SPAWN Office Hours #28
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.
If you’re here for the first time introduce yourself. Ideally, answer questions from others and engage with newcomers and veteran stackers.
This post reaches out to you on my 1 year Substack anniversary! A celebratory post to arrive in the next few days. Look out for it!
I’ll start us off with a few questions/tasks for today’s SPAWN:
1). How do you know what you write is good? Really good?
2). How do you use structure? (In fiction, non-fiction, novels, poetry…)
3). Who is the one person who pops up in your mind when you write?
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.Thursday 5 September
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 (6 September) 3am-4am
Fiji GMT+12 (6 September) 5am-6am
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:
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.
Comment about what’s been eating you on Substack and what’s been good this week. Share your questions and achievements and socialise 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. Our readers and SPAWN are a supportive community and many of us support one another outside this weekly event.
Please note, during August, SPAWN is a little more quiet. Still here though.
1). How do you know what you write is good? Really good?
There's no recipe for what a page turner is. There are many different types of books that makes you turn the page. But something new, something you recognise and resonate with so that you know you're not on your own or something brand new that you learn. Pieces that manage to put words to things you thought were impossible to express. That's really good to me.
2). How do you use structure? (In fiction, non-fiction, novels, poetry…)
I keep questions in my head that I'm trying to answer for non-fiction and for fiction a structure that tells a story. I'm trying to use outlines, but at this point the preferred method is freestyle, ie let the story unfold, (no structure).
3). Who is the one person who pops up in your mind when you write?
I don't have one. But whether it's a post or a Note, I always think of a special reader who would like this particular piece. And when they comment to my surprise that's bingo time right there!
Hello everyone!
I hope your week is going well! I’ve been getting into a new routine. I’m getting up earlier and exercising. I’m not staying up as late to balance things out. I’m trying to be consistent with my posts. My goal is one newsletter-type post weekly and poems as they come to me.
Questions:
1. Honestly, I don’t know when it’s good. I publish work I’m proud of and I believe will resonate. It doesn’t always work. The posts I’m least sure about often get the best response. I just stay true to myself.
2. Structure is something I experiment with in poetry and in other writings. I believe it’s about consistency within any given project.
3. Well, I think about my characters when I’m working on a book or a short story. For a poem, I’m thinking about the people I’m writing about if there is someone.