@barrywalsh
Active 4 years, 2 months ago-
Jules replied to the topic Positive thoughts in the forum
CoronaMo 6 years, 2 months agoWell done on the short story acceptance, Doug.
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Squidge posted an update 6 years, 2 months ago
July’s comp is now July-and-August’s comp! If you fancy having a go, check it out here: https://www.denofwriters.com/forums/topic/monthly-comp-july-2020/
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Jules replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago
Pretty sure Stephen King now has a team of fact checkers. But yes I imagine the tone of those letters is gleeful. What I’ll say for King is that even though he’s writing speculative fiction, he portrays characters who’ve had life experiences he has not respectfully. The same cannot be said for Boyne! One of the big problems with The Boy in the…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago
Ah, yes. I take your point Athers. My ignorance obscured it earlier.
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Athelstone replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago
There are degrees to this and a dependency on the type of book being written. I am not searching for an artificial precision in moral culpability. I am not saying that there are some absolute rules at play. I am saying that if you bend the truth to suit your story, while at the same time maintaining that what you write is authentic, then there are…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 6 years, 2 months ago
Athers, I’ve not read Boyne, so took the passage you quote as from a fantasy novel which, in my understanding, means anything goes in the way of made-up words and facts.
On the subject of ‘proper’ research; at Newcastle Noir a couple of years ago, one crime writer told of being asked how many specialists he had on call to help him with research,…[Read more]-
There’s an article in today’s Telegraph referring to this, and mentioning it seems to apply less to film-makers, e.g. Braveheart where kilts were worn 500 years before in use “because they looked better”. Artistic licence, innit?
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Athelstone started the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 6 years, 3 months ago
This is a lightweight blog.
I was just settling down after reading about the astonishing performance by George R R Martin at the Hugo awards, when my son approached brandishing his phone.
‘Look at that,’ he said.
I looked. My son has been a fan of the Zelda video games since he was little. I played a few along with him in the last few years,…[Read more]
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I didn’t gasp – too world weary – but I can see why you’re annoyed, Ath. On a lighter note I was disappointed, having hoped to learn something more about nightshade! Woody nightshade grows in our garden, is pretty and you could imagine the berries being used for dye. It’s also poisonous. But when I got a bit further I’d have switched off if you h…[Read more]
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Here’s a review of the book https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/06/a-traveller-at-the-gates-of-wisdom-by-john-boyne-review-an-ambitious-era-hopping-epic
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Thanks, Libby. A really interesting review. I hadn’t realised that the Zelda mistake was one amongst many. Aside from characters deep in history musing about their peers in the language of C20th psychology, we have ‘…kimonos and obis to the Chinese, igloos to the Norse Icelanders, and steel and horses to pre-Columbian South Americans. Potatoes…[Read more]
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That makes me flippin mad! All the hard work we put into our MSs, and he just… 😫
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Absolutely agree. I accept that the ‘worlds’ we base our stories in have a lot of the unlikely and improbable in them but there is a big difference between that and not bothering to do proper research.
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Squidge posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago
SO sorry, folks – had completely forgotten to check in on the monthly comp! Have no excuse other than I’ve been rather focused on Tilda 3 recently and got carried away.
As it’s already the 4th August, and there were only three entries, does anyone object to it running through this month too? Hopefully get a few more folk having a go?…[Read more]
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I’m happy with your suggestion to extend, @squidge
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No probs.
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I’m happy with that.
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Squidge posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago
Any more for any more on the July comp? Not going to be inundated for judging this time unless there’s a last minute flurry…
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RichardB replied to the topic The $2,000,000 Guitar in the forum Blogs 6 years, 3 months ago
Sadly, I have heard today that Peter Green, without whom this blog wouldn’t have been written, has died at the age of 73.
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RichardB posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago
Something to celebrate on a grey, miserable day – at least it is where I live.
