1- What are your writing goals for this month?
I have Top Surgery later this month (quite excited!) so I don't plan on anything ambitious until I'm at least somewhat recovered.
So, mainly prep. though I have to say, the heatwave caused me to think of a (Short?) Story I want to write. So hopefully I can get the first draft of that out before I'm under the knife.
2- What was the last thing to interrupt you while writing?
Yesterday I was writing a bit (world-building a different project) and Sir Robin "Puck" Goodfellow jumped on my notebook and flipped it over. Thankfully there wasn't too big a mess.
He is napping in another room right now
3- How does what you read influence what you write?
I'm not saying I'm NEVER inspired by textual books, but usually my inspiration comes from other media (especially music!)
Usually when I'm reading something to influence something I write, it's to study vibes.
4- If you work digitally, what application do you use? If analog, what do you write on?
¿Por qué no los dos? In an A5 notebook I try to both set intentions for what I write, and maybe brain storm a bit. Plus it's an excuse to use a fountain pen 🤩
Digitally: Sometimes https://write.ellipsus.com/ , Sometimes (more often as of late) Scrivener, due to MS Word getting worse and worse, so I basically only use MS Word when I have to (and yes sometimes I have to)
5- Do you track your word count? How? Why?
I go back and forth on if I should do this. I know there are multiple ways to chart productivity (though sometimes impossible) but for a while I was giving myself stickers in my Hobonichi for each 500 words I managed in a day (I ran out of the stickers, need a new method) but stickers are a great motivator, and sometimes it feels good to have a VISIBLE sign of progress
Also:
https://writingmonth.org/
6- If you work digitally, what keyboard or dictation do you use? If paper, what do you write with?
Digital: Standard QWERTY. nothing special.
Physical: Fountain pens (I have a LAMY and a TWSBI) make me feel good but I must stress: once you discover good paper (eg: Leuchtturm, Tomoe River Paper) it is REALLY hard to go back to bad paper.
Also don't get a moleskine. IIRC for cost Leuchtturms are better.
7- What's something you thought would help your workflow, but didn't work out?
There was an essay I was working on for an anniversary of someone else's project (a historical work, it'd be the anniversary of when that work takes place, not when it was published)
I thought making a list of ALL the research materials I would need would be efficient and I would chip away at it.
WRONG. it set up super-overwhelm. Maybe I can do the project for an actual anniversary...
8- International Literacy Day! Share a moment when a reading of your work surprised you.
When Jordan Kurella on Cast of Wonders episode 638: A Spell of Grief ( https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/05/cast-of-wonders-638-a-spell-of-grief/ text here but it's also in audio) read a line about Axe Body Spray I wrote, I could hear in his voice suppressed laughter. I mean, the line WAS funny to me, but I'm glad others found it funny too, especially him :)
9- What's your standard operating font, size, format? Or do you not have a standard?
If I'm in word (less common lately lmao) I set it to Times New roman 12 and adjust later if someone has different manuscript format demands (99% of the time Shunn or a variation of it)
if it's in ellipsis ( https://write.ellipsus.com ) or in Scrivener, I just do defaults provided I can see it (those glasses in my av are not just for show!) and then convert it to Shunn stuff later
10- What's something you believe about writing which can't really be proven?
I believe anyone can do it. I don't believe in "Talent". I could believe you have an "Aptitude" that makes it easier for you to start, but the rest of that? All Hard work (enjoyable hard work, but hard work). Imo this is good because it does mean if you lack a supposed aptitude you can improve anyway. It just may be harder for you. And ALL human beings yearn / need to create.
1/X
11- What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?
Go on a walk. sometimes without music. Sometimes focus on thinking.
Sometimes just space out, etc.
Other than the fact seemingly all humans do better with some sort of movement, sometimes I've solved my problems in the plot by going on walks (Some have also been solved via sleep)
12- Who do you share snippets of your WIP with?
I try not to share snippets at all? I mean, drafts go to specific betas if they're free but with the exception of a couple stories where I went "I don't know where to go with this from here, here are 4 possibilities I laid out plz give me your thoughts" but I don't usually go "Here's this sentence I'm really proud of" but maybe that's something I should change? 🤷
13- What do you need to do before you sit down to write?
I often try to listen to a podcast (videos may also work don't usually try them though) in the hopes of getting myself "in the mood".
Also I have bastardized the concept of Morning Pages (to occur at any old time for example) and usually just write a few pages with a fountain pen and set my intention for what I'm doing or at least going to try to do if I feel like it's a "pulling teeth" day
14- Have you ever read a work of fiction you felt was advertising something?
Other than the concept of themes there is literally ONE example I can think of.
possibly the worst christmas gift I got.
When I was like 10-12 my Grandma got me "The O'Reilly Factor FOR KIDS"
I was not the leftist I am today but even at that point I was disgusted.
Did you know someone who I could truthfully call a bully has a section on bullying and it didn't stop the bullying?
15- What expertise are you happy to offer to your fellow writers for their research?
From a sensitivity aspect I could read for autism (though if you've met an autistic person you've met ONE autistic person fwiw)
Other than that.
Degree in Anthropology, B1ish (not certified) in Spanish, I can infodump about textiles (particularly crochet) to you? Do NOT ask me about knitting go to someone else
16- Is there a topic you could really use an expert’s help with? What is it?
More about colonialism I suppose? I'm doing reading very slowly on that, but I am also one of those 6 (more like 20) burner stove people so I'm researching other unrelated things at the same time.
Recommended reading lists in English o Español (especially if Piel negra, máscaras blancas has a better ES translation than EN. I'm told both EN translations suck just one sucks less?) are welcome
17- Do you try to have a regular writing goal? Why or why not?
Not regular. Just specific like "Finish this draft of a story before X date" that sort of thing. Some months (especially this month, probably next month too) I have more of a "you can get a treat if you sit down to write x times this week"
18- Share a word you've used only to learn later you were pronouncing or using it wrong.
Weiner dogs are not pronounced "Dash- Hund" but closer to " /ˈdaks.hʊnt/" (or as close as you can get). I was under this impression for over a decade until I learned I was wrong.
I honestly have a lot of stories like this as I learned via reading text (and fanfic) and not from someone saying "That's how "angst" is pronounced" or something.
19- Are you more comfortable writing to a structure or freeform?
Am I wrong to take this as an "outline or no" question? I usually plan stories to some extent in the sense of "I know some parts of this story and I need to find the connective tissue" but not like a strict outline.
While I know stories require structure to some extent sometimes I find it easier to edit into that structure than just idk check off a list of the Monomyth stuff
21- What can a reader know to be true about you from your work?
If I had my hat trick successfully working it'd be a "Fuck Cars" message, JK; but in general: I am no stranger to grief. I don't really want to get into details right now (maybe some other time) but basically I've lived my whole life in the shadow of seeing grief destroy people. So I think that's why grief often figures prominently in my work
22- What's the latest in the writing process you've found a mistake?
After I had submitted a story in high school for a scholarship contest at the college I intended to go to for creative writing, I found a really bad plothole on reread....
somehow I still did well in that contest which leads me to believe either they were extremely kind or no one else entered this contest.
Thankfully 🤞 I haven't caught anything nearly as late since 🤞
23- What "little thing" really helps you write?
Things (plural):
1- Being Dressed, I don't get good results in pajamas
2- Listening to writing-podcasts before I start (trying to make a Pavlovian connection in my brain)
3- Journaling my intentions before I start the session proper
Sometimes it's still a crapshoot because of health or something else demanding attention that day, but those things definitely help.
24- Do you write primarily for yourself or for a reader?
I mean I need to make sure my stories appeal to other people if I want a chance of publishing them, but I usually start with:
1- Focus on the sort of story I want to read (assuming it's not a writing experiment like Project R)
2- Figure out how to make it have at least slightly more broad of appeal
imo (N/A to all) you need to write stories YOU care about, but also that others will too.
26- I want to stress I don't hate the idea of religion as a concept (let's leave it as "The Catholic School removed the Catholicism from me), but I'm basically agnostic. Been trying a few things to see if they click with me (do NOT tell my super catholic aunts!!!)
I don't think it's really been an issue in anything I've written recently, but I suppose there's a backlight of "Religious Trauma" if that makes sense
1/x
Part 2: I would say I do have opinions on religion in work. More as a "what feels realistic to me"
Like let's say you're a fantasy series where a goddess who has never been seen yet you're certain exists, and a bunch of supernatural shit happens the whole time.
Even with the latter point, I would say it stretches my disbelief there are NO non-believers. I mean, historically, something like Tudor-England yeah seemingly everyone believes, but part of me doubts EVERYONE did you know?
2/2
@lapis i suppose part of this depends on your definition of a non-believer? historically a lot of religions put a lot more emphasis on behaving correctly than your thoughts, so if you’re willing to count the dude who goes to church on sunday along with all of his neighbors and then daydreams the whole time — or his neighbor who goes and likes the stories but doesn’t necessarily *believe* them as non believers than sure both of those guys probably existed. but in a fantasy story it’s not necessarily going to come up that the tavern keeper is one of those guys unless he’s a pov character because he doesn’t actually act all that different from anyone else you know?
@Satsuma also gonna add
it's more about what's the word verisimilitude to me. Like even if your fantasy series ended with the goddess appearing in such a way no one could deny she was the goddess in your holy book, and that she's definitely divine, it's not like I would go "ugh that is so unrealistic >(" to me it's more just, the variety of beliefs in human beings if that makes sense?
@lapis yeah i mean there are moon landing hoaxers and such out there so clearly people are willing to disbelieve things which we really do have quite a lot of evidence out there for!
and of course we do know that tudor england (and other such mostly a religious monolith times & places) did have a jewish community who had to address the question of how to contend with the mainstream religion as an outsider, even if its for reasons other than being a non-believer.
but in both cases i guess the question is how much are these people actually visible? is this a culture where gary getting drunk and ranting about how surely the goddess is made up because no ones actually met her results in him getting offed or a more tolerant response? there’s probably a spectrum here, but i’d say that most places which were 99% one religion achieved that through a heavy dose of oppressiveness so…
@Satsuma Yeah you can say that again 💯
@Satsuma I guess to me (part of it may be a catholic-tainted brain) to me in the sense of belief I'd get running through the motions especially if it's not socially acceptable to be an atheist but for me it's like "okay even if this experience proved ghosts are real to 99% of people I find it hard to believe that 1% won't try to claim a "rational explanation"" idk does.that make sense