#pennedpossibilities — Public Fediverse posts

#PennedPossibilities What quirks do some of your characters have?

Charlotte Schneider, from A Girl's Guide To Survival Cannibalism, swallowed buttons as a way of relieving stress. In her opinion, this was a quirk, a weird little thing she did. Anyone with any knowledge would have recognized it as pica, an eating disorder which can lead to serious health problems. Schneider needed help when she had a nervous breakdown in her 20s, but she never told anyone she swallowed buttons.

#PennedPossibilities 1127: What quirks do some of your characters have?

Ethan sleeps in his clothes. He's fully dressed as much as possible because his leap forward in time came in the form of waking up on a park bench in his undies. He also doesn't eat until others have started, but that's not actually due to food insecurity so much as religion. He had to wait on the rest of the family praying before he could dig in. A lot of normally trauma-informed habits came from navigating being the only atheist in a big family.

Brand is really interesting because he uses surprisingly technical terms for a happy-go-lucky meathead. This is not a guy you'd expect to be thinking in terms of "cyanotrope" or "prolate spheroid." As little attention as he paid to theology, he's absorbed hard sciences like a sponge.

#PennedPossibilities 1124: Stupid question asked?

CARRIE: Probably something along the lines of 'are you okay', since I'm never truly okay. But I can't throw too much shade, since sometimes I ask it of myself.

Honourable mention to "will this be on the exam", like the prof isn't going to answer that sensibly, just assume it will be.

#PennedPossibilities 1127: What quirks do some of your characters have?

• Lightning Bolt (MC): Her studio apartment walls and ceiling are plastered with photographs she took. Lots of men. Many are suggestive, and she can view them from the hammock she uses as a bed.
• Blue (SC, LI): Worries a lot about not being able to raise a family thanks to his new job as a praetorian working for Rainy Days, which to him is mind-blowing and fabulous. Still, he wants to raise kids.
• Shugh (SC): Donuts—how he maintains his soft, rounded, feminine look (he's trans-fem). He introduces Bolt to the food.
• Molt (SC, LI): University student. Easy for Bolt to tickle into nerd mode and, since he studies women (more is kinda spoilers), this delights Bolt as she likes how he studies and measures her.
• Devil-girl (SC): Way too many quirks to catalog, but mostly due to being a high functioning autist. She comes off as super-serious about everything, but nearly impossible to goad. Here's one: Love love loves praise, but only if she considers it earned—at which time she'll do a little jig.
• Boss Mead (A): Despite basically being a mafia don, he likes having business meetings at open air cafés. Makes his minions nervous, causing them to control traffic. Clients watch their tongue. Maybe it proves to him how talented he is at not incriminating himself.
• Rainy Days (A): Way too glib and sparkly, projecting an air of being an airhead whilst being touchy-feely, getting you to talk—this despite essentially ruling all of humanity. You don't want to see her serious.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Any narrator that isn't a character is going to sound like the default voice in my head, which is about what counts as my own mental voice. I can't seem to wrap my head around the sound of my own voice, so my mental voice is... sort of a husky alto child's voice most of the time, or sometimes a clarion countertenor that sounds more teenaged. My voice never sounded like either, though.

It's not like I don't like my own voice. I do. I just can't seem to remember it properly, and I have no idea where I picked either of those up, because neither sounds like any friend or family member ever did.

#PennedPossibilities 1124: MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

(I think I'm just going to skip this one, because I really don't do stupid questions often and none I can think of right now.)

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Altin: "Easy Target. Because that's what it's been to the mages since I was four."

Kelvin: "The Sundog. All you need to know is it's my ship."

#PennedPossibilities 1123: What figure do people most commonly tell stories about? How are these stories told (books, plays, television, spoken word, broadcast, etc.)?

That's essentially impossible to say in space society, so...

For Godskiller the most common answer is probably the gods and their chosen champions throughout history. They don't have movies or TV yet, but bardic magic does make for some excellent stage productions.

Jerako is a bit more explicit about mining their own history for media, so Ruby, the Series is on the boob tube if you can snag one. They also have somehow managed to get at least one VHS of Choujin Sentai Jetman, because scraps of contact with Earth go way back.

#PennedPossibilities 1127: What quirks do some of your characters have?

Zerika is far too quiet. She’s used to the solitary life. She has to learn how to *exist* with others. It’s tough for her, but she’s learning. As for Elric, he's a rather quirky man, to put it lightly. His hands are always flying about as he speaks, he’s silly and awkward, has conversations with himself, etc. It’s endearing, though.

