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grrgyle @slrpnk.net

Writing Club - July 2024

Welcome to the inaugural writing club update! This is a brand new writing club, first proposed here. I have some ideas about what I want from this club, but where we go from here is open ended.

So feel free to start new posts or spinoffs in between my monthly posts, as long as they jive with the rules in our gracious host community's sidebar, you have my full support. :)

On to the whole point of this club! The following brave things set to text concrete goals for themselves (linked beside their names, just below). If you'd like to join their number, simply say so in the comments, along with your goal for this month. Okay, here are the stars of our show: 👏👏👏👏

Participants

You don't have to share any of the actual material you've worked on unless you want to (you could even use our local Etherpad to share writing stuff - for example).

Here are some questions to start you off. I'm genuinely interested in your answers, but don't feel you need to follow my script. This is just a prompt:

  • How do you think you did on your goal(s)?
  • What would you like to accomplish for our next check-in in August?
  • Is there a part of your project that you'd especially like feedback on?
  • Is there anything about this writing club you'd like us to do differently?

No stress if you didn't accomplish everything you set out to (I fell short and I'm still here hehe). I would love to hear your updates no matter how things went!

I'll share my own progress in a comment below. What I'm hoping from this step is that we treat this as part check-in, and part conversation. This is your chance to really dig into each others' projects (and if someone has done so for you, maybe it would be nice to return the favour and take an interest in their own project? ;))

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18 comments

  • So my goal was to work on actually editing some of the scenes I'd already written for a sci-fi story. I have tons of scenes drafted out, but am a huge slacker when it comes to editing. Unfortunatly, I ended up deciding to move houses & haven't done much writing at all this month.

    I'm finally all packed though, and am basically just in waiting for closing dates in my current and future house to arrive. I'm hoping having all my distractions packed up & nothing to do will help make July a much more productive month.

    I'm hoping to have my opening chapter edited, maybe write a few more scenes, and tighten up my proposed timeline to match with my outline.

    & just for more information: The story centers around a protagonist who creates a way of augmenting the human mind. This opens up many new possibilities for what humans can be, but of course there are those who seek to monitize and control the technology. The story will take place over an extended period of time as humanity is radically changed by technology. Themes include the necessity of understanding and controlling the tech we use, boundries of the self, and what it means to be human.

    I have another project that takes place in the same universe but instead centers around a found family of heavily modded space travellars. It's a much more playful series focusing on queerness, counter cultural spaces, & creating meaning in a meaningless universe. I bring it up because the two stories are closely linked & I often jump between the two. The queer space story is one I daydream about more, but the augmented mind story has a stronger plot and is a more traditionally sci fi story.

    Heres to hoping this month is one with lots of time spent writing the days away :)

    • The story centers around a protagonist who creates a way of augmenting the human mind. This opens up many new possibilities for what humans can be, but of course there are those who seek to monitize and control the technology. The story will take place over an extended period of time as humanity is radically changed by technology. Themes include the necessity of understanding and controlling the tech we use, boundries of the self, and what it means to be human.

      Thanks for sharing this high level synopsis. The absolute breadth of this project sounds intense - do you have a length in mind for your book yet?

      I love these kinds of stories that take place over a long period of time, since by the time you get to the end you have so much context all loaded up in a kind of emotional tsunami. Anyway, it's really affecting.

      Not sure how much detail you can give, but how many time periods are you thinking of writing?

      I also love how your queer space story and this "main" one can kind of feed off of each other. IMHO it sounds like a smart way to hijack the "shiny object syndrome" (or SOS, lol) that so many creative folks experience. Actually it kind of reminds me of @JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net's Postcards from a Solarpunk Future in that way! (Here's an example)

      Maybe there's a little bit of it in my obsession with maps too, hehe.

      • Sorry, I think you replied to the wrong comment. Thanks for the shout-out though!

        • I don't think I did! I was just relating how we each seem to have a main project along with a related side project

      • My outline would have it be 3 books, or maybe a book in three parts depending on how long things end up.

        First one is set in the current-ish era (origins, main conflict is MC vs self), second book set a few decades later (growth, main conflict is with a specific individual), last book set a couple hundred years in the future (redirection, main conflict is with manipulative corporations/governments), epilogue is in the far distant future (transcendence, main conflict is with meaning/the universe in general).

        Some of my inspiration for story structuring comes from star maker by olaf Stapleton, where self discovery of an individual leads towards bigger and bigger understandings until it encompasses the universe.

        && I definetly think centering stories and projects within one universe is a great way to handle creative ADD, & it helps with world building & audience retention (if people like one series, they'll probably read a spin off series set in the same universe). Though, I do still fall victim to the shiny object syndrome when I write lol & have a few stories started that are set in entirely different universes.

        • epilogue [...] main conflict is with meaning/the universe in general

          Heavy! I love that kind of conflict/theming, when the writer gets philosophical, using the events of the book almost as a classroom, secreted away in a work of fiction. I agree epilogue is a good place for this. I always enjoy these parts of more complex books, because they give you a chance to contextualise what you've read.

          Some of my inspiration for story structuring comes from star maker by Olaf Stapleton, where self discovery of an individual leads towards bigger and bigger understandings until it encompasses the universe.

          Cool, I have Stapleton's "The Last and First Men" on my to-be-read list! His stories do seem like rich inspo-fuel. I haven't read any of his work myself yet, but the sense I get from hearing about them, yeah; it's really starting to drive home the scale of your book(s).

          I'm currently reading Cloud Atlas, which also seems to take place over a large swath of time... Anyway, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but I think I'm getting a little bit of a similar vibe from it, too.

          Pardon me going on about other books. I know some people can find these kinds of comparisons draining, so I'll just put my brakes on here.

18 comments