✍️ Writing
A community for writers, like poems, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, long books, all those sorts of things, to discuss writing approaches and what's new in the writing world, and to help each other with writing.
Rules for now:
1. Try to be constructive and nice. When discussing approaches or giving feedback to excerpts, please try to be constructive and to maintain a positive vibe. For example, don't just vaguely say something is bad but try to list and explain downsides, and if you can, also find some upsides. However, this is not to say that you need to pretend you liked something or that you need to hide or embellish what you disliked.
2. Mention own work for purpose and not mainly for promo: Feel free to post asking for feedback on excerpts or worldbuilding advice, but please don't make posts purely for self promo like a released book. If you offer professional services like editing, this is not the community to openly advertise them either. (Mentioning your occupation on the side is okay.) Don't link your excerpts via your website when asking for advice, but e.g. Google Docs or similar is okay. Don't post entire manuscripts, focus on more manageable excerpts for people to give feedback on.
3. What happens in feedback or critique requests posts stays in these posts: Basically, if you encounter someone you gave feedback to on their work in their post, try not to quote and argue against them based on their concrete writing elsewhere in other discussions unless invited. (As an example, if they discuss why they generally enjoy outlining novels, don't quote their excerpts to them to try to prove why their outlining is bad for them as a singled out person.) This is so that people aren't afraid to post things for critique.
4. All writing approaches are valid. If someone prefers outlining over pantsing for example, it's okay to discuss up- and downsides but don't tell someone that their approach is somehow objectively worse. All approaches are on some level subjective anyway.
5. Solarpunk rules still apply. The general rules of solarpunk of course still apply.
Click here to visit our solarpunk writing resource wiki!
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My writing drought continues, while my "ideas list" ballooons! Actually, I had the good fortune to meet two different writers on two different social outings just last week, thus providing a solid checkmark in the "cons" column of my career aspiration of becoming a full-time misanthrope. It was really motivating hearing other people gush about writing, and in addition to motivating me to write more, reminded me to post this writing club update!
I feel like my ideas are getting antsy--that if I don't enunciate them soon they will rebel and strike me with a fey mood, or maybe even that I'll become possessed by one of my ideas! Actually, this comment is a perfect example of creativity seeping into the rest of my text: my normal, everyday writing becomes stranger and more flowery the longer I go without a creative outlet hahahaa.
PS. My goal for the month will be super broad: write and share any one of my ideas.
Oooo its always nice to meet other writers in real life. I've found it really helps with inspiration and motivation.
And hopefully the dam breaks and you get a huge out pouring of creativity soon! Sometimes the drought really does come before the storm
🙏🙏🙏
Actually, just in reading everyone's comments for this writing club update, I got inspired to jot down an indulgent little poem (it's about layoffs if you can't tell, hehe), so maybe that is the first few opening drips in a coming storm!
I can guarantee that this is the eternal burden regardless of writing droughts! It might feel bad, but look at the positives: your brain is still active and ready to create. It would be ten times worse if you kept writing with an empty ideas' list.
Also, please share those ideas! I'd love to join in the brainstorm and bounce them around.
Thanks! I have actually experienced an empty ideas list before (when working a lot of overtime), and you're right it is awful wanting to be creative, but finding you have no ideas. It can take a while to recover from that kind of creative impotence--but always worth the effort!!!
As for ideas, I may as well share the freshest one. This one is very raw / totally unworked. It came to me--very rudely--just as I was finally falling asleep, but I grumbled to myself and went and wrote it down. Then I forgot all about it until just now when I opened my notepad. It goes like:
Now that I think of it, this seems like it was obviously influenced by the outpouring of creative content from nebulous or inhuman sources that is possible with LLMs and image generators. And then maybe grappling with that concept. Maybe there's something to it, and maybe there's not. I'm not sure yet, since it is still so raw I have no idea how I would express it.
Please try not to become possessed 😱 think of the children, we should keep demon possessions away from the mod team haha.