Picos Gemeos

June 10th: Do you revise and add more plot if you feel your story is too short?

Not at all. I add or subtract as I see fit, if it feels like there's more to be told. Usually, I have an excess of material and it's more a question of cutting back and polishing until I have the final piece.

June 11th: Is it okay to use a comma before a dependent clause? Or anywhere else?

I had to look this up. You apparently shouldn't really use it before a dependent clause if the clause appears at the end of the sentence. If the sentence starts with the dependent clause, then you can use the comma after it. But, for me personally, don't worry about these rules. Do whatever you want. If your piece has a strong mood and interesting use of language, you'll have me hooked.

June 12th: Which social media channels do you use as a writer? Which gives you the best engagement?

I go back and forth on this one. I currently update friends on Facebook, Mastodon, Threads, Substack, Livejournal and Instagram. Mastodon tends to get the most engagement (because of the writing-related hashtags). Livejournal gets sometimes the deepest conversations on writing, and Facebook the strongest cheers (I only have 60 connections, but they are all close friends).

7. What do you do first when you start a new writing project?

I pour everything down on paper, as much as possible, without worrying about coherence, point of view, syntax. Just write and write, getting past the "internal editor", until I have a good solid chunk of material down. Once I'm done, I let it sit for a bit then treat it as a rough outline.

I used to hate revising but it's now my best friend. From that initial Big Bang, many galaxies are born and then die.

This method was very much inspired by Wendy Erskine’s interview with Hattie Crisell for the “In Writing” podcast.

4. How do you handle highly intimate scenes?

It varies from story to story. My two current works in progress are horror novels which contain intimate scenes. Sometimes they are there to help the reader connect with characters and care for them, sometimes they are there to maximise horror. I try to avoid explicit content, unless there's a point to it.

I'd also add that they don't come easy to me, and I don't naturally gravitate towards them. I prefer things implied.

2. Do you have any regrets as a writer, or do you never look back?

Never look back: I don't believe in free will and don't think I could have reached this point in my life without all the successes and failures that came before, or done anything different that would have made me a better writer. It is what it is, and I'm glad of what I've learned and what I can do today with my skills.

Writing nowadays involves a lot of compassion for myself and detachment from outcomes.

1. LJ appeared in April 1999, the year when I… had just started my first serious long term relationship, with Kevin, and was approaching the end of my time in Montréal. That year, I completed my BA in History and English Lit at Concordia University and started an intensive french course in McGill. Little did I know that just round the corner was a friend I'd make who'd introduce me to LJ.

2. As a child, I wanted to become a… private detective. I fell in love with Agatha Christie when I was 8 and devoured all her books, plus any adjacent authors. If there was a crime and a mystery, I was hooked. I even started investigating "crimes" in the building I lived in São Paulo, roping in friends as my assistants. Then I started writing crime fiction; my detective's name was Mr Clark and there was usually a very high body count behind him by the time he figured out who was the murderer.

3. My favorite school subject was… Portuguese. I loved books, lived in the school's library, and couldn't be happier whenever the teacher gave us a creative writing exercise. 

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I forgot to mention LJ in my last post, but it's worth bringing it up as well.

I now have only 5 active friends here! It's such a change from the earlier years, when I had over 300 active friends. I've been reading my LJ chronologically (currently in 2009) and we all posted so often back then, and there were so many comments...

I've been thinking: with the advent of A.I., if there was some way for Livejournal to incorporate it and give us a functionality that translated posts and comments, maybe that would open a new world for us? We could start connecting with the other side of LJ, and vice versa?

That's my tip for you, LJ Development Team!

It's been now 6 weeks since olamina came to visit Brazil. We had many interesting conversations during those days we spent together, mostly about our families and lives. Two of them have stayed with me.

The first one was about creativity, the energy we place into what we create and how we must be careful of what we bring into the world. I was in the midst of writing a first draft of a novel (for NaNoWriMo) - a horror novel - and it made me stop and think about my story, especially as it had demonic elements. In fact, a strange coincidence happened at the time. Just before Olamina and I went off to São Paulo for a long weekend, I wrote a passage in the novel that referenced a snake. When I got back, I discovered that one of my beloved pets had been killed by one.

At first I was really upset about this - even thinking I had somehow brought this about by "invoking" demonic elements. Took me about a month to get over his death and I've come to realise that part of grieving involves a little guilt. What if I had stayed behind with him? What if I had written something different?

I'm still going ahead with the novel and have started to delve more deeply into the symbolism around snakes. Grief as well: how can I add to my writing what I felt, since death goes hand in hand with horror? I guess I'm trying to make the best of it and learn from the experience, assimilating his loss and ultimately bringing some meaning into my novel - for the reader and myself.

The second chat we had was about the platform Substack. I was telling her about wanting to post more often on LJ, maybe even rebrand my account, and she suggested I try Substack instead. "You have so many stories to tell," she told me.

I already knew of Substack thanks to two writers, Hattie Crisell and George Saunders, who publish newsletters on creative writing. But I'd never stopped to consider creating one for myself. I started researching Substack, signing up to more accounts, and finally created a newsletter for myself.

I've been thinking since then about what I would write, how often I would publish, and if I should monetize. I've researched other writers, read articles in favour and against Substack. I've behaved like a typical Libra, weighing the pros and the cons. Finally, I decided I would launch it at the start of January, giving me this holiday break to tinker with it and get it ready.

Then news broke yesterday about Substack's decision not to remove or demonitize nazi content from its site. Damn... the nazis were one of the main reasons I left Twitter. This has thrown a clog in my plans and made me stop and rethink what I'm doing. Do I really want to send out a newsletter regularly? Do I want to commit to Substack and support a platform that encourages hate groups to proliferate? Do I care to play the monetization game? Should I maybe just log off and read a book?

Should I just post more regularly on Livejournal and leave it at that?