Inspired by all the discussions happening around community, conflict, world building and writing I would like to suggest some of the above.
Probably best short and with generous time to not overwhelm anyone’s schedule, but maybe a monthly thing to start with, would anyone else enjoy trying that?
I really like writing that treats tech, and the laws of physics, somewhat respectfully. (On that note, have you read K.J.Parker? He writes tech so well I was obsessed with his books for that even though they are quite depressing).
Nothing is more boring than a story where every natural obstacle to progress is just magically explained away with [random high tech from the future] or, well, magic. So can the plot arise from characters simply being let loose in the settings and having available x technology? Because I would rank characters before plot as well in pleasure of writing. If I don’t believe the characters are real I don’t care what happens to them.
What happens in me for plot - hmm I think I have asked for inspiration at some point. Like in, witchcraftily put an ad out there like ‘Some friendly spirit please come and help me put stuff in words’ - and have sort of (imperfectly) followed the instructions from there, and often get told parts of the story in my head. Problem is sit down and write them down, sometimes. Part of the instructions always involves going out there and do the stuff I write about. I’m afraid that will involve meeting people at some point, because, characters?
Anyways after writing nothing but shit for work or uni since 2006 all I have so far is notes, and a skeleton of a story that still keeps shifting around somewhat, and some tiny bits of actual story meat are attached to some of the bones. But hey I’m enjoying myself.
The photobashes are are cool thing to create an imaginary place one can actually move in!
I haven’t read K.J.Parker but I’ll take a look! I read a lot of schlock military scifi and a lot of cyberpunk, so in my reading I’m often all over the place on the tech-realism scale. I work with computers IRL so I tend to be kind of obsessive about getting it right when I write. I do a lot of research and try to run any ideas past people who know more where possible, which is often a limiting factor on what I write, but I think for good reasons.
Character writing is a bit of a weakness of mine, unless the idea at the core of the thing starts with them. But it’s usually a setting idea. Without good characters driving a good plot, its easy to end up with a “here’s an idea, the end” kind of stories, which I’ve definitely been rejected from magazines for submitting before. I think that can work on flash fiction, though I haven’t written as much of that. I’ve got the luxury of writing for fun, so I can get away with just writing stories that I want to exist, and then trying to find a home for them. I’m waiting to hear back from a magazine for a rural-cyberpunk-with-environmental-rage thing and I’ve got a couple backburndered stories I’ll probably pick back up when I finally burn out on the photobashes.
I definitely find myself wanting to try out some of the stuff I’ve been researching for the art. I’d like to build a parabolic solar cooker, and I’ve been making plans for a fresnel lens solar forge, which would be cool to build next summer. And now that I’m researching agroforestry, I’m looking at what crops I could be planting in nearby woods.
Best of luck with your writing! There’s wonderful opportunities there to demonstrate solarpunk concepts, technologies, ways of life, in hands-on kind of ways that’ll help regular people picture it for the first time.