SPAWN Office Hours #116
Pirate hours every Thursday from 6pm-7pm BST or 7-8pm CET onwards. Get over here with your comments, questions and support.
Over two years of SPAWN! I love that you check in with our writing community each week and that we are so different in our themes and styles.
Here’s one of my latest podcast episode:
Welcome to SPAWN, Substack Pirate After Work Network. We’re here on Thursdays 6pm BST UK, 7pm CET. For those who are unable to join live, post a question out of hours and tick the box to have it on Notes so you get more chances for an answer.
If you’re here for the first time introduce yourself. Ideally, answer questions from others and engage with newcomers and veteran stackers.
I’ll start us off with a few questions/tasks for today’s SPAWN:
1). How strictly do you follow genres in your writing? How do you inform yourself of attributes of a genre, to understand it as a reader and/or as a writer.
2). Almost half way through the May challenge of song title poetry. I know some of you have joined in and some of you haven’t. Regardless, those who join a challenge, whether it’s about writing, funding, or videoing, why do you join? What do you get out of the different challenges that are out there?
3). Last week I asked you to share something about staying local and visiting a place near you that could be a new discovery. Did you get to visit a local gallery, arts hub, cafe, music or other culture venue? What did you do? What did you see?
SPAWN has its own section on my publication. You can access all previous sessions with a wealth of resources, hands on information, hacks and tips from writers and creatives who’ve been doing what they do for a long while. Posts older than two weeks get archived and are fully accessible to paid members.
SPAWN is Office Hours and hang out with Writer Pilgrim by So Elite and our lovely crew. We’ll talk all things Substack that we love or don’t understand. The floor is always open to your questions and invite your subscribers and followers here too.
Another regular feature on my publication is the monthly Song Title poetry first Friday of the month and the weekly Prompt Station with a writing prompt released every Tuesday. And look at my podcast Writer Pilgrim Sounds that now includes videos too of London’s hidden amazing places, poetry and interviews with some super amazing artists. I hope you join for those too.
We are live for an hour and many stay for longer. Mostly, we chat about writing and Substacking; we celebrate each other’s successes and find new readers and subscribers in the process. Before we go on to this week’s SPAWN here’s what we did last week and make sure you check the comments as there are some useful resources in there:
Naturally comments spill outside the live hour because our community is all over the world. You’re welcome to join pre or after hours. We have novel, short story, poetry, non-fiction and travel writers, podcasters, youtubers and journalists. Between us, we solve most questions.
Comment about what’s been eating you on Substack and what’s been good this week. Share your questions and achievements and socialise with us.
Everyone’s welcome to join the conversation. Politeness and kindness are our rules. Offer advice if you can, no guesswork and no spammers. Our readers and SPAWN are a supportive community and many of us support one another outside this weekly event.
Thank you for turning up each week and for returning to Late Night Spawn to support and reply to writers and creators who turn up after hours to our events.
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1). How strictly do you follow genres in your writing? How do you inform yourself of attributes of a genre, to understand it as a reader and/or as a writer.
Genre is important as a label, because readers tend to keep reading the stuff they already like … so it’s good to know what they (and publishers are expecting). As the current work-in-progress is again historical fantasy romance, I’ve taken two subgenres of romance and mixed them together. As I learned to write through writing romances, I think most of what I do is probably subconscious now. So I don’t really think about the genre in any way except to give either a Happy Ever After, or a Happy For Now ending.
2). Almost half way through the May challenge of song title poetry. I know some of you have joined in and some of you haven’t. Regardless, those who join a challenge, whether it’s about writing, funding, or videoing, why do you join? What do you get out of the different challenges that are out there?
Last year, I was on holiday and joined in a fantasy writing challenge … I didn’t try to do every single prompt because of the travel but when you’re sitting on a bus staring out a window, prompts are excellent for passing the time. It was just fun to do, especially once you decide to avoid the pressure. The collaboration I’m hosting (link in my reply to this comment, because I was not, as usual, organized to think of this ahead of time) is kind of like an easy-going challenge…
3). Last week I asked you to share something about staying local and visiting a place near you that could be a new discovery. Did you get to visit a local gallery, arts hub, cafe, music or other culture venue? What did you do? What did you see?
Last week’s post is behind a paywall and I can’t remember what I wrote (if anything) for this but I am off this morning to a local organic food store for morning tea. It’s the second time I’ve been there, so hopefully, I’ll actually have time to poke around in the store as last time I stayed in the coffee shop area.
Oh, and that book I was loaned to read? It’s turning out not to be my cup of tea. I’ve only read the first two chapters and the prologue, so I will give it one more chapter but the inciting incident (hinted at by the prologue) hasn’t happened yet. It’s set outside the usual time periods I read, so I keep stopping to look things up!
Hi everyone!
Happy Thursday to you all!
So this week, over at the 'House of Haiku', we've been talking about 'bicycles'. You can find out more about that here: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/house-of-haiku-prompt-bicycle
Anyway, on to the questions... How do you inform yourself about genres and understand them? I don't really confine myself to one genre, and tend to bounce around between them. Most things I do are a blend of genres, but I guess I mainly focus on Contemporary Fiction/Humour/Horror. With a little Romance on the side! Haha! As with most aspects of writing, the best way to become informed about things and to learn how genres work is to read as much as possible, across lots of different genres, until you find what you connect with and what you feel moved to write about. And then just experiment and discover your own style and voice, and what works for you. Because that's really what art is all about.
What do you get out of taking part in writing challenges? Well, I think it's mainly the fun aspect and the sense of accomplishment, that comes from trying very specific types of writing or a particular Prompt, and seeing what you can do with them. I discovered Microfiction through Prompts on here, and it's very quickly become one of my favourite things to write. And of course, the 'Song Title Challenge' is one of my favourite Events, too! I think the amazing thing about that, is that it's a completely different way to appreciate music, and the craft of songwriting, as you explore a given artist's work, and gradually begin to see ways things can fit together to tell stories hidden amongst the names of familiar songs... 😎