@b2ab0244 @cd8e3eca @6e9427cf I do, but it requires more money. I think the “s” is for the additional security, but I’m currently not selling stuff or taking personal details on my site, so it’s a bit pointless. 

 @5a43dd67 this is a similar point I made. I write stories and can’t help but find the flaws in everything else I watch/read. However, when something is written well, I am mighty impressed by it. 

 @8f14b5eb same. After Lost, I am very wary of tv shows which go on with no obvious end and play a whole season  teasing the answer to one mystery just to keep people watching. 

 @b2ab0244 @cd8e3eca @6e9427cf 
It should be fine as it’s probably an https address. I have my own Wordpress blog, but I’ve only got a http site address so Mastodon won’t allow me to verify that it belongs to me. 😕 

 #WritersCoffeeClub cont… 

I don’t know about you, but since writing I struggle to let my brain gloss over poor writing in books/films/tv shows. I spot all the foreshadowing. I know all the tropes. Become increasingly frustrated by the “withhold key information to the viewer for the entire story because finding that out is truly the only thing that’s keeping them watching” tactic. At least with a book you can skim to the final page. 

 @b9ae018a no, the course is online. 

 @983f49c9 no butlers (yet) in the story. I think I’ve sussed out George. The fun part was writing the gruesome folktale which spurred Edie to look for him. When she finds him, he then rights the record and we find out what really happened. 

 @983f49c9 it does, which is why I seem to be spending most of my time writing a sub-story that follows Edie and George’s backstory. How did a 15th century man end up stuck in the fairy realm? What was he getting up to before Edie met him in 1973? Who did she piss off when she freed him? And who else did they piss off over the next 35 years both human and fae? 

 @983f49c9 im motivated. Too many people have said they want to read what happens next. I wish I knew what happens next. I’ve got character arcs sussed. Just not the plot. 

 @bfb1cdcb as a pantser, I go by the Indiana Jones ‘I don’t know, I’m making it up as I go,’ method of minimal prepping. 

 @983f49c9 I can imagine it will be useful, and fun too. So the plan is to mainly research and world build this month. Then I’ll have lots of fodder when it comes to working out my murderer and motives along with any red herrings with the help of this course. That’s the hope anyway. 

 @41b437fa it is. I feel I’m going to be the odd one in the group. I can imagine lots of people writing traditional detective stories and then I’ll turn up telling them I’m writing something akin to Rivers of London but led by an amateur sleuth. 

 That's me enrolled in a six week online Crime Fiction Writing course in early November. Exciting!*

*Especially since I have pants the beginning of a fantasy novel which has pretty much turned into a murder mystery. 

 @f53e7790 I find NaNo a good opportunity to revive my lagging writing habit. I just do it quietly without taking notice of the word count. It’s very easy to fall into the ‘all these other writers are keeping up and overtaking the daily word count, they must be better than me’ mentality. 

 @983f49c9 oooh, thank you! I am. Just moving house messed my writing routine. 

 @983f49c9 😂 I am very upset the introduction to the amazing Edie is her death. But I do plan a third person chapter dipping into her backstory. I just need to work out what exactly is her backstory. 

 @983f49c9 thank you so much. I feel my other story has been more about finding my feet. 

 Slightly off topic for today’s #WritersCoffeeClub question, but I had a lot of fun researching different time keeping methods across the ages. The Roman idea of 12hrs of day and 12hrs of night despite the fluctuating lengths of daylight across the year seems utterly bizarre.

What I do like in some old calendars is the idea of a leap month when everything got really out of kilter. I put that in my WIP and called that month the Wandering Moon. 

 @8a4a4980 I bypassed the having children part so I do get some extra time to get the words down. 

 @983f49c9 I couldn’t forget milk as I needed mine for some all important butterscotch Angel Delight (yes, it’s for me). 

 @50dd0c9c walking is my meditation and the headspace where I can find solutions to my problems. 

 @773c5363 @41b437fa I feel this is the key part of pantsing. You might get a lot of wastage, but you get to know your characters better, and they develop in an organic way. I find they feel more realistic, because they drive the narrative, not the plot. 

