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I don’t normally repost other people’s content, but a Tor/Forge Blog post by Arkady Martine really caught my eye. It a) neatly ties into last week’s Microwave the Rat discussion and b) I am in the midst of updating and reorganizing this here blag so I don’t have a whole lot in the way of stuff to talk about.

Using setting to fight writer’s block:
This is a neat little trick to get back into writing a scene if you’ve been paused for a while, or if you can’t figure out how to start after a transition. It goes like this: describe – in detail, with precision – some architecture, someone’s clothing, something in your POV character’s visual field. Keep describing, but root that description in your POV character’s impressions and understanding of what they’re seeing. Keep describing until you figure out why your character would be looking so closely at that thing – and by then, you’re in the scene, you’ve got the voice, and you’ve probably done some accidental thematic and visual work to tie the story together.

Arkady Martine Answers: What’s It Like to Be Married to Another Writer? , Feb 5, 2019, Tor/Forge blog

I’m really curious to try this out. I’ve got both Ep 5 of Fletcher & Cooper to continue and my Sinferrean Murder Village novella–which I haven’t looked at since the late summer–to finish; this technique sounds perfect for picking up the threads of both pieces, whichever one I end up getting pulled into.

Not doing a lot of writing or even editing lately as I am in the midst of revamping my website to make it more readable/fiction-friendly. As much as I love the look and feel of the current website it’s a lot of custom code that I didn’t write/can’t maintain/adapt and I’ve been told it’s not the greatest for long reads on mobile. Since my main joy in life is writing long-form stories and articles and then hoping people read them on their phones, that seems like a necessary change to make. Not sure when all the backend stuff will get done, but hopefully this week. Stay tuned, and stay warm!!

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