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #TheScarletMirror #FatedByFire #CozyFantasy #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #Romance

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Stephen Fry

No contest. I can't help it, I loved him in QI and for some reason it's his voice I hear now.

The story needs someone who can deliver a line like "We draw from the observable facts" with the exasperated patience of a schoolmaster explaining long division to a golden retriever.

I haven't listened to the audiobooks with Harry Potter, and I never will for reasons that have nothing to do with him.

1126. Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Like a young woman with a pleasant mid-range voice. Can't describe this any better.

#PennedPossibilities

#PennedPossibilities 1126
Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I have so many of them! And I record my own audiobooks so I try to capture an essence of it… although I don’t possess quite the vocal range to capture everything as it really should be. For some narrators I really need to be a Ukrainian woman. 😅

#PennedPossibilities 1126
Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

In my current WIP, she sounds like a snarky Texas lady.

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I don't really associate actual sounds with the voices of my characters or narrator. Come to think of it, I think I very rarely describe the sound of a character's voice. I don't hear voices when I read, either. Is this unusual?

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I don't really associate actual sounds with the voices of my characters or narrator. Come to think of it, I think I very rarely describe the sound of a character's voice. I don't hear voices when I read, either. Is this unusual?

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

They sound the same as text on paper.

If I were to do an audiobook, I would love it for Amelia Tyler to be the narrator

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Is it the sign of a disordered ego when I say that they sound like me?

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Up until now this wasn’t something I’d really thought about.

I guess, in my mind, I was the person narrating my stories.

Now I come to think about it, I quite like the idea of having the narrator of the TV series Bad Monkey, Tom Nowicki, who also played the character Captain Fitzpatrick, taking over the role.

#WritersOfMastodon #TalesFrom… #SecretLife… #HowtoSucceed… #Author #Novel

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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

#PennedPossibilities 1126 #WritingCommunity

Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

In my mind, the narrator of my WIP sounds exactly as she is, which is the spirit of a big ocean-going cargo ship built of great timbers and powered by sail.

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Oh I might say George Clooney, when he does that low tone voice? But just because it's a crush! lol

#books #writing #writersofmastodon #amwriting

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I'm pretty sure my narrator doesn't have any sound in my mind.

#PennedPossibilities Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Mostly like my own mental voice, which is usually not a voice, exactly, but occasionally affects a tone or accent for whatever reason. I haven't done anything in first person - I'd have to come up with something more solid.

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

Scottish. *Incredibly* Scottish, and I’m a fan.

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #TheScarletMirror #FatedByFire #CozyFantasy #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #Romance

#PennedPossibilities 1123: What figure do people most commonly tell stories about and how?

In general, it's urban fantasy on our world (of ~2018), so the regular sort of news we see.

More specifically to the characters, it does tend to be about Carrie. Her future, her connection to other characters (both romantically and her link to the assassin) and how she can use her time powers. In the far future, I suspect volumes have been written about her.

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Risa shrugs, "if I had to call this place anything I'd dub it a crazy hot mess. from demons on the outskirts, to military but not military training for the starlight warriors, to a squad of 4 succubi and incubi who get up to the goddess knows what... did I mention said squad's lead by a crazy foxubus with a propensity for playing with her food?"
#StarlightSeries, #SliceOfLife

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Risa shrugs, "if I had to call this place anything I'd dub it a crazy hot mess. from demons on the outskirts, to military but not military training for the starlight warriors, to a squad of 4 succubi and incubi who get up to the goddess knows what... did I mention said squad's lead by a crazy foxubus with a propensity for playing with her food?"
#StarlightSeries, #SliceOfLife

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Risa shrugs, "if I had to call this place anything I'd dub it a crazy hot mess. from demons on the outskirts, to military but not military training for the starlight warriors, to a squad of 4 succubi and incubi who get up to the goddess knows what... did I mention said squad's lead by a crazy foxubus with a propensity for playing with her food?"
#StarlightSeries, #SliceOfLife

1125. SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Calanthe, the MC's tutor says, "I'd rename Ravenhold Castle into Ragehold Castle because I don't know anyone else who is as filled with rage as the queen is."

