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Nicole Winchester 📚

@nicolewinchester.bsky.social

400 followers 1.1K following 690 posts

Writer and reader of horror, fantasy, spec fic, drama, humor... a little of everything. 🚫AI WRITING CAN F OFF. PEOPLE, NOT ALGORITHMS. ✊ Find some of my stories at winchesterfiction.com Enjoy other things at nicolewinchester.substack.com

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 5d

It's finally here! 🎉 My short story "Unicorn Farm" and great stories from other authors is out in the Autumn 2025 edition of The Colored Lens! 14.99 paperback and 4.99 on kindle! 🦄 #writingsky #shortstory #authorsky #fantasy #booksky
www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTL7GQV...

The Colored Lens: Autumn 2025

Amazon.com: The Colored Lens: Autumn 2025 eBook : Brinegar, Rachael, Newkirk, David, Hoyt, Ellie, McIntosh, Parker, Klass, Judy, Vance, Michael, Clairval, Gio, Morrey, Josh, Apsley, JS, Docherty, Stuart: Kindle Store

www.amazon.com

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 1h

I just wrote what I thought was a brilliant analogy yesterday, between psychologically anchoring yourself during an emotional storm and the bus in Speed that has to go over 50 mph or it will explode. Then I looked back today and said WTF was I trying to get at?

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4h

I hate that writers also have to be marketers, too, unless you hit the jackpot and get an agent and a big 5 publisher. Even then they expect you to shill yourself on your socials.

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4h

#awesomecharacters
The Messenger: Miranda and Gabriel do go on a very long trek. If it wasn't so life-and-death, Gabriel would spend the time singing to Miranda with his perfect voice.

American Buddha: Jim would blast 90's grunge rock the whole time: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Nirvana.

Charlie Delta (has been a ghost this whole time! 👻) @charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 5h

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters

Ok about to have a long drive. Might post this and dip for a bit (but I will be back!)

So, tell me how your characters keep themselves occupied during a long horse/car/ship trip!

Games? Stories? Podcasts?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4h

You can't ask an insane man to stop being insane. Do something yourself. You're the governor.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 1d

In the face of unlawful ICE raids, Chicago is doing what it does best: towing thier cars instantly lolol 🤭

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 1d

#wipsnips #writesky #writingcommunity #writingprompts
Jim's ex goes into labor and Jim has to fight off his demons at the same time.

Jim despised hospitals more than he hated himself. They reminded him of all the death he’d been exposed to as a child. Without the ambient noises, that left him with only the voice in his head, the one that had never shut up since the last time he’d seen the inside of a hospital.
Lucia’s going to die, it told him. That will be your part of The Curse. Something will go wrong with the delivery. Lucia will bleed out. The baby won’t survive. And then you’ll die, too.
He’d watched Lucia push and scream through several brutal hours of labor. When it became apparent that neither she or the baby or Jim were going to die immediately, his voice told him about how shitty of a father he was going to be.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

#awesomecharacters Jim doesn't really know the meaning of success because he fails so much in life. On the rare occasions when he succeeds at something, his inner voice rips him down to remind him it won't last.

Charlie Delta (has been a ghost this whole time! 👻) @charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters

We talked before about how your character handles failure, let's do the opposite: how do they handle success?

Are they a good winner? Do they gloat? Feel like they still need to do more? Downplay their role?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

#wipsnips #writesky #writingcommunity #writingprompts
Jim goes to his new therapist for the first time.

“Well, doc—I mean, Ben—I’m here because my sister is delusional. She’s under the impression that I need this.”
The etiquette of therapy was that you were supposed to want to be helped: he knew that, but it was better to be up front about the hopelessness of this endeavor. The doctor flipped through his paperwork as he spoke.
“And you live with your sister, correct?”
Jim cringed. “Yeah.” Living with your unmarried adult sister was always a weird thing for him to admit to anyone.
“Why do you think she wants you to go to therapy so much, then, since she’s the one paying for it?”
Going straight for the throat, he was.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

last book: We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

current read: The Happiness Trap by Dr. Russ Harris

newest add to tbr: Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom

eagerly waiting for: I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (it's been in my library requests since may and I'm number 3 in line)

Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 3d

bookish checkpoint 📝

✧ last book: wisteria by adalyn grace

✧ current read(s): perils of the past, holly, no earthly sunne

✧ newest adds to the tbr: i found the first three books in the nightrunner series at a used book store!

✧ eagerly waiting for: sunrise on the reaping! (i know, i am slow)

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

Ooh, sounds somewhat like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch!

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

#awesomecharacters Jim is the messiest person to have ever lived. His room is a sty. His pet rat could live off the petrified food under his bed. He has never planned more than a week ahead in his life. In short, he's an absolute dumpster fire.

