msfcatlover

[msfcatlover]

circling back around to the issue of writers being expected to do all their own goddamn marketing via social media these days, because it completely nixes the possibility of writers being weird shut ins, off-putting eccentrics, or misanthropes. 80% of the literary canon was written by weird shut ins, off-putting eccentrics, and misanthropes. if you weed out everyone who’s the wrong kind of insane to maintain a twitter presence, who on earth is left

#writing #art #my life

[msfcatlover]

Preindustrial travel, and long explanations on why different distances are like that

I saw a post on my main blog about how hiking groups need to keep pace with their slowest member, but many hikers mistakenly think that the point of hiking is "get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible" instead of "spending time outdoors in nature with friends," and then they complain that a new/less-experienced/sick/disabled hiker is spoiling their time-frame by constantly needing breaks, or huffing and puffing to catch up.

I run into a related question of "how long does it take to travel from Point A to Point B on horseback?" a lot, as a fantasy writer who wants to be SEMI-realistic; in the Western world at least, our post-industrial minds have largely forgotten what it's like to travel, both on our own feet and in groups.

People ask the new writer, "well, who in your cast is traveling? Is getting to Point B an emergency or not? What time of year is it?", and the newbies often get confused as to why they need so much information for "travel times." Maybe new writers see lists of "preindustrial travel times" like a primitive version of Google Maps, where all you need to do is plug in Point A and Point B.

But see, Google Maps DOES account for traveling delays, like different routes, constructions, accidents, and weather; you as the person will also need to figure in whether you're driving a car versus taking a bus/train, and so you'll need to figure out parking time or waiting time for the bus/train to actually GET THERE.

The difference between us and preindustrial travelers is that 1) we can outsource the calculations now, 2) we often travel for FUN instead of necessity.

The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.

Why is this so specific? Because not everyone in preindustrial times was fit, not everyone was healthy, not everyone was between the ages of 20-35ish, and not everyone had nice clear skies and good terrain to travel on.

If you are too far below 18 years old or too far past 40, at best you will need either a slower pace or more frequent breaks to cover the same distance, and at worst you'll cut the travel distance in half to 10 or so miles. Too much walking is VERY BAD on too-young/old knees, and teenagers or very short adults may just have short legs even if they're fine with 8-10 hours of actual walking. Young children may get sick of walking and pitch a fit because THEY'RE TIREDDDDDDDDDD, and then you might need to stay put while they cry it out, or an adult may sigh and haul them over their shoulder (and therefore be weighed down by about 50lbs of Angry Child).

Heavy forests, wetlands and rocky hills/mountains are also going to be a much shorter "distance." For forests or wetlands, you have to account for a lot of villagers going "who's gonna cut down acres of trees for one road? NOT ME," or "who's gonna drain acres of swamp for one road? NOT ME." Mountainous regions have their traveling time eaten by going UP, or finding a safer path that goes AROUND.

If you are traveling in winter or during a rainstorm (and this inherently means you HAVE NO CHOICE, because nobody in preindustrial times would travel in bad weather if they could help it), you run the high risk of losing your way and then dying of exposure or slipping and breaking your neck, just a few miles out of the town/village.

And now for the upper range of "traveling on horseback!"

Fully mounted groups can usually make 30-40 miles per day between Point A and Point B, but I find there are two unspoken requirements: "Point B must have enough food for all those people and horses," and "the mounted party DOESN'T need to keep pace with foot soldiers, camp followers, or supply wagons."

This means your mounted party would be traveling to 1) a rendezvous point like an ally's camp or a noble's castle, or 2) a town/city with plenty of inns. Maybe they're not literally going 30-40 miles in one trip, but they're scouting the area for 15-20 miles and then returning to their main group. Perhaps they'd be going to an allied village, but even a relatively small group of 10-20 warhorses will need 10-20 pounds of grain EACH and 20-30 pounds of hay EACH. 100-400 pounds of grain and 200-600 pounds of hay for the horses alone means that you need to stash supplies at the village beforehand, or the village needs to be a very large/prosperous one to have a guaranteed large surplus of food.

A dead sprint of 50-60 miles per day is possible for a preindustrial mounted pair, IF YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. Moreover, that is for ONE day. Many articles agree that 40 miles per day is already a hard ride, so 50-60 miles is REALLY pushing the envelope on horse and rider limits.

NOTE: While modern-day endurance rides routinely go for 50-100 miles in one day, remember that a preindustrial rider will not have the medical/logistical support that a modern endurance rider and their horse does.

If you say "they went fifty miles in a day" in most preindustrial times, the horse and rider's bodies will get wrecked. Either the person, their horse, or both, risk dying of exhaustion or getting disabled from the strain.

