I know in my previous post that I took a swing at Twitter writers again – but it was entirely about that silly #harshwritingadvice hashtag. I am not a big joiner in “#writingcommunity Twitter” mostly because I find tweeting to be a side alley and unnecessary distraction. A blog post – like this one – is written and posted and may get some few comments, whereas a tweet can attract a mob scene that demands replies…

…and trying to wade through the collective crazy on there at times – don’t you know you are a stupid capitalist it is obvious they are behind it the election was rigged I will never buy your book where’s the proof a plane hit the Pentagon clearly lasers can start fires fire doesn’t melt steel it still snows so what climate change don’t come back to America we don’t want you here socialist imperialist monarchist why do you have Russian followers do they have something on you… – bunch kinda, shall I say, takes one away from time actually writing. LOL!

Honestly I don’t know how tweeting-manic-authors (the types who seem on Twitter for hours and hours) get any actual productive writing done. However, I do find it is worth “scrolling” Twitter’s #writingcommunity if only just to see what writers are saying about… well, whatever. Sometimes they just throw “questions” out there…

I think about the possible focal point of the tale and search for a line or a concept that jumps out at me as representative of it, and which may also have a “double”-meaning.

Example:

[Printed and photographed, July 31, 2019. The only paper version of Tomorrow The Grace. Photo by me.]

The title “Tomorrow The Grace” is from a line of an actual 1797 letter written by future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall:

[From John Marshall, Writings. Library Of America. Underlining and photo by me, 2021.]

“The Grace” was a ship. Marshall, (a reference to) that letter, and that ship, are all portrayed in the book.

To understand any further “double”-meaning… well, uh, you will just have to read the novel. LOL!

It is not controversial. It is actually easy to answer.

If you have ever written anything that potentially anyone, indeed everyone, in the entire world may purchase and read, you are a published author.

Terrifying that realization now, isn’t it? LOL!

“Some crap?” My goodness, speak for yourself.

I do not expect anyone to read “crap.” I do not write “crap.”

I have five novels to date.

And, yes, I will admit that I have.

That depends. I find it far easier to write when I use something about myself as a basis for something fictional. I think that is so because I know then that because it is not technically fictional that it then makes the fictional writing that much more truly human.

Do I look like Agatha Christie?

Yes.

Yes.

So?

There are a bunch of them. In fact, I love re-reading books. A second or third time you notice things you missed the first time.

Certainly that is so. Like any of us of course “they” are more than what we see before us. Readers are naturally free to use their imaginations to conjecture about more.

Yes. Moreover I have found my Instagram a far more useful and pleasant tool as an author than Twitter (if I am brutally honest).

Yes. (“MC” is “insider” author-speak-shorthand for “main character.”)

This:

[From The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton, 1920. Photo by me, 2021.]

Oh, no…

…not that again. Isn’t that over with yet? LOL! (If you missed my Sunday post on that, click here for an explanation.)

Like I have time for posting endlessly to Twitter anyway?:

[Draft cover, Capture The Cause, February 1, 2021. Copyright 2021 by me.]

I have altered the draft cover somewhat? Yes.

The other day I stumbled on a 1775-80 painting by a Frenchman of a young woman carving her initials into a tree. If you have read one or both of the previous two novels, you understand I could NOT resist using that. It will be perfect for what I have in mind for this third book in that series, so it will more than likely be on at least the back cover of the paperback edition.

Hope you are having a good day, wherever you are. 🙂