 @16f94837 true. 

 @8a4a4980 that last part is so true. It is very easy to allocate your time to things which bring you no fulfilment. Modern life demands we are constantly plugged in, looking at social media or the news, checking emails after work etc. modern life is tiring too. Often we find the time to write, but we’re too exhausted to. I am trying to do more of the things which bring me joy and fulfilment, and writing is one of them. 

 @983f49c9 it is currently free wills month. I think the idea is you should leave something in your will to a given charity in return for not paying a solicitor (unsure if it’s obligatory). It’s open to over 55s.

I will email the first few chapters later  on today and you can tell me your thoughts so far. 

 @c122552e thank you. They’re both proving fun to write. 

 @aabd21b8 yay! I’d best finish them. 🤪 

 @b9ae018a thank you. 🙏 

 @983f49c9 I think this was for me? I’ve got a few chapters of Guesthouse that are relatively readable. Now I’m trying to work out how a character can trick Gwyn up Nupp. The problem with writing is I can easily put characters into problems but struggle with finding solutions to get them out of them. 

 @2ee95d3f yay! Thank you. 

 @983f49c9 You'd like that. There's a scene where the MC is in a crowded pub any everyone is singing along to Fairport Convention's Tam Lin.

You've got some version of The Tempering from an earlier beta read. I can't recall if it's changed a whole lot. But it's morphed into a trilogy and I need to know what happens at the end because inevitably I'll end up needing to tweak stuff in the previous books. 

 @b2ab0244 Oh I'm sure it will. I have drafted something of an ending scene in the hope the pantsing will reach it (or at least some semblance of it). 

 @8f14b5eb whenever I get round to finishing them. 

 @b2ab0244 I know you are a sucker for those. 😁 I am too. The Tempering has morphed into a trilogy, and I loath to query the first part until I discover how the hell it's going to end. 

 @41b437fa you can switch off an individuals boosts if there are some serial boosters who flood your feed. 

 @b9ae018a Gywn ap Nudd is the leader of the Wild Hunt in Welsh mythology. Also the ruler of Anwnn. 

 @983f49c9 I’m still developing my elves. My fairy realm is predominantly matriarchal and humans at the bottom of the chain in regards to species. Those who know of the human realm go there either as refugees or opportunists. Many humans in the fairy realm are slaves so our realm is a good place to grab some. My MC discovers her late aunt searched for missing persons in the fae realm and brought them home. But someone/something has bumped her off so now it’s become a murder mystery.

https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/111/158/383/051/368/840/original/23db4ae08bf02127.png 

 @983f49c9 maybe you have to be on shrooms for it all to make sense? 🍄 

This confusion in tales is a point in my story. My MC discovers a lot of folklore is true, but the tales are told from human experiences/interpretations and usually with a lump of Christian editing and allegory. So the reality differs from the fairytales we’ve been telling. 

 @983f49c9 a mix, but mainly in his Hunter/Psychopomp guise. I don’t want to copy mythology, but take the bones/origin myth and put my own slant on it. 

 @fce7a536 Thanks! I got most of it done. Still have writing to tick off. 

 @ce78dee8 I find their camp nano months work better for me for timing, plus you can set your own targets. 

 @983f49c9 I’m really sorry to hear about your dad. You mentioned you visited him with family recently. I understand the release. My FIL is in poor health and sometimes it feels it would be kinder if he went sooner rather than slowly faded away. 

Typo, I’m afraid. I could make it his name. It doesn’t have to be what we call him in folklore.

I’m here if you need someone to talk to. 

 @21149f3e Yes! I hit 40 this year and I want to ensure I spend as much of this second half doing what I enjoy. 

 @21149f3e I’m glad you got yourself out of it. I think too that we are conditioned culturally to ideals and when we go against the grain we’re seen as outsiders. You’re meant to have a steady job, a car, a home, a family. You should look and act in certain ways.

Everyone took advantage of my helpful nature, and as I didn’t have kids, I picked up the workloads of those who did. If I got to do an exhibition it was because the male collages saw me as stand totty rather than anything else. 🤷🏻‍♀️