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  • @katemachon glad it makes some sense & hope it’s helpful! 🙂

    @philippaeast that’s so interesting. The thing that’s always drawn me to this model is how it really explores the psychology of the character and how that drives their interactions with the external world. BUt I’d never made the comparison between that and things like the stages of…[Read more]

  • Raine posted an update 8 years ago

    Dara MArks’ Transformational Arc came up in my regional NaNoWriMo chat board, so I’ve posted my notes as a blog to share with them. Nod to the wonderful, lovely and eloquent Craig Taylor who introduced me to this, and who I’d happy adopt. 😀

  • To allow me to share this wider, I’m posting my notes on the Transformational Arc from Dara Marks’ book ‘Inside Story’.

    Here’s the pretty graph itself:

    Dara Marks’ Transformational Arc

    The Transformational Arc expands/combines the basic character arc and 3 act structures into this:

    Act I: Character is in ‘Resistance’ – at the start of…[Read more]

  • Raine posted an update 8 years ago

    Been doing research for new wip today. Photos of the Llyn peninsula, stats on welsh cob ponies AND OS MAPS YAY FOR OS MAPS

    • I did wonder, many moons ago, when I was thinking where to set a WIP, whether a forum for writers to exchange places might be helpful. I live by the sea in Finistere for example so if anyone ever wanted to set a novel in that sort of environment, I would be happy to send photos and information and when, like now, I am thinking of setting something…[Read more]

      • Can’t help in this instance. You can’t get a lot further from where I live and still be in Wales, isn’t it?

        • Ohmigosh – we went to the Lleyn EVERY year for holidays. I remember having shop-bought Victoria sponge on the beach on my birthday in June… Nefyn, Morfa Nefyn, Whistling Sands, Llanbedrog, Baa-Lamb Beach (our name for it, no idea what it was really called!) Abersoch and Aberdaron… Happy days.

          • I had a holiday there in the eighties, on a farm somewhere near Abersoch and Hell’s Mouth (delightful name – Porth Neigwl in Welsh). I particularly remember the day we went to the pub in the nearest village. I left the wife and kids at a table in the garden and went into the bar to order. There were a good thirty people in that room and a fair bit…[Read more]

      • Anna replied 8 years ago

        I loved reading The Price of Water in Finistere, and had the pleasure of visiting there many years ago. You’re lucky to live in such a wild and beautiful place, Jane.

        • Oh, Hell’s Mouth! We didn’t go there often – saved it for really awful days, but you could lean 45 degrees into the wind and get held up. We used to find allsorts on the beach, washed up. I think that’s where it got it’s name from, cos all the shipwrecked bodies used to wash up there…

        • Just looked The Price of Water up on amazon, @anna. Sounds interesting. I’ll have to put it on my TBR pile.

      • Jane I am in and out of the Calder valley area of W.Yorks and thoroughly recommend it as a novel setting – get your Bronte/Ted Hughes/Gallows Pole on, sort of thing. Happy to provide pics, though I am very much a “smartphone photograhper”. As I write fantasy it doesn’t feature per se but it is certainly an inspiring spot.

    • Oh, good luck with that one, Raine – I love doing research, but alas can’t help you on this occasion.
      I love the idea of a group to share locations though, @janeshuff. I’m basing my wip on West Yorkshire (where I live), namely the 60s era, but am more than willing to share info on my part of town.

      • Ooh thank you Jonathan and Janette. I’ll message you with my email address. I’m at the very early stage at the moment.

    • Raine replied 8 years ago

      @janeshuff, that sort of forum would be great wouldn’t it? Perhaps worth setting one up sometime.
      @squidge & @richardb, it’s a gorgeous place, isn’t it? I had a couple of trips there to stay at a residential welsh language school in the most stunning, stark, kind of depressing setting. I love all those abandoned mines/quarrys/houses. Softer than…[Read more]

  • Raine replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    So SloMoNoWriMo (!!) looks a go-er! Perhaps a group (no need to be private, I’d have thought) where we can each post our daily intentions/plans/progress, so we can mutually cheer each other on (in slow motion). Whether the plan be just some words, or edit a chapter, or plan a short, or whatever. Or even have a break day (yay for break days filled…[Read more]

  • Jules replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    Also up for SloMo. Sounds fun 😊

  • Woolleybeans replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    Totally up for SlowMo.

  • Daedalus posted an update 8 years ago

    I have to say I’m a little disappointed. The Den gets its first spammer and they didn’t even post a wacky blog about plastics or grass. Dull. Must try harder

    • Libby replied 8 years ago

      For a writers’ site they could have tried a bit more to understand the reader’s perspective 🙂

      • I kniw, right? If there’s one thing we’re not going to respond well to, it’s a lack of imagination

  • Love London and her Shadow.

  • Most of them are good, but I particularly like ‘Two Cities and the Void’ and ‘London and her Shadow’

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    I like Raine’s suggestion of December. It would allow those doing NaNo to keep up a bit of momentum while not having to keep to such a ferocious pace, and is soon enough that folk not doing NaNo have something to look forward to. And it could be a good way of getting Room With A View entries done

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    I’d be up for SloMoWriMo

  • A Story of No Importance
    Or, Lady Wokingham’s Ban
    Or, Baloné: A Tragedy in One Act

    Was meeting the in-laws ever straightforward? Alton reflected on the frosty atmosphere as he pushed his food around his plate. Gwen gave him a smile when her mother’s attention was otherwise engaged but he could tell she felt as awkward as him. Every topic of conv…[Read more]

  • Ooh I love a good title debate.

    Tbh, I’m not a fan of ‘The {x persons}’s {female relative}. BEcause a) there’s been a gazillion of them, and b) it reduces the woman/girl to an addendum to their male relative. Also, I think ‘The Time-stealers Daughter’ is too close to The Time Traveller’s Wife for me. I know that’s adult, and a bit dated now, but…[Read more]

  • Raine replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    😀 @seagreen. Perhaps December could be a Den SloMoWriMo, because December and writing do not appear to ever co-exist anyway!

  • Great story Elle, well done. I agree with Philippa about that line!

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    I completely understand, and I tend to have the same issue. For me, the fact that NaNo is only a month means I can feel a bit more comfortable turning down the quality filter. I do like to construct first drafts carefully (I don’t really know any other way) but that’s far from the main reason I don’t write much. For me, the main challenge is in…[Read more]

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    @raine – you just post your word counts for each day, but towards the end of the month you can ‘validate’, which is to say, you paste all your written words into NaNo’s special word counting window, and it counts it and confirms your totals. This is so you can prove you’ve written what you say you’ve written, and also makes sure everyone is…[Read more]

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    NaNo generally works for me because I am patchy about my output the rest of the time, and my biggest challenge is just getting enough words down on paper to work on. That said, I can totally understand why it doesn’t work for some people, and in fairness there have been years when it worked brilliantly for me and other years when I churned out…[Read more]

  • Raine replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 8 years ago

    😀 @jd73 Although 1,666 isn’t much less daunting!

    So I am signing up, but making myself no promises. We’ll see. I need to do some serious planning before it kicks off. I think I’m raine_clouds on there.

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