No matter what I do, my chapters keep coming out between 3500 and 4000 words like I’ve internalized exactly how large and long a scene is supposed to be. #amWriting #WriteSky
JP Spalding - SciFi 🪐🚀 Writer
@jpspalding.com
Scifi author seeking representation~ Writing a book about the perils of propaganda in orbit around a blackhole. Stories in Schlock! Magazine and Club Chixculub. First reader for RadonJournal Buy my novella about birds. Mybook.to/BTBW JpSpalding.com
I forgot to post my hot take to the land of hot takes! Enjoy my Substack about the somewhat rocky evolution of the science fiction genre: 1500 words #SciFi 🪐📚
Jordan Spalding (@jpspalding)
I once asked an agent if we were on the forefront of a new golden age of sci-fi, and they said, “almost certainly not” and their MSWL was for accessible sci-fi and stories about tomorrow
substack.com
Death of the death of the author (a.k.a. Media-illiteracy-maxxing [any % disillusionment-of-the-self speed-rn]) ✊😤✊ This post is Camus ✅ approved
Thomas Ha@thomasha.bsky.social · 5d agoi should clarify, when i write people doing bad things, it's because i am bad. they are me. more importantly, when you read about those bad things, they also become you. that's how story works. in fact, you are going to think about murder before this skeet ends. how's that feel, sicko.
Spent three hours writing at the library and isn’t that one of the most productive spaces you can be in? I really need to spend more time here instead of the coffee shop ☕️, it actually makes such a difference. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #amWriting ✍️
just saw a guy walking in the rain with an umbrella. and i’m just like, come on man. that’s cheating. don’t be a dick
Another @milanote.bsky.social board, as I zero in on final structural edits to my space opera manuscript, I always have a fresh editing board: Chapter summaries, outlines for each character arc, lots of to-do lists and new chapter outlines! #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #amEditing #Plotter🚀
Look at this cover, y’all 👀 You can FEEL the cyberpunk, the weird, and the cosmic horror wrapped up into one~ #LitMag #ShortStory #WriteSky #WritingCommunity 🚀
Radon Journal@radonjournal.bsky.social · last wk.Issue 14 cover reveal🎨 Click to view the full digital watercolor by Reza Afshar Full issue available October 1
For every hot take on how literature is ruined now, in whatever direction you’re angling for, there are enough examples to build a compelling argument for your video essay, because there is simply a whole hell of a lot more literature out there, and it is our responsibility to find what we desire.💙📚
Woohoo! Sold another short story—a flash fiction, in fact—which will bro it in the world in January. It’s always the magazines that a friend of a friend of a friend recommend to you on a lark, isn’t it? #AmSubmitting #WriteSky #WritingCommunity ✍️
Gird yer loins! Issue 14 is right around the corner~ #ShortFiction #StorySky #LitMag #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
Radon Journal@radonjournal.bsky.social · 2w agoCOMING OCTOBER 1: 🌏🦠⚗️📺 Radon's fall issue with all-new science fiction! Our first day of author reveals features @ericfomley.bsky.social, Colleen Anderson, Tomias Keno, and Tyler Lemley
It’s the middle of September and they’re playing Christmas music at the cafe. Is this normal??
Tell me why the last several novels I’ve read have moved quickly and with purpose up to 30%, wandered aimlessly for several hundred pages, and then brought the plot back in at the 80% mark for a star finish? Is this the new normal 😑 ? #amReading #BookSky 💙📚
My latest doodle, completed intermittently over 2 weeks. #DoodlesofBsky #SketchBook #PenDrawing ✍️ #Art
Do you love the mass market paperback as much as I do? Boy do I have the rant for you! 1400 words~ #bookSky #BookTok #Substack #BookStack 💙📚
In Defense of Mass Market Paperback
The crisis of American publishing and the vanishing midlist embodied in a dying format
jpspalding.substack.com
Just finished the new chapter and it must be a sign, I’ve just tipped over into 82k on my manuscript. We’re far from done with revisions, but this should be my last 🤞 completely new chapter. On track to have a complete, revised draft by the end of October~ #amEditing #amWriting #WriteSky ✍️
Today’s random writing research searches 👀: Planck’s Constant SSH keys system Formal coveralls uniform Radiance Field Rendering Perfect square shaped crystal mineral (I still haven’t found what it!) #WritingCommunity #SciFi ✍️
I’m listening to a novel right now, a trad published novel mind you, where a shiver has rode up someone’s spine SEVEN TIMES within a SINGLE chapter. Several different spines in fact. Don’t do this. #WriteSky #AmReading 💙📚
People don’t much talk about this, but the greatest value of reading in your genre is to avoid tripping over obvious tropes already ground to a fine mush—so you can instead engage in conversation with the evolving genre. 🚀 Unfortunately, you must read both deeply and broadly. 🪐📚 #WriteSky #BookSky
JP Spalding - SciFi 🪐🚀 Writer@jpspalding.com · 3w ago“Convention like metaphor is never dead, but always dying and the Author must always work to outwit it.” #WriteSky #amWriting
“Convention like metaphor is never dead, but always dying and the Author must always work to outwit it.” #WriteSky #amWriting
I’ve learned recently that audiobooks are the dominant form of fiction in the world, surpassing ebooks, and many people write with the audiobook in mind. The most expensive part of my novella was the audiobook narration, but it was worth every penny. 💙📚
Kara Moon 🏴☠️💜⚓️@karamoonauthor.com · 3w ago#pretendpanel now I'm asking you as writers... September 12th: Do you have any plans to put your work into audio format? #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts
THE DJINN OF SMALL WISHES A little flash fiction for y’all. Sometimes we don’t need much for our wish to be fulfilled. 1500 words. #FlashFiction #ShortStory #WriteSky #BskyFiction #Substack ✍️
The Djinn of Small Wishes
The encounter with the genie happened in the morning at home, as I stepped out from the restroom.
jpspalding.substack.com
So. I’m the only one in our office most weeks. Beyond that, I’m the only person on this floor. The other offices are unrented empty spaces perpetually under construction, but it’s not just that. I’m the only person in the entire building. I have never seen anyone else.
I’m reading a longer sci-fi that keeps repeating information every couple of chapters. I know reminding your readers is often recommended, but I wouldn’t need any reminders if they cut out all this duplicate information and kept the story moving instead! #amReading #BookSky 💙📚
“Good science fiction is about the social arrangement and consequences of new technology” - Cory Doctorow 🪐📚