that sound too modern or appeared in English usage long after the time I'm writing about, but how strictly do others adhere to that rule?

Specifically, I'm puzzling right now about using a word like "buddies," which first appears in the 1800s, in a story set in the 1600s. At the earlier date "comrades" or "confederates" might have been used, but the modern reader might add unwanted baggage to those words. It seems as though "pals" might not have appeared until the 1700s. "Brothers" might imply a family connection.

Am I over thinking this?

#writing #WritersCoffeeClub #WordWeavers

#WritersCoffeeClub 18 Do you include real-world quotations in your work?

Part of the over all conceit of the current WIP series is that the story is happening elsewhere in the Multiverse and things are more likely to rhyme than to repeat. I am more likely to wave in the general direction of a familiar (or possibly unfamiliar) quote than to use it exactly.

Alt-Shakespeare is probably going to rely on description rather than quotes: Florian performs in plays by 'the Bard of the Isles' on tour.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov. 18: Do you include real-world quotations in your work?

For the record, I curate my reading to include quotes from real people. When I read, I am reaching out to society.

I also make an effort to quote and credit on the Social Web. I consider it important to endorse and boost contributions of wisdom to our culture.

To #writers of fiction set in more historical times, do you use words from that time period that may have more recently taken on different or negative connotations or do you substitute a more modern word that is anachronistic? I try to avoid words that sound too modern or appeared in English usage long after the time I'm writing about, but how strictly do others adhere to that rule?

Specifically, I'm puzzling right now about using a word like "buddies," which first appears in the 1800s, in a story set in the 1600s. At the earlier date "comrades" or "confederates" might have been used, but the modern reader might add unwanted baggage to those words. It seems as though "pals" might not have appeared until the 1700s. "Brothers" might imply a family connection.

Am I over thinking this?

#writing #WritersCoffeeClub #WordWeavers

#writersCoffeeClub 11/18: Do you include real-world quotations in your work?

Rarely, but yes.

Most of my work is set in original worlds, so no connection to the real world and no real world quotations.

I have a few sci-fi pieces, like the not-yet published How NOT to Save the World, that do have quotations or references to our world.

And of course there is What You Will, in which all of the dialog (with a few tweaks) comes straight from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

#WritersCoffeeClub 18 Nov. Do you include real-world quotations in your work?

Yes, but generally only from a character's mouth, and only when the source is something the character is likely to be familiar with.

It's really easy to break suspension of disbelief with a badly-chosen quote.

Song lyrics are good, too, but for copyright reasons they may need to be paraphrased/reworded if they run to any length (and by "length" I mean more than about ten words). Which is annoying.

#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Nov
What role does race play in your works?

I'm a middle-aged white guy. My Grandma fostered kids of a racial distribution typical of Nottingham in the 1970s and 1980s, so I never felt like other colours of people were Other, and I was brought up anti-racist, but experiencing racism is not my story to tell, so my work is never *about* that.

Any time it's relevant, tho, racism or other bigotry is shown to be defective in basis, character and consequence, since it is.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 12: How can writers ensure the focus is on the work and not the writer? Or should they?

I don't think you can. Like any art, when you write you out a piece of yourself out into the world. That part of you is a fundamental part of the writing--you're making choices that only you can make, telling stories in only the way you can tell. Who wrote something is part of the work.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 12: How can writers ensure the focus is on the work and not the writer? Or should they?

I don't think you can. Like any art, when you write you out a piece of yourself out into the world. That part of you is a fundamental part of the writing--you're making choices that only you can make, telling stories in only the way you can tell. Who wrote something is part of the work.

#WritersCoffeeClub 17, What role does race play in your work?

Varies with the story, but usually not much. I know a fair bit about racism as a concept, but not as much as I'd like about the experiences of people affected by racism.

I try to include people from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds in my work, especially the rare story set on a fantasy or scifi version of Earth.

But most of my stories are set in original worlds that are not racially equivalent to Earth. Some have fantasy races -- elves or dragons or werewolves -- some don't. In some of them (Planting Life in a Dying City) I put a lot of thought into the different cultures and subcultures of different groups (racial or ethnic). In some of them, not so much.

Footnote to #WritersCoffeeClub 17/11: my current two WIPs are space operas set 700,000 years hence. Our subspecies of hominin is long-extinct: humanity has speciated. There are references to "elves" and "dwarves": genetically engineered hominid descendant species designed for different planetary environments. "White" skin as currently construed is extinct—everyone has a gene hack to synthesize Vitamin D without sunlight and melanin reduces the risk of sunburn. (Skin cancer is also extinct.)

#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Nov. What role does race play in your work?

The concept of "race" is a vile 19th century shibboleth invented to support colonialism and to justify so-called "scientific racism". Human races are far less distinct than cultivars of broccoli or breeds of dog: we're all one hominin species.

So I generally only use it in my fiction as a handy tag for "the character talking about this shit is misguided and/or has an evil agenda".

Footnote to #WritersCoffeeClub 17/11: my current two WIPs are space operas set 700,000 years hence. Our subspecies of hominin is long-extinct: humanity has speciated. There are references to "elves" and "dwarves": genetically engineered hominid descendant species designed for different planetary environments. "White" skin as currently construed is extinct—everyone has a gene hack to synthesize Vitamin D without sunlight and melanin reduces the risk of sunburn. (Skin cancer is also extinct.)

#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Nov. What role does race play in your work?

The concept of "race" is a vile 19th century shibboleth invented to support colonialism and to justify so-called "scientific racism". Human races are far less distinct than cultivars of broccoli or breeds of dog: we're all one hominin species.

So I generally only use it in my fiction as a handy tag for "the character talking about this shit is misguided and/or has an evil agenda".