Whether you and your horse are fit enough to handle it and "only" have several days of defenselessness from severe pain/fatigue (and thus rely on family/friends to help you out), or you die as a heroic sacrifice, or you aren't QUITE fit enough and become disabled, or you get flat-out saved by magic or another rider who volunteers to go the other half, going past 40 miles in a day is a "Gondor Calls For Aid" level of emergency.

As a writer, I feel this kind of feat should be placed VERY carefully in a story: Either at the beginning to kick the plot off, at the climax to turn the tide, or at the end.

Preindustrial people were people--some treated their horses as tools/vehicles, and didn't care if they were killed or disabled by pushing them to their limits, but others very much cared for their horses. They needed to keep them in working condition for about 15-20 years, and they would not dream of doing this without a VERY good reason.

#Writing #ref

[msfcatlover]

Here's a potentially fun one:

#Footnotes & parenthetical tangents #my beloved #// #writing #my life #(can you tell I was raised on Pratchett novels?)

[msfcatlover]

Forever torn between:

Short, clipped sentences appropriately convey the feeling of things happening very quickly.

Long sentences, which could be broken up but are allowed to bleed into eachother, can give the impression of information coming in such rapid succession that you barely have time to breathe—the actual end of the sentence, especially with a clearly indicated break, can feel like a gasp of relief. It's over.

(I naturally lean towards the latter, honestly. I can never tell which will work best for any given scene.)

#Maybe I read things outloud TOO often... #// #writing #my writing #writer #writer problems #writing problems #writeblr #writblr #my life #mine

[msfcatlover]

Me, holding the entire 3rd chapter of my WIP in my hands, crying: I have all the pieces, why won’t they fit together?

#My life #writing #my writing #writing problems #writer problems #reverse!robins #// #Have Mercy 3rd chap has been kicking my ass for WEEKS #FIT DAMN YOU

[msfcatlover]

writing is the most insane hobby it's like,

is it easy? no

is it fast? also no

but is it fun? well,

#writing #my life

[msfcatlover]

The way fantasy writers talk about a thousand years as this uneventful amount of time is really funny to me because like—in less than 1000 years we went from the Norman Invasion of England to Skibidi Toilet.

#I am endlessly somewhere between anger & laughter at how many stories just. Do not grasp how long TIME is. #There is so much time. So much of it. You have no idea how long a thousand years is. You have no idea how long TEN thousand years is! #On the other hand #Trying to estimate appropriate time lengths based on generations and realizing #‘’Shit. I don’t think 5000yrs is enough for this to have passed into legend.’’ #was one of the most frustrating worldbuilding experiences of my life #WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE MULTIPLE CULTURES WITH COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LIFESPANS?! WHAT DOES THAT /DO/ TO HISTORY?!?!? #// #tv tropes #writing #my life

[msfcatlover]

#And then you go ''Oh shit. Guess I learned something about myself'' like... 2-8months later. #// #writing

[msfcatlover]

my dad–also a writer–came to visit, and i mentioned that the best thing to come out of the layoff is that i’m writing again. he asked what i was writing about, and i said what i always do: “oh, just fanfic,” which is code for “let’s not look at this too deeply because i’m basically just making action figures kiss in text form” and “this awkward follow-up question is exactly why i don’t call myself a writer in public.”

he said, “you have to stop doing that.”

“i know, i know,” because it’s even more embarrassing to be embarrassed about writing fanfic, considering how many posts i’ve reblogged in its defense.

but i misunderstood his original question: “fanfic is just the genre. i asked what you’re writing about.” 

i did the conversational equivalent of a spinning wheel cursor for at least a minute. i started peeling back the setting and the characters, the fic challenge and the specific episode the story jumps off from, and it was one of those slow-dawning light bulb moments. “i’m writing about loneliness, and who we are in the absence of purpose.”

as, i imagine, are a lot of people right now, who probably also don’t realize they’re writing an existential diary in the guise of getting television characters to fuck. 

“that’s what you’re writing. the rest is just how you get there, and how you get it out into the world. was richard iii really about richard the third? would shakespeare have gotten as many people to see it if it wasn’t a story they knew?”

so, my friends: what are you writing about?

