So close to finishing Ch 6! For the first time, I feel like I'm watching the drama unfold with the reader!
#amwriting #amredrafting #wip
#KnitwearClub #gayfiction #queerlit
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Day 26. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
I take name inspirations from numerous sources, paying attention to meaning. Michael and his sister Bettina are named for German writers (guess which), for example.
Scipio "Skip" Harris Cartier Rueger III, though, was a stroke of genius. It just felt right.
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Day 25. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
If my story was a meal, it would be an all-you-can-eat world buffet, with dishes from numerous national cuisines available to sample (and all the juicy, expensive meat towards the end).
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Allow me to tell you another story. Once there was a man, a working father of three. Ever since the day he graduated from university, this man worked in the police service, and he did not see a day when he might stop. In the fullness of time, he rose from uniformed beat cop to the rank of Detective Sergeant, where homicide cases were his bread and butter. Now in his mid-fifties, it was fair to say that he was reaching something of a midlife slump. Between working on cases with no leads and even less progress day-to-day, preventing the lower ranked detectives in his team from making too many amateur mistakes, and keeping on good terms with the higher ups, what else did he have to get a daily sense of accomplishment but to steal a few moments to place a few bets on upcoming football matches while doing paperwork or listening back to recorded witness testimonials? On an ordinary night, he would come home to find his working wife had a cooked meal ready on the table, and he would sit down to eat with his family as he regaled them with yet another tale of his day with the great many idiots he was suffered to work with. The police were a sacred institution in his house, essential to a working society and deserving only of total respect - except for his division and when he was talking about them. Sure, they'd forgotten more about policing than Joe Blogs knew, but ask them all to take the policing exam today, and only he and Joe Blogs would be left with a badge. Once upon a time, his youngest son would sit and listen thoughtfully to his words - what he would come to learn was a case of crippling shyness, being unable to speak rather than choosing not to. Growing up and finding his feet changed all that; now, when he told his work stories, his youngest son wouldn't hesitate to fire off a smartarse comment like he had it locked-and-loaded in the chamber, while his sister, naturally, rolled her eyes at the both of them...
Day 24. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
A very late snippet from Ch. 14!
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The current plan for the #KnitwearClub #WIP is to let it sit for a bit and let a couple of my friends run their fresh eyes over the whole thing and give me their feedback. I'll write down any ideas I have, but in the meantime I'm taking at least having a month to write *anything* else.
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Took a break from my WIP for a day and now I'm adding notes for how I'm going to edit and rejig the story later. Aside from the test readers I've got lined up, #KnitwearClub 2nd draft is very much a 2025 problem.
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Update: The full #KnitwearClub first draft is done! 🥹
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Does anyone else have OCs who inhabit multiple works at once? I have an OC who not only stars in #KnitwearClub, but also makes an appearance in my fanfic 'LightBringer' (see link in bio). He has a different name, but by grace of multiverse theory is absolutely the same person.
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Day 23. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
Between the first iteration completed in August 2017 and this one being completed in December 2024, there is one twist in the *real world* that I somewhat predicted! And it came to pass on July 21st 2024.
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Day 21. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
This story is about a gay protagonist who struggles with a parents who try to be accepting but don't "get" it, led into a cult by his college boyfriend, and how he later finds his confidence, his faith in himself, and later discovers true love with another man.
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Still working on the #KnitwearClub WIP, and I am such a good chunk of the way through this final chapter!
It's oddly freeing writing something when you know only some of it might make it through the final edit stages.
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Day 20. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
As far as Bad writing advice I've received goes (aside from "you have to work gard to be an author, but also don't waste your time doing it"), anything that involves a "Don't".
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A little update on #KnitwearClub 1st draft: I have just the Epilogue and the Bonus Chapter to go!
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Sent in the work thing a day early so I can spend the rest of the week enjoying myself. #KnitwearClub Ch. 20 in the morning, #Wickedmovie in the afternoon 😊
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Day 19. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
I got a couple of great pieces of writing advice that I absolutely must share:
1, Thinking time is also writing time.
2, Expect to write. Writing is a habit; preserve your routine and you'll find it easier to write every time you expect to.
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Day 18. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
This story ended up very different than what I started with, even between the article series and the original test excerpt I wrote, let alone between the articles and now - not only is there a lot more to the story, but also some twists I didn't see coming!
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#WritingCommunity
Using a GIF, spoil an event that happens in one of your books with no context.
#KnitwearClub
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I'm literally 3 chapters, a segment of a chapter, and an epilogue away from finishing this #KnitwearClub first draft... and I'm pausing to work on a day-job application. It's fine to take a few days out for that, right?
