SPAWN Office Hours #11
Pirate hours now! Get over here with your questions and support. Thursday 6pm-7pm BST and 7-8pm CET.
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.
This is a free event. 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:
1). Edit tips. How do you edit, rewrite drafts and work on your upgrading your piece? Share your best tips.
2). When do you write?
3). Now that you’re a writer, what myth or wrong perception on writing have you re evaluated? Why?
SPAWN is Office Hours and hang out with
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.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. Check the comments for useful resources:
Time zones differ and our community is all over the world so naturally comments spill outside the live hour. 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.
Thursday 9 May
Vancouver PDT 10am -11am
Phoenix, Arizona MST 10am-11am
London BST 6pm-7pm
Paris CET 7pm-8pm
Athens EEST 8pm-10pm
New Delhi IST 10:30pm-11:30pm
Sydney AEST (10 May) 3am-4am
Fiji GMT+12 (10 May) 5am-6am
Comment about what’s been eating you on Substack and what’s been good this week. Share your questions and achievements.
Share what you know about writing or Substack, asking questions and socialising with others. Everyone’s welcome to join the conversation. Politeness and kindness are our rules. Offer advice if you can, no guesswork and no spammers. We are a supportive community and many of us share and comment on one another’s posts outside this weekly event. Next week’s SPAWN marks Writer Pilgrim’s one year anniversary on Substack!
Tip: Look out for a glitch in which last week or so people whom you follow seem to have blocked you or the other way around. So if someone who comments and is active on your publication and then suddenly goes quiet, worth finding out whether it’s a glitch or they actually did block you.
Subscribe so you get the updates, poems, information about courses and posts straight to your inbox. Thank you for being here. If you like a poem from May’s giveaway there are three more poems on destination to give away.
If you want to have fun and explore new music and write some easy poems on the spot, join in the May challenge song title poetry.
Since you’re here a couple of free for yearly paid subscribers: Writer Pilgrim Sounds, a poetry podcast, full archive and TINAWW workshops.
1). Edit tips. How do you edit, rewrite drafts and work on your upgrading your piece? Share your best tips.
Edit only happens after the piece is finished. Not before.
2). When do you write?
Anytime, but ideally every day. I try to get some writing every morning. Otherwise, other things get in the way.
3). Now that you’re a writer, what myth or wrong perception on writing have you re evaluated? Why?
Literally anyone can be a writer. It's true!
1. I always start writing longhand. I then type this and from file_001 I can go up to file_015 (I have gone even further than that) ... In every new version, I cut something out and tweak a word or two, until I reach a point where I am stuck. And then I close all the files and go on with my day. Or at least I stay away for a few hours. Edit is an audio-visual process. Mostly because I write poetry, I read aloud. And that helps a lot when it comes to altering things. The hard part is to get rid of the sections that don't really fit, but are just "nicely constructed" - I can get too attached to them, but I'm learning to say goodbye and move on.
2. I usually write in the morning, but for some strange reason I cannot explain, certain phrases come to me late at night; when I'm tired and have my last smoke alone in the dark (yes I still do that... despicable me :) or right before I go to sleep. I always have a small notebook on my nightstand where I write these fragmented thoughts.
3. The myth of "The Writer" no longer intimidates me. Writing can be intimidating at times, but it is also a way of being. It is the simple act of pouring out your soul using letters and words. And I like being someone who does just that. I am no longer afraid of being a writer. Isn't that something?