grrgyle

Welcome to the 21st writing club update. On pondering this number, I'm reminded that we are currently in the 21st century according to the Gregorian calendar, and that this will be the only century I'll really get to know. But there have been at least 20 other of these things (and I'm told perhaps even more), so that might give one pause / perspective.

My region has been unusually cold for March, which though it's unexpected, I've been trying to enjoy it. Let some of the last cold into my bones so I can bring up the memory when I'm too hot, later this summer.

So this is the monthlyish writing club update where regular participants are encouraged to share progress on their monthly goals and goings-ons. Anyone is welcome to chime in with their own happenings, or comments on each others happenings.

Welcome to the 20th writing club update! I can't let the twentieth such club pass without giving props to that great generative tool to so many impromptu stories: the d20 die. How many stories, written or oral, have started from a group of friends gathering to tell a collaborative story--literally rolling with what chance gives them...

Speaking about rolling with what life gives you, some astute members and visitors (welcome!) with functioning calendars may notice that it is actually March, but I maintain real time does not resume until Sunday has finished. So in this liminal place of the week-end-almost, let us take stock of the year so far, and our hopes the coming months.

Welcome to the 19th writing club update, and first update of the new year! Continuing with my numerical tie-ins that no one asked for and which I refuse to give up, XIX is the number of The Sun card in the tarot deck. It's currently a blistering winter here, so a kiss of sunshine sounds lovely.

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, this card is "often seen as a sign of achievement and authentic self-expression" which sounds great for writing, so whether you put any truck in tarot, you could do worse than to head into the rest of the year with that thought.

I hope you've all had a brilliant year so far, but even if you haven't (maybe especially so) I want to hear from you. That goes for any passersby: feel free to chime in with your thoughts or writerly projects.

Welcome to the 18th writing club update, and the last day of the year according to the computer. Looking at, ummm let's see... Oh! Looking at E1M8 of Doom (1993 video game), the last level, or "mission" of the first episode (the level chiefly authored by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen, with score by Robert Prince) has you confronting two "Baron" enemies. And isn't that just like life? The Barons may differ (financial ruin & job loss, or capitalism & fascism), and the weapons too (revolution, or mutual aid, or rocket launchers), but the struggle is the same.

Anyway, good luck to us all in the coming year with your own Barons, whether personal or societal. Also, speaking of shareware (Episode 1 was offered freely), let us now sharew...words; about, our projects!

I won't @ everyone in this post, mostly to emphasise that blessed randos are just as welcome as regular participants. So here's to our writers 🥳️ I look forward to reading your updates!

Welcome to the 17th writing club update!

Before launching into the writing club, I have a little preview of something @JacobCoffinWrites has spearheaded: a wiki resource for solarpunk writers who are looking for realistic visions of the hopeful world to be. You might have noticed a new link to the 🎉 this brand new writing wiki 🎉 in our community sidebar. Anyway, I'll let the intro speak for itself here:

Writing aspirational fiction is hard. If you're trying to write a better world, you need to build actual, workable, solutions into your setting and that requires so much knowledge to do well. Descriptions in a single solarpunk scene on a pedestrianized city street could involve a mix of civil engineering, history, cultural knowledge, plant knowledge, city planning, accessibility outreach, mass transit vehicle design/infrastructure, and more. A whole story might add in permaculture practices, modern airship design and operation, phytoremediation, or all kinds of other stuff! Compare that to cyberpunk where there's both a sort of cultural familiarity to lean on, and a pass on bad ideas because you're writing in a dystopian setting, and the differences are pretty clear.

It's a lot for any one writer to try and take on. Luckily we don't have to work alone. Any future worth building is going to be pretty collaborative and consensus-driven, so it makes sense to build our depictions of it the same way.

(On that final note, we're still trying to figure out a way to let people contribute to this wiki.)

But back to the seventeenth writing club, in the sage words of chapter 17: Communicating with a PostScript Printer (page 571) of Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, by Richard Stevens, /* don't want to write() to block */ -- but isn't that just the thing? Sometimes you have to write() in order to get through the block.

Speakering of writing(), here are our writer[]:

• @Clockwork
• @Ellie
• @grrgyle
• @hazeebabee
• @JacobCoffinWrites
• @johnny_deadeyes
• @ManualOverride
• @shamousk
• @solbear

As is it ever has been and will eternally be, blessed randos should feel totally free to drop in with their updates, or comments on the goings ons of others. This little writing club thrives on our interactions, so go interact!

Welcome to the 16th (5+5+5+1) writing club update. Looking at the intro to the 16th chapter of Procedural Generation in Game Design: Generative Art Toys by Kate Compton, we find the somewhat quaint observation:

Everyone loves being creative. And everyone likes discovering that they're more creative than they thought they were. For many years, people have enjoyed crafts like pottery wheels, Spirographs, Mad Libs, spin art, paper marbling, and tie-dye. These artistic toys helped everyday people make interesting artworks (even if those people lacked creative talent or inspiration) by producing surprising and emergent results from simple choices.

Now that we have digital systems, we can make art toys with even more surprising and emergent behaviour. [...]

