#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 1: How satisfied are you with your current writerly ‘voice’?

I adjust my narrator voice for every project. To me, the narrator is a character, the one readers will spend the largest amount of their time with, so I need to be conscious of how it sounds. I noticed Cat Valente does that, and it's super effective.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 1: How satisfied are you with your current writerly ‘voice’?

I adjust my narrator voice for every project. To me, the narrator is a character, the one readers will spend the largest amount of their time with, so I need to be conscious of how it sounds. I noticed Cat Valente does that, and it's super effective.

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#ScribesAndMakers Jan 25: What's the most important thing you need to bring with you on a creative retreat?

My laptop. It's what I write on.

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#ScribesAndMakers Jan 24: What's a work of science fiction that you love? What do you love about it?

So many. Most recently, Cat Valente's SPACE OPERA is brilliant. If someone wanted to understand my sensibilities as a full human being, I'd hand them that book. It's silly as hell, and sexy, and so very sincere. It proudly wears its heart on its sleeve. "This is my heart," it says. "Do you like it?"

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#ScribesAndMakers Jan 20: When it comes to theatre, do your prefer tragedy or comedy?

I don't really prefer one over the other, but if it's a "that's all you get for the rest of your life" situation, then I choose comedy because I can always use a laugh, but I have to be In A Mood to watch the hero slowly destroy himself (occasionally herself).

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#ScribesAndMakers Jan 19. Have you ever experienced interactive art? If so, can you tell us about it?

A lifetime of D&D. Loads of theatre sports in high school. Frankly, any performance is interactive since you're in the room with the audience, and their mood *matters* to the show.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 12. How do you get to know your characters before you start writing?

I get to know my characters *by* writing them. That's just how it works for me.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 12. How do you get to know your characters before you start writing?

I get to know my characters *by* writing them. That's just how it works for me.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 11 Name a poem (or poet) which has influenced you.

There are so many. I mean, Shakespeare's Sonnet Cycle is huge. So is Ginsberg's "Howl." Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and Caroll's "Jabberwocky" live in my brain. They're all in me all the time.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 10: How do you steer a reader’s emotional journey?

I show them the story, and then they react as they'll react. I don't think I can "steer" them.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 9: What's your top tip for writing authentic dialogue?

Consciously decide how different characters talk, how they use language differently than each other, and then imagine their voice, audible in your head. Put them in conversations. Listen to them. Write down what you hear. (It's still you. You're playing a character.)

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 8: While editing, what most clearly signals a pacing issue?

Stuff just sorta happens. I keep thinking to myself, "Oh, we're doing this now?" I've learned to recognize that as an alarm bell.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 7: Continuing from yesterday’s question, what’s gone downhill?

My ability to keep a text in my head and followup on tropes I laid down. Granted, this is my first novel, and it's proven the obvious to me: I *can't* keep a whole book in my head, so I'll need a better system for tracking and mapping it all.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 1: What's the greatest benefit you've taken from the writing community online?

Breadth of techniques. It's the inverse of reading one book by one person who tells you "the correct way" to write a novel (or whatever). Having a collective that all does things differently means your approach is validated by others who do the same, and you're exposed to and can learn from those who don't.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 1: What's the greatest benefit you've taken from the writing community online?

Breadth of techniques. It's the inverse of reading one book by one person who tells you "the correct way" to write a novel (or whatever). Having a collective that all does things differently means your approach is validated by others who do the same, and you're exposed to and can learn from those who don't.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 31: Happy New Year! Take pride in what you’ve written and share the progress you've made!

I finished a whole first draft of a novel. It is just under 72,000 words. It's a short novel, but it's mine.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 31: Happy New Year! Take pride in what you’ve written and share the progress you've made!

I finished a whole first draft of a novel. It is just under 72,000 words. It's a short novel, but it's mine.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 29: What would I like to see future writer generations discard?

There's no device or conceit or tool that's inherently bad. I don't want anything "thrown away." What I want is for those tools to be used selectively, to fit the task at hand, rather than habitually: over and over again, always the same way.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 30: How much would writing by another means (by hand, digitally, audio transcription) change your prose?

It would be very very different. Transcription will feel dead bc it doesn't have all my inflection. Writing by hand would be more circuitous because I can't rearrange text nearly as easily. I do write digitally, so that's my default.

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 28: How does your prose create and maintain tension?

I honestly have no idea how or even whether I'm doing that, so I'll be reading this prompt for tips.

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