These are the #WritersCoffeeClub prompts for July.

This month, we journey through your WIP from cover to cover.

If you don't have a WIP, you can still participate. Perhaps think about a previous or next project. If you write short stories, answer how you like.

Some prompts are long this month; you could state the theme in your reply, e.g., Front Cover.

As ever, a text version is on my blog here:

https://johnahowes.blogspot.com/p/mastodon-writers-coffee-club-daily_97.html

Happy Wipping 😮.

#writingcommunity #Writer #author #amwriting

@johnhowesauthor
I may skip a lot of these, but I will read others' responses with interest.
This list as a whole feels like the kind of analysis that kills stories in progress for me... but it may be that the individual prompts will be less toxic.

@elysegrasso No pressure, it's just a bit of fun. I won't be divulging all the secrets from my WIP. I enjoy engaging and seeing what others are doing. 🙂

@johnhowesauthor These sound great, John. I may skip the first week because they don't apply to things I thought about yet, but may jump right in later.

@aurora I find it interesting to read some of the technical stuff. I often find out I've been doing it all wrong 🙂.

@johnhowesauthor I find them interesting to read too. They're just things I never think about because they don't apply to what I do. The way I publish in magazines authors often have no say in things like fonts and sometimes even structure. Because I learnt this I never think about such things. It takes spoons I can use better for writing. And as it is sometimes one doesn't even get to choose the title. So I like reading about the technical stuff, but can't say anything myself about it.

@aurora Even that's interesting. I like to think I could write for a magazine, but I'm too ranty and not funny enough. 🤔

@johnhowesauthor I think it depends on the magazine. My experience with lit mags is, you get rejected if you're not mainstream enough or - and I think this is worse, as it's got nothing to do with the quality of your writing - if your bio isn't of a certain kind. Everyone had been to uni, graduated in something lit related and lives somewhere with their spouse and kids etc. If you don't fit into this, sometimes it's already a reason for rejection, got it a couple of times. Of course you gotta

@johnhowesauthor have some meta product account, too, if you don't - there's the door. So it's a pretty exlusive world. If your piece was accepted that's often where your say ends. Sometimes after you haven't heard from the respective mag for months on ends. I'm still waiting for my rejection or acceptance from an Austrian lit mag after almost a year. If they'll have it the story will be in the online edition and - tada! - I won't see a penny (but I knew this before I submitted).

@aurora I never went to Uni. I'm part of the generation where it was irrelevant. 🙂

Or, I'm too thick 🤣.

@johnhowesauthor @aurora As somebody who never went to uni either, I’ve never felt as if I missed out on anything 🙂

I’ve always felt that by-rote memorisation was not the way to learn anything. I learnt more from books in my early years than I did through the conventional education system … But I’ll get off my soapbox now 😛

@aurora My experience is mostly with Sri Lanka and that too not in the literary magazine sector. It was easy (or at least it seemed easy back then) to find writing gigs in English, but they paid very little 😛

So I guess it all depends on country, sector, and a few other factors. But getting back to the original discussion, @johnhowesauthor, if you really feel like writing for a magazine, I think you should give it a shot and see how it goes?

But I do realize that it might not be as easy as just wanting to do it and being able to get in if there are other barriers where you are, as per Aurora's point.