WriYe and Hacks

HaHA we have broken the romance cycle!

For this month’s WriYe blog prompt, we have: List of “writing hacks” you swear by (and some you wish would just go away).

Now, squiders, for the life of me, I can’t think of any writing hacks. So I did a search to see what I could find. This garnered me a mixture of grammatical things, productivity hacks (arguably not the same thing), and a lot of “show, don’t tell.”

Though I am reminded of the time (Nano 2019, maybe?) where I read something that said using Comic Sans made things flow easier, and so I typed my whole novel in said Comic Sans, not necessarily because it was working (though the first draft did flow great–but I suspect that had more to do with my outlining than anything else) but because I was worried that if I stopped it would break my mindset somehow.

(That’s an idea, though–maybe I should write different genres in different fonts. Or maybe the whole idea is silly.)

(Also, seriously, screw these writing hacks lists. This one honestly lists point of view as a hack. That’s not a hack, that’s an essential part of a story.)

(I also enjoy this one that has “Use metaphors” as a hack immediately after “eliminate unnecessary expressions.” Make up your mind.)

For the sake of argument, let’s say there’s not any writing hacks. Writing is hard. Every story has its own hurdles and something like “eliminate every other speech tag” isn’t going to do anyone any favors.

I can get behind the productivity hacks, though arguably those aren’t “hacks” either. It’s surprisingly hard to find the right definition of “hack” on ye olde Interwebs, but I did find “the act of attempting to manipulate outcomes based on orchestrated actions.” Basically, a way to force the outcome you want in a predictable manner.

Hahahaha none of this is predictable. Creativity is, alas, not predictable. You can take steps to improve your chances–practice, read widely, take classes, etc. But I wouldn’t consider those hacks.

But the productivity, sure. My brain has some neurodivergent shenanigans it gets up to occasionally, and so “tricking” it into doing what I want to do can be useful from time to time. I like making lists, because it gives me a way to remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing.

Other things, like Pomodoro, don’t really work for me. (I can usually get through one Pomodoro, but then I get distracted during the break and never come back to it.) Writing sprints can be helpful, but only if I’m in the right frame of mind, and then I either get into the flow (and so don’t come back at the end of the sprint) or lose my focus during the break between sprints.

So basically what I’ve learned is that if I stop, I’m not coming back, and so those techniques are no bueno for me.

With productivity hacks, they’re really personal. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. I do like to try new ones from time to time, to mix things up, in case I could be doing better than I am. Usually not, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to try.

What about you, squider? What are your feelings on “hacks”? Favorite writing and/or productivity ones?

Why Must We Ruin Everything with Drama?

Good afternoon, squiders! First things first, SkillShare finally got back to me about my class (a MONTH and two tickets after I emailed them that I had fixed it, so not wild about their support) and it is fixed and live. It’s here, if you’re interested. It’s about Genre.

So, a few weeks ago, the smaller, mobile one and I started watching The Traitors, which is a game show on NBC which is essentially Among Us in Real Life. (It, like many other shows, is the American version of the British show, which is in itself based off another show. Dutch, maybe?)

(And, of course, Among Us is based off other, older games like Werewolf and Mafia.)

It plays very much like Among Us. There’s three “traitors” hidden among the “faithful” (like the imposters and crew), everyone works together to complete missions (like the tasks), there’s a round table each night where everyone votes someone off (like the meetings in Among Us), and if a traitor is still in the running at the end of the game, they win no matter what (same as in Among Us).

We blew through Season 1, which I really enjoyed. There were 20 people, half of whom had been on other reality shows, and half of whom were just normal people. I got into the strategy and the game play and was invested in who was going to win.

It made me nostalgic for the depths of lockdown, when I could play Among Us for an hour or so every day with my friends. Now we never play at all because everyone’s busy, and they’ve changed the game anyway so it’s not quite as psychological as it used to be.

Season 2 is currently airing, so we gave ourselves a few days to revel in Season 1 and then started Season 2.

Oh, squiders. Oh no.

For Season 2 they decided they’d do only reality show people. And it is awful. I’m not a reality show person. I don’t see the appeal in watching loud people be mean to each other. The normal people in Season 1 tamped down the stupid drama from the reality people. There was still a bit, but it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t that annoying.

But with Season 2 it’s everywhere. I want to watch the game, not the drama. Did we need the drama? Arguably no. It’s stupid and it’s petty and it is annoying, and the game is getting lost. If I wanted to watch drama I’d watch the other shows, you know?

