The Speckled Tangent

Generally unfocused. Occasionally hyperfocused. Perpetually awkward.

My Stance on Content Warnings

Content Warning Discourse is in the air again, which means people are showing their whole asses again, now with links to news outlets breathlessly and uncritically regurgitating anti-content-warning opinions because journalism is dead. I’ve already blown my stack about media literacy elsewhere at length, so I’ll drop the short, semi-polite version of that here, along […]

WordWeavers May 2024

I’m not officially on social media, but I do peek at non-civilization-destroying venues from time to time. I see a lot of writer games, of which WordWeavers seems the most fun. Per the official Google Doc: WordWeavers is a writing game on Mastodon created by Branwen OShea and Alina Leonova. The hosts post daily questions

KotSQ: Third Revision #5

Are we really at 20% of this revision already? Whew, the fourth draft of a years-long endeavor just whizzes by! Next Scene on Deck: Oh, cupcake. We’re gonna be spending a lot of time together. For  future reference, getting a handle on a main character only during the second revision pass is ungood. Like and

KotSQ: Third Revision #4

This revision update gets us past the end of Act 1, which is marked not by some formulaic percentage but by Heroine being forced into the thick of the quest she had previously refused twice. Act 2 starts at that point of no return, where it’s physically impossible to walk back her decision. Like it

KotSQ: Third Revision #3

Revision III resumes in Heroine’s POV. Pretty sure this is her first scene of this pass in which I added more words than I deducted. The deductions were mostly the author’s compulsion to overexplain infrastructure. If I provide one solid reason why she doesn’t go one way, I don’t have to provide six reasons to

Well, this is [profanity redacted]

I’m seeing this often enough that it’s clearly not made in error: (Sorry, the images went bye-bye. The alt text remains, however, being useful for everybody.) These aren’t textbooks! These aren’t audiobooks! These aren’t box sets containing multiple books! These are two unrelated publishers who want more than $20 for individual digital novels! The trade

WordWeavers April 2024

I’m not officially on social media, but I do peek at non-civilization-destroying venues from time to time. I see a lot of writer games, of which WordWeavers seems the most fun. Per the official Google Doc: WordWeavers is a writing game on Mastodon created by Branwen OShea and Alina Leonova. The hosts post daily questions

KotSQ: Third Revision #2

The revision continues with The Chapter of Really Long Sentences. For one character, that’s fine. He’s an academic. He’s noted at one point to “bloviate unbidden.” Heroine shouldn’t join him for several reasons: it’s windier than her established style, contrast to her conversational partner, and even lovers of long, twisty sentences get exhausted when that’s

KotSQ: Third Revision #1

Tracking for the third round of revision will be same as the last. The target is the final word count of the previous draft (182,580). Progress will be measured by how many words of that are removed with transfer of revised scenes to the new draft. Since it has been opined this method is dottier

KotSQ: Second Revision #28

*points at status bar* By the power of drudgery, I have half-assed my way to 100% of Revision Round 2! *listless confetti* This number is meaningless, but in the interest of trivia, the final word count of this draft is 182,214. Up more than 8K from the previous draft, but at least half of that

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