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Writing Club - July 2026 (slrpnk.net)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/writing@slrpnk.net
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Welcome to the 25th writing club update! 😊

I hope you've all found some nice cozy spots in the shade, to do some creative thinking or writing. Or perhaps some of you have been taking a break, there's nothing wrong with that either!

The usual info about how this writing club update works:

To anyone stumbling upon this post and wondering about the rules – there really aren’t any! This is a club for mostly the same regulars and semi-regulars, but visitors are encouraged to comment on writing updates or share their own. The main idea is to set a goal for yourself and try to achieve it by the next month’s update. :)

Feel free to comment and tell us how things are going for you, regarding writing, creative works, and everything related!

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[–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

I applaud the research! At first glance that actually sounds like it might be a bit overkill depending on what kind of forging they're doing - a single solar concentrator made from a fresnel lens from a large rear projection TV is enough to burn a hole through a skill saw blade on its own. That wouldn't be a great experience for forging (though I'm still planning to set one up and try it out) but if you can burn steel you can technically do forge welding. It's just that the concentration of heat on such a small area would be really unpleasant/impractical to work with.

I'd be interested to see the math if you've still got it, it's extremely possible I'm way off and you'd need way more light for a really effective forge. I would have figured even a dozen mirrors would be sufficient.

Wait are they smelting steel too? That would be closer to those molten salt solar thermal towers out west or the big parabolic mirror/heliosat combo the smelters use IRL.

When I was learning from a blacksmith we used coal, he favored it because it was traditional and you could do forge welding (propane forges don't get hot enough) - I couldn't really manage the temp on my little diy forge well enough to do do it often but he had a full out smithy with the big brick forge, bellows, and everything, and I learned there. Mostly I made basic stuff with thin stock I found at the dump, hooks and shelf brackets and such. At his forge we made andirons, trivets, railings, and all sorts of heavier or fancier stuff.

I'm between forges at the moment but I'd really like to get into blacksmithing again. If I ever build my solar forge I figure it'll probably be a single big screen fresnel lens on an adjustable frame, with a brick lined fire pot laid out so the focal point isn't concentrated completely on the work but instead diffused over a wider area. I don't expect it to work anywhere near as well as even my rickity old coal forge but as long as it's equivalent or better than a burnzomatic propane torch will no shielding it'll be a step up from where I'm at now.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Oh this isn't a normal blacksmith forge. It's a huge thing with loads of workers. Like a mini industrial foundry.

    The concentrated solar energy is used to melt steel inside silicon carbide crucibles. You put your steel in and send er up! Once melted, they bring it down and pour it out into molds or they can direct the concentrated sunlight down into a pseudo crucible (an oven, really) that heats the object to workable temperatures.

    They've got it down to a science, literally.

    Then my protagonist comes along and tells them about the Bessemer process and the blacksmith (his dad) is like, "well FUCK! We just revamped the whole forge two years ago!"

    There's a forger's guild and they're super excited about the information the MC gave them and all the blacksmiths in the guild are rushing to be the first to get that process working.

    My MC was a biologist in their past life, but they're all into this forge stuff! From their perspective, they are like a forger's guild superstar, haha. Even nearby royalty are trying to get his attention (steal him away to their countries). Even though he wasn't really an expert on metallurgy in his past life. He just knows a bit more than the current world's level of technology.

    Then he accidentally gets himself stuck as a girl at age ~13.5 by being hexed by a witch into a Common Reed Frog for a month (that species can change its sex under certain conditions). Hahaha.

    Suddenly the forger's guild isn't interested in her anymore. She's tiny! She can't wield a hammer or move heavy steel works!

    She ends up getting stuck working as a seamstress apprentice for ~2.5 years, waiting for the [Shapeshifter] [Sex Change] skill to unlock (it's an "adults-only skill" so The System won't let her use it until then).

    This entire time he/she has been trying to min/max their build. Unlock all the skills! Level them up to max level! Which is the attitude that got him stuck as her in the first place.

    I've got all sorts of cool "tech uplift" stuff in the story:

    • MC upgrades the biogas system to bubble the gas through slaked lime to remove the CO2 to make it burn hotter (she ends up needing all those crushed sea shells and limestone later for [Bone Shaping] which lets her make stuff out of bone).
    • The process of refining aluminum starts: Bayer process, then struggling to make magnets and electricity for the Hall–Héroult process.
    • Explaining the process to make flat glass (pouring on molten tin) and trying to come up with a way to do that with solar energy.
    • Loads and loads of ceramic pipes in and out of the volcano, haha.
    • Sulfur harvesting to make, well, everything haha.
    • Trying to remember how to make silver nitrate to make good mirrors.

    Etc etc.

    All while this is going on, she's an unhinged maniac, bleeding herself as much as possible every day to level up her [Blood Production] skill (which she unlocked after getting her first period! Haha).

    She also laid hundreds of frog eggs when she was stuck as a frog and now those "kids" are growing up as sapient half human frogs. They need bedtime stories! Hehe.

    It's a comedy and I have so much silliness to cover, I don't think I could cram it all into a traditional publishing format without sacrificing a lot of the world building that I want to do.

    I know that's a classic mistake! Too much detail! However, if I squeeze a little bit in every chapter and focus on character development, maybe I can keep the reader interested throughout it all 🤷

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