And the parts I liked–the strategizing and trying to guess what people were going to do, especially in response to the twists the show throws in–are also getting lost. And there’s been some neat twists in Season 2, like the traitors having to murder someone in plain sight! But I can’t even appreciate them around everything else.

Maybe it’ll get better. Maybe as we have less and less players the drama will die down a bit and we’ll focus more on the game. Or not.

I have to wonder–is this season doing better than the last? Did other people want more drama? Who decided this was a good thing?

Alas, squiders, alas.

Are you a reality TV person? Are you watching The Traitors, and if so, what is your opinion on this season versus the last? Feelings about drama in game shows in general?

Game On

Good evening, squiders!

If you recall, I added in a video game goal for the year, which is supposed to be about five hours a week, but life is uneven and nothing can be relied upon, so how it’s really manifesting is that I’ve been picking three Steam games per month to focus on, with the hopes of beating them.

This is actually working really well, because when my brain is too fried for writing, instead of binging YouTube or playing hours of Minesweeper, I’m turning to these games instead and actually making some progress.

I thought we’d look at the games I’ve played thus far and see how they’re going.

(As a bit of background, I have a lot of Steam games that I’ve never played or have only touched for a short time, because I tend to buy bundles and then get overwhelmed by choice and so play none of them. I’d like to make the list more manageable and, you know, play games that I paid money for. Otherwise it’s a lot like my notebook collection.)

January

I picked three games for January: Paperbark, Assemble with Care, and the Beasts of Maravilla Island. Paperbark is one of my oldest games, from a bundle that was raising money for the Australian wildfires, and Beasts was from a cozy game bundle I bought in 2023.

I got through all three games and then poked some of the older ones that I’d tried and never really gotten very far on, to see what the deal was.

Paperbark

In Paperback you play as a wombat. The graphics in the game frankly overwhelmed my last computer, which is why I’d never gotten very far, and even with my new computer it was still pretty laggy. Basically you wander through the undergrowth (everything is fogged and is revealed as you move) and attempt to find various things. I did end up getting through the whole game story-wise and decided I didn’t care enough about completion to try to fight with the graphics anymore. (5/10)

Beasts of Maravilla Island

Beasts reminds me a lot of Amazon Trail, actually, which was a favorite of mine as a kid. You travel through three different fantastical environments, taking pictures of the wildlife and learning about various species. There is a light storyline which is relatively interesting as well. (8/10)

Assemble with Care

Assemble with Care is a puzzle game where you repair various objects. The play is all in the repair puzzles, which get harder and more complex as the game goes on, though each object is accompanied by a long-ish story portion, and the game is ostensibly about repairing relationships as much as the objects that accompany them. This was one of my newest game, and I enjoyed the puzzles, which were just the right level of challenging. (8/10)

The Perfect Tower II

I don’t remember getting this game (and, indeed, it’s free because it’s early access) but I did poke it to see what it was. (I swear sometimes games just show up in my library. Or maybe I added it randomly because it was free and then forgot about it. I mean, I don’t normally do that, but anything is possible.) It’s a tower defense game with the added mechanic of having a little town you build on the side to help you upgrade things. Fairly fun but also addictive, so I categorized it and put it to the side. (7.5/10)

Evoland

Evoland, again, is one of my oldest games. You play through the evolution of games, so you start with black and white 2D graphics (and no music) and through a series of chests, unlock things like save files, sound, color, 3D graphics, etc. I am ridiculously bad at this game. I find it so, so frustrating, and I’ve never been able to make it terribly far. Nothing has changed. (3/10)

Race the Sun

I think I got this game in my very first Steam bundle, whatever the heck that was. Race the Sun reminds me a lot of some game from the ’80s that I only barely remember. You’re a solar craft, and you need to fly around obstacles and see how far you can go, and you unlock upgrades and so forth as you complete goals. Apparently it was supposed to update daily but has been abandoned by the developers at this point. Relatively fun, no story, bit of a time waster. Upgrades don’t come quickly. (4.5/10)

February

For this month I selected Strange Horticulture, Garden Story, and A Short Hike. I also poked at Townscaper which I bought on a whim because someone in the reviews said it was very relaxing, and I was stressed at the time (and the game was on sale).