#PennedPossibilities

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

1/2
#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Lichfield actually does have a couple of alternative names The origin of the modern name Lichfield is interesting. At Wall, south of the current city, there was a Romano-British village, Letocetum, a Common Brittonic place-name meaning "Grey wood", "grey" perhaps referring to varieties of tree prominent in the landscape, such as ash and elm. In the post-Roman period, Letocetum developed into Old Welsh Luitcoyt.

The earliest record of the name in English is the Vita Sancti Wilfredi of around 715, describing when Chad moves from York to Lichfield in 669. "Chad was made Bishop of the Mercians immediately after his deposition; Wilfred gave him the place (locus) at Lichfield (Onlicitfelda)".[8] The prefix "on" indicates that the place given to Chad by Wilfrid was "in Lichfield", indicating the name was understood to apply to a region rather than a specific settlement. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, states that Chad acquired Licidfelth as his episcopal seat.

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#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
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#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125

SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Boredom
Pop. 85
Elev. 3201

"In the middle of the desert, five streets, a general store, a small diner, a scrapyard, a regional school, nothing else. Perfectly suited for a covert Army operation."

EDIT
(Had read the question as "MC" first.
MY BAD!🤗)

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Grigga: *snort-laugh* As corny as it might be, let’s call it Trouble Town. Everything seems to happen in Marelance, both good and bad. And believe me, the brigands love showing up and causing trouble.

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #TheScarletMirror #FatedByFire #CozyFantasy #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #Romance

#PennedPossibilities 1122: SC favourite meal?

(Legit going to pass on this one. There's probably something at home their parents made semi-regularly that they liked, but I've no idea what, am bad for incorporating food anyway, and don't see it being relevant since they're not at home.)

#PennedPossibilities 1124: MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

I always wonder why, when expressing a fear or phobia that you have to endure (like going to the dentist), other people in that situation often ask, "are you okay?" "No. I mentioned that I'm terrified out of my mind. Why would you think I'd be okay?"

#PennedPossibilities 1124
MC POV: What stupid question,...

I am going to answer for me as an author. Many people think "where do you get your ideas from?" and "which is better, being a plotter or a pantser" are *stupid* questions. They are honest attempts by someone less experienced than you to ask a "expert". You may find them trite, be frightened of showing yourself up, or .hate the intellectual effort of answering them.

I answer these with grace and gratitude.

#reading #writing #books

#PennedPossibilities 1124
MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

'I'm sorry, but questions are rarely stupid. They might be uninformed, ill-conceived, half-digested or perhaps even malicious. But plain stupid rarely ask questions. Stupid is content with what little they know. Asking a question shows, in most cases and to some extent, a will to expand one's horizons, and I am loath to attribute that to stupidity.'

#PennedPossibilities 1121: MC personal strengths?

Carrie would likely mention her open mindedness, and ability to think on the fly. Perhaps also stubborn resolve, hesitating as to whether that's a strength.

Others would agree. They might also mention honesty, but that's more because she's not great at lying.

#PennedPossibilities 1124
MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

Maggie: "Too damn many. But, no, I'm not supposed to say that. I've been told I can be too prickly. Unapproachable. 'There are no stupid questions.' That's my mantra. Answer these morons with a smile."

1124. MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

Bella says, "People sometimes are ignorant about things. Then their questions seem stupid. I'm as guilty of that as most people. My teacher taught me that the purpose of questions is to learn things so you aren't ignorant any longer. Ergo: no stupid questions.

"But I disagree. I've had bullies ask me questions to get a rise out of me. These are the really stupid ones."

#PennedPossibilities

#PennedPossibilities 1124

MC POV: What stupid question have you heard someone ask (or asked yourself)?

Kessy:
"Not a question, but [her girlfriend] Rosa's aunt has once stated that a lesbian can't get pregnant because she will never have her period. This is so mind boggling stupid I will never be able to wrap my head around that."

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.09 — ~Share something you've been working on this month.

"Share" to me means #excerpt. Really, all I've done is revision. Apropos to Gloria Stienem passing, I worked on this decidedly feminist passage, a small part of which showed up in #pennedPossibilities 1120 last Sunday. The WIP takes place in a female-centric society where people chose their own names. Morning Glory is an upstart male who's become a diva actor and Steamed Milk and Sugar [nickname Shugh (short for Sugar)] is their society's version of trans-fem. Lightning Bolt (dba Good Eye), the MC POV narrator is… Well, she's… sexist? I'll let this unfold. CW: Casting couch reference. Your comments are welcome.