Charlie Delta (has been a ghost this whole time! 👻) @charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 3d

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters

Is your character organized and methodical, or more chaotic?

Do they prefer to plan things out carefully, or be spontaneous and improvise?

Do they keep their belongings neat and tidy, or are they a bit messy?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"The QC is contaminated."

Scarlet Lee Winters @luxindulgences.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Then he entered her."

Capricorn Iscariot @deaconblues1979.bsky.social · 3d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Mixed inclusion ratio trust"

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 3d

American Buddha: Jim's sister, Carla, has been housing and supporting her brother for most of her adult life and she's frankly sick of it.

The Messenger: Gabriel's brother Michael is one of the driving antagonists of the story, concerned only with his role as a warrior and God's servant.

Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 3d

Does your MC have any siblings? Are they part of the story? What are they like? #WritingPrompt

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 3d

#wipsnips #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writesky
Mike, Jim's ex's boyfriend, gets the present for Jim's son that he couldn't afford himself.

Jim’s spirits fell a little. Of course, he knew someone would pull through and get it. It just seemed improbable that someone would pay more than the thing cost just for the insane expedited shipping fee.
“Wow!” yelled Dylan. “Thank you, Mike!”
Jim could tell from the look on Mike’s face that he hadn’t actually gotten it. Lucia had absolutely bought it—probably with Mike’s money, though—and then stuck Mike’s name on it. Jim’s mom used to do the same thing with his presents to other people when he was a kid.
“You’re welcome, Dyl,” said Mike obediently, after getting a meaningful look from Lucia.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 3d

500 words a day has been my goal. Didn't reach it, but it keeping a daily wordcount diary helped me keep track of when I was slipping and reminded me to write.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

But I did succeed in writing a query letter for American Buddha when I finally finish and start querying it, so there's that.

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

I always seem get writer's block in two places: when I start a new chapter and when I have to block out the climax of the chapter. Those seem like the two most important parts, and it takes so much more effort to push through them. #amwriting #amediting #writersky #writingcommunity

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

#pretendpanel #writingcommunity #writers #authors #writingprompts I just hope people can understand what I was getting at, without me being there to explain it. The Messenger captures a zeitgeist of this particular moment in time. I want them to have something to pick at and know my inner brain.

Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 4d

#pretendpanel, I'm at a retreat over the next few days so I am incorrigibly absent! However, tell me...

October 10th: Writing and reading are kinds of necromancy. How do you hope your writing will hold/reflect your ghost after you're gone?

#WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

#pretendpanel
a daily prompt tag hosted by @hiriadunning.bsky.social
October 10th: Writing and reading are kinds of necromancy. How do you hope your writing will hold/reflect your ghost after you're gone?
Please support your fellow #pretentpanel posters with replies, likes and reposts
New #pretendpanel questions every Friday and Saturday. Hop in any time!

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

Think of all the manuscripts we DID lose, and will never know about...

a man in a blue tank top is holding his chest and making a face .

ALT: a man in a blue tank top is holding his chest and making a face .

media.tenor.com

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

I just entered #RevPit #10Queries. Enter now for a chance to win free feedback on your query and 1st 5 pages.

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

The Messenger: An angel and a self-proclaimed witch have to rely on each other to live through the end of the world.

American Buddha: Jim Erlenmeyer has spent his life with mental illness and self loathing, until a psychotic break leads him down path he's certain will cure him... or kill him.

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 4d

Live young, die fast?

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Reposted by Nicole Winchester 📚

Three👁️ Eyed👁️ Devil👁️ @anarcish.bsky.social · 5d

Portland was honestly made for this moment. We’re gonna help defeat fascism by putting a bird on it.

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Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 5d

That moment of self doubt when you're not sure if you need to delete half of your chapter or not uugh...
#writingcommunity #writesky #authorsky

Nicole Winchester 📚 @nicolewinchester.bsky.social · 5d

#wipsnips #writesky #writingprompts #writingcommunity
I'll have to get creative with "battery" and use the verb form - violent physical contact. Jim's not in a good headspace here. He lost his job and can't afford anything for his son's birthday.

TW: self harm

Jim backed out of the driveway, drove out of the neighborhood, pulled over into the edge of someone else’s yard, and dug into a case of beer. The warm liquid fizzed over onto his pants and seat when he opened a can. He chugged until he had to pause for breath. Even though he knew it was useless, Jim searched for the hoodie blind box combo again on his phone. He’d been wrong about the price. It was actually one hundred and twenty dollars, plus a small fortune in shipping to get it to Texas in time for Dylan’s birthday party.
Jim put his phone and beer down and slapped himself as hard as he could across the face.

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