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RichardB started the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Pete Who? in the forum Blogs 5 years, 7 months ago
No, not that Townshend fellow. Read on…
Back in 1967, when I was in the midst of studying for English A Level, a book came out that introduced me and a lot of other people to a new idea of what poetry could be: accessible, direct, down-to-earth, irreverent, witty. Those who derided it as not proper poetry missed the point. This stuff was…[Read more]
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JaneShuff replied to the topic How do you deal with the ever-distracting Internet??? in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 7 months ago
Weirdly enough it helps my way of working which is to do intensive bursts of writing and then let myself be distracted for a brief while before I attack again!
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Daedalus replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
@sandradavies thanks, I will look that up. I’m a fan of keeping speech tags/descriptions to a minimum and I often write scenes with dialogue first and then build the other stuff around it, so this is very much up my street
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Daedalus replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
Great competition Sandra, am really intrigued to read the story that inspired it now. Well done Ath, and everyone else, good set of stories
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Athelstone started the topic Monthly comp: December 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
Advent is upon us. I always liked Advent Calenders when I was little, but I haven’t had one for years. So you can make one for me. The theme is “opening a door or window and finding something”. It doesn’t have to involve calendars! Anywhere between 25 and 500 words.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
Smashing comp, Sandra and a similarly smashing selection of entries. So I’m really pleased to be picked!
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
I dreamt about you last night.
Really? I haven’t thought about you for ages.
Ooh! Harsh.
Aha – Sorry, Jack. That sounded terrible. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, well, you know – the kids and all that. I don’t have much time for myself.
How old are they now?
Callum’s ten and Orla will be seven on Saturday. Most of this shopping is…[Read more]
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Daedalus replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
“I dreamt about you last night. No, don’t look like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like it’s a line or… like I’m being…?”
“What?”
“I dunno. Overly sentimental.”
“OK. I won’t then.…Well you can’t leave it hanging like that. What was I doing in this dream?”
“That’s the thing. I can’t actually remember. You know what dreams are like.”
“I know what my…[Read more] -
Squidge replied to the topic Monthly competition November 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 7 months ago
The Sanctum of Dreams
“I dreamt about you last night. You were in the sanctum.”
“Well, that’s hardly surprising, is it? Given what’s about to happen.”
“No. I suppose not. It was just so…”
“So…what? Are you going to share? Or just sit there looking worried? I’m not a mind reader.”
“Yet.”
“Ha! True. Well, tell me about it. I don’t like to see y…[Read more] -
Athelstone posted an update 5 years, 8 months ago
OK all. Did you miss out on your chance to join the “Things that go bump” writing challenge? Well, just like Brigadoon, we have appeared again – just briefly – to give you one last, brief, opportunity to join your fellow Denizens. To grab the opportunity send me a Direct Message and I’ll tell you what to do. ACT FAST! This offer expires on 1…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly comp – October 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 8 months ago
There’s a monster inside of me.
It was born when Noellia moved into number 14.
The car started it. A shiny new Fiat 500. Electric. In powder blue. Parked on the drive. I looked at my own clapped out Fiesta and felt the first stirrings of new life, deep in my chest.
She fed the monster well, did Noellia.
Had an open house, she did. Invited…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 9 months ago
Great stuff @seagreen. Super story.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 9 months ago
Red Sun
Sunsets are very different here. Everything is different, but it was the sunset that I was staring at last night. Or rather, the absence of a sunset.
OK. No sunset. Tell you what, there aren’t any asthmatics here on Grissom’s planet either. I’m not blaming anybody; when a 300-mile-wide asteroid drew a bead on Earth at twenty-five miles…[Read more]
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Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoOh ok then Believer. Justin time 😉
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Barny replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoHome, Belieber, Spoon
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RichardB replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoAway
Unbeliever
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Athelstone posted an update 5 years, 9 months ago
OK – at the risk of badgering people, three and a bit days left to enter “Things that go bump”. Also – 18 members at present, but only 16 sets of choices. If you’re intending to take part, don’t forget!
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Athelstone posted an update 5 years, 10 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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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 10 months ago
Just wondering how you are all dealing with the Covid pandemic within your writing. I’m in the planning stages of a new novel and can’t decide. Do I set my novel pre-pandemic? Which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Do I ignore it completely? Same comment. Or do I try to set it in the current situation with the problems and concerns of the pandemic…[Read more]
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I think it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the pandemic. Considering how long it takes between drafting a novel and seeing it in print (if it gets that far), if you take the optimistic view the whole thing will be over by then, it’ll no longer be a part of contemporary life, and nobody will worry much whether you’ve included it…[Read more]
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Not answering your question, exactly, but I’ve read a number of short stories which include reference to Covid and in general I find them offputting, a bit bandwagon, which might be because we’re in the middle of it. I think if your novel is set at the time, a passing reference to its restrictions might be enough. But the same (to include or…[Read more]
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Personally, I’d leave it out. So many people now must be writing pandemic stories, that the mention of it alone might put readers on guard. Also, optimistically speaking, by the time your novel comes out, life may have returned to normal and your story would be dated.
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Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.
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Best of luck!
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Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]
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I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.
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Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]
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Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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Now there’s a coincidence. Neither am I.
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Nor me! Although I am not good with those pictures!
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I sometimes think a robot would be better at identifying the traffic lights than I am. Hang on, maybe that’s the point…
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Those blasted traffic lights. I’m always relieved to get the fire hydrants. I think I’m becoming a fire hydrant fan.
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Good to mix things up with the occasional bit of fire hydrant. But where’s the other street furniture? Why can’t we identify some litter bins for a change, or bike stands or something?
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Dogs. I want to identify all the dalmatians in a field full of friesan cows.
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I once saw a dalmatian in a field full of daisies.
Re street furniture, it could be the tables and chairs a coffee shop blocks the pavement with in a town near me.
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Thank you for this, Richard. I spent my childhood and teenage years in Liverpool and The Liverpool Poets were a big part of it. I thought I hadn’t heard of Pete Roche but, amazingly, I found myself able to recite Somewhere On The Way as I read it so the poem must be buried somewhere inside the dusty old antique shop of my mind. Thank you!
Jane, I’m taking the liberty of copying your post onto the thread. It’s a bit difficult carrying on a discussion in two places at once, and stuff has a nasty habit of vanishing from here.
I never know where’s the best place to reply – so thanks!