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#writerscoffeeclub

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@Firlefanz@writing.exchange · 14h ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 4/27. Share a possibly unpopular opinion. 👀 (Be kind!) Every time I see an author striving for being trad published, I wince inside. Trad publishing is a cruel mill, crushing dreams, crushing books. It is run by investment companies who couldn't care less about stories, and they certainly no longer build up authors. I do understand the yearning for recognition and a slice of fame, but trad... trad is crushing people. So ask me anything about being indie. #WritingCommunity
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@paranoiapen@mas.to · 15h ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 27/4: Share a possibly unpopular opinion. 👀 (Be kind!) What, again? But I do that every day - all my opinions are unpopular! Here's one about writing. Fantasy is not a genre.
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@NaraMoore@sakurajima.moe · 22h ago
#WritersCoffeeClub – 26th Apr. Recommend a nonfiction book about writing. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs, I have never read a book on writing. Maybe I should, but it sounds too boring. So instead I will recommend my fav: Thesarus and reverse dictionary. (No AI) OneLook Thesaurus and Reverse Dictionary: #NMWCC #NMPrompts
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@KitAuthor@wandering.shop · 1d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 26 – Recommend a non-fiction book on writing. Dwight V. Swain, Techniques of the Selling Writer. This book is vintage (putting it nicely) as it was one that was recommended to me when I started learning how to write. But there are things in that book I've never seen anywhere else.
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@Klepsis@indieauthors.social · 1d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub April 25: Share your current biggest creative frustration. Having a hard time getting the enemies to stop sniping at each other and start loving. #Writing #WritingCommunity
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@pretensesoup@indieauthors.social · 2d ago
#writersCoffeeClub 4/25: Share your current biggest creative frustration. I have two kids. I don't remember the last time I got to have a two-hour writing session where I was alone for the entirety.
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@cstross@wandering.shop · 2d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub April 25 - Share your current biggest creative frustration. Medical/age stuff. I'm over 60 and have multiple health conditions and the meds I'm on have side-effects—generally mild, but in combination it's exhausting. And it's been exhausting for 20 years. I can still write a novel a year but I *should* be able to do three, if I was suddenly magically healthy!
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@CMRosens@social.horrorhub.club · 3d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr. 24 — Share your current biggest creative frustration. I think my biggest current frustration is that I am spending so much time trying to market my existing work, design Bookbub ads and try to come up with reels and TikTok videos and YouTube shorts, that I'm not creating as much as I want to. I genuinely would hire a PA or content creator to do all that for me. I have 2 trad pubbed titles, and my publisher does behind-the-scenes stuff, but not social media.
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In reply to
@cstross@wandering.shop · 3d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub PS to "silly mistakes": a common misconception is that copy editors will spot your silly mistakes. They might ... but then again, they might think the mistake was the authorial intention and let it pass. CEs vary wildly in their approach (never say competence) and your trad publisher's commissioning editor is busy managing workflow (editing gets done on the side, in their own time). So don't rely on the editors cleaning up your messes.
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@cstross@wandering.shop · 3d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!
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@adaddinsane@mastodonapp.uk · 3d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 4/24. Share a silly mistake you've made while writing. Is silly the right word? Whatever. Most recently I had a "him" when I needed a "her" - it was a critically important distinction, and I didn't even notice until I was listening to the audiobook files. The mistake was due to a character that was no longer a "he" (it's complicated). Many of the characters knew about the change but *not* the one who said that line who said what they could see - but I got it wrong because I knew. #writing #writingCommunity
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@cstross@wandering.shop · 4d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub April 23: What are some form conventions you disregard? All of them (whenever I need to). It's useful to know the rules in any field of writing, but only so you know why they exist, what purpose they serve—and by implication, when to break them. (I mean, I've sold SF novels written in multi-viewpoint second person present tense. And broken the fifth wall, never mind the fourth. And the novella I did *that* in won a Hugo award. So why not?)
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@aronsilver@indieauthors.social · 4d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 23 April: What are some form conventions you disregard? I dunno. I write in a pretty traditional, third person, past tense, chapter-based format. I also work with editors to ensure the form conforms, so to say.
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@Inverse_Shadow@indieauthors.social · 6d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 20. What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend? That the idea that there's only one way to write a story (the hero's journey) is rather silly and should be disregarded.
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@willelm@indieauthors.social · 5d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub April 22. What's a writing skill you wish you were better at? I need to improve all of it. Right now, I wish I was better at motivating myself to write, but really I'd like to be a better writer all around.
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@solarbranka@mastodon.world · 6d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub ~ What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend? That true connection between two souls doesn't necessarily equal to finishing each other's sentences ~ it is accepting each other's uniqueness & tolerating each other's munching sounds. :ncatchan_biglove_io: That's the hill. 🪷
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@cstross@wandering.shop · 6d ago
#WritersCoffeeClub 21 April: What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend? The idea that you should write for the broadest audience possible. Studies show that 54% of the US population read at or below a 6th grade (age 12) level of comprehension. Fuck 'em, they're not my readers: I write to entertain readers who're willing to put some effort in, I'm not going to enshittify my output to accommodate people who don't read for pleasure. (Low grade readers never got the habit.)
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@cstross@wandering.shop · Apr 20, 2026
#WritersCoffeeClub April 20. What have you tried to immortalise in your writing? Human stupidity. As Harlan Ellison remarked, "the commonest elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." This is a lesson that needs to be hammered home in every generation. Supporting evidence from real life: the English language news cycle since January 20th, 2025.
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@aronsilver@indieauthors.social · Apr 20, 2026
#WritersCoffeeClub 20 April: What have you tried to immortalise in your writing? I don’t think I intentionally tried to immortalise anything. I understand writing is a form of legacy building, but I’m not aiming to become an immortal 😅
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@cstross@wandering.shop · Apr 18, 2026
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 18: Does your writing ever get away from you? Of course it does! It's a necessary part of the process of developing your craft—to over-extend yourself, then learn to recognize it and fix whatever you did wrong. The term for writing a story that doesn't ever get away from you is "phoning it in".
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