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jonnywaistcoat · 2 days
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When writing, did you ever suffer from a fear or underdelivering or misrepresenting a topic? If you did, how did you overcome it? I enjoy writing but rarely bring it to the public out of fear that I am either not doing good enough or badly portraying the themes or aspects of what I write.
Absolutely, and on the one hand it's a very healthy fear - it prompts you to do your research and be thoughtful in how you write. On the other hand you've just got to accept that occasionally it will happen. Inculturation is a hell of a thing, and leaves us all with a thousand kneejerk preconceptions and perceptions of the world, some benign and some downright awful. And sometimes they crop up no matter how thoughtful you try to be. And you gotta understand that when it happens and people call you on it, you just have to take your lumps and learn what you can from it.
It doesn't help, of course, that the words you write are only ever half of what your audience reads: five people reading the same book are reading five different books, each filtering the text through a lifetime of psychology and experience. And they will find themes and problems in there you never even considered, and they will also find resonances and beauty in your work that you could never have foreseen.
At the end of the day, writing stuff thats meaningful to you (hell, writing anything at all) is a messy, bruising business, and anybody who tells you there are simple solutions or clear rules to follow is either lying to you or to themselves.
But you can't let it paralyse you. Its like if you're playing football and you're worried about falling over. It's a reasonable fear and you should do your best to avoid it, but occasionally it's gonna happen, and unless you want to spend the whole game just standing still in a field, you've kinda just got to get on with it. Just try not to be one of those writers who's always taking dives and... screaming for the ref to get a free kick? Hm. That analogy may have gotten away from me. I don't actually know much about football.
Point is, I'm aware that this isn't the most reassuring writing advice I've ever given, but yeah, its a messy, scary business. Just do your best. Be thoughtful. Be kind. And always do your research.
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jonnywaistcoat · 6 days
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Do you ever catch yourself humming Mechs songs without realizing?
Yes and no. Most of the Mechs songs are riffing on existing folk tunes, sea shanties, trench songs, etc, because we all shared a deep love of that sort of music. Most of them were based on songs I already knew very well, and those songs still rattle around in my head pretty frequently, so while it's rare I find myself humming Mechanisms songs specifically, I will often be singing to myself the songs they come from. It's rare, for instance, that I find myself humming 'Cinders Song', but 'Haul Away Joe' is deep in my soul. It's unlikely I'll be singing 'Underworld Blues' to myself, but Geeshie Wiley's 'Last Kind Words' is a perennial favourite.
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jonnywaistcoat · 8 days
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I think it's really nice you thought you could create an unfuckable and untwinkifiable monster, and I always think people should dream big, but I think it might be time to put this one away.
I am endlessly fascinated by this version of me that exists in the head of some fans, of this naive yet stern-faced Writer(tm) desperately trying to make them take my work seriously; frantically trying to stop them being horny for my creations. Like, mate, cmon. Ive been doing this for a long time now, and I made my peace with the monsterfuckers years ago. Am I trying to make an unfuckable monster? No. Cause I'm not an idiot.
I just make my messed-up grotesqueries for my little horror stories and assume someone out there probably wants to fuck them and that's fine. Me trying to stop them would be just be a waste of everybody's time, so I just wish them godspeed and go add some more pus to Mr Bonzo's stitches.
It does make me laugh that none of you know what a twink is, though.
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jonnywaistcoat · 9 days
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jonnywaistcoat · 10 days
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i just want you to know that i have to do some analysis of "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" for an english assignment and that joke you made one time on a stream about the shoes never being worn because it was an unexpectedly massive baby has been in the back of my mind the entire time. thank you
I remember! "For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Massive baby."
Always astounds me Hemingway is held up as such a great writer when the man didn't even realise adding these two simple words would make his story cool and happy and kinda funny (cause of the inclusion of a huge baby) instead of it being, like, super sad. Absolute rookie move imo.
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jonnywaistcoat · 14 days
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is mr bonzo at all based on mr blobby
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jonnywaistcoat · 14 days
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Did you make Needles for the atrocious amount of Michael Shelly stans out there (a group in which I can be counted) or were the similar vibes just a happy little accident?
