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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
Winter is a-drawing in. Throw another log on the cat and pull up your writing gear. Time to turn your attention to matters of ancient tradition. Yonder peasant is freezing to death looking for Wenceslas’s famously warm footprints, the Daddy Longlegs are queuing up to die on your carpet, and the Winter Short Story Challenge is here! This is a…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoPost wherever the fancy takes you – the activity stream is fine. If you want to start something, in the nicest possible way, that will be easily accessible and not scroll out of sight, here’s a good place.
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Athelstone started the topic Q&A in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoIf you have to ask…
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Athelstone started the topic Voting in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoOn the face of it, what you have to do is quite simple. However, those of you have been through this before in previous challenges will know that in fact it is extraordinarily tough.
When the writing stage of the challenge closes on 2 February 2025 at 22:00 UK time, the voting stage begins. No doubt most of you will have read many of the entries…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Rules in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoSome Basic Story Rules and Guidelines
The challenge is to produce a short story. In the way that the term is usually understood, what is needed is a work of fiction. By all means stretch this definition as you like, to include, for example, an imaginative account of true events, but please avoid essays, reportage, political polemic,…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Welcome PLEASE READ THIS FIRST in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoWelcome all.
This year, I have borrowed from the method often used in the monthly competition. The theme of the challenge, A Different Time, is a prompt. That is to say, look at the phrase and use it in any of the multitude of possible ways that occur. You might choose to write an historical piece, or a recollection of something that happened in…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
**A smol warning for all the darkness most foul; my headspace is aging like fine wine, and therapy is expensive ????**
<p style=”text-align: center;”>_________________________________________________</p>
<p style=”text-align: center;”>Home</p>
There were dreams I slipped into and out of. Through their haze I saw a prince and castle, figments of…[Read more] -
Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
Well, it’s September. Something is usually afoot by now, but I’ve been tied up with finishing a draft and editing, amongst other things. Is the formula too tired? Anybody up for another spot of winter writing?
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I’m up for it, Ath. I find the comp helpful and reading other people’s stories helps my writing too. What about setting a choice of three general topics but without the choices about objects – would that make your and Jules’ lives easier? So, I don’t know, a story concerning either love, crime or war. Maybe too a longer deadline for joining the…[Read more]
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I’m up for winter writing, Ath. I haven’t been around here much because I’ve been busy with both book two (currently being typeset by Leigh Forbes) and three (less than halfway through first draft) as well as trying to promote and sell book one. Several book fairs and talks about using my own epilepsy in fiction lined up in the near future. But I…[Read more]
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Jolly good! I shall put my thinking-cap on.
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Brilliant!
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
I’m usually a late respondant, and as Libby says it is a busy month.
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
Thanks, Sandra. I’ve started a story – it probably works better with the After the Funeral theme. I doubt I’ll manage two stories. September is a busy month 🙂 I like it, the busyness and back to school feeling.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
Well that’s excellent. I don’t think she’s the kind of person who makes that stuff up!
If it’s any help (it won’t be) I had good vibes from a couple of book doctor people, followed by disasters with agents. I think I picked badly.
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I think it’s hard to know how to pick well. As with Richard’s experience of agents, it seems the unadmitted part of their job description is to have narrow vision. We know they will want MSs that are often versions of what already sells but they don’t add that this discrimination can be taken to a fine degree.
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Which isn’t to deny the pressured commercial environment they work it, just that authors can be turned down for seemingly odd or circular reasons, the ‘nobody reads stories about [insert topic of novel]’ type of response.
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I think you’re right on all points. I know that it’s probably more a tendency of agents from the larger, more commercial agencies, and that it isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s clearly a factor. We live in a world where many shops and stores no longer choose what to stock; the algorithms determine what is or is not delivered to the shelves. So…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
A bit off-topic, but hey, this is the coffee shop, right?
I too have a huge amount of respect for Emma Darwin. And she gave me the happiest moment of my writing career.
The only time I went to the York Festival I (naturally, considering what I’ve just said) booked a book doctor slot with her. Mine was the first slot of the day, and as we sat…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
Emma’s writing is just marvellous.
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Libby started the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
Substack has settled in my life. I don’t publish posts and I rarely comment on or even record a like on other people’s posts. But for me it’s a useful and interesting resource on ‘how to write better’ – the nuts and bolts stuff of the craft – and a reinforcement of the impetus to write in the first place. The latter is the exciting part, though…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 1 year, 7 months agoBrilliant. Thanks Seagreen.
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