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Hilary joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
JaneShuff posted an update 6 years, 7 months ago
Every single person in my novel is caucasian (which is a serious problem)and I want to introduce a character who isn’t but I’m absolutely terrified of getting it wrong. He’ll play neither a big nor a stereotypical role and I don’t want his enthnicity to be any more of a thing that another character’s hair colour and Scottish accent. Any pointers?…[Read more]
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Hi Jane, you don’t say where your setting is but for the UK you can give him a non Caucasian name and that will be sufficient?
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@janeshuff, my book is full of varied ethnicity because of the region I’ve set it in. To help, I have gone with what I know. First, I looked at who I knew personally, who might help me factually. Secondly, people I know or have known more remotely, have inspired other characters and I took notes of what I remembered about them. In addition, I s…[Read more]
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I’m inclined towards Libby’s way. You’re not out to solve the problems of a multiracial society, so if you start planting hints and plot devices then you’ll end up with the author waving at the readers.
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Hi Jane, You can tie yourself in knots, trying to be PC and non-culturally appropriative (if that’s a word: it is now) and not offend anybody. I read an article a while ago, suggesting that if you have a walk-on part using someone called ‘Steve’, change his name to ‘Sanjay’ and leave it at that. i.e. doing just what Steve did with Steve’s joys and…[Read more]
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Thank you all. Extremely helpful as always.
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Kate replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoI agree with Bella that a bit of structure would be nice. It would give me a bit of a push to get going. I also think feedback is invaluable and am always willing to try and supply some.
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Libby posted an update 6 years, 7 months ago
I’d recommend How Not to Write a Novel to anyone. It’s helpful and very funny. However the lack of index is annoying, unless newer editions have one.
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PS the author’s new novel has had rave reviews too.
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That was the first book about writing I ever read – bought it for my daughter – and one of the very, very few whose advice I remember well enough to follow.
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Me too. Is that because it also pointed out how writing could go horribly wrong? I remember, ‘Wearing only his underpants, she watched her boyfriend swim across the lake.’ :-))
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It’s all the substitute for ‘he said that so resonated with me.
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Oh, yes.
‘Funny?’ she interrogated.
‘Hilarious!’ he expostulated.
‘Surely not!’ she declared.
‘But how to you know?’ he exclaimed.
‘Says you!’ she objected.
‘That’s the last thing I’m willing to say,’ he concluded.And that’s just some of them.
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I love the book. It was reassuring to see mistakes I knew I was avoiding – and be gently reminded of some that I WAS making, without realising!
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Squidge posted an update in the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoBeen checking out the required texts… I’m getting a bit bogged down in Sin and Syntax, (for saying the author’s currently talking about brevity, she’s going the long way round to say a lot of it!) but Writing Fiction looks easier to read. Bird by Bird’s one of my most accessible reads (was given it as a gift some years ago), and I’d add How Not…[Read more]
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Daedalus joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
Jules joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
Squidge posted an update in the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoWilling to have a go at this… Not sure how it’ll be structured in terms of posting – presumably a new forum for each unit, with each person posting within the forum? Hope it’s pretty clear, as I ‘lose’ threads so often!
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Squidge joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
Bella replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoIn theory I think the structure of a timetable is helpful. In practice, especially for a project as huge as this, I just don’t see people sticking to it very closely. Even in the self-edit course people were very variable in their contributions and that was only 6 weeks. That said, no harm in devising a timetable for people to (try to) stick to. I…[Read more]
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoI sort of assumed we might work through each unit on the Craft Seminar as a group, posting exercises for comment the same way we did on the Self-Edit course when I did it. I find the structure of a timetable (however gentle and slow it is) works better for me.
What does everyhbody else feel?
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Athelstone replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoHi Jane, do we need a common start time as it’s a DIY course? I imagine it would be nice/useful to have people at roughly the same stage, for support and encouragement, but real life and so on.
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Athelstone posted an update 6 years, 7 months ago
URGENT!!! The weekend approaches. If you wish to enter the challenge “Songs of Innocence and Experience” then you only have until Tuesday at 22:00 to join the eponymous group and make your choices.
MORE IMPORTANT STILL there are several Denizens who have joined the group but have yet to POST their choices. You must both join AND post to be in…[Read more]
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PS I’m travelling around until Monday PM (family wedding) so probably won’t be able to answer questions until then.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoYes, just been on Amazon to have a look. There’s a revised edition of Bird by Bird due out in January. Do you have any thoughts when we might start? I’d quite like to save some money by having books delivered to the UK and getting visitors in mid October or end of November to bring them over to France and I’ll need to get a move on for mid…[Read more]
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Kate replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoA daunting amount of material, but nobody said writing would be easy.
Thanks for setting this up Raine. -
Kate joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
Athelstone replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoThanks for kicking all this off, Raine!
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Seagreen joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months ago -
Raine started the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 7 months agoHere’s the link to the syllabus. When we set up each unit/module, I can post the relevant excerpt there, but this is the whole thing, for reference.
https://wille.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WilleSyllabusDIYMA2019v1.1.pdf
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