SPAWN Office Hours #70
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.
I’ll start us off with a few questions/tasks for today’s SPAWN:
1). How do you include rhythm in your work?
2). Write down 70 songs that you like. Share 7 or all 70 with us!
3). What’s your peoplewatch strategy? How do you peoplewatch? Do you use this in your writing/creative work?
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 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. I hope you join for those too.
Thursday 26 June
Vancouver PDT 10am -11am
Phoenix, Arizona MST 10am-11am
London BST 6pm-7pm
Paris CET 7pm-8pm
Athens EEST 8pm-9pm
New Delhi IST 10:30pm-11:30pm
Sydney AEST (27 June) 3am-4am
Fiji GMT+12 (27 June) 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:
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.
How you can support my publication:
Comment below.
Restack this post.
Become a paid subscriber for £5/ month or £50/year or a founding member. Turns out it’s cheaper per month if you do the year subscription.
Thank you, I appreciate you!
Hello everyone! The Muse has been a bit quiet - particularly with regards to long form content. However I do have a few projects in my brain aka the melting pot - most notably, a letter addressed to Anne Frank for the #DearAnne initiative hosted by the Anne Frank house.
Moving on to the questions:
1. How do I include rhythm in my work? Surprisingly, I would say that's a device that I don't really use too much in a particular piece. I focus more on using imagery to build up the scene and make things that one can visualize in their head.
However, where rhythm comes in is varying the type of work I produce. There is a bit of difference when I write poetry versus writing prose, for instance. Switching things up allows me to flex my creative muscle a bit. Especially when coupled with a captivating prompt or some additional constraints - I go into detail a bit more in my post called "Tasting the Imagination": https://theautisticmuse.substack.com/p/tasting-the-imagination.
2. 70 songs that I like? I could go on for a while naming such songs, and I'll usually find a gem or two every time I listen to something I've haven't before. One that sort of defines me as a person is "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd - my stepfather played this quite often on the guitar, and when he passed away back in 2014 the song took on a new meaning for me. I still wish he were here to see me tackle life head on, evolving as a person as I try to figure out where I am going in life.
A handful of other songs that I like - "Warrior" by Aurora, "Fade to Black" by Metallica, "Nikt" by Lor (a Polish band), "24/7" by Moyka, "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull, "Blackbird" by The Beatles, "Songbird" by Oasis, "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers, and "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.
3. People watching is a skill that I've used to learn how other people interact so I could 'mimic' them and thus hide some of the awkwardness that being autistic creates. Unfortunately, doing this is not perfect, as I still fail to catch some of the nuisances of standard conversation. It's also tiring after a while, as I must expend extra energy to act 'normal'.
When around other people that are autistic/neurodivergent/chronically ill/mad it's a lot easier to communicate naturally. Something 'clicks' - I'm not sure what - and the connection is much stronger. I don't have to worry as much about 'blending in' with societal norms.
Hi everyone!
Happy Thursday to you all, and Happy 70th Edition to SPAWN!
This week's Haiku Prompt was all about 'windows', and you can find out more about that, and join in with the fun if you'd like to, here: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/house-of-haiku-prompt-window
Anyway, on to the questions... How do you include rhythm in your work? Mainly through variation in the lengths of the sentences, to create a sense of flow and so on. Lots of shorter sentences to quicken the pace, and add tension and things like that. Sentences with just a single word can work well for that, and can form a staccato rhythm of information that builds to a powerful crescendo at the end of a Chapter. But yes, rhythm can really add a lot to the structure and reading experience, for sure.
Share 70 songs you like? Oh wow. That's a lot of songs. How about just some from the 70s I like? Haha! I think I've mentioned it before, but one that definitely means a lot to me is 'The Pretender' by Jackson Browne. That's a remarkable piece of work that says some very profound things about life. Some other ones that are special, because of moments, and people, I associate them with are: 'One of These Nights' by Eagles, 'Till It Shines' by Bob Seger, 'All My Love' by Led Zeppelin, 'Hard Headed Woman' by Cat Stevens, 'A Case Of You' by Joni Mitchell and 'Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight' by James Taylor. That's seven, but there's so many amazing ones, I could easily do 700!
What's your peoplewatch strategy? Just carefully observing things around me, and looking for stories that are unfolding, or moments that could lead somewhere. Small things that could become bigger, or be a springboard to go somewhere else. Things like that... 😎