I was at a group this morning where folks were raving about Ulysses (the writing app). I kept trying to remember why I stopped using that awhile ago, and finally tonight I searched my email, and oh right, here it is. I was a user until I got this newsletter. It's the last one I have, I must have unsubscribed after that.

I'd like to find a new #markdown app and would like to try Ulysses again, but does anyone know if they have corrected their stance here?

@ulyssesapp #ulysses #writing

Something I wrote about #writing, #suffering, #questioning, and — most importantly — whether #cats can make jokes.

#blog

https://www.willbuckingham.com/writing-suffering/

#QuestionOfTheDay in honour of me watching the Minecraft movie, what's the worst piece of fiction/art you've ever consumed in full. Not "so bad it's good" or anything, or like widely considered to be bad but you think it's funny, like so bad it's bad, the least enjoyable thing you've ever experienced, you want to erase all memory of it from your mind. Keeping in mind you have to have watched/read/played/listened to it to completion.

From Skip Rhudy: I’ve got a post-graduate certificate in artificial intelligence (AI). I’m also an author, and I believe writers and publishers should not use #AI in publishing. ... But the reasons I oppose using AI are not the usual ones you hear.
https://www.texasobserver.org/ai-writing-novelist-texas-artificial-intelligence/

i went to the marketplace
of ideas, just to browse
long trestles of thinkings
in various stages of wear and tear

many bloody, old, wrinkled
often pumped with plastic
or saline to plump them shiny
but daylit to lumpy sagging slop

so many ideas dug clear
from graves of grand or great grand
parents heavy with rot
so many uniformed

jackbooted - priced cheap
piled high to sell to those desperate
for something to hold
but unwilling to spend

#Poetry #Writing #vssPoem Thanks @worded_art - undervalue

water in scooped earth
rippled by teasing wind
and we're huddled

moonlight gone and stars too
and frost filigree
flowing round our feet

on the horizon
fingertips of sun
testing grip

for the long heave
across the dome
to another fall

such small light
we keep our whispers quiet
as if words could shatter it

and night bows and withdraws
taking with her to keep safe
all we couldn't carry into the day

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing #MastoPrompt 19 April 2025 - dim

No, AI, I do NOT think nuclear war is a good thing

https://open.substack.com/pub/theneuroscienceofeverydaylife/p/no-ai-i-do-not-think-nuclear-war?r=24oxwv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Google's AI is telling people that I am in favour of nuclear war*. Because of course it is. This reveals yet another problem with AI that makes things harder for us all.

#AI #Media #Writing

* = I'm not. Quite the opposite. But AI doesn't have the wherewithal to understand this

bright costumed dancers
quick flicker - pulse to the dirge
of wood's death crackle

#DailyHaikuPrompt - 19 April 2025 - fire.
#haiku #senryu #poetry #SmallPoems #Writing

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 19 How do you feel about using real people as look-alikes for your characters?

We call them actors.

Just hopped over here for a quick second!

I’ve been posting a lot on the impact of Trump's tariff policies over at @dataandpolitcs.net on

I’m also sharing photos from San Francisco and lots of hiking adventures.

I also launched a newsletter with in-depth analysis at dataandpolitics.net

I’d be grateful if you subscribed. It’s free (unless you want it not to be)!

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 19 How do you feel about using real people as look-alikes for your characters?

Maybe not as a one-to-one exact likeness. I've based characters on real people before, but they're usually an amalgam of many different character traits from different people.

My characters tend to become their own people as I write them.

#WordWeavers Day 19 — Have you ever learned something about yourself from your characters?

That I'm a lot more scheming than I give myself credit for.

And that I'm more likely now to see both sides of a story instead of being swayed by emotion for one side.

#WordWeavers 2504.19 — Have you ever learned something about yourself from your characters?

Almost every creative writing course instructor I've met has justified students taking the course on psychological grounds, not as a vehicle to learn the craft. They say something on the order of "write to get it out of you," the "it" being anger, trauma, toxicity, anxiety, unaddressed or unadmitted abuse or guilt.

Me? I scoffed. Of course, I did, because I was young and naïve.

For the vast number of people, creative writing won't become a craft—it'll become an outlet, maybe a confessional booth. It can lead to journaling or short stories nobody ever reads, something hidden in a dusty box or burned ritually in a fireplace. It might remain totally private. Or, these folk might write novels.

People tell stories about "somebody they know" in distress. Don't they?

We write from experience. I do. I admit it. My thinking my SF and fantasy wasn't that, also, was what I meant by my being "naïve" before. Yes, I've realized, and should have from the beginning, that my characters are how I work out my emotions and frustrations, how I learn about myself—and I've learned so much! However, since it's also personal, all I'm going to admit is that beyond my attempts at entertaining you and trying to say something meaningful about our world so I'm not simply contributing to the noise, my writing (the verb) has been therapeutic and my characters have taught me much about myself.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 19 How do you feel about using real people as look-alikes for your characters?

I'm 100% OK with this. People should serve a purpose…>=)

#WordWeavers #Writing 19 Have you ever learned something about yourself from your characters?

Of course! =)

Thanks to my characters I've learned that I'm much, much worse than I thought I was…=)

Here's a re- #introduction.

Hi, I'm Emily (She/Her). I love #writing, #knitting while watching TV, #videogames and reading. I'm a player in 4 different #DnD games.

I've been retraining in cybersecurity for over a year, and I'm currently in my first cyber related role.

Rewatching: #Daredevil S2
Reading: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/emkingma
Playing: Death Stranding
Knitting: A massive blanket

Also building a new website in my free time, using Ghost.