#NovelWritingMonth
#daddywantsmoremoneyandabiggerpensioncontributionfromtheboss
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Yes, his funding and strengthening of single-payer healthcare in Medicare and Medicaid made him a few more friends across the aisle than he lost on his own side. Yes, his overhaul on Hoope's travel restrictions against travellers from Muslim-majority nations cemented the view of him in the national consciousness as a reasonable man - especially as the former Secretary of Homeland Security - but that was before his subsequent decision to place further travel restrictions on Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), Canada and Mexico. His pot shot to then give more powers of surveillance to the NSA began to unveil the truth in those first 100 days that only came to light following his inauguration after the 2020 election: this was a terrified man wielding immense executive power. As Matthews came very soon to learn, the office was not without its enemies. If you asked him, he was only there to do what was needed with the opportunity he had to act. If you asked anyone else, though, the Office of the President of the United States has just been handed to a self-important, insecure man. They would tell you that he was pulled out of the womb and took that smack to the backside personally. He was so sensitive and petty, he has never and will never forget for as long as he lived the day a classmate in the 5th grade called him a dickhead. By the age of 50 years old, he was 6 feet and 2 inches tall, about as tall as the 45th president before him, but 5 minutes alone with him and you would think he considered James Madison a brother-in-arms. To put it succinctly, the world was against Leopold Matthews in every sense; nothing could assuage the fact that he felt constantly victimised by the shadows of an enemy that had yet to materialise. That is, until now.
Day 17. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
A little late with this one over the agony of choice! Here's one about a certain incumbent, taken again from the first draft for Ch. 3, on the power a successful assassination has over whichever unlucky schmuck must come next.
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A table in a coffee shop laid out ready to write. From left to right is a black 8" tablet propped up in a case with grey inner lining, a black travel-size Bluetooth keyboard resting on a black sleeve, with a little black pencil case, black and red pens, a latte spoon and a latte behind it in the centre, and finally a set of documents on lilac-coloured paper.
Day 16. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
My favourite way to write is in a coffee shop, sipping a coffee while writing on my tablet.
That being said, some snippets that have become beloved parts of my story were first written on my phone in the notes app while on the bus.
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Not for nothing, but when my WIP is eventually finished and published, I TOTALLY want to have some enamel pins made as merch. Everyone loves enamel pins!
#KnitwearClub
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Day 15. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
It was the first Saturday in 2017 and a uni friend and I were talking about joining a student society. I'd heard about the "Assassin's Guild" as a club some unis had. 'Can you imagine, running around "killing" each other?', he said.
'In jumpers??'
We laughed.
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Day 14. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
(A day late, I know!)
Researching cults and other weird shit makes it difficult to qualify which is the "weirdest thing", but did you know that an oft-credited expert, Steven Hassan, actually has no relevant qualifications in New Religions Studies or psychology?
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Day 13. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
I could talk about romance, and while there are romantic relationships in this story (good ones and bad), the fact is that this story is far more about abuses of power, whether that's in government, a cult, or a partnership.
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Day 12. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
The title of most important friendship, for many reasons, belongs to Michael and Anastasia Khenbish. When her best friend goes missing and the media furor dies down fruitless, her online campaign to find him (and everyone else's loved ones) persists.
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Just finishing Ch. 20 of #KnitwearClub would be fantastic, but if I can make a start on Ch. 21 too, I'll be very happy! I want to say "You're on Ch. 20 of 23, don't worry", but after the epilogue, I have one more chapter to come back and write last (for reasons). So.
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A portrait photo of Japanese-American actor and host, Brian Walters. He has black hair with a slight wave, dark brown eyes, a long face, and determined expression. He wears a red and blue checked shirt under a brown aviator jacket, with sheepskin lining on the large collar.
Day 11. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
Most of my characters don't have a "faceclaim", except for perhaps one or two of them.
Michael Suzuki's closest face is being rightfully worn by Japanese-American BATSU! host Brian Walters.
I won't mention who's wearing Skip Harris's face; I like my freedom.
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The narrative can have a ghost in it. As a treat.
#KnitwearClub #MelsNoWriMo
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When he was younger, a little less sensitive and a lot more foolhardy, Michael had tried to ask his grandmother about his great-uncle, the one they called 'inmate Endo', but she wouldn't offer a straight answer, either. He tried asking if it was true. "Of course it is. Why would your father lie about something like that? You know we don't lie." He asked what he did to get on death row, really. "Oh, I try not to think about that. What did your father say?" He asked if he number had come up, yet. "Oh, I don't know. Once you're in there, you don't get to see your family much. They try to keep you as far away from the outside world as possible. When they call his name, he won't see his family for the last time - they'll call whichever number they have on file to tell them when it's done. And sorry, Michael, but they don't have my phone number. They could have executed him years ago. Or, he might still be in there right now, just... waiting." The older man, the inmate, was still sat in the corner, staring at nothing. Many times and many times over, he was taught that there was no afterlife, and nothing after death. Death was a release from existence, the destined end of all things. The only acceptable response to sin and suffering. For him to be here, in this cell... He thought about introducing himself, letting the old man know his great-nephew was here and he was no longer alone - anything he thought he would want to hear himself, in a similar situation - but then he remembered that Endo had been alone for years, now. He would only be listening to the ghosts.
Day 10. #MelsNoWriMo #KnitwearClub
A snippet, this time using a screenshot from Ch. 3.
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I made huge headway on #KnitwearClub yesterday, only for my tablet to not save any of it. SO, today my aim is to write at least as much as I did yesterday??
I was mad and tired and annoyed about it, but I'm (mostly) over it. 😮💨
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