mastodon 4.7.3Had a long career as a photographer & writer about the outdoors, but now much more focused on fiction, especially SF. Author website is https://www.jonsparksauthor.com.
Lots of photos and quite a lot of words at https://jonsparks.zenfolio.com.
Still very much into the #outdoors, especially #cycling #gravelbikes (I’ve written about that too).
AI-free (and I mean free).
#WritersCoffeeClub 21/4: What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?
Nothing silly about opposing the industrialised plagiarism and degradation of creativity that is AI.
But also… I often find myself shaking my head at ‘writing advice’ that people trot out. One the other day that I particularly recoiled from was ‘know your elevator pitch before you start writing’. I can barely stomach the concept of the elevator pitch after the book is done.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 22/5: If your MC came with a warning label, what would it be?
Warning to Readers: May cause you to stay up after your bedtime.
😉
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#WritersCoffeeClub 26/5: In what ways does your work defy expectation?
By not meekly conforming to a prescriptive 'genre' formula.
I’ve often said genre should be a signpost for readers, not a straitjacket for writers, but to be honest I have a bit of trouble with the signpost bit too.
#books #writing #Writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 25/05: What one event defines your MC?
What one event defines you? Or me? I don’t accept such a reductionist premise.
That said, Jerya’s irregular Choosing as a Dawnsinger does have a lot of repercussions… but she’d be the first to say it’s helped shape her life, but doesn’t define her.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 10/5: What wisdom do you wish you could share with your younger self?
“You don’t have all the answers yet? The thing is, no one does. The people to avoid are the ones who think they do.”
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 22/5: How well would your current WIP work as a play?
There are lots of shifts of scene, outdoor scenes, and actual travel, including exploring glaciers and so on. I don’t see it as a stage play… but a radio play—or serial—yes, why not?
They always say the pictures are better on radio, don’t they?
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 21/5: How do you make your MC likeable or relatable to in the first chapter?
Ha ha ha I can’t ‘make’ Jerya do or be anything. The entire Guild of Dawnsingers is about to have the same problem, just you wait and see.
All I can do is watch, and write down the important bits.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 23/5: If your antagonist came with a warning label, what would it be?
This is Perriad. Obsessive, always right (in her estimation), increasingly unstable.
But now dead, so this is more of an epitaph.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 25/5: Share a late-stage change you made to a work.
This probably counts as 'late' in context of the long gestation of the whole thing; first two books of The Shattered Moon were originally envisaged as one. But at 140,000w plus it was getting out of hand. And by splitting into two I had chance to add depth to some bits, notably Rodal’s journeys and choices in Book 2.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 6/5: Talk about something you've written which you expected would (or expect will) divide readers.
The current WIP features an MC who is, in our terms, trans. I hope she won’t divide readers, because she’s just someone who wants to live her own life in her own way, but we’ll have to wait and see.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 5/5: Have you ever taken inspiration from something which could have but didn't happen?
Read one way, that’s just a definition of fiction, isn’t it?
But if you mean in the ‘Man in the High Castle’ sense, no.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 9/5: C&R: Share the first line of your current WIP.
I’m wary of fetishising first lines too much. First paragraph, first page… Still, let’s play:
“Well met, ladies,” said Fedwyn. Kerriel knew that tone, the one that left you wondering if he was serious or on the edge of mockery.
Everyone: How enticed are you?
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 1/4: Your opinion on April Fool's Day & do you incorporate the day into your work?
April Fool's Day is a fine thing when the spoof is done well. And as the originator of the Spaghetti Harvest story on the BBC, and of the San Serriffe feature in the Guardian, you can believe every word I say.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 4/5: Is there a scene or a character or even a plot you regret adding to a finished work?
In the first book, Jerya and Rodal see a white horse cut into a chalk hillside on their journey to Carwerid. Why’s it there,who keeps the grass from growing over it? Foreshadowing? For what? I don’t know.
But I take comfort from knowing that Ursula K Le Guin included a troll in one of the first Earthsea stories and they never appear again.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 24/5: If your characters were pets, what would they be and how would they react?
1: None of them are pets, and woe betide anyone who treats them as such.
2: But we could, at a stretch, see them as canids, bearing in mind that includes everything from wolf to Chihuahua. But is Jerya a Border Collie or is she a fox?
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 21/5: What targets do you set for yourself? To what frequency?
I had 30+ years of writing to deadlines and set word counts. As a self published author now, I’ve kept to a schedule of a book every six months, but after a lot of disruption including family bereavement I’m not sure whether or not the next one will slip by a month or two.
I don’t set micro-targets like writing x number of words every day.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 7/5: Do readers need to understand a character's motivations to understand the story?
To understand it, yes, I don’t see how it could be otherwise.
Whether full understanding is always necessary to **enjoy** a story is another, and perhaps deeper, question.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 6/5: What writing-related challenges have you encountered recently?
Nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve just gone through the stage of checking through the entire MS for continuity errors. Found a few, the usual result of moving the furniture around. It’s fun being a pantser.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 5/5: Is your MC aware of their flaw?
She is now. The drastic consequences—for Railu even more than herself—of her actions towards the end of Book 1 made Jerya think long and hard. Although learning to contain her impulsiveness took a long time and she still has to watch herself at times.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 27/5: Do you read outside the genre you write?
Given all I’ve said in previous answers about the shakiness of the concept of ‘genre’, you can hardly expect me to say no. In fact it would be easier to list areas of the bookshop that I don’t routinely explore.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 27/5: What does victory mean for your antagonist?