Nodding, the actor stood and asked, "[Shugh]. That name you chose, you chose it because you had problems as a journalist? Your [clothes]? That ribbon in your hair—?"

Red. Satin. Decidedly not masculine.

"I chose Steamed Milk and Sugar because I wanted to blend in amongst the other women. Journalists are women, at least in the capital, but my name turned out suggestive of the assignments I got—tea runner, typing pool—and it was the jobs I did until a few days ago, when I asked a favor of Good Eye."

I grinned. "Me."

"Because of asking then, today I landed this [magazine] interview."

[Morning Glory] nodded. "You're like I was: A kid, barely old enough to be adult, who every woman wanted to ride whether I was in a local actors' group or later in a traveling theatre troupe. It earned me parts when others got none, bit parts definitely, sharp looking window dressing. I am an expert ride; I paid attention in Men's Studies in school, especially the practicums."

Shugh chuckled, looking askance. "Paid attention, yes, but preferred blending in, being supportive. Minimized riding."

Morning Glory nodded. "It took years to change from being cast as the conniving man who uses the woman and comes to a tragic end, to writing plays where I helped the woman succeed against her competition because of my conniving ways—" He sighed. "—and together we'd fight—"

"For equality?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, dismissively. Dismissively, I decided, because I'd stolen his point and was a woman. Undoubtedly annoying, but he fleshed out the idea, pacing again.

I sighed and faded into the background with my camera. Far safer, anyway.

I can't say I liked recognizing that except for my dream-crushing incident at the Haulers guild where my gender proved poisonous, I definitely benefited from being a woman and I liked that more and more when I had to listen to what Shugh and Morning Glory dealt with. Couldn't change that I was female—I wasn't Shugh, who seemed to be trying to be accepted as… not male—and no, I couldn't feel guilty about it.

This interview Shugh's big chance. I had no chance to better my life and I didn't want to impinge on his chance. Neither guy's for that matter…

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.09 — ~Share something you've been working on this month.

"Share" to me means #excerpt. Really, all I've done is revision. Apropos to Gloria Stienem passing, I worked on this decidedly feminist passage, a small part of which showed up in #pennedPossibilities 1120 last Sunday. The WIP takes place in a female-centric society where people chose their own names. Morning Glory is an upstart male who's become a diva actor and Steamed Milk and Sugar [nickname Shugh (short for Sugar)] is their society's version of trans-fem. Lightning Bolt (dba Good Eye), the MC POV narrator is… Well, she's… sexist? I'll let this unfold. CW: Casting couch reference. Your comments are welcome.

Nodding, the actor stood and asked, "[Shugh]. That name you chose, you chose it because you had problems as a journalist? Your [clothes]? That ribbon in your hair—?"

Red. Satin. Decidedly not masculine.

"I chose Steamed Milk and Sugar because I wanted to blend in amongst the other women. Journalists are women, at least in the capital, but my name turned out suggestive of the assignments I got—tea runner, typing pool—and it was the jobs I did until a few days ago, when I asked a favor of Good Eye."

I grinned. "Me."

"Because of asking then, today I landed this [magazine] interview."

[Morning Glory] nodded. "You're like I was: A kid, barely old enough to be adult, who every woman wanted to ride whether I was in a local actors' group or later in a traveling theatre troupe. It earned me parts when others got none, bit parts definitely, sharp looking window dressing. I am an expert ride; I paid attention in Men's Studies in school, especially the practicums."

Shugh chuckled, looking askance. "Paid attention, yes, but preferred blending in, being supportive. Minimized riding."

Morning Glory nodded. "It took years to change from being cast as the conniving man who uses the woman and comes to a tragic end, to writing plays where I helped the woman succeed against her competition because of my conniving ways—" He sighed. "—and together we'd fight—"

"For equality?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, dismissively. Dismissively, I decided, because I'd stolen his point and was a woman. Undoubtedly annoying, but he fleshed out the idea, pacing again.

I sighed and faded into the background with my camera. Far safer, anyway.

I can't say I liked recognizing that except for my dream-crushing incident at the Haulers guild where my gender proved poisonous, I definitely benefited from being a woman and I liked that more and more when I had to listen to what Shugh and Morning Glory dealt with. Couldn't change that I was female—I wasn't Shugh, who seemed to be trying to be accepted as… not male—and no, I couldn't feel guilty about it.

This interview Shugh's big chance. I had no chance to better my life and I didn't want to impinge on his chance. Neither guy's for that matter…

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory