Wandering Adventure Party

#WritersCoffeeClub 14/12: Share how you tackle a first round of revisions.Hmmm. The first round of _revisions_ comes after I have completed the first draft for any given Patreon post.I load a PDF version of the document on my reMarkable 2. Then I wait until the next day (at the very least) and add handwritten annotations.Then I sit down before my desktop PC and change the text before uploading it to Patreon and typesetting it for the PDF and EPUB versions.

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec. 12: Who is a writer whose life inspires you?Probably #TerryPratchett , for how many awesome and hilarious books he wrote, and how he managed to transit from a full-time journalist to a full-time writer.Also, his use of #footnotes . I love footnotes, and have hundreds of them in my books. Does anyone know why he stopped using them in his later books?

@Bern @dancingtreefrog It was closer to 15 years ago! And it was a version of 1.4 for Windows—which uses the QT toolkit, which is also Linux-native. When it turned out that less than 0.8% of sales were for Linux, the writing was on the wall (it was a four person company). Scriv 3.x for Windows will allegedly run on Linux under WINE, with some quirks.

#WritersCoffeeClub 11/12: How do you keep track of plots and subplots?This is vastly simplified for me because I only translate the tales instead of writing them. And most German folk tales are short enough that they don't _have_ subplots.Still, sometimes the tales get confusing and I have to figure out what is going on - and then explain it to my readers.

#WritersCoffeeClub 10 DecIs it ethical to base characters on real people? What is the limit?Well, I don't come up with the tales - I merely translate them. But German folk storytellers had no problem at all with using historical characters - I've translated tales featuring various emperors, saints, and even Pontius Pilate which diverged widely from the historical record.And I am really looking forward to translating the tales I call " #Bible Fanfiction", sich as the assorted shenanigans of #Jesus and Saint Peter when they roamed the world...https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Category:Historical_Characterhttps://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Category:Saint

#WritersCoffeeClub 12/8 How does your work compare to the earliest work in your genreIt's definitely more refined. I am better at proofreading, I am better at researching (old place locations in particular), and I have a far better knowledge of the context in German folk tales.If you practice something regularly, you will get better over time. Who knew?

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 7.: What future writing goals are you working towards with your present work?Well, my current WIP is intended to be Volume 2 in an ongoing series.And I currently have ideas and source material for <checks notes>44 further volumes. Although that number will likely increase in the future. And there is absolutely no guarantee that I will finish all these before my death.But yeah, I have long-term plans, and the current WIP is an important milestone in that.

@ZDL@mstdn.social @ZDL@gamerplus.org I am sorry, but I ultimately have to disagree with your perspective here.It is up to the people of a certain culture how to celebrate their history. And I have traveled all across Germany, and everywhere I have found examples of Germans celebrating and preserving their history - by preserving old buildings, establishing museums, giving guided tours, recreating old crafts, or should putting up some explanatory signs at historically significant locations. This is the work of thousands of non-government associations and innumerable volunteers.And that kind of appreciation of history is just as valid as wearing clothing styles of past centuries or reciting old poems.

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 3 Do genre conventions provide an essential framework or stifle original storytelling?From a more general storytelling perspective, genre conventions can be very useful, since they can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to worldbuilding - you don't have to explain everything, just the parts that diverge from genre assumptions. Thus, while no one should be beholden to genre assumptions, storytellers should think carefully whether to discard such a potentially useful tool. And frankly, subversions of genre assumptions work better when you start from their baseline, rather than trying to reinvent everything from scratch.That being said, for my writings on German folk tales my focus is on figuring out what their genre assumptions are in the first place, and explaining them to my readers. After all, we do not have the same cultural context as those 19th century peasants sitting in the spinning chamber during those long winter nights - and they usually did not feel the need to explain what their audience already knew.

@elfbiter To be honest, I think the very notion that the Wild Hunt needs a leader to be overrated.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 28: In what ways do you see yourself reflected in your own work?While I write about German folk tales, I have no formal training as a folklorist.However, I have decades-long experiences as a player of #TTRPG . Thus, I tend to approach analyzing folk tales as an amateur storyteller appreciating the works of other amateur storytellers - though removed from each other by a century or two.

