#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.02 — Do you write linearly? Why or why not?

More often than not, I DO NOT write linearally, even for shorter works. I like to present the thrust of the story, to enter the action quickly—but, when POV actions require explanation, rather than doing an info dump I shift the action to whatever scene or adventure derives that information.

For example, for the reluctant prizefighter story I start the story with the soon-to-become prizefighter enduring being wolf-whistled by a gang member. When she ends up needing to "avoid" the miscreant, I jump back to where she learned to fight and why she likes being forced to defend herself, why she likes to fight. Then I return to the main story where she feels she's been given permission to toy with the man.

Rinse, repeat.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WordWeavers 2025.06.01 — Share your favorite fact about your story.

Streak (unquestionably a man and male) cares more about the women in his life than about himself. The tract I wrote today brought that home decisively.

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#WritersCoffeeClub (JUNE 2025 : restriction) #WCC 2025.06.01 — Are there ethical principles fiction must adhere to? What are they?

Going for writing in general here because filtering information from the real world through a human brain almost always creates a subjective reality, which is arguably a fiction.

Ethics in writing (beyond the taboo of plagiarism) isn't something I've thought much about because I find it incredibly difficult to lie, setting aside what fiction actually is by definition. Distorting fact or history intentionally and passing it off as somehow true, especially for a political purpose, is reprehensible AND unethical. It should, at very least, be pointed out explicitly and unmistakably as fantasy, satire, or porn. Even then, malicious intent should render it unethical.

Furthermore, I think malicious intent, the knowingly or willingly not caring about harmful consequences for personal gain, is also unethical. A recent book about a man who has now been reported with likely terminal cancer, regardless of the subjective veracity the author creates and that the book was written and released before that bit of news, fits this definition. Reprehensible.

I like books that harm people as much as ones that throw out the baby with the bathwater. Whataboutism and LCD (least-common-denominator) thinking fielded as a rhetorical weapon should be considered unethical, too. It should signal a villain, not someone trying to be reasonable or protective of others.

It comes down to intent.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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"The two main candidates have been largely silent about equality for women. A polarising subject, it had helped Yoon into power in 2022 as he vowed to defend men who felt sidelined in a world that they saw as too feminist. And a third candidate, who is popular among young men for his anti-feminist stance, has been making headlines."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8njzr42zvo

Happy PRIDE, everyone!

My sincere hope this Pride is not only that we spread queer & trans joy but that we open our hearts and minds to one another. This is what my podcast Queer Story Time is all about!

1/5

"The manosphere has long divided the world into rigid and distinct hierarchies. Women are rated on a scale from one to 10. Men apply a similar taxonomy of social rank to themselves and each other. There are alphas and betas; red-pilled and blue-pilled; high-status and low-status."

~ James Bloodworth

#gender #men #women #manosphere
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/25/nick-wanted-to-drop-bodyfat-and-build-his-own-micro-harem-of-women-how-my-friend-fell-for-the-red-pill-hucksters-of-the-manosphere

#WordWeavers 2025.05.31 — If everyone doing WordWeavers met for a party, what favorite food would you bring to share and why?

A vegetable beef pie with a crispy flakey strudel crust. I won my spouse with that… or maybe it was them reading my feminist SF novel while they traveled in Mexico?

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.05.31 — How did it go? Any changes you want to make next month?

Got the beta out to beta readers; this was good. Worked through pushback from the internal censor. Got only one chapter finished, but boy howdy: it clarified the antagonist's motivation in starkly scary terms, and it made one MC quite proud.

Next month. More composing; revision should be subservient to that work. If I can gain momentum, finish the novel.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#PennedPossibilities 686 — Have you thought of any alternative endings for your WIP, or have you already decided on the perfect ending?

I'm doing that now. As a pantser, I have to know the ending I'm working toward. There's this: what was suitable conclusion for a novella (short investment of reader time) versus a novel (long investment of reader time) is different. The ending I came up with is super dramatic, but I am thinking that I have to ameliorate it possibly seeming tragic. What was going to happen, the conclusion I programmed into the reader's mind, might not go over well in retrospect.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.05.31 — What fact of your life would give a reader a new appreciation for your work?  



My gender.

Not stating, though. R.S. is a #gender #fiction #writer #author and that "fact of … life" adds subtext to anything I write. As does my orientation. The question was in the singular; please ignore I added that.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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This is a beautiful, beautiful exhibition at #Bristol Museum.

Profound, gentle, challenging, funny, consequential and all points in between.

Highly recommended!

https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/gender-stories/

#Gender #Art #Culture #Society #LGBTQIA+

AI’s limited understanding of #gender puts #health equity at risk - https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/ais-limited-understanding-of-gender-puts-health-equity-at-risk/ #genero #lgtbi #ai #ia

#ScribesAndMakers 2025.05.30 — Did you have a teacher who either supported or hindered your creative activity?

Weird story.

I had an AP analytic geometry class. I'm bad at arithmetic but good at logic. So long as I don't have to plug in numbers, I can solve math problems. I don't usually do good at these things, but I was excited that I might get a good grade and studied very hard. Very. Hard.

I arrived and the final was open book. Easy.

I had so much creative energy built up, I went home and over Christmas break wrote and completed my first novella (25K typewritten) in two weeks.

True story.

Okay neither supported nor hindered, but I give the teacher credit nonetheless for inadvertently starting my career.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WordWeavers 2025.05.30 — What’s the worst betrayal your MC has experienced?

The devil-girl for all her bluster and pugnacious decisiveness is also fragile. She's autistic and when she was young, getting her to understand others was an achievement in itself, and that she had a good friend that supported her, perhaps more surprising. Was he as flexible as she was fragile? After saving her life (or, at least, she thought so), and a squabble, he disappeared (or, at least, she thought so). She decided he'd used her for his advancement.

They were pre-teens at the time. It taught her that emotional relationships could not be trusted, not that she really understood emotions. Managed? Yes. Trusted? Never.

She did not realize it, but her life quest had begun. Finding him wasn't all of it, of course.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.05.30 — Who do you write for?

Now? Me. I hope a greater audience will appreciate it one day.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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"As summer draws near and more state legislative sessions come to an end, The 19th is tracking the emerging trends, firsts and surprises this year as statehouse Republicans brought a record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills."

https://19thnews.org/2025/05/anti-trans-extreme-state-laws-2025/

I decded to wear a dress I rarely put on today. I love it, but I have to be in the right mood for it.

#PennedPossibilities 685 — What genre is your current WIP?

Reluctant Moon

Feminist Science Fiction Fantasy. FSFF.

• Feminist because the story is gender fiction at its core.
• Science Fiction because it is about how technology and science affects people. Additionally, it follows the rules of this genre.
• Fantasy because I posit a new force of nature that is measurable and mathematically describable—which requires humans to manipulate, and is thus finicky. There's a liberal interpretation of Clarke's Law lawyers might appreciate, but the story does not generally follow the rules of the genre.

Pick one? SF

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