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Athelstone posted an update 5 years, 7 months ago
“I don’t care where you’ve been, You ain’t been nowhere till you’ve been in – the Things that go Bump writing challenge.”
Find the group. Join. Enjoy.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
390 words.
Prison? Or exile?
My senses woke – to unfamiliar birdsong and the whisper of wind through long grasses; to the brush of warm air across my skin and the scent of lemon lavender and rose petals spiced with cinnamon; to the taste of salt-tinged air on honeyed lips. I stretched, easing joints taut with inactivity, then opened my mind t…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp: July 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
Congratulations to all (of us), especially @Janette 🙂
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Athelstone posted an update 5 years, 7 months ago
A bump never hurt anyone – well, unless it did. Anyway, BUMP. Don’t forget the short story writing challenge! If that means little, hurry over to the group “Things that go bump!” and be enlightened (You’ll have to join to read the forum). Preferably make a choice and take part.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 7 months agoIt certainly was memorable. A superb short story with two perfectly-flawed protagonists. The first challenge on the new site – started on the Cloud and rebooted here.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 7 months agoAway, believer, cup
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 8 months agoHah! Completely unintentional but the choices are taking on something of the evangelical hymn titles I remember from my Methodist upbringing.
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“Onward Denion soldiers” you mean?
Yeah, and for the first time in these challenges, my mind keeps trying to force a story in advance of the theme.
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Away, unbeliever. Watch!
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Lol
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Athelstone replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 8 months agoMy selections, chosen for me by our wonderful administrator, Jules, are:
Away, Believer, Watch
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Athelstone started the topic Things that go bump in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Well, I’ve gone and done it again. Time for a short story challenge I believe. This one has a ghostly and supernatural theme. If you’d like to find out more then hurry over to the group Things that go bump. Once you have joined, you can read all about it in the forum.
You know you want to.
You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
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Phew – it’s been on mind for the past week or two … on my way.
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That time of year already. Hooray.
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Athelstone replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 months ago
Fascinating, Richard. Rich’s words may have been ahead of their time, but that serves to emphasise how persistent the root causes of these disasters are. We still do it, even with our modern safety culture. Sadly, there are forces working to erode what gains have been made. The “Health & Safety Gone Mad” slogan may not belong to a formal campaign;…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 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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Athelstone started the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 8 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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Seagreen replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 9 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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Athelstone replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 9 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 5 years, 9 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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Seagreen joined the group
A place for Stupid Questions 5 years, 9 months ago -
Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: The Beginning Place, by Ursula K Le Guin in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
Aha, this was the first Ursula K Le Guin book that I read and it made quite an impression on me.
I think you’ve put your finger on why a mixture of normality and fantasy is so effective. The magic becomes a metaphor for the way that changes happen in our lives. As well as providing entertainment for those of us who like a bit of magic in our…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp: July 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 9 months ago
Month of the Cat
To be clear, although Gus didn’t get on with the cat, he was never cruel to it. When his wife, Mildred, died he didn’t want to go on taking care of it.
‘It’s vindictive,’ he said, ‘it kills half a dozen birds every day. It craps on the decking, wrecks my flower borders, and last week it scratched up the wallpaper.’…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition: June 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 9 months ago
Congratulations, Squidge. Great story.
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Thanks, Ath. Dare I say it was something I rushed off? Not sure why, but they seem to be the better of my short pieces. Perhaps because I didn’t examine it too much?
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