@coreworlder @cstross Oh, Karl May did this deliberately.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 27: Do you prefer writing serialised, sequential, or standalone works? Why?My original plan was to publish a standalone collection of all my translated German folk tales, which would get a new edition every few years.But since then I have realized that (a) editing efforts increase geometrically with book length, and (b) sequential works is where the real money is.That being said, I intend each book to stand on its own - while they might make a few references to prior works, readers should be able to read each book without knowledge of these.And it does help that each _individual_ folk tale is standalone, although knowing similar tales helps with understanding the context.

#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 24. How do you make sure a reader has room to process and absorb ideas?I publish anthologies with a very large number of usually fairly short folk tales. And since these folk tales are all self-contained, readers can pick their own speed for reading them.Although I have to admit that I _am_ curious how long it takes for people to read my books from start to finish. Do any of my readers want to weigh in?https://sunkencastles.com/the-books/

@tuban_muzuru Ja, es gibt viele Sagensammlungen auf Deutsch, und nicht wenige von ihnen sind illustriert. Allerdings fokussieren sich die meisten auf eine bestimmte Gegend, während ich versuche, Sagen aus dem gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum zu behandeln.Ich habe vor, selber Illustrationen für meine Bücher in Auftrag zu geben wenn meine Patreon-Kampagne etwas erfolgreicher ist, aber das dauert noch.Die Sagen als "Bilderbücher" - d.h. Illustrationen mit Beschriftungen - herauszugeben, ist derzeit nicht geplant. Das können aber gerne andere mit diesen Geschichten machen - die Quellen die ich verwende sind gemeinfrei, und meine eigenen Übersetzungen sind unter einer Creative Commons Zero-Lizenz veröffentlicht worden.

#WritersCoffeeClub 11/21. What are some preconceptions about writers you'd like to see challenged?That a writer's first published book can be a runaway bestseller that will make them rich.That pretty much never happens in this field. While it _is_ possible to make a living from writing, it takes years and years of constant effort.And if someone's first book _is_ a bestseller, it's worth looking at who precisely is pushing the book.

#WritersCoffeeClub 15. November: Does the bulk of your research come before starting a work? During?For me, the definition of "starting a work" is a little fuzzy, so I will outline my research process:1. I read old public domain German folk tale collection, and sort any interesting tales into my (at this writing) 57 Trello boards for later translation.2. I translate tales that would make a good thematic fit for a future. During this step research:2a) The local geography, trying to identify any place names and/or historical characters that were mentioned2b) Obscure German words that fell out of use or were specific to a particular region2c) Any other relevant local culture and history that help me make sense of the tale and its protagonists3. Then at some later point, I assemble 100 tales into a manuscript, and then I will do a folklore research of the overall subject, using scholarly works.4. And during alpha or beta reading, my readers might point me towards additional research material, which I will need to check out as well.

#WritersCoffeeClub MotivationThis question has come at a good time because a lovely writer friend of mine is struggling to get back into writing after a long absence and mental health problems are heightening the issue. I’ve given them suggestions to rekindle their writing practice. But if you have any suggestions, please share them.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3rd November: How much of your writing time is actively spent putting words on the page?Go back 2 decades and I wrote at roughly 1000 words/hour—while I was writing. Why, then, did I write an average of one novel per nine months (1440 working hours, or 1.4 million words at that speed, or 12 novels)?And I'm a lot slower these days!Hint "being a writer" is no more about putting words on a page than "programming a computer" is about typing keywords as fast as you can.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3/11: How much of your writing time is actively spent putting words on the page?Depends on how you define "page", I suppose.But okay, let's say that this means actively translating texts and writing commentary for them. In that case, the time I spend on related activity is (very approximately, because I haven't actually timed it):- 1/3 writing- 1/3 proofreading and typesetting- 1/3 social media promotion (which currently includes putting up my tales on my new wiki, which is a major time sink)