RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.19 — If you were to teach a writing course, what would be the most important lesson? After extra thought so as not to sound flippant, I think the most important lesson is to quickly complete the story, essay, or poem whether it is shiny or rough and immediately start on the next one, or to recognize that won't happen and to abandon it, before immediately starting on the next one. What a student can derive from this is: You can't sell or share nothing. Prioritizing complete over perfect gets you something you can polish during revision and relieves the stress of having to complete something. Ideas are like dollars. They are worth something, but there will always be more to spend. [Author retains copyright (c)2025, 2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion

#PennedPossibilities 877⅛ — Do any of your characters have troubles with deadlines, like getting a term paper done before the last day, or buying holiday presents? Wintereyes considers herself a member of the wolf pack first and last, but now that she's forced to attend a human university and needs to act as human (and she barely knows how!), it's confusing, she makes mistakes, and she's become horribly shy. She'll wait until the last second to do things in hopes she'll have figured them out, or rehearsed to death in her head how to act, and interact as little as possible—and then makes a mess of it anyway. Wolves are so much more forthright and straightforward and predictable! @npub1ek8r...t2en, Enjoy a night off! [Author retains copyright (c)2025, 2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #mystery #fantasy #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion #RSstory #RSInklingsStory

If as authors we aren't writing for ourselves and enjoying the process, it isn't worth it. Be wary of letting it become drudge work. If we can please ourselves and have fun, then it's all good. If we end up communicating what we want other people to know, it's even better. Good luck.

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.14 — Share how you tackle a first round of revisions. This cried out for analysis. I revise while composing, so that's where I do my first round of revisions. I fix typos, but since I tend to compose using passive is/was constructions, I look for places where I can utilize verbs instead, then flesh out descriptions to bring in all the senses. What follows is a before, after, and marked-up difference version of the first paragraph of Reluctant Courier (for the Mob), thanks to Scrivener. If your Mastodon instance strips formatting, skip the difference version unless you can read markdown.Before (First draft): Click! went the shutter on my camera, and I realized I'd caught a teenager with a broken legs and bleeding from other injuries being loaded on a flatbed ambulance. I blinked at the daemon's rams horns, then up at the 5-story high apparition behind him. That he'd stepped through. It resembled a circular looking glass, but so black it reflected no light, depthless, defined by the lightning circling its rim. After (Only a second draft!): Click! went the shutter on my camera before I realized I'd caught a dark-skinned teenager with a broken leg, bleeding from other injuries. A constable and a grunting bystander horsed him onto a flatbed wagon—a makeshift ambulance. I blinked at the dark daemon's golden ram horns, then up at the five-story high apparition behind him. He'd stepped through what resembled a giant circular looking glass, but was a demonic field so incredibly and absolutely black that it reflected no light. Depthless, like a hole punched out reality, only the lightning bolts continuously circling and strobing and booming around its rim defined the knife edge between sanity and city, and accounted for the scent of electricity that stung my nose. Vehicles had collided where the apparition had blocked off a boulevard. A siren strapped to the chest of an approaching day angel wailed.Difference Click! went the shutter on my camera, andbefore I realized I'd caught a dark-skinned teenager with a broken legs andleg, bleeding from other injuries. beingA loadedconstable onand a grunting bystander horsed him onto a flatbed wagon—a makeshift ambulance. I blinked at the dark daemon's ramsgolden ram horns, then up at the 5five-story high apparition behind him. That heHe'd stepped through . Itwhat resembled a giant circular looking glass, but was a demonic field so incredibly and absolutely black that it reflected no light ,. depthlessDepthless, definedlike bya hole punched out reality, only_ the lightning bolts continuously circling and strobing and booming around its rim defined the knife edge between sanity and city, and accounted for the scent of electricity that stung my nose. ¶ Vehicles had collided where the apparition had blocked off a boulevard. A siren strapped to the chest of an approaching day angel wailed. [Author retains copyright (c)2025, 2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion #RSstory #RSInklingsStory #RSReluctanceStory #microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#ScribesAndMakers 2025.12.14 — Shameless someone else (ON MASTODON) promotion day. Liked @npub1ysem...jaay's Wolf's Quest books that I bought. Liked @npub1cgx3...5e9f's cozy comedy fantasy audio books that I bought. Good Neighbors was fun and am looking forward to the next one. Liked @npub1c67w...5q80's All I Want for Christmas is a Kiss Gargoyle magical urban fantasy book. Plan to buy others. [Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author photographer chef cooking #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion