Chrissy

Hi @Daedalus

Thanks for taking time out to answer my thoughts.

I hadn’t thought of it that way before, that film/video is better at placing significant information in the background of shots. That’s something that can be difficult in writing — at least I find it difficult — and often requires a setting to be introduced earlier than the.…[Read more]

2014-15 – Here and There

2015-16 – Not in Kansas Any More

2016-17 – Now and Then

2017-18 – Whispers and Glances

2018-19 – A Room with a View

Those were the ones I took part in. I think there may have been one or two before I joined the Cloud, one of them called Intercity.

And quite right it is too!

Am I right in supposing that at least three of the four listed stories from Denizens were from Den or Cloud winter challenges? (Mine was from the 2016-17 challenge, which iirc was the penultimate one to be wholly staged on the Cloud)

Brilliant news Richard – a fantastic story that absolutely deserves the recognition, and that goes for the writer too

Brilliant news, Richard! Many congratulations.

And Kate too. Really good.

Is that yours in second place, Richard!! Huge congratulations.

Hi Knicks – what sort of editorial review are you looking for. There is the pretty standard book doctor report, a deeper developmental edit that I’ve heard of offered by Jericho, or mentoring.

I’ve recently gone down the mentoring path, because I wanted the opportunity for some personal back and forth with an editor, rather than just a book…[Read more]

Not bad at all!

Congrats to the long and shortlistees! I’ve only just noticed that my story was on the longlist – as I’d already resigned myself to not being listed, missing out on the shortlist does not come as a blow, but I’m delighted for Richard and Kate, best of luck to both of you!

Sorry for delay in replying to your very interesting thoughts @libby, but I’ve been neck deep in work lately.

Re modernists etc using the techniques and ideas of psychic distance before Gardner codified it. Yes, absolutely, a large measure of what he was doing was identifying techniques that were already out there. I would suggest that his…[Read more]

Congratulations @alex . Well deserved.

I loved Ath’s and Knicks’ stories too. So atmospheric and full of life’s complications.

Congratulations to both of you. Good luck for the shortlist.

I think ‘potentially static’ probably referenced one of those generalised statements that crop up when creative writing is discussed. There could be a nugget of wisdom in there but as shorthand it’s too cryptic to decipher and I couldn’t reverse engineer it to anything that might be a pitfall we should be aware of. It doesn’t seem to be like the…[Read more]

It is odd. Almost as if the commentator was doing a list for a creative writing course: what are the pros and cons of etc etc. But among the reasons I have for not enjoying a novel or short story, static-ness (?) isn’t among them. Slowness, yes of course, and an apparent lack of narrative thread, and straightforward dullness, but I don’t think…[Read more]

I find the idea of present tense feeling static quite odd. Because you are in the moment, I think it’s hard to pause in a way that is possible in past tense. So I’d say the opposite of static.

Like Sandra, sometimes I’ll find a book jars a little initially in present tense, but I’ll quickly cease to notice as I adapt to the books style.

I read a…[Read more]

Hmm, essay alert — me pontificating. I think Modernists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf had an excellent  grasp on the categories of psychic distance, although they probably didn’t call it that, going instead for stream of consciousness, free indirect style and omniscience. They announced themselves to be influenced by cinema and used it…[Read more]