Perriad did, briefly, taste victory in Book 3, with her election to Master Prime. Ii only lasted a few days before it became clear how far from the truth she’d strayed. It left her bitter and frustrated for the rest of her life.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 2/4: Visual presentation: how do white space and typography become meaningful elements of literary form?
Having worked extensively with designers in my photography career, and as I now do my own covers for my novels, I’m well aware of the importance of these elements. But I think we can overstate the case for the text of a story. When reading, the design elements should be as clear and unobtrusive as possible; essentially they disappear.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 24/5: What do you need in order to finish your current WIP?
Had we but World enough, and Time…
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#WordWeavers 10/5: What are the beauty standards like in your world, and do they impact any of your characters?
In the Five Principalities, traditional standards expect females to have long skirts and long hair, ride side-saddle, and generally be modest and not assertive. But these norms are under attack from various angles. Which naturally means males are having to make a few adjustments too, but they don’t always like it.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 7/5: Does your antagonist have any redeeming qualities?
The only out-and-out antagonist in the series is Perriad, and by the opening of the current WIP she’s been dead for a few years. Some, if they’re candid, might say that’s the best redeeming quality she could show.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 4/4: Choose a character to invite to a party. What kind of party is it? Does it have special rules (dress code, bring alcohol, etc.)?
It would have to be someone who’d join me in forming an escape committee and making a discreet exit to the nearest decent pub at the first opportunity.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 3/4: Have you studied writing? Did it prepare you, or did you learn more by doing?
The only formal writing course I ever did was one week on ‘writing for outdoor magazines’. It was useful in terms of understanding that particular market, at that time, in the UK, but it didn’t teach me ‘how to write’. Teachers’ comments on school essays were some help, but by far the most valuable training I’ve ever had was from voracious and eclectic reading.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 31/3: What are we celebrating regarding your writing this month?
That I’m back in the groove after a period of disruption (as recounted yesterday), and that the latest book is coming together.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 8/5: MC POV: Describe your neighbourhood.
Jerya: I divide my time between Skilthorn and Velyadero.
Skilthorn is a large estate centred on a ridiculously grandiose house; obscenely, all for the benefit of one man until Hedric inherited. Now over 200 girls are being educated here.
Velyadero is a modest city, surrounded by green hills, but since it’s the only University in the Five Principalities that admits women, it’s the most advanced.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 7/4: Do you combine poetic fragments and prose paragraphs in your work?
No, but not from any philosophical aversion. I’m just hopeless at writing poetry.
#books #writing #writersofmastodo
#WritersCoffeeClub 6/4: Do the plots or characters in your work converge towards a single point?
Well, possibly, but only in the sense that lines of perspective converge towards a vanishing point. You can conceptualise it, but you can never actually get there. (See also rainbows and pots of gold.)
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 3/4: For which characters do you come up with a backstory?
I don’t ‘come up with’ backstory for any of them. They tell me, when they need to, or it emerges organically, or, somehow, it’s ‘just there’. There’s a lot of Jerya’s backstory in the the first chapter or two of Three Kinds of North, but I didn’t plan, devise, contrive, or ‘come up with’ any of it.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 1/4: What arrangement of plots do you have? No plot? Only one? A main plot and a side plot? Something else?
Characters let me follow their stories. Stuff happens. That’s all I know.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 9/5: Are there any unusual societal norms in your world?
Both slavery and the lower status of women (Five Principalities) are historically only too familiar to us. We might consider the Sung Lands more enlightened… but the Guild of Dawnsingers relies on taking girls from their homes at age 10 or 11, and still only allows limited contact thereafter.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 6/4: Can you create a character/place/storyhook/device on the spot, if you need to? If so, share an example.
No, that’s not how it works. Sure, I could think of something, but it would barely be the scaffolding, not the building, or even the foundation. Real characters and real stories don’t happen at the snap of my fingers.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 4/4: Do you switch between past and present tense? How do you make it work?
I’ve written a lot of experience-based articles in present tense, including some that I’ve resurrected on Substack. Yet I have a mild aversion to fiction written in present tense. I can’t readily explain this anomaly.
I fiercely dislike flipping between tenses in the course of a narrative and unless there’s a very clear rationale, I’ll probably put the book down.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
WordWeavers 26/5: What is your antagonist’s earliest memory?
I’ve never asked Perriad, and it’s too late now, but I have a feeling she’d have blanked out anything before her Choosing as a Dawnsinger.
#books #writing #Writersofmastodon
The label ‘great’ is attached to far too many people. But I’ve met one person in my life who one hundred per cent deserves it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/dinner-with-attenborough
Latest real-world outlet for my books (including some local interest guidebooks and photo books from my previous life): The Velvet Carrot in Garstang.
Also supporting other local authors.
Another damning piece of evidence in the case against AI.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2521256-ai-data-centres-can-warm-surrounding-areas-by-up-to-9-1c/
A Study in Starlight—Chapter Six
Continuing this serialised novel, in which Holmes and Watson find themselves very far indeed from Victorian/Edwardian London.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/a-study-in-starlightchapter-six
A Study in Starlight—Chapter Five
Continuing this serialised novel, in which Holmes and Watson find themselves very far indeed from Victorian/Edwardian London.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/a-study-in-starlightchapter-four
Continuing this serialised novel of murky goings-on in the great outdoors… what happened after last time’s cliffhanger?
Free to read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/the-kanchenjunga-manifestochapter-c59
Continuing this serialised novel, in which Holmes and Watson find themselves very far indeed from Victorian/Edwardian London.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/a-study-in-starlightchapter-ten
Continuing this serialised novel of murky goings-on in the great outdoors.
Free to read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/the-kanchenjunga-manifestochapter-e69