I haven’t touched Strange Horticulture yet this month, but I was playing it on and off throughout the end of 2023 and I believe I’m about done with it. You run a horticulture shop and have to identify which plants are which and then use them to fix people’s problems (there’s also a storyline going about some sort of ancient evil in the forest). I really like it, I’m just bad at focusing. Fingers crossed that I get a good ending. I like puzzle games, but only some sorts of puzzles.

A Short Hike

This game may have come out of the cozy game bundle too. A Short Hike involves getting your little bird character to the top of the mountain on an island to get cell phone service (and doing little adventure game things along the way. I traded a turtle a trowel for a big shovel and now I can dig up treasure, woot.). I’ve only played it about 15 minutes thus far because I’m having some control issues.

Townscaper

Not really a game, more like a zen garden. With Townscaper you click various places and it grows pavement or buildings or what have you. It is relaxing. For about 10 minutes.

Garden Story

Garden Story is an adventure game where you play a grape named Concord and attempt to save the Grove from the rot that’s eating it. My first session I wasn’t convinced about the game, but it’s growing on me, har har. Google tells me it takes 20-40 hours to get through the game so we’re going to be at it for a while.

So that’s the year in games thus far! Definitely making some progress, though it feels like a drop in the bucket. I’ve got 77 games uncategorized, and my hope is to beat some and categorize at least a few more (I have a category for games that I’ve tried and given up on for whatever reason–no reason to waste time on games I’m not enjoying, right? I also have a category for online multiplayer games to play with friends and one for games I really like that I can come back to over and over.)

My categories are thus:

• Beat the Game But Would Play Again (currently only Oxenfree, which I HIGHLY recommend, very creepy, and two “find the cats” games)
• Beat the Game! (for games I have beaten and probably will not play again)
• Fun! (the aforementioned category for games I really like)
• Idle Games (idle miners and clickers)
• Online Multiplayer (self-explanatory)
• Tried but Eh (didn’t like or were frustrating for whatever reason)
• Uncategorized

Oh well.

Are you a computer gamer, squider? Do you use Steam for your games? (I have Epic and Amazon too, but I primarily use Steam.) Favorite game you’ve played recently?

Hey, Did You Know if you Try to Do Everything at Once, it’s Overwhelming?

Good afternoon, squiders!

As you know, the winter critique marathon is going on right now at one of my online writing communities. Week 5 just started so we’ve done four weeks and I’ve had five chapters critiqued in that time frame.

So, Friday, I said to myself, okay, time to go back through said five chapters, make changes, and send chapters 15 and 16 (the third and fourth chapters through the marathon respectively) to my in-person critique group.

Friday, however, I had to run a ton of errands and was generally very productive, but the editing didn’t get done. Saturday my computer went on the fritz, so no editing got done. Sunday was Scouts all morning and a play in the afternoon (Misery, based off the Stephen King novel), so, you guessed it, the editing did not get done.

By the time Monday morning came around, I was a mess, mad at myself for not doing the work earlier and thoroughly overwhelmed by the amount I now needed to do in a single day (revisions on five chapters, a readthrough of a sixth to post for this week), and so, do you know what I did?

I spent three hours watching YouTube and eating chocolate.

I did eventually get going and am most of the way through the third chapter (just need to finish up the last person’s comments), but I definitely spiraled there for a bit. Which is stupid, because it just makes things worse, but I got so overwhelmed I couldn’t function.

So, clearly, the answer here is to NOT wait and do a whole month’s updates at once, which made me think about how I was doing the summer marathon. And it took me a minute to remember, because I have the brain of a goldfish.

So, once upon a time (probably the beginning of 2023, but maybe in 2022) I printed out the first half or so of the book with beta comments included from when I first finished that draft (so, like, 2017) and had had people read it. So I was doing my paper edits on that, editing, and then posting that chapter in the marathon. And then I wasn’t doing anything with that during the marathon, just making sure I could get the next chapter done in time to post.

And then after the marathon I was re-printing out the chapters, color-coding all the marathon people’s comments on that, and doing edits from there (so everyone’s stuff was in one spot and I could see if there were specific spots that were throwing people).

But the marathon ended and I kept going. I reached the end of my earlier printed out stuff and have, since then, been printing out chapters as I needed them and doing the paper edits. I was about five chapters ahead and am now two, because I do need to critique other people’s stuff and that takes time and brain power.

(I just now realized my in-person critique group is a week later than I thought, so I have freaked out for literally nothing. Oh my god.)

I’ve done these edits on the computer, putting my document and the critiquer’s document side by side, but now I’m wondering if I should do the double paper edit like I was over the summer. Except that seems like a waste of paper. I don’t know.

Long story short–spread out projects, and pay attention to when your critique meetings actually are.

See you later in the week, squiders!

Writing is Directly Responsible for My Coffee Addiction

Hey ho, squiders. February, amirite? Actually, January felt like it lasted a million years, so I don’t even know.

I drink a lot of coffee, my friends. A cup or two, almost every day. Sometimes three. (Never more than three. I have learned my lesson.) Sometimes a cup of decaf in the afternoons.

In fact, we got a new coffee maker for Christmas.

But it wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time, I disliked the taste of coffee and did not drink it at all. I’m immune to caffeine. It doesn’t wake or keep me up, which is both a blessing and a curse. (It will, eventually, make me jittery, though.) I didn’t drink it in either high school or college. The one time I did, in college, I got a latte at the airport after we’d left our college town at 3 am to make a 6 am flight in the hopes of staying awake. (Instead I passed out on the floor and one of my teammates had to wake me up so I didn’t miss the plane.)

My junior year of college is when I started writing again (after writing as a child and in high school). I met with other writers at diners or hung out with my best friend at a local tea shop. I’d get a milkshake or a pot of tea and a scone and write. This was often my favorite time of the week. Still no coffee.

After graduation, we moved to California and I joined a local writing group there, and they met at a coffee shop every Sunday. Of course, you can get non-coffee drinks at a coffee shop, but it’s not quite the same. I also started meeting with a friend one night a week to write, at another coffee shop.

And here is where I discovered mochas. A mocha is a mixture of coffee and chocolate and milk, and they are really bad for you, just fyi. Lots of calories. But for someone surrounded by coffee drinkers who did not like coffee, they were a good entry point. So I’d go meet with my friends two or three times a week, and I’d have a mocha.

And then I had to stop, because as I said, they’re high in calories, and I actually gained some weight.

When we moved back out here, my father in law gifted us the coffee maker we had up until Christmas, which was your basic single carafe Mr. Coffee machine. We used it exactly once a year, at Thanksgiving, so people could have some coffee to counteract the turkey. But once again I started meeting other writers for writing. One group met at an IHOP, so I could get a milkshake, but the rest were coffee shops.

One group met on, oh, Friday nights, I think. 10 pm to 2 am. I’d get a whole pot of coffee and drink it through the meeting.

And this was a terrible mistake. I fried my stomach lining. It got to the point where I had to give up coffee completely–even drinks that were mostly milk–because the smallest amount would cause severe abdominal pain. I think I went three years without any coffee at all.

Then I joined a workout class, and after class on Fridays everyone would go hang out at the Starbucks and socialize. There I found I could drink espresso drinks (but not coffee, which makes no sense whatsoever).

And over time I, I don’t know, built up my tolerance or something, and I could again return to my coffee drinks at my coffee shops with my writing people. My spouse and I also got a French press and had coffee on Sundays.

So that was my life, up until the pandemic. Coffee was something I associated with writing with friends, which was almost always a good time.

But with the pandemic, and being stuck at home–well, coffee was something I associated with Good. My spouse and I broke out the Mr. Coffee and started having coffee several days a week. For comfort. I did virtual coffee dates with my friends. I drank coffee around my inability to focus because the world was falling apart and the small, mobile ones were always home and needed help (a four year old cannot tell time enough to go to their own zoom meetings). I did virtual write-ins.

It was very much an attempt at peace and normalcy. Did it work? Not especially. But four years down the line, it’s an extremely hard habit to break. Part of me says I should wean myself off, that too much caffeine, even if it’s not affecting my sleep patterns (though it still hurts my stomach if I drink it too late in the day), is bad for you, and that once or twice a week is reasonable and should be a goal.

The other part of me says I like coffee, it is calming to some degree, and most studies say that a cup of day isn’t going to hurt you. Why should I take away something I find enjoyable?

A conundrum. The new coffee maker helps not at all, because the addition of the pod side means I can make myself a cup without making a pot, making the whole process even easier. (We’re trying to make sure we get the kind without plastic because oh boy.)

I suspect that, if I hadn’t started drinking coffee at my writing groups, I never would have started. It was definitely an acquired taste. Mostly I drink mine black with a splash of oatmilk, and my favorite drink at my favorite shop is kind of like a mocha, but more coffee and less milk to make it healthier.

How about you, squiders? Addicted to coffee, and how did you end up there? Thoughts on caffeine in general?