Neither, really - sometimes you just gotta write a nasty sharp man, then part if your brain goes "the shellyfellas are gonna love this" and another part goes "is that a problem?" and the first part goes "no, just sayin" and then you go make a cup of tea.
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jonnywaistcoat · 14 days
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honestly nothing for me will top the energy of BTS photos/videos of horror movie monsters/demons/creatures/etc in full makeup just hanging out… like
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energy….
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jonnywaistcoat · 23 days
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Hey, Horrormaster Sims. I have a wildly different question that barely relates to TMA (Sorry about that) but its about your own process. Please, if you could, can you tell me how your first drafts made you feel? I'm on the fence about writing my own thing (not a podcast, and again, not Magnus related, though I have a million little aus for that delightful tragedy you wrote, thank you for that!) But I'm discouraged by the collective notion that first drafts are always terrible, because there's no ... examples I can solidly use to help the dumb anxiety beast in my brain that tells me everyone who is in any way popular popped out a golden turd and not, well, you know. One of my friends said 'Oh I bet Jonathan Sims's first draft was nothing like what he wanted' and I got the bright idea to just. Send you an ask, since you're trapped on this hellsite like I am. Anyway, thanks for reading this (if you do) and if you'd rather ask it privately, I am cool with that. Alternatively, you're a hella busy man with Protocol (you and Alex are making me rabid, i hope you know) and you can just ignore this! Cheers, man, and good words.
To my mind all writing advice, especially stuff that's dispensed as truisms (like "first drafts are always garbage") are only useful inasmuch as such advice prompts you to pay attention to how you write best: what helps your workflow, what inspires you, what keeps you going through the rough bits. There are as many different ways to write (and write well) as there are people who write and so always consider this sort of thing a jumping off point to try out or keep in mind as you gradually figure out your own ways of writing.
On first drafts specifically, I think the wisdom "all first drafts are bad" is a bit of unhelpful oversimplification of the fact that, deadlines notwithstanding, no piece of writing goes out until you decide its ready, so don't get too hung up on your first draft of a thing, because a lot of writers find it much easier to edit a complete work than to try and redraft as they go. It's also important to not let perfectionism or the fact your initial draft isn't coming out exactly how you want stop you from actually finishing the thing, as it's always better to have something decent and done than to have something perfect and abandoned.
But the idea of a "first draft" is also kind of a fluid one. The "first draft" you submit to someone who's commissioned you will probably be one you've already done a bunch of tweaks and edits to, as opposed to the "first draft" you pump out in a frenzy in an over-caffeinated weekend. For my part, my first drafts tend to end up a bit more polished than most, because I'm in the habit of reading my sentences out loud as I write them (a habit picked up from years of audio writing) so I'll often write and re-write a particular sentence or paragraph a few times to get the rhythm right before moving to the next one. This means my first drafts tend to take longer, but are a bit less messy. I'm also a big-time planner and pretty good at sticking to the structures I lay out so, again, tend to front load a lot of stuff so I get a better but slower first draft.
At the end of the day, though, the important thing is to get in your head about it in a good way (How do I write best? what helps me make writing I enjoy and value? What keeps me motivated?) and not in a bad way (What if it's not good enough? What if everyone hates it? What if it doesn't make sense?) so that you actually get it done.
As for how my first drafts made me feel? Terrible, every one of 'em No idea if that's reflective of their quality, though, tbh - I hate reading my own writing until I've had a chance to forget it's mine (I can only ever see the flaws). I suppose there's theoretically a none-zero chance they were pure fragments of True Art and creative perfection, but Alex's editing notes make that seem unlikely.
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jonnywaistcoat · 24 days
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jonnywaistcoat · 28 days
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4 in the morning (or as we call it "Poster's Noon") is usually when I decide it's a good idea to open the gently burning tire fire that is my Tumblr asks. It is the night that gives me the inspiration to reply and the fatigue that gives me the courage to hit "post".
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jonnywaistcoat · 29 days
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Absolutely. I challenge you all to pay me twenty grand to make Alex delete the words "Feddy from Five Nights at Freddy's" from a script.
how much do i have to pay you so that you can at least ATTEMPT to add frebby fazbear into the magnus protocol
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This tickles me a bit, because thinking about it, we have kinda done some mascot horror in Protocol, but whereas chuck-e-cheese is the archetypical American version, we've drawn horror out of a 90s British mascot. And I'm pretty confident which of the two is more fucked up.