Some of you may remember me posting not long ago about the explosion that destroyed (and I mean destroyed) a house in Seven Sisters, just down the road from me, and how the neighbours (one of whom happens to be a retired firefighter) went in straight away, before t…[Read more]
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Such things as this are good for my own disillusioned heart to know as well. I can never be reminded too many times, people aren’t all bad. Thanks for sharing.
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RichardB replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: The Beginning Place, by Ursula K Le Guin in the forum Blogs 6 years, 3 months ago
Not too challenging, Kaz, if you do what I did and go to abebooks.com. When I looked there were quite a few copies available from various sources.
As for fantasy speaking to human reality, a lot of the tide of stuff that’s come pouring out since LOTR opened the flood-gates simply doesn’t. As a matter of interest here is Le Guin herself’s rather…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoI’m another one whose eyes glaze over at charts, grids, questionnaires and all the rest of it, and find the idea of forcing a story into a set framework very inhibiting. I’d come to suspect that lack of a coherent framework in my writing was one reason I’ve never got on the road to publication, but when I applied the 7 Cs to my last effort it…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoThanks Sea – not heard of the ‘7 Cs’ but it makes perfect sense. Perhaps it is that it can’t be immediately applied from the start, i.e. you (meaning one, and definitely I) have to write quite a lot of scenes involving character and events before the story line appears, after which tweaking into shape can take place.
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Seagreen replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoWhat about ‘Save the Cat’ by Blake Snyder, Sandra? It was one of the recommended reading books when I started Golden Egg.
Regarding plotting, I use the 7 Cs as a framework:
Connection to character – introduction to the character as he is now. Forging a connection i.e. why the reader should care about this person.
Catalyst – Inciting incident.…[Read more]-
Thank you, Seagreen. The 7 Cs is the most useful and memorable framework I’ve seen – and one comes across a lot of them. Definitely the 7 Cs is a mnemonic to save for next time I need to think about plots.
Many plotting techniques remind me of ‘My Way’. Techniques, I’ve seen a few/many/umpteen, but then again too few to mention.
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Sandra replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoI’m relieved to hear I’m not the only one to have been unable to find a theoretical how-to-plot scheme that works for them, and I really have tried because plotting is certainly what I find hardest, not being a natura story-teller.
Screenwriter Jeremy Sheldon did a brilliant presentation at a Festival of Writing weekend, (2014?) and I’ve been…[Read more] -
Squidge replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoI always sit in on these ‘story arc’ kinds of sessions in the hope I’ll find one that works for me. I never have…
I do have two that help remind me of the essentials though.
The triangle…I learnt it on the self edit course (now run by Jericho Writers) and blogged about it here:…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update 6 years, 3 months ago
Any more takers for the July comp? We’re halfway through the month…
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Go on! You know you want to. It’s only 400 words. Don’t let me be the winner by default – I want my brilliant words to do it!
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I’m half way through an entry.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoThis is about as not stupid a question as I can think of. In essence it’s ‘how do you write’. The supposed divide (classically) is between pantsers and plotters. Plotters, apparently, plan every detail, before they begin. Every chapter and plot point is set out. if a chapter should end with a challenging hook, then it’s there in the plan. Once the…[Read more]
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I think most of us are probably ‘Plantsers’ in reality. And yeah, it means you do end up on the wrong path sometimes. Lots of times, actually… I’m trying to sort one out at the mo in Tilda #3, and it’s hard to back-track and find the point where you actually first stepped off the path.
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I’m convinced that you need to be both a planner and a pantser – yes, a planster. The planning and pantsing parts of your brain need to find a way not to just to give each other space but to support each other.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 3 months agoI start with a name – a character who rattles a stick along the boundaries of my subconscious. Someone who, when I am not looking, will sneak through a gap in the railings and broadcast snippets of conversation to pique my interest. If this character stalks me when I am waling the dog, or when I’m driving, then I might allow him/her free-write…[Read more]
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