Welcome to the 24th writing club update! This one’s a little late, apologies for that. But we’re doing our best to not let you down even when things briefly get in the way 😊
We’ve had some blistering heat so I hope you all had some okay enough shelter or good AC. I’m on Europe where AC isn’t so widespread yet, so I’ve been sweating quite a bit. But I’ve also done quite a bunch of writing, yay!
To quote grrgyle on how this writing club update works:
To anyone stumbling upon this post and wondering about the rules – there really aren’t any! This is a club for mostly the same regulars and semi-regulars, but visitors are encouraged to comment on writing updates or share their own. The main idea is to set a goal for yourself and try to achieve it by the next month’s update. :)
Feel free to comment and tell us how things are going for you, regarding writing, creative works, and everything related!
Just curious if there are any recommended places where I can go online to sanity check a plot and or first draft material?
I finally got back onto the writing train, or rather editing train. I’ve been doing huge overhauls, like changing age of characters, double checking and doing a second revision on new character motivations for some larger sections, and so on. I want to get the drafts I already have into good shape, and then head into drafting the final missing book right after. It’s been very fun!
The heat has slowed me down a little bit, and so has installing and configuring a new writing device that I’m using, but otherwise i’ve been mostly been on track and making great progress. I’ve edited roughly 1.5 novels in a month, gradually making my way through all of it front to back. I’m rediscovering some older parts of my music collection as well while I’m doing so, since I tend to listen to music that matches the mood both for drafting new scenes and for editing old scenes.
(Before anybody feels bad because I seem to be so productive, I’ve barely touched the book for months since there was too much work and tech stuff going on. So it’s not like I’m a poster child of productivity! We all have other things getting in the way, and everyone has their own speed.)
Haha I was just going to comment on your superhuman speed. You practically edit faster than I can read 😆 but that sounds wonderful. Sounds like kind of a breakthrough tbh. Congrats!
edited roughly 1.5 novels in a month
That’s some astonishing volume! And also never feel ashamed about posting your progress, it’s not a flexing competition but a way to encourage each other! Personally, seeing others doing good strides motivates me to get on with my projects!
I made some progress this month - the big thing is the solarpunk TTRPG campaign. We’ve gotten through two more sections of edits and I’m pleased with the improvements that have come out of that.
I also took some time to work on my temporarily-abandoned solarpunk postcard series and finished two new photobashes. The first is this scene of boat traffic on a river the second is about levee removal and house shifting but it’s part of the Story Seed Library Art Collab so I haven’t shared it yet.
The next one will hopefully be of manufacturing in a solarpunk world, with an emphasis on small, local, generalized fab shops which can meet a hopefully-reduced demand for new production using resilient open source designs.
My hope is that getting into art again will help build up some familiarity for when we finally share the campaign - it’s been so much work for so many people, I can’t wait to share it but also want to make sure it’s seen to whatever extent I can.
I haven’t had much time for the solarpunk adventure gamebook but I’ve written a few small sections.
I started researching phytoremediation of road salt contaminated soils and water to add to our page on the worldbuilding wiki. I’m also trying to gather my notes on levee removal into a page for the Environmental Restoration section.
The road salts thing is just a reminder how many ways we find to harm the environment. It’s sad.
Exciting to hear that your campaign will release soon! 💜
It’s pretty much another manmade existential crisis we’re sleepwalking into in some of the cold parts of the US and the wild thing is how unnecessary it is - other states and countries with snowier winters use far less. It’s just a habit and way of thinking with tremendous inertia behind it. There are some good movements and organiziations challenging it, but as with all these things it’s taking time we don’t really have and fixing the damage is a lot harder and more expensive than just not causing it in the first place.
Thanks for the note on the campaign! I’m really excited for you all to see it, it really does bundle together just about every big solarpunk idea I’ve had
it’s part of the Story Seed Library Art Collabso I haven’t shared it yet.
Whoa that looks so cool. All these links look infinitely fascinating. >>
Thanks for writing the post! For my part I’ve been going between learning a lot for work and then getting more into the fediverse as a hobbyist operator (I’ve got a bookwyrm server, and just working on a snac2 instance now).
One kind of strange thing I’ve been doing more often is taking a lot of personal notes at work. I’ve always been a big paper notepad user, but now I’m having longer kind of Q&A style conversations in my notebook as I’m figuring things out, almost like a work diary where I write out my thoughts and feelings, and then outcomes.
It’s not the same as story writing but it’s a way up kind of get little micro doses of creative expression throughout the days.
PS. I’ve been thinking of setting up a stricter daily writing goal for myself, because when I did a little bit of daily writing was when I felt the most effective.
Oh no, you’re falling down the tinkering rabbithole just like me sometimes 😱
I feel like setting yourself a strict (but low) daily writing goal can absolutely help. I do that sometimes, especially while I’m drafting rather than editing.
PPS. On that note my goal for the month will be a humble 500+ words a week, with a daily goal of ~100 words. A crude measure perhaps, but it gives me something to aim for.
I’m finally starting to write again a little bit after a solid year and a half hiatus. So far I’m just puttering around with some world building, trying to find the feel of things again. I keep feeling very overwhelmed and like I… don’t know what I’m doing? World building was never my strong suit to begin with so maybe I should do something that plays to my strengths while I grow confidence back, but this is what’s inspiring me right now XD
Yay, that sounds exciting 💜
like I… don’t know what I’m doing?
If you wanted, you could get some people for well-meaning feedback! Shoot me a direct message about that if you want, or you could also make a public post where you list some of your world building notes and ask what people think.
that’s a great idea! I feel a little shy about these ideas but I’d love to get some thoughts from slrpnk friends, especially since I’m trying to include a fair bit of anarchist theory and green ideas in there
Hell yeah! Sometimes writing is unpredictable, so I’m glad it eventually got back to you! Don’t bother too much about what you’re writing if you just want to get the rust off. My advice, if you want to skip all the worldbuilding part, is to start with a setting you already know, i.e. fanfiction of something you found cool or a spinoff of something you wrote long ago
I see everyone sweltering in Saharan temperatures and… here in Finland it’s been raining every day, with maybe only five days above 25°C. I want some summer, damn it! 😭
Writing-wise, it’s going great! Halfway through Kanteletar’s Section C, and it’s turning out great. Challenging (first time I’m writing an unreliable character, even though they’re not the narrator), but very rewarding. I’m only afraid that it might feel a bit too cyberpunk, rather than solarpunk, but that’s for my betareaders to decide.
I’ve also received some extensive feedback on SecA & SecB, which means before moving on to SecD I’ll have to take a break and address those “flaws”. It feels a bit daunting, so I’ve been postponing it a bit 😅
I’ll have a small writing workshop for teenagers at the Summer Camp I’m organizing! Hopefully the kids will enjoy it 😄
