iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 26m

❤️ Pat and Phaedra together. But also, what are you baking? 👀

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Reposted by Mel Waverly

Marine St. Jean @marinestjean.bsky.social · 1h

#WIPSnips *cousin* It's Canadian Thanksgiving and I've been busy squeezing writing in between baking. #sapphic #lesfic

Her mother’s cousin, Beatrice scowled at her, sitting with her legs spread apart, lip piercing glinting in the light of stained-glass windows. Phaedra responded by throwing her arm around Pat, who also wore a suit. Pat jerked away, momentarily surprised until she realised what Phaedra was doing. She blew Beatrice a kiss.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 3h

Depending on how she's trapped on it, you might find the documentary Trainwrecked: Poop Cruise useful, but it's about people literally stuck on a ship. As before, I have friends who work for cruises so if you have specific questions about logistics, probability etc.., just shoot them on over

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 3h

I was ish the same. I either asked questions that pissed people off (debating religion with science, debating science with philosophy, just debating via questions) or I didn't ask questions at all because I wanted to figure it out for myself.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 3h

Since coming out is a never-ending thing, yes, pretty much all of my characters come out to someone at some point. WIP1 deals with two coming out stories though (Julie and Izzy, but at different times) Also, including this just as a reminder that it's chill if you're not ready. #QueerPrompts

A rainbow-coloured turtle is hiding in a grey shell. The text says "It's okay if you're not ready yet"

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

It's early in the morning on Sunday?

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

While I don't love prescriptive writing, sometimes you need a bit of inspiration and this site helped me specifically when I was tackling my first intimate scene in WIP1. It has nice insight into writing consent, among other things.

descriptionary.wordpress.com

Describe it: Sex and Romance

On this page we’ll link to topics regarding sex and romance. We’ll cover everything from foundational knowledge, sex education (and what we get wrong in writing), to topics all the way …

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

For WIP3 I had to learn about perfumes. This site was awesome for learning how to describe fragrance and to figure out what my characters smelled like. I got tired of reading every character (looking at you romance) smelling like lavender or jasmine. Those are fine, but what else can we smell like?

fragrantica.com

Perfumes Search

Perfumes Search - Fragrantica: Your Online Destination for All Things Fragrance Discover the world of perfumes with Fragrantica, a comprehensive online resource, magazine, and community dedicated to fragrance enthusiasts. We keep our readers in the know about the latest perfume releases, renowned fr

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

My top three: Can't figure out what to name a character? Check out an old phonebook for inspiration on the internet archive! I also use this for access to Canadian dictionaries that I can't easily get here (even Canadians aren't sure which spelling we use)

archive.org

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

#LitHodgepodge 11 I don't have a specific question, but thought it'd be helpful for everyone to share useful (online) tools that you find you use constantly while writing. So let's make a reference library! Drop your favourite links so other authors can find them #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

But since I write close 3rd/free indirect, a lot of my narrative voice is character voice development, which starts to come alive in draft 2 but has been locked in by draft 4 or 5. It's why a panic scene in WIP1 and WIP2 will read differently because I'm in the head of two different characters

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

That said, my narrative voice comes out of what I'm writing - both genre and setting. 1954 romcom will read differently than a 2025 love story. I don't consciously think about it as I plan or write the first draft, but it definitely develops and becomes more conscious as I edit draft 2.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

Generally, I read a lot (anywhere from 1-5 books a week depending on many factors). The multiple degrees in literature/theatre help with that too, because I've been exposed to a lot of different voices outside of genres I prefer/write. Theatre is especially good for character voice work ⬇️

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

Like DD, I also give them certain things they say that someone else won't (even if it's natural they would). Julie in WIP1 says "Yeah, no, for sure" or "No, yeah, for sure" a lot more than Izzy does. Both are very distinctly Canadian, but she's the one that gets that.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

of Norwegian. "I will not" for an English speaker can turn into "I won't" but in Norwegian it's "Jeg vil ikke" and there isn't really a contraction, so it would be natural for her to say "I will not" because then you have subject + verb + adjective. Sometimes I'll use the first language in text too

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

I also consider where they grew up, what was their socioeconomic experiences, do they have accents, dialects, other languages, and then use that. For example, Liv in WIP3 is Norwegian. She's not fluent in English so she'll be less likely to use contractions because it follows the logical syntax...

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

Whereas Shannon is more relaxed, not so focussed on public presentation and she'll skip it (If I *was* rich). Jackie will speak in shorter sentences. Less declarative (I wrote them longer, then cut in editing once I knew what she wanted to say). Shannon speaks with longer sentences, less clipped

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

With my MCs, I have very detailed character outlines that include things like voice, vocabulary where I can consider what they do in speech. For example, in WIP2 I'm now working with Jackie and Shannon's voices. Jackie is very precise, so she'll use the past subjunctive (if I *were* rich...)

