Barny

I read the gorgeousness passages out whilst in the bath. One of my dogs came and listened, but I can’t say he looked overly impressed…

I think I see what she is saying about them, in terms of them having the sounds and so on as part of the prose, but I didn’t really like two of them on a personal level. The third one was the one that struck me…[Read more]

I agree – using I Remember to find a voice is a super idea. I shall be pinching that one for sure.

I love your I Remember, and particularly the I don’t remember popped in the middle. It’s interesting to see where the exercise takes us.

I enjoyed the Burroway chapter. There were lots of great suggestions to kick start ideas and, like Woolleybeans, I think I shall have to summarise them before they slip away. I’ve seen free writing suggested many times but never tried it. Perhaps now is the time to give it a go.

I struggled to understand the gorgeousness of the pieces in the Le…[Read more]

What a fab idea to use the I remember exercise to find a character’s voice. I shall do that in future. Your ‘I remember’ is very lovely and conjures up so many scenes and senses. It needed several reads to take it all in.

Thank you! I have to admit I developed a bit of a soft spot for wee Jonny!

I’ve only ever used the I Remember exercise for finding a character’s voice before so it felt quite different doing it for myself. I still think doing it for a character is more useful for any actual piece of writing. But I guess this is good for simply getting yourself…[Read more]

Finally read all of Chapter 1 in the Burroway book. It made lots of sense and I can already feel the details slipping away from me… To that end, I am going to try writing myself some summaries of the readings and see if they help it go into my memory better.

Blimey – you did well to get all that dialogue down, Raine! Loving the accent in it. And I remember is so poignant – some of what you’ve written seems so matter-of-fact, yet it is still so full of emotion. Like it.

I’ve always got a soft spot for Kipling’s style – it is so much fun to read aloud to small people. As for the really strong dialect sample (not got my book with me so can’t remember which one that was – about the frog!), I can admire it and enjoy its differentness … but for anything beyond flash length, I’d really have to care about the…[Read more]

WOW. I’ve been out of the Den for these v busy last few weeks rushing around UK and Bulgaria and have just popped in.

THANK YOU @woolleybeans and @raine! I’m so appreciative that you’ve both gone ahead and applied scientific clarity and teacherly experience to this huge project and marshalled it into a manageable form. I am SO KEEN and very…[Read more]

Gorgeousness is clearly in the eye of the beholder 🙂 I’m not fussy for the Kipling or Gloss examples but rate the other two.

I’m on a ferry tmrw, so hoping to do some eavesdropping there… Although the forecast is not marvellous so that may hamper my efforts!
I’m liking some of the exercises in the books so may play with them over the next few days.

Good idea to beautify something already written…it might be easier than trying to do it from scratch if it’s not the way you naturally write.

I’m going to have a go at ‘writing gorgeous’ but I thought I’d pick a passage I’d already written and try and ‘beautify’ it. Personally I think a little of some of the examples goes a long way. The Kipling and the Molly Gloss, I love, and I think that’s because the ‘gorgeousness’ doesn’t obstruct the sense but enhances it. The other two, I’m not…[Read more]

Started on an impromptu dialogue capture while Billy-no-mates in the pub prior to NIBS on Weds. Worst bit is trying to capture the dialogue (background noise, speed of dialogue) and not getting annoyed at people who like the sound of their own voice. 😉 But I now know a lot about CBD oil… and eating peas.

Oh, and does anyone understand what…[Read more]

Thank Jules and Bella. I have now booked a trip to the UK at the end of October (to visit family rather than purely to record people) and I’ll do some recording then.

Ooooh the Hadron Collider is a good one although I did watch a TV programme about it, I think, but still am none the wiser. Funnily enough this was the first exercise I tried. There is something about it that just made me start automatically. By the way, we are all posting in the wrong thread.

Oh, the Hadron Collider! Now there’s something else I know nothing about!
For me, the fun is in the not knowing and the annoyance is trying to list the things that wouldn’t automatically come to mind because I know nothing about them anyway. If that makes sense?

@Seagreen – I’ve just finished reading the first chapter of Burroway and nearly all of the writing prompts make sense to me (in that I can see how I can write something) but the ‘things I know nothing about’ suggestion has me rather stumped.If I truly know nothing about it (and the Mariana Trench qualifies for me, too!) then what is there to…[Read more]