Hivemind Writing

From Russia, With Screwdriver update: Chapter 1, Scene 8 - http://t.co/58Veo870

Here are links to the latest scenes in Hivemind stories. If you’re behind, click the title to the story instead of the scene to catch up.

“From Russia, With Screwdriver” - Scene 7

“Idle Hands & Sticky Fingers” - Scene 7

“See You On the Flipside” - Scene 7

Here are links to the latest scenes in Hivemind stories. If you’re behind, click the title to the story instead of the scene to catch up.

“From Russia, With Screwdriver” - Scene 6

“Idle Hands & Sticky Fingers” - Scene 6

“See You On the Flipside” - Scene 6

There are ten of you now! Thanks so much for following our little experiment here.

So here’s a quick question poll to help us make it a better experience for you.

• How did you find this tumblr?
• Why are you following it?
• Have you been reading the stories? Which ones?
• What could we do better?

Kate just accidentally figured out how to make updates from twitter automatically appear here on the Hivemind Writing blog as posts. Unfortunately, it does not help because it refuses to recognize tweets sent from other tumblr blogs. Darn. Any ideas?

Here are links to the latest scenes in Hivemind stories. If you’re behind, click the title to the story instead of scene to catch up. Kate’s a week behind in editing/posting thanks to life, so expect the next three scenes to be posted on schedule next week.

“From Russia, With Screwdriver” - Scene 5

“Idle Hands & Sticky Fingers” - Scene 5

“See You On the Flipside” - Scene 5

Here are links to this week’s updates. If you’re behind, click the title to the story instead of the link for the scene to catch up.

“From Russia, With Screwdriver” - Scene 4

“Idle Hands & Sticky Fingers” - Scene 4

“See You On the Flipside” - Scene 4

Though our stories may seem fairly polished and cohesive when posted here, they start off at a very different place.

English is not a single language or dialect. The differences in spellings, nouns, terms, and phrases can be tiny or vast depending on the occasion.

For Kat and I, this means that writing together is a constant learning experience. Luckily, I’m a language buff and a fan of learning new vocabulary and Kat is one of the most well-humored people on the planet and totally laid-back about letting me edit the hell out of our writing.

So what’s the big deal? When editing posts to prepare them for you guys to read, I have to pay close attention to whether a word was spelled from English…or English. Kat is from New Zealand. A Kiwi, she spells things a little differently than an American would. For example, when I say that ‘Kat is one of the most well-humored people’ I know, Kat would say she’s ‘well-humoured.’ A single letter may not seem like a big difference, but when you begin editing and attempting to bind the writing of two very different people (however like-minded) into something singular and smooth in transition, it can mean a lot.

So yes, I have to keep an eye out for spellings. Here are some examples…

• Kat spells it: humour, defence, calibre, realise, analyse, catalogue, ageing, cancelled and cancelation
• Kate spells it: humor, defense, caliber, realize, analyze, catalog, aging, canceled and cancellation

Then there are hyphenated words. UK/Kiwi English favors splitting words that Americans tend to smoosh together. For example, an American’s ‘faraway’ would be ‘far away’ for Kat. ‘Nearby’ would be ‘near by’ or ‘forever’ would be ‘for ever.’ There are explanations and debates regarding the usage of these terms, but it still comes down to ensuring cohesion.

What about contractions such as Mrs. or Mr.? Well, in Kat’s English, these don’t have fullstops or periods and are simply Mrs Bongard or Mr Bongard.

And then there’s slang. Oh dear lord, slang. Kat and I both make a conscious effort to affect our terms and slang, nouns for subjects, according to the location or dominant nationality in respective stories. For example, when we are writing for “From Russia…” which features a predominantly English cast, I have to make an effort to use terms such as “boot” instead of “trunk” when talking about things fetched from the back of a car or “bench” instead of “counter” when describing a kitchen scene. When we are writing for “See You On the Flipside,” meanwhile, Kat has to try to do the opposite. When one of us notices the other using a word that seems out of place, we try to let one another know and explain the appropriate alternative. Of course, I love writing profanity for the English far more than for the Americans. Can you blame me? ‘Bloody’ and ‘bullocks’ can’t be beat!

Sometimes, during editing, a spelling or vocabulary word will slip by me. This is sometimes merely because I didn’t catch it but sometimes it’s due to the fact that I have been talking to Kat, IMing with her and RPing with her, for over six years, almost daily for most of that time and often for hours at a time. We’ve absorbed a lot of one another’s language and writing quirks as well as beginning to be oblivious to one another’s accents.

So all in all…if you happen to notice an unexpected spelling, word, or other English anomaly among our stories…chalk it up to two sides of the great lingual divide pumpin’ it out at about 100 pages a month or more!

Hivemind Writing is a collection of original fiction stories written by Kat Bongard and Kate NY for fun and pleasure. Our genres range from modern day British spies about to face World War Three to pirates and thieves. Fancy a little magic, shape-shifters, or just out to get some romance? We’ve got that too. Art illustrating scenes or characters abounds.

To get updates when new scenes are posted to your favorite stories, follow @hivemindwriting on Twitter, follow a specific story’s tumblr, or follow its RSS feed.

Currently available stories… Please be aware that all stories are rated R for profanity, violence, and explicit sex scenes.

From Russia, With Screwdriver
Two British spies meet while undercover. What follows is intrigue, sex, foreign languages, the occasional bout of violence, and World War III…
New scenes are posted Fridays.

Idle Hands & Sticky Fingers
What do you get when you combine a soldier-for-hire, a cooking weaponsmith thief, a horse thief, and a family of vigilante assassins? Well, add a dash of circus folk, magic-wielding strangers, and pirates, and you get a story plain crazy and fun.
New scenes are posted Saturdays.

See You On the Flipside
For thousands of years, the Flipside has been exiling their criminals, their worst, to the mortal world. Where did you think all those fairy tales came from? Add in a pissed off rocker that all those Kin use to “bridge” back home, a half-Fae prince who’s never learned to control his magic, and things just get more fun from there….
New scenes are posted Wednesdays.

I have just added a “table of contents” sticky post to the “From Russia, With Screwdriver” tumblr. It includes the option to skip to the beginning and read posts in chronological order as well as the ability to skip to specific scenes within chapters. As more scenes are posted, this table of contents (or ToC) will change to make it easier to navigate to other scenes. I will be adding ToC sticky posts to the other stories later, of course.

I have been a little remiss about keeping up on my editing and posting responsibilities with the stories lately, but in light of the fact that Hivemind Writing has received several new followers lately, I will be getting back to work!

As always, the Hivemind Writing twitter account is the best way to be alerted to new scenes posted to the stories: http://www.twitter.com/hivemindwriting At least…until I find some clever magical way to have post alerts appear on this blog. I’m working on it!

I thought it may be worth mentioning that in the event of a scene being illustrated, whether by Kat and I or by someone we commission or as a gift or fan art, the artwork will be featured within that scene’s post. There are a few scenes of “From Russia…” that have been illustrated, for instance, and the artwork will appear in those.

For friends who have tried to sneakily come up with ideas for art gifts for us in the past, be it for birthdays or holidays or random occasions, always feel free to illustrate a scene from one of our stories. We loooooove that.