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

For example. Alexis and Jenn in WIP1 were flagged as too similar. Alexis is older & more science-minded, so I gave her a wry & cut-the-bullshit voice. Jenn's an artsy, LA-type, so I made her more relaxed. I went through looking for places to heighten/lower the language for each or add a vocal tick

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 4h

I'll agree with Ellie. Two characters sounding the same isn't necessarily bad. Especially if they are close. You'll naturally have a similar voice to the people you're around a lot. I try to make sure no two characters don't serve the same function, and if they do, then I play with their voices ⬇️

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

And because it's open office style, it means you can open doc, docx, odt, rich text, etc... Downside, I'm not sure you can use it on the go (a la google docs or word). It's not an issue for me, because I email myself my drafts as a redundancy/upload them to a cloud, so I can still work on them.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

I love Libre Office. It's free for starters, they have an explicit no-AI stance. It has almost all (if not more) of the same features as word, and I found it easy to use to format my first and second WIP for printing (I just had to learn to set up the styles correctly (took about 20 min))

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

A developmental editor will help. But if that's outside the budget, finding a reader to go through specifically to spot these moments is a good idea if you're struggling. They'll see the writing through different eyes and definitely spot things you might not because you're too close to it.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

As a reader, one or two long chapters aren't a big deal. If the chapter reads well, is well paced, feels coherent at 7k words, then that's what that chapter needs. However, if every chapter is like that, then I can guarantee pacing issues. I'll put down the book at unnatural stopping spots.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

That scene was a bit easier because they were changing locations. But I have others where the location didn't change. There's a scene in a hotel room that spans about 8 hours. I split things at a natural end point of one thing even though the next chapter picks right back up there (w/ a POV change)

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

I broke it up into three chapters 1. MCs go skating → Internal thoughts → external event → decompress 2. dinner → conversation 1 3. conversation 2 → evening ends tensely. I made sure the divide between convo 1 and 2 was cliffhanger-adjacent and moved them from the kitchen to the living room.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

As an example. I had one chapter that was a little over 8k. I knew it needed to break, but I didn't know where. So I mapped it. 2 MCs go skating → Internal thoughts → external event → decompress → dinner → conversation 1 → conversation 2 → evening ends tensely. Everything belonged to the same beat

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

It wasn't easy to figure out where they should break up though. What I did was map out those chapters in terms of what was happening. Then I looked for natural tension or stopping spots. Spots where it seemed like a spot to end, but where it would make the reader keep wanting to read.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

What I found when I broke my chapters up, even when I felt like they belonged together, was that the pacing improved. Instead of my readers saying they were stopping mid-way through a chapter, they flew through 3 chapters. They still read 10k word, but in 3-4 chapters instead of 1.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

When I went through it with fresh eyes I 1) found things to cut and 2) found natural breaks where it would make sense to include a chapter break. It might be that it was the same scene, but that there was something specific that made a change natural or a good spot to keep the reader reading

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

I hope a small 🧵 is okay. I had thoughts I also use write close 3rd/free indirect, multi POV in the same scene/chapter. I include line breaks so POV switches are clear. My first draft chapters also tend to be very long. I had one that was well over 10K, the one I just finished editing was 7K ⬇️

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

Beverly also has fairly firm set of rules she follows. The entire book club's existence challenges those rules. But 3 MCs specifically help her re-evaluate the rules' usefulness. Time after time, however, Beverly keeps picking her friends over her rules, so her rules were permeable after all.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

Jackie has a very rigid set of rules she made that she won't break—until she meets Shannon. Jackie struggles with this though & makes a lot of poor decisions before making the right ones. It's not between honour & rules. It's btwn letting herself have what she wants & what she thinks she's allowed.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 5h

#AwesomeCharacters My characters are not often in situations where their oath/rules and their honour get in the way of each other; however, if it ever did, I'm certain they would pick friends/fam over everything else eventually. Though both Jackie and Beverly probably struggle a bit more than most ⬇️

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 6h

#LGBTQWriteAThon Pretty okay. I'm in the trenches of revising/editing some challenging scenes which is...well, challenging. It's also getting to the dark time here which 🫤 But I also got out for a hike on an absolutely perfect day with a friend and our dogs so one of my month goals ✅

photo of a mountain landscape in autumn. There is green and red moss in the foreground, a small lake in the middle, and taller mountains in the background. There is light clouds and sun

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 16h

As a distinctly Canadian book, written by a Hamiltonian, it is my duty to mention Timmies at least twice in the book. Which I do. Maple Doughnuts are the key to Julie's heart!

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 18h

My Norwegian wife does not understand my very rational fear of Canada geese. But like, those Mofos do not fear anything and a vicious as all hell. Years dodging them in Hamilton and London have trained me to give them all the space

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Reposted by Mel Waverly

Black Cat Book Nook @blackcatbooknook.bsky.social · 21h

We want to start some lists on potential contractors to work with. Please stop by and let us know what you do within the book community. (You'll be added to 1 of 2 starter packs) #IndiePublishing #QueerWriting #OwnVoice #OwnVoices

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 20h

#pretendpanel 1. My grad 12 & OAC writing teacher, 2. Other authors especially @annmcman.bsky.social @leewinteroz.bsky.social & @jenlyonauthor.bsky.social who write books I love so much 3. My wife who gifted me Jericho & inadvertently kickstarted everything 4. The MCs in my head who wont shut up!

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 20h

Yup! Shannon's the best! 🥰

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 21h

I hope you feel the same when the book comes out!

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 21h

It was a shot in the dark with the peaches, but I figure who the heck doesn't like peaches? No one I wanna catch! 🤣

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 22h

Thanks for hosting! I had fun throwing all my MCs together and seeing them interact! Has Julie become your favourite of my MCs?

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 22h

I'm just going to pop some British invasion albums onto the record player, lay out a basket of peaches, and an acoustic guitar.

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 22h

A realistic-looking robotic fox doing ballet, a pepperoni pizza, and a squeaky toy

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Mel Waverly @melwaverly.bsky.social · 22h

I'm going to go a box of chocolates, a bouquet of roses, and a hot tub - because who doesn't want to be pampered? 🤣

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