Five Nights at Freddie's does interest, though - I grew up when there was quite a rich array of horror stories aimed at kids: Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, the Point Horror books. Now it seems like a lot of that stuff have been supplanted by franchises like Five Nights at Freddie's, which is aimed at kids but marketed as though it's not, and does a lot to try and launder its intended audience. It's interesting to me, though I don't feel like I have a well-developed thesis about it.
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jonnywaistcoat · 29 days
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Ten grand and I put it in a script. For another ten grand I will give light pushback when Alex edits it out. I will require these amounts in sterling silver bullion left at a dead drop on the Isle of Wight. Once you have it ready, wait by your second nearest payphone and my agent will make contact.
how much do i have to pay you so that you can at least ATTEMPT to add frebby fazbear into the magnus protocol
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This tickles me a bit, because thinking about it, we have kinda done some mascot horror in Protocol, but whereas chuck-e-cheese is the archetypical American version, we've drawn horror out of a 90s British mascot. And I'm pretty confident which of the two is more fucked up.
Five Nights at Freddie's does interest, though - I grew up when there was quite a rich array of horror stories aimed at kids: Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, the Point Horror books. Now it seems like a lot of that stuff have been supplanted by franchises like Five Nights at Freddie's, which is aimed at kids but marketed as though it's not, and does a lot to try and launder its intended audience. It's interesting to me, though I don't feel like I have a well-developed thesis about it.
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jonnywaistcoat · 29 days
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how much do i have to pay you so that you can at least ATTEMPT to add frebby fazbear into the magnus protocol
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This tickles me a bit, because thinking about it, we have kinda done some mascot horror in Protocol, but whereas chuck-e-cheese is the archetypical American version, we've drawn horror out of a 90s British mascot. And I'm pretty confident which of the two is more fucked up.
Five Nights at Freddie's does interest, though - I grew up when there was quite a rich array of horror stories aimed at kids: Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, the Point Horror books. Now it seems like a lot of that stuff have been supplanted by franchises like Five Nights at Freddie's, which is aimed at kids but marketed as though it's not, and does a lot to try and launder its intended audience. It's interesting to me, though I don't feel like I have a well-developed thesis about it.
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jonnywaistcoat · 29 days
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You are writing 2 seperate books about the horrors that are held within the london underground system do you have beef
Ah, I see where the confusion is: I've got a two-book contract, the first of which is for a book about the London underground, the second of which is about ????? (haven't fully decided yet). Not saying it's an impossibility that it is also about the underground (god knows I've experienced enough horror down there for two!) but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
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jonnywaistcoat · 1 month
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There was a guy in a Christianity documentary a teacher put on for us today who looked exactly like you (he was also called Jonathan) and he talked about premarital sex for a solid 5 minutes
Amateur hour, mate. I could talk about premarital sex for upwards of thirty minutes, easy. Guy needs to up his game if he wants to be going round with my name and face.
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jonnywaistcoat · 1 month
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Hey guess what!
The synopsis says: “It’s the hottest summer on record and London is dying. Prices are high, pay is low, and stressed commuters are packed on to London Underground trains again like the pandemic never happened. To add to the misery, the temperatures underground just keep climbing and climbing, the heat trapped in the clay with nowhere to go. 
“Five travellers on an unlucky tube carriage find themselves bound together one morning as witnesses to a single horrific event – an event they can’t quite seem to remember. They make an unlikely team: weary tube driver, a disillusioned civil servant, an ambitious city trader, an overwhelmed hotel worker and an unhoused young man just trying to get by – but now they must come together to confront what they have seen and stop it in its tracks. Because there’s something lurking in the stifling darkness and labyrinthine tunnels that run below London… something old, something vicious, and something very, very hungry.” 
I couldn't be more excited to be working with @jonnywaistcoat on his next two novels! This is just more of what he does best - pulling apart the very seams of society and giving me very specific new sleep paralysis demons, and somehow getting me to say thank you afterwards.
And if you're near London next month, why not pop along to Gollanczfest to hear him chat all things horror with Joe Hill and V. V. James? Tickets are still available:
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