BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:What’s Your Writing Length Superpower? from Alicia McCalla DTSTAMP:20250913T051614Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:501-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n What’s Your Writing Length Superpower? (Take the Quiz)\ n\n https://aliciamccalla.substack.com/p/whats-your-writing-length-superpo wer\n\n\n\n My comment\n\n\n\n I chose to base my answers on what is publi cly available for people to read with my work. \n\n\n\n \n 1. What word count feels most like home?\n \n \n A. 2K–7K (short\, sharp\, done )\n \n \n I said A though it is A to C for me\, in terms of overall \, most of my public work is A so A\n \n \n \n \n 2. How do you see s tories in your head?\n \n \n A. One burst\, one scene\, one punch of meaning\n \n \n I first thought to say C cause I tend to see most of my work holistically\, from novel length to flash fiction\, but based o n available work \, I chose A but I have completed work where I saw from A to E in all earnest\n \n \n \n \n 3. What gives you the biggest dopam ine hit?\n \n \n A. Finishing lots of small\, complete stories\n \ n \n I am not a fan of manufactured cliffhangers so no B\, i know a n umber of writers do that intentionally. I do like C but I will say A as I have multiple collections of short stories. E type is the one I have never made.  I can't stand telenovelas or soap operas\, the unendings\, or the very popular unending black urban fictions. aka Power. \n \n \n \n \n 4. Which format excites you most?\n \n \n This one I couldn't answ er. I enjoy them all. In various contest or challenges I have participated into I enjoyed making each type. and I have been fortunate to enjoy readi ng each type:  flash fictions/serial comics/ mass market adventures/stand alone novels/ multi book epics. The one style I don't care for is\, biogr aphy. I don't like biographies as a genre. Nor do I want to write a biogra phy or have a biography written about me. \n \n \n \n \n 5. How do yo u treat cliffhangers?\n \n \n Another challenge\, I think it depends on the story. If I have a horror story or someone commissions a tale. It' s great. But cliffhangers aren't needed for all stories. I think romantic tales don't warrant cliffhangers alot of times. \n \n \n It is a c ase by case or story by story scenario. You don't have that option so I ha ve no answer.\n \n \n \n \n 6. How do you feel about novellas (12K–2 5K)?\n \n \n C. Perfect (that’s my sweet spot)\n \n \n Anot her hard one.  It is case by case again for me. If a story is a flash fic tion it is. I look at each tale I write as individual. If it is going to b ecome as long as a war and peace\, then it is. If it is going to be as lon g as a berenstein bears book then it is. Commercially \, I will say I can do a novella a week so I will say my answer is C\, it will take me longer than seven days to do something longer than a novella. I don't know if it is a sweet spot but commercially\, for time\, i think it is correct. \n \n \n \n \n 7. What’s your relationship with characters?\n \n \n B. Love returning (watching them grow across episodes)\n \n \n Th is is funny cause I am finishing stories differed by genre/tone/type with various characters. \n \n \n I chose B simply because it matches m y thoughts most. But\, i have written comedic or horror or romance and  t hey didn't have the same characters or character development. \n \n \n \n \n 8. What’s your natural writing rhythm?\n \n \n C. Compact: finish a book in weeks or a month\n \n \n C is usual but I remembe r two years for a story\, a screenplay. Here was the challenge\, how to ge t Dupin to solve the case of the Cask of Amontillado? And i wrote it twice in that time but... anyway:) \n \n \n \n \n 9. What format do you pr efer to read?\n \n \n Hard one for me\, I am still waiting for the w inds of winter\, and trying to still keep the memory of all the prior book s in my head. I loved a series in heavy metal magazine called.. I can't re member\, but it was a spoof of dungeons and dragons\, and it was so funny: ) they attacked everything while having a cohesive honest story. it was bl ack and white. I will always love the People can fly from Virignia Hamilto n. I love the original Blood Syndicate from Milestone comics. I read the O dyssey of Homer as a kid and enjoyed it. It is not structured as well as a thousand and one knights. I read a knight of the seven kingdoms from mart in and arguably was my most enjoyable in his world\, but it also had illus trations which are so cool:) I also illustrate. So A to E... E is rare to see sold in modernity. I can read certain genres in various forms. I would n't like overly melodramatic works whether a short story or epic.  \n \ n \n \n \n 10. What makes you break out in hives?\n \n \n To be bl unt\, I haven't felt that way as a writer ... yet. I imagine if i had a co mmission to do a melodramatic telenovela or biographical work\, even biogr aphical fiction\, i would have challenges\, hives:) \n \n \n \n \n Th ree A's Two C's and one B and four None of the aboves.\n \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n \n I am called The Sprinter:) haha And so I concur\, cause most of my publ ic work are poetries/short stories. But it is about where a story takes me . If I see something valuable I will venture into it\, but I try not to pu sh drama into characters lives\, that is a bad habit of some writers. One of my favorite anime is Black Clover and the writer for Black Clover said publicly\, he wanted every character to have value. And when you see the c artoon you recognize that\, but it isn't pushed. \n\n The old prince savi ng the princess character doesn't have to have a father who has never beli eved he will amount to anything and a mother who is secretly a dragon and an opposing kingdom wants to kill him led by the chamberlain of his kingdo m. Pushing drama is ok if you want to do it\, but I don't do that. I like the idea of a prince who is raised in a loving home by his parents the kin g and queen who love each other and gotten old together safely with a dece nt army protecting their realm and good traffic/trade being aided by the c hamberlain who likes to serve in his role and is ready for retirement. No drama. The prince just simply heard a woman was in a toward covered by a t oxic slug demon so he ventured to save her. HE didn't even know she was a princess cause her kingdom was put under a parallel spell by a tree after woodcutters didn't heed the royal decree to leave a certain forest alone. So\, now the drama. princess has to remain a certain age so she will be of a different time period. the spell that changed the kingdom did what? ok\ , I thought of the smurfs. clearly the tree has to be surrounded by a fore st or it will keep hurting people which is silly. this isn't a comedy. so there. Drama occurs\, but it shouldn't be forced. \n\n\n\n \n\n COMMENT R EFERRAL\n\n https://substack.com/profile/56304731-richard-murray/note/c-15 4420014\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n \n\n  \n\n\n\n \n What’s Your Writing Lengt h Superpower? (Take the Quiz) by Alicia McCalla\n \n\n \n Find Out Your S trengths\n \n Read on Substack\n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250910 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR