でね⚡️o̶c̶t̶o̶b̶e̶r̶ 🍁 (fictional writer)

Hello #pretendpanel October 4th: How have you explored fear in your writing? 

My WIP is horror, but the fear it explores is as much about being haunted by the pressures of love, adolescence and friendship as about genre and supernatural elements.

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A fear I could explore next time is the anxiety of spotting a speller just as I press send 😫

#PretendPanel October 3: scariest thing to write? 

I write horror but the scariest thing is the responsibility to get characters right. It is in the writer's gift to walk a mile in others' shoes, but with a duty to research and representation.

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#pretendpanel September 26th: Do you have a favourite character that you've written?

Boring but honest answer. I love the character I'm collaborating with at the moment I'm writing them. No matter how good or bad. Intensely so with first person.

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May he live long and enjoy it.

That's true, but I do worry when some editors-- not all, and not the good ones--come on social media with a list of simplistic tells. As you suggest, there is a growing research base around how Ai writes. As a teacher, I need to know these too.

I love--wait for it Ai detectorists--the odd em dash or two.

An example of my thinking: I love Stephen King. He is amazing at writing characters that come alive as you read them. What I don't like is that so many of his main characters are authors. But he's a best seller, so maybe I got this wayyyy wrong.

#pretendpanel September 20th: do you write the same character over and over again?

When I'm developing an idea--and that won't be until I freewrite a bit--I cast the characters to act/write. I avoid archetypes. I want new shoes to walk in. So, no

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#pretendpanel September 19th: what makes a character memorable?

In truth it's a pick 'n mix. But two things especially: the struggle for agency should be credible and relatable; MCs should perform psychic distance with the range of great singers.

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I ❤️ this man

Corgi edition of Ray Bradbury book The Halloween Tree

I ❤️ Ray Bradbury but I am not enjoying The Halloween Tree. Am I the only one who isn't feeling it..?

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#pretendpanel Sep 6th: self-insert character?

No. The character world occurs in the liminal space between head and page. Any doppelganger effect resolves over drafts and edits. I stir all characters with a salt of difference from their influences

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#pretendpanel a daily prompt tag hosted by @hiriadunning.bsky.social September 6th: Have you ever written a self-insert character? Please support your fellow #pretentpanel posters with replies, likes and reposts New #pretendpanel questions every Friday and Saturday. Hop in any time!

Tell me #pretendpanel:

September 6th: Have you ever written a self-insert character?

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#pretendpanel Sep 5th: Where do your characters come from?

If starts as a casting from story character demands. I like to see how they breathe on the page before developing their backgrounds, beliefs, desires, tastes etc. Keep it a wee loose.

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#pretendpanel a daily prompt tag hosted by @hiriadunning.bsky.social September 5th: Where do your characters come from? You could answer in specific, or if you have a general philosophy then please expound upon it! Please support your fellow #pretentpanel posters with replies, likes and reposts New #pretendpanel questions every Friday and Saturday. Hop in any time!

#pretendpanel, it's that time we've been waiting for... character focus time!

September 5th: Where do your characters come from? You could answer in specific, or if you have a general philosophy then please expound upon it!

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You deserve this

Charlotte, thank you so much for the past month. I frequently revisie tips I've noted down from various writing sources, but your tools are fantastic bite-size revision aids, and look like this on my phone. Great to dip into and contemplate. What a star you are. Best of luck with your own writing.

I like to partner chatacters up particularly in their response to the major themes. I suppose it is mainly 'mirroring', and it has relevance to a lot of the tools Charlotte has spoken about --e.g. character agency and foreshadowing-- but, as the story unfolds, the characters may become foils too.

Human Fuel (Huel) in exhibition at the Science Museum

Recommend this great FREE exhibition--bring your own Huel!

Future of Food | Science Museum share.google/0V5XQdgD42ZL...

I think you're right to suggest knowing the impact you want from your writing is not necessarily the same as knowing these terms, useful though that is. I find editing out loud is a great way to refresh impact, or fine-tune voice. Lovely examples for the use of many or no conjunctions BTW Charlotte

I've been a fan of unreliable narrators since I was exposed to Robert Browning's Dramatis Personae. Levels of U.N. range from self-deception to delusional but my favourite trick is to wind back and reveal the truth behind the misdirection. Sometimes the narrator turns out to be half-right after all.

Great timing Charlotte. Was just revising a (one-sided) fight scene in my WIP. The fight action itself only amounts to a couple of moves, but in between those blows the 1st person MC's thinking undermines their initial position as victim through irony, context, and calculation.

That's right of course, and character agency is a spectrum, but I'm bored as a reader when a character has convenience of agency--beyond their environment for example. You raise The Handmaid's Tale (❤️a favourite of mine too) but Offred's agency in the novel is a lot more credible than in TV Season 6

I'm iffy about overrating character agency. Even the hero's journey is about aquiring tools/help first. I like characters to be ragged in agency and find their unique response to events interesting. Oftentimes a character's failings make their engagement compelling if not always effective.

three young men are standing in a parking garage and one of them is wearing a shirt that says a.d.e.d. Alt: three young boys from the Korean show Weak Hero are walking through a parking garage in school uniform

You've been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who's coming to save you?

#pretendpanel August 16th: better reader than writer?

I'm not hyper-critical when I read others' work because I love submitting to the story, but I do take phone pics of good and bad examples to note and learn from later.

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Imagine the patterns swirling in the light--reminds me of the bedroom scene in the 1963 Robert Wise film The Haunting

With 1st person, added tension works like subjective camerawork in film where apparently random curios take on thematic relevance, internal character doubts, denials or goals and decision-making. But absolutely, in the edits, sprinkling on tension can work just as well as cutting off-plot scenes.

For me the first draft is the long version and the furious blood red pens come out in revision. On the other hand, a line like 'Up here, in the lap of excess....' might survive if it adds new info about the character or their attitude.