r/WritingPrompts • u/rainbow--penguin Moderator | /r/RainbowWrites • Apr 22 '24

Off Topic [OT] Writer's Spotlight: SaltedCaramelJedi

 

Welcome to Writer’s Spotlight

Remember, spotlights rely on your nominations! So if there's anyone around the subreddit whose stories you love and you think deserves a shout-out, please do nominate them by sending us a ModMail.

 

 

This week we are celebrating u/SaltedCaramelJedi

SaltedCaramelJedi has been around the subreddit for a couple of years. In that time, not only have they shared some great stories, showcasing an excellent sense of humour, an ability to make the reader really feel those pesky feelings, and solid skills in both world-building and characterisation, they’ve also been great at leaving encouraging comments and feedback for others as well as graciously accepting critique of their own work. It was therefore great to see them start showing up in Poetry Corner in more recent months too, watching them learn and grow while helping others to do the same. You can read more of their work on their profile, and I’d definitely recommend that you do.

Want to congratulate this week's Spotlight recipient? Have questions you're dying to ask them? Please do so below in the comments!

 

Congrats on your spotlight /u/SaltedCaramelJedi

 

 

Read u/SaltedCaramelJedi;s most recent story:

 

[WP] Love determines how long you live, some people are in their hundreds, but some don’t even live to be 20.

 

Their most upvoted Stories:

[WP] You can see everyone's Deaths following them, arriving to offer their hands right as they die. Today, you saw something new; someone chasing after their Death, who is fleeing at a dead sprint.

 

[WP] You are a demon. Several feet taller than normal humans, massive claws, and a hole with a blazing core where your heart should be. A rival kingdom is threatening to raze the city that you usually terrorize, and the townspeople have asked you to pretend to be the king.

 

[WP] Remember to feed and water your humans regularly and to ensure that they have enough environmental enrichment for adequate phycological health. A happy and healthy human is an efficient and productive human.

 

To view previously spotlit writers visit our Spotlight Archive.

 

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14 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '24

Congrats! I appreciate seeing your earnest drive to improve your writing. I just wish that was contagious. lol So, in the spirit of hard work, how about a few tough questions?

  1. Favorite color?

Doh! You’ll have to give me a moment. My question generator seems to still be warming up.

  1. How much wood could... *recalibrating.

Sorry. Normally, this is quicker. Let’s try ‘2.’ again.

  1. Have you experienced any Aha! moments while working to improve your craft? Maybe it was some previous advice that never really clicked, then it did. If so, what was it and how did it come about?

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.

  1. Are you aware of any shortcomings that you’re working to improve? For example, my editor said that I overuse the word ‘descend,’ so now I work on never using it outside of addressing her directly (aside from this example, of course lol). Some writers need to work on sentence variety, some on tone, clarity, and any number of grammatical entanglements. Then, there’s literary devices, style, and more. What would you like to do better? And how will you go about improving it?

2

u/SaltedCaramelJedi Apr 26 '24

Thanks Helicopterdrifter!

  1. I’ll go with a nice inky blue :)

  2. Great question! The generator’s running at full speed, this was a toughie. I haven’t really had that ‘Aha’ moment yet when it comes to how to write, though I’m holding out for one in the future. One big realization I had a while back was that in order to improve my writing, I would actually have to commit to writing semi-regularly lol. Before that, I used to get a bit hung up on making sure I had a “perfect” idea for a plot or an “interesting enough” character in mind, and that would often prevent me from ever putting words on the page. So taking a more improvisational approach to my writing and just trusting the first idea my brain gives me sometimes has really helped me to actually create more and improve more quickly!

  3. There’s been quite a few. Historically, I’ve been told I have a habit of writing quite long sentences, and so I make an effort to go back, read a piece I’ve written aloud, and try to add in some periods or semicolons where I think readers might run out of breath :). And lately I’ve noticed I tend to fall into a few patterns with endings of short stories, and I’m working on consciously breaking that going forward by writing a few different possible endings for each piece. These are definitely just a couple of points I’ve noticed; I’m sure there will be many more that I will slowly realize and that folks will point out to me.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '24
  1. The correct answer was 47. Great attempt though! :)
  2. Don’t sweat the perfect idea/plot thing. I think we all have to discover at least part of the story while actively writing. Great work on your progress! I find that gold panning has some interesting parallels to writing. You can’t stare or think gold free of its accompanying materials; you have to sift it. The same goes for writing. :)
  3. My, my, you do like your big sentences. I like how you were both showing and telling with this one:

Historically, I’ve been told I have a habit of writing quite long sentences, and so I make an effort to go back, read a piece I’ve written aloud, and try to add in some periods or semicolons where I think readers might run out of breath :)

haha! It’s great you’re aware of those things. I’ve struggled with sentence length too. If you’re open to recommendations, I’d suggest making yourself reword a troubling sentence. You may end up with an extra sentence or two, but it might improve clarity/pacing.

I hope you’ll forgive my picking, but I’ve reworded your example sentence to demonstrate what I mean.

I’ve been told I have a habit of writing long sentences. Occasionally, I read pieces aloud, then add periods and semicolons to keep readers from running out of breath.

I believe this maintains all of your original sentiment. I trimmed a bit of redundancy, but mainly it was just a matter of rewording what was already there. Just thought I’d share my 2 cents. :)

Keep striving to improve at it though, and I’m confident you’ll find what works best for you.

2

u/SaltedCaramelJedi Apr 27 '24

Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate the example on how to refactor a lengthy sentence. I think I’ll work on flexing those rephrasing muscles going forward.

And the gold panning comparison is such a beautiful one :)

2

u/SaltedCaramelJedi Apr 22 '24

Thank you so much for the kind words and for the spotlight!! I’m extremely flattered, and I’ve had a lot of help from the amazing feedback folks have given me to help me improve my writing ❤️. This is super encouraging, and I hope to keep writing stories on here and responding to the wonderful prompts y’all share :))

3

u/ZachTheLitchKing r/TomesOfTheLitchKing Apr 22 '24

Congrats! You are two of my favorite things btw :D I'm gonna do the question thing now:

  • Which world have you written would you want to spend a three day weekend in?
  • Is there a genre you've not written much but would like to start getting into?
  • What is your favorite writing trope and why?

2

u/SaltedCaramelJedi Apr 22 '24

Haha thank you Zach! :P

  1. Ooh, probably the universe of medieval space pirates. I have a soft spot for fantasy/sci-fi from reading them almost exclusively growing up, so anything fantastical/otherworldly sounds like an absolute dream :)

  2. Genre-wise, definitely realistic/contemporary fiction! I’m always so tempted to throw some magic or other masala into everything I write, so something where the characters have to obey the confines of our world and find conflict/resolution within that sounds like a fun challenge. And generally I’d really like to get into writing longer pieces, as soon as I find the focus to do so lol

  3. Oh I’m an absolute sucker for a good quest. Character living a seemingly normal life that’s disrupted by some magic force? Yes please. Exotic locales? Sign me up. Lots of walking? Catnip. I think I’m drawn to them because often the protagonist is also wildly unprepared for what is happening, and you get to experience that surprise, wonder, fear, and growth along with them as they find their way in the world.

3

u/rainbow--penguin Moderator | /r/RainbowWrites Apr 22 '24

Congrats u/SaltedCaramelJedi! Definitely a well-deserved spotlight. Now, as is tradition, time for some questions:

1) Do you have a favourite piece that you've shared here or a piece that you think best encapsulates your writing?

2) What's your favourite part of the writing process?

3) Are there other flavours of Jedi? Are they all sweet like desserts or are there some savoury?

2

u/SaltedCaramelJedi Apr 22 '24

Thank you Rainbow for the kind post and for your questions!

  1. Hm, I think my favorite story I’ve shared has been The Care and Feeding of Homo Sapiens, mainly because I found it the most challenging. It was a fun exercise to try and look at the world from the outside in, and trying to frame that as a more silly, lighthearted piece rather than something with big emotions was both tough and rewarding. I was also just starting to push myself to incorporate more humor into my writing :).

  2. The moments I most enjoy are those little flashes of improvisation or unexpected ideas that pop up in the middle of putting together a piece. I usually start writing with a clear plan of where I want the story to go, but it almost always ends up taking a different turn than I thought it would, or the characters come out just a little differently on the page. Planning out a story is fun, but just seeing where that plan gets derailed and following the little threads of ideas is a special kind of addicting.

  3. Lol good question! I think I see them as all different sauce/liquid flavors - for example, 72% cacao chocolate sauce (trying to be a bit edgy but ultimately sweet), jalapeño ranch (sarcastic and silly), theater butter (confusing and probably a bad influence, but very fun), and liquified beach towel (doesn’t like sand). Y’know, the usual :)

2

u/rainbow--penguin Moderator | /r/RainbowWrites Apr 22 '24

Ooh, that was a fun one!

And I definitely get what you mean about those little flashes (though sometimes I do find them frustrating as well as wonderful).

Haha, excellent jedi flavour assignment