This book (edited by Tanya Short, and Tarn Adams) was first published in 2017, long before the term "generative art" would take on a very different insinuation. I've certainly got some strong opinions on the subject of both interpretations, but this is a writing club update not my personal soapbox.

Having now fulfilled my self-imposed rule of introducing a quote related to the number of WC updates since we started, I now turn to an observation about my local climate/weather, before introducing our writers, and finally extending a friendly invitation to any lurkers in our midsts. :)

Up here in the Northern hemisphere, at the heel of October, it's starting to get chilly. The ideal weather for reading and writing probably varies as much as the individual writer, but for me this feels like book weather.

Speaking of individuals, here is the call for our regular writers to share their updates!

• @Clockwork
• @Ellie
• @grrgyle
• @hazeebabee
• @JacobCoffinWrites
• @johnny_deadeyes
• @ManualOverride
• @solbear

I think I'll move this list to the main Writing Club sticky post next update, since the @s don't seem trigger notifications consistently across applications. Let me know what you think, if you have an opinion on this.

As is forever the case, passers-by are very welcome to come on in and lurk, comment, or post their own updates.

I keep forgetting how many 'e' there are in regular English, and I'm doing ,,,,,,,. through all of them to get to the character I was after.

Welcome to the 15th (fifteenth) writing club update. Opening Manu Saadia's Trekonomics to page 15 ("Portrait of the Author as a Young Fan"), we find this fiction related snippet:

When the movie [Star Trek: The Motion Picture] was over, I really, really did not want to leave the bridge of the Enterprise. I had to make that experience last. I still remember that very precise feeling, equal parts wonderment, recognition, and melancholy: this was the place I had been looking for, this was where I wanted to live, this was where I belonged. I had found my promised land. Pity it was all fiction and make-believe.

A pity indeed that the post-scarcity almost-utopia of Star Trek's Federation is only make-believe. But then isn't a story an almost-world, waiting to be brought forward by the midwives of action. Maybe casting writers and artists as parents is overstating our importance a little bit... it's nice to think about, though.

But what I can't overstate is how great our writers are:

• @Clockwork
• @Ellie
• @grrgyle
• @hazeebabee
• @JacobCoffinWrites
• @johnny_deadeyes
• @ManualOverride

If your name is not on this list and you think it should be, or vice-versa, just let me know and I'll fix it right away. Also, is this list serving anyone? How do we feel about it? Is it motivational, useful, etc? DM or comment me your thoughts. I could go either way.

As always, guests are welcome to participate in this thread as much or as little as they like. A special hello to our honoured lurkers 👋️ your eyeballs are my drug of choice.

White dress frosted with lace weeping threads
hem worn from wandering
white marble halls cold as snow
sunsets blood-red, rose-red
& nights raven-black.

I tried growing my hair long
as towers, long as history
long as these empty, empty, halls.

Oils & braiding & fancy shampoos
never worked, left my hair brittle
& only just past my shoulders
years and years on.

I stopped trying to fit that fairy tale.

I thought I'd grow apples & roses
coat fields in flowers & fruit
that I'd bake into pies and press into cider
to warm me each winter next.

But I go tired of farming
my hands chapped & back aching
& when the first grey snuck into my dark brown
— never black, never luscious — hair
I put my seeds away.

One winter I thought I'd sleep
the seasons away, pad my face with mud masks
& stop each wrinkle before it formed
I was too late, of course, the wrinkles began
in my twenties, and continue spreading
like frost.

I don't sleep well at the best f times
rising to wander in moonlight
& snack in the kitchen when the mice
are sleep.

So no — I decided that the story wasn't for me.

I never learned to swim, so the pond
stays isolated. Its merfolk & frogs
unkissed, undanced. Under the willows:
only wind.

I thought finally about reading —
how else can I travel without cramming my feet
into too-tight hoes
meant only for parties?

I filled my pockets with snack & retired to the library
only to find that most of the books
are quite boring, not for me
& the cord for the kindle is terribly shorts
& the chairs not as comfortable as they looked
from afar

So no. I am not fair
or smart
or lovesick
or distressed
or waiting for someone
to tell me who I'll be.

I know:
I dread gardening
I loathe cleaning
I hate socializing.

I know:
I can't swim
can't cook
can't sleep well at all.

I know there are some books I love
but most I don't.
Some night I am light
but most I am heavy.

I know all these things about myself
& in finding out each
I lived.

I tried it all, & I've decided
I like myself best. I like wandering in the night
& letting my tea grow cold.
I like dozing on the couch
& dyeing my hair.
I like myself — a lot —
& I don't mind if I change
& grow old.

Because I know that each year I try
something I likely won't like at all
I'm knowing myself more.

& I'm loving that self
better than all the ones I knew
before.

Was pretty chuffed to come across this one as my local bibliothèque is pretty overwhelmed with reservations.

Just got this as a gift and it's legit. Murderbot is so popular now I have to wait over a month for the library to have a copy available.

No more! Now I'm big dog owner of digital books, look at me. Look at me.

Punchy little article that touches binds together a few frustrations into a clear set of well articulated complaints.

EDIT: meant to post this elsewhere since it's not really about the smol web, so much as what wrong with much of the rest of the web, but if you invert the complaints in the article you basically find everything that is lovable about our lovely indie spaces. :)