#WritersCoffeeClub Aug 19 - "How do you write characters with expertise outside your own?"
Everyone else is answering this with "research" and they're not wrong. However, I tend to think that writing [fiction] about expertise other than my own is less interesting than exploring what it's like to *be* an expert …
#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 4: What was the first book you read that enormously impacted you?
Among the first inspirational ones I read as a kid:
Winnetou books by Karl May, translated from German.
Project Gutenberg carries some of those titles -
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Winnetou&submit_search=Go%21
Good morning, #writersCoffeeClub! Here’s your prompt list for December! This month’s theme is ‘Iron.’
If you’d like to contribute, reach out! 🙌 As always, the text-based list is available on my site: https://sulfur.ink/wcc-december-2025
This month (day 26) contains a question which references a rubber duck. For what that question refers to, see this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
Please enjoy, and as ever, we very much look forward to your answers! 🎉 Happy writing! 📝
#WritersCoffeeClub 23 Oct: How do you capture a character's unique voice in dialogue?
I write words to make the character sing while conversing. Sometimes even in the passive voice.
Passive voice is well underrated, don't you think?
This for example: 'Breakfast has been had.'
🙃
#WritersCoffeeClub 10 April: What's something other writers swear by that you just don't get?
Tons of things!
I can't outline effectively—I always fill in the wrong points and leave important parts out.
I have no clue about marketing. Or rather, about this-century marketing. (TBF as a trad published author you're trained to leave that to your publisher. Until a few years ago they suddenly decided it was part of the authors' job ...)
I can't pace myself, I write in bursts.
And so on.
#WritersCoffeeClub 4/10 What's something other writers swear by that you just don't get?
Never splitting infinitives in English. The rule came from Latin, where an infinitive is a single word. English infinitives are TWO words, and Latin lost all its prestige centuries ago!
Greetings, #writersCoffeeClub! Here’s your prompt list for July, with the theme “ideas & sensations!” Looking forward to all your responses!
Text-based list is here: https://sulfur.ink/wcc-july-2025/
If you’d like to help forming next month’s prompt list, reach out to me here!
Happy writing! 🎉
#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Apr. Can plots which hinge on a misunderstanding be done well?
Sure! (I did it in my Merchant Princes series, so it MUST be workable :)
To make it work, it has to be the sort of misunderstanding that either the very powerful or very smart, educated people make.
Committee groupthink is one example.
"Monarchists think governance and policy-setting in a Repubic work like a monarchy so it'll react to a presidential assassination like the death of a king" is another.
#WritersCoffeeClub July 13: In what ways do you play with the limits of the genre in which you work?
Genre is a marketing issue, and I try not to let marketing constraints fuck with my creative process.
Did anyone else try out the Apple Voice Technology offered for free by Draft2Digital to produce audiobooks? I was amazed at how terrible and primitive the Apple Voice Technology actually is, considering what Apple is. Here's one clue about how terrible the technology is: I wrote a book in 2023 under the pen name N.J. Edwards. The computer-generated male voice introduced the audiobook this way: "This is an audiobook by author New Jersey Edwards. Granted, New Jersey Edwards is a fantastic pen name. I wish I'd thought of it. But that is not the author's name on the front of my book. The audiobook of my novel BEER POUR is so atrocious that there's actual computer code jibberish spoken in the middle of a dialogue scene. I could go on and on about all the flaws, but there's not enough room here. Go back to the drawing board, Apple. #Apple #audiobook #books #bookstodon #mastodon #book #novel #novel #voice #tech #technology #author #NewJersey #draft2digital #D2D #computergenerated #computer #introduction #intro #introductions #scribesAndMakers #writing #writersCoffeeClub #writer #publishing #MyWork #writersOfMastodon #writers #writersLife #indieAuthor #author #authors #audio #audiofiction #startup
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 18: Does your writing ever get away from you?
Of course it does! It's a necessary part of the process of developing your craft—to over-extend yourself, then learn to recognize it and fix whatever you did wrong.
The term for writing a story that doesn't ever get away from you is "phoning it in".
#WritersCoffeeClub Sep 11 - What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?
@scrivenerapp. Without it I wouldn't have been able to complete the Merchant Princes series (too many plot lines/protagonists!) or the later Laundry Files books. It's completely replaced word processors in my workflow for the past 20+ novels.
#WritersCoffeeClub 7 Apr
Do you combine poetic fragments and prose paragraphs in your work?
I'm allergic to poetry, so that'd be a hard nope.
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 12: How does being a writer influence your life outside of the work?
What is this "outside of the work" you speak of?
I do not understand this "outside of the work".
Writer-brain turns ALL experience into grist for the work-mill.
(Spouse has cancer? Valuable insight. Parent is dying? So THAT'S what a death-rattle sounds like. And so on. Write what you know, even if it hurts!)
#WritersCoffeeClub 28 Sep
Could you work without the internet? What would change?
I'm from 1968. I grew up without computers until 1980, without internet until 1993, and without a PC style computer in my house until 1997.
What would change without it:
1.) Slower research. I did have my own encyclopedias, but the library was still the standard.
2.) Aggravating paper submissions (SASE = self-addressed stamped envelope, if you wanted your copies back.)
[Oh, and we'd live in a better world.]
#WritersCoffeeClub Sept 12: With whom (grammar!) do you share snippets of your WIP?
Right here on Mastodon!
(Also with vetted crit readers on a closed social forum, but they get whole or fractional novel drafts to comment on at length.)
#WritersCoffeeClub – 1st Aug. What are your goals for the month, writing-wise?
Finish this edit pass on this Sisyphean burden I call a WIP. That's all. (It's currently around 142,000 words and needs a lot of fettling, so that's a month's work right there.)
#WritersCoffeeClub 11 Apr: What's your most effective method for connecting with readers?
I don't know!
"Write good books and motivate my publishers' sales team to push them" is part of it, or used to be, but COVID and Amazon decoupled everything and everyone.
My blog used to have immense reach (around a million unique page views per month) but then Google decided to systematically destroy the blogosphere in pursuit of AI-generated profits.
Twitter—you know the pack drill.
And now ...?
#writersCoffeeClub 13 April: What do you borrow from other fiction (or nonfiction) genres?
As Ken MacLeod quipped, history is the secret weapon of the science fiction writer. Make sure your SF world-building rhymes with historic cultures and it'll feel richer: steal minor characters from the wallpaper of history (not the likes of Napoleon, but his aide-de-camp, so to speak) and your spear-carriers will have real heft.
Last chance to buy book 5 in the Silk Rope Masters series!! Grab a copy before it ends.
https://www.evernightpublishing.com/kaden-by-suzy-shearer/
“I adored this story!”
“This book is AWESOME!!! This series and this book is a total must read. Super spicy and steamy.”
“This love story is so full of surprises and has an emotional depth that is amazing. Absolutely loved their journey to happiness and their naughty exploits too!”
#BDSM #maturecouple #romance #contemporary #newrelease #read #readromance #romance #romanceAuthor #romanceNovel #romanceNovels #bookstadon #WritersCoffeeClub #writingCommunity #wordweaver #creativity @bookstadon #romanceBooks #bookstodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 15 Jun: What is the most painful part of the writing process for you?
Anything that prevents me from writing when I really need to. Admin/bureaucracy is mildly annoying, but nothing compares to losing the ability to look at a screen for a few weeks (as happened to me in 2013)—or months (2023-25, now over).
#WritersCoffeeClub Aug 7 What subcultures exist in your work?
Current WIP setting is essentially a stylistically Ruritanian crapsack space empire of some 8000 inhabited star systems, so presumably … loads? But the only ones that directly impact our MCs are the aristocracy (evil) and the criminal underworld (nefarious). Not including the terrorists sewn into Mister Bobby suits, the appealing big-eyed (because malnourished) orphans, and the (posh) public schoolboys (think Eton).
Good morning, #writersCoffeeClub! It’s nearly the new month, so here’s your prompts for february of 2026!
This month, we’re trying something you suggested: we have two prompts (on the 7th & 14th) which invite discussion of others’ responses. It may go without saying, but please remember WCC is meant to be a collaborative and kind space. Let’s encourage and support one another! 🎉
As always, a text-based list is available on my site: https://sulfur.ink/wcc-february-2026/
#WritersCoffeeClub June 17: How colorful is your writing?
It's spelled "colour".
(Answer: it depends? Because my writing isn't primarily focussed on visualisation. I use colours where appropriate, but I'm more likely to describe the texture and shape of something than its hue or odour.)