#The desperate desire for love & connection and how we are transformed by our experiences whether we like it or not #As always #// #writing

[msfcatlover]

#my life #writing

[msfcatlover]

weirdest part about being an artist (and, to an extent, a writer too) is feeling like. shameful that you aren't creating massive pieces of art. how dare i not line and color and shade every drawing. how dare i only draw two poses. how dare i only write 1k words. how dare i not write an entire book. how dare i

#my life #writing

[msfcatlover]

#I do all my best writing in verbal conversations #// #writing #my life

[msfcatlover]

Im just feeling a certain way rn

#Writing #my life #// #I WRITE TO SHARE FEELINGS BUT CAN’T SHARE FEELINGS UNTIL I FINISH WRITING #BUT THE MOTIVATION COMES FROM FEEDBACK AND I CAN’T GET FEEDBACK UNTIL I FINISH WRITING #AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

[msfcatlover]

#necessary (neccesary? neseccary? nessecary? nesseccary?) #my beloathed #Also #nuscience — nusiance — NUISANCE! #That one’s so bad even spellcheck can’t help. I just have to fumble around until I give up & open reverse dictionary or a thesaurus #because /apparently/ every single way you can misspell it ISN’T CLOSE ENOUGH to the original word to make them tell me! #STOP UNDERLINING IT #I KNOW IT’S WRONG #WHAT USE EVEN ARE YOU #YOU STUPID ALGORITHM?!?! #// #my life #writing

[msfcatlover]

the urge to write is like a cat meowing for dear life for someone to open the goddamn door, who then shows utter disinterest in said open door

#writing #my life

[msfcatlover]

One of the worst feelings in the world: when you are just desperate, like claw-your-own-skin-off desperate, to create, but the only thing that even vaguely appeals to you to work on is a nebulous half-feeling that might be dreamily related to some half-formed notion of a concept. I must! Make! No thing! Only make!

#My life #writing #sherlock holmes

[msfcatlover]

Any tips for writing an awkward reunion between characters? They're best friends, and one has been imprisoned for 10+ years, the other wasn't even aware that he was alive until the reunion

Thanks for your question, darling!  As soon as I saw this in the inbox, I was eager to answer it – just because it’s so similar to something I’ve written!  My second novel began with the two main characters (actually ex-lovers) meeting after Character X escaped from prison, while Character Y, thinking that X had died, moved on with another man.  That was a difficult scene for me to write, too, but hopefully I’ve learned something useful from the experience!

So my advice for you first is to stop and think about all the elements at play here:

Character Y’s shock upon realizing Character X is alive.  For at least ten years (I gather), Character Y has had a distinct image of X in their head – a dead one.  Y has gone through the process of grief by now; they’ve accepted the fact that they’ll never see X again.  Their mind has done wild things to the image of X by now – either idealizing X and forgetting their flaws, or, in order to cope, demonizing X and exaggerating their flaws.  No matter how Y has handled X’s death, the reunion will not be easy for Y, psychologically or emotionally.

Character X’s image of Character Y.  Think of this event from X’s perspective, too, because it’s very important to their actions now.  Do they know why Character Y never visited them in prison?  Did they know Character Y was safe or even alive?  Has Character Y moved forward or in any way done anything that might feel like betrayal (e.g. found a new best friend, left their familiar workplace, changed something about their life, etc.)?  Does X feel as though they’ve missed out on Y’s life in an irreparable way?

The charges against Character X.  The reason for X’s imprisonment will have a lot to do with this reunion, because it affects both their self-image and Y’s image of them.  Was Character Y there when X committed this crime?  Was X’s crime violent?  Was it deliberate?  How does this affect how Y thinks of X?  Is there any new feeling of fear, judgment, or admiration because of X’s crime?

The circumstances of their reunion.  Is the reunion is organized (e.g. Character X leaves prison and visits Character Y), or spontaneous (e.g. they run into each other in public accidentally)?  Does Character Y have any warning before seeing Character X alive, in the flesh, for the first time in 10+ years?  Are they meeting again willingly, or out of necessity?  A necessary reunion has the potential to be far more hostile than a willing reunion.

Their relationship prior to the separation.  The most important aspect of this reunion will be the contrast between their previous relationship and their current feelings.  Were they close, or even romantic with each other?  Were there secrets between them, or were they more intimate than that?  How does that compare to now, after X’s stint in prison?  Does their dynamic change, and if it does, how do they feel about this change?

Their desire to see each other again.  Did they both miss each other during those 10+ years?  Did one or both of them hope to see each other again?  Or did either of them feel relief to have lost the other person?  Is it a mixture of both?

These questions are instrumental in crafting the complex emotions your characters might be feeling now.  The more negative their image of each other becomes – the more extreme X’s crimes were – the more strained the circumstances of their reunion are – the more intense the reunion will be, charged with anger, guilt, sadness, happiness, desire… the works.

I hope this helps you with your scene, nonny!  I know that my run through this kind of scene was heavily based on the characters’ emotions, so I hope this helps you to organize some of those emotions.  If this doesn’t help, be sure to send another ask in the future!

Until then, thanks again, and good luck :)

– Mod Joanna ♥️

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

#writing