On April 8, 2023, Kasie and Rex went to the #wschat Tweet Chat transcript for some internet-asks. We follow the #WritingCommunity hashtag and respond to writers all over the world. This episode answers some of those questions. Here are the show notes:
Theme for the day
Internet Grab Bag: You Ask, We Answer
Agenda
- We’re going out & about next weekend
- Internet grab bag
- SCWA up-and-coming stuff
Next weekend is a big one in Columbia and there’s a LOT happening. You can catch Rex and Kasie live out in the world in two places:
- Cola Springfest: 2-6 p.m. Saturday at J’s Corner, a restaurant bar across from Williams-Brice stadium and next Saturday, the 15th, ahead of the Garnet and Black game (which happens at 7 p.m.) we’ll be at J’s Corner with SCWA representation and (of course) our own books to sell. There will also be live music and festivities.
- Art in the Yard in the Melrose Heights neighborhood – this is a walk-in / walking art festival where residents let vendors set up on their lawn and sell their stuff. Rex and I will be there with our books and representing the SCWA.
All right, here’s the internet grab bag, using #Writing Community
Is anyone else having a lull in writing? Do you fight them or embrace them? #WritingCommunity
– so this was my topic in the SCWA newsletter this month, too. My block and I got some great responses and advice from our SCWA community.
Sonia Rosa Ciocca @soniarosawrites
Do any #writers on twitter enjoy the marketing, submitting, querying, and publishing aspects of the writing process?
Do you ever base your characters on real people that you know?
What is one place in your WIP you would love to visit? Why?
Miranda Moeller @mmirandaalaine
Guys I’m quitting coffee can I still be a writer?
Is your MC good at kicking back and taking a break?
Ruru semi active @Vanille_pluie
How can I weave in character descriptions earlier in the story without causing a delay in relaying events and such?
And a frequent #wschat contributor responded:
Oh! I’ve had a discussion with folks about this. They pointed out that we generally don’t study people when we meet them – we get a first impression then fill in specifics. So spread it out over paragraphs. Or sketch a picture & let your reader’s mind fill in the details.
Maybe you describe a tall figure in a long coat. Next para, notice worn-out jeans and work boots. Then longish hair in need of a trim, dark & pulled back; a nose that’s been broken. Intersperse it with the action & dialogue to make it feel natural.
I’m sure others have different techniques, and I don’t always do it this way, exactly 🙂 It can be fun to figure out how to slip these clues about your characters in, too.
Our take on this??
Segment 3/4
So, in Tuesday’s #wschat on Twitter, we called out some of these #Writing Community questions and this one was particularly odd:
Q5: here’s one we suspect is an extreme example of procrastination but we’ll entertain it anyway — @MSeabraCoelho asks “does anybody else like to drink cheap orange juice in the shower so you can let go and make a huge mess?” #wschat discuss? #writingcommunity #procrastination
They responded:
Drinking cheap orange juice in the shower is part of my writing process
So I tweeted him back that we’d be discussing Writing Process on Saturday. Let’s unpack this: what rituals do you have to ensure a productive writing session?
I googled for this list of unique pre-game rituals for writers (link):
- Writing lying down
- Take a walk or bike ride with no destination in mind
- Tunes like movie soundtracks – meant to evoke emotion but no blatant words
- Choose a specifically productive time of day
- Write in your skivvies – loosen up
- Write while standing up – Hemingway, apparently, did this
- Say a prayer – Homer’s invocation to the Muse was a strategy used by Shakespeare (did you see Shakespeare in Love? Joseph Fiennes plays Shakespeare with a strange turn-around bit before settling in to write)
- Have a drink
SCWA Up & Coming Stuff
We’re getting very close to an Annual Conference Announcement. What we know is it’s going to be in Columbia, at the Convention Center, November 3-5. We know my agent, Amy Collins, will be there as will a pretty big-name author (fingers crossed) as the Sunday keynote.
Happening sooner:
This year, SCWA is hosting Author’s Toolbox, a series to help members improve their craft and better understand the publishing world. The SCWA will celebrate National Poetry Month with two remarkable poets: Candice Kelsey (left) and Natalie Marino (right).
Kelsey is a Georgia poet, educator, and activist. She studied law for two years in Chicago but withdrew to pursue writing. Her work has won praise and prizes, including the 2021 Two Sisters Micro Story Contest, the 2020 Rebecca Laird Poetry Prize and the 2019 Common Ground Poetry Contest. She has been a fiction reader for The New England Review and a poetry judge for Ageless Authors. Her second full-length collection, A Girl / Woman / Teacher / Poet, was published by Alien Buddha Press last year.
“Kelsey’s work bridges the gap between the personal and the political. These are poems of protest, but there’s a celebration of beauty and strength,” says poet Taylor Byas.
Marino, a California poet, pediatrician and mother, has been published in Atlas and Alice, Gigantic Sequins, Isele Magazine, Plainsongs, Pleiades, Rust + Moth, The Shore and elsewhere. Her micro-chapbook, Attachment Theory, was published by Ghost City Press last year. Her chapbook, Under Memories of Stars, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.
“Marino is a bright new talent, and her poems shimmer,” says poet Kelli Russell Agodon.
South Carolina poet and writer Arthur Turfa will host the event, which will include an open mic. Turfa, the author of six poetry books and a novel, is SCWA’s poetry chapter leader.
Free for SCWA members; $25 for nonmembers. Visit myscwa.org to register.
#WriteOnSC Radio Show and Craft School 