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Hilary replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoIf I do commit to this, I would definitely prefer group interaction, including giving and receiving feedback. It’s true, though, that co-ordinating timing for a group, over two years, will be tricky.
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Hilary joined the group
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JaneShuff posted an update 6 years, 9 months ago
Every single person in my novel is caucasian (which is a serious problem)and I want to introduce a character who isn’t but I’m absolutely terrified of getting it wrong. He’ll play neither a big nor a stereotypical role and I don’t want his enthnicity to be any more of a thing that another character’s hair colour and Scottish accent. Any pointers?…[Read more]
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Hi Jane, you don’t say where your setting is but for the UK you can give him a non Caucasian name and that will be sufficient?
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@janeshuff, my book is full of varied ethnicity because of the region I’ve set it in. To help, I have gone with what I know. First, I looked at who I knew personally, who might help me factually. Secondly, people I know or have known more remotely, have inspired other characters and I took notes of what I remembered about them. In addition, I s…[Read more]
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I’m inclined towards Libby’s way. You’re not out to solve the problems of a multiracial society, so if you start planting hints and plot devices then you’ll end up with the author waving at the readers.
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Hi Jane, You can tie yourself in knots, trying to be PC and non-culturally appropriative (if that’s a word: it is now) and not offend anybody. I read an article a while ago, suggesting that if you have a walk-on part using someone called ‘Steve’, change his name to ‘Sanjay’ and leave it at that. i.e. doing just what Steve did with Steve’s joys and…[Read more]
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Thank you all. Extremely helpful as always.
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Squidge posted an update in the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoBeen checking out the required texts… I’m getting a bit bogged down in Sin and Syntax, (for saying the author’s currently talking about brevity, she’s going the long way round to say a lot of it!) but Writing Fiction looks easier to read. Bird by Bird’s one of my most accessible reads (was given it as a gift some years ago), and I’d add How Not…[Read more]
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Daedalus joined the group
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Jules joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months ago -
Squidge posted an update in the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoWilling to have a go at this… Not sure how it’ll be structured in terms of posting – presumably a new forum for each unit, with each person posting within the forum? Hope it’s pretty clear, as I ‘lose’ threads so often!
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Squidge joined the group
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoI sort of assumed we might work through each unit on the Craft Seminar as a group, posting exercises for comment the same way we did on the Self-Edit course when I did it. I find the structure of a timetable (however gentle and slow it is) works better for me.
What does everyhbody else feel?
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Athelstone replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoHi Jane, do we need a common start time as it’s a DIY course? I imagine it would be nice/useful to have people at roughly the same stage, for support and encouragement, but real life and so on.
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Athelstone posted an update 6 years, 9 months ago
URGENT!!! The weekend approaches. If you wish to enter the challenge “Songs of Innocence and Experience” then you only have until Tuesday at 22:00 to join the eponymous group and make your choices.
MORE IMPORTANT STILL there are several Denizens who have joined the group but have yet to POST their choices. You must both join AND post to be in…[Read more]
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PS I’m travelling around until Monday PM (family wedding) so probably won’t be able to answer questions until then.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoYes, just been on Amazon to have a look. There’s a revised edition of Bird by Bird due out in January. Do you have any thoughts when we might start? I’d quite like to save some money by having books delivered to the UK and getting visitors in mid October or end of November to bring them over to France and I’ll need to get a move on for mid…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months agoThanks for kicking all this off, Raine!
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Athelstone joined the group
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JaneShuff joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 9 months ago -
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The JW self-edit course, Ath? Yes. I think even a writer as good as you would find it worthwhile. D’you want to check the syllabus first to make sure you don’t know it all already? I can supply basic details, assuming it hasn’t changed much in the past three years.
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Yes!! Even though you know what you’re doing, there are elements of it that are still useful. I think there will be lots you already know, but in reading others’ work and particularly seeing Debi and Emma’s comments (as well as fellow readers’) is like mini-critique course in itself.
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Ta to you both for saying some nice things…but I know I need some pushing and shoving and just straight educating. Here’s hoping the January course is a classic!
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Best l thing I got out of it was the friendship of a core of valuable fellow-attendees; we still regularly meet, though not as often as desired and have done since January 2014.
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YES! I think this course is so good that it will help almost anyone. I would do it again in a flash. And the one to one attention is worth the price alone!
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Definitely not as often as desired! But agreed – the course was great, but the group of friends is greaterer.
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Hell, yes – to all of that.
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All signed up.
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Good luck!! I kind of assumed you’d done it already! Is January the course @johnt3 is also signed up on (for his second time around)?
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No, I’ve just started. It’s a promising and very varied bunch of writers. Good luck, Athelstone, you’ll enjoy it. PS I’d forgotten how hard the first exercise is!
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Nope, never done it, although I’ve been on various workshops etc. that touch on some of the modules. I have a feeling it will be a very different thing to be engaged on my own work and working with a group. When I looked the Sept one was full, but I wanted another few months to write some more crap (as Julie C puts it) before starting anyway. All good.
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Yay! Starting when?
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21 January. Really looking forward to it
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Squidge posted an update 6 years, 10 months ago
So it turns out that Amazon can reformat your ebook when you upload it for Kindle. Who knew?
And I’d been blaming the publisher for all the extra line breaks, large text and blank pages…
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Amazon is a menace, but we seem to be stuck with them if we want to sell books
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I’m currently attempting to re-format my novels for publishing as ebooks – fiendishly tricky at times and not sure I’ve cracked it yet – sudden and random centering of paragraphs or indents, to say nothing of the change in fonts. A good reason to stick with print IMHO!
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There’s definitely a knack to formatting ebooks but it’s easy when you’ve got the hang of it. I recommend the Smashwords Style Guide to get yoy started (perma free in ebook). And I might be able to help point people in the right direction if anyone is really stuck?
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Some extra spaces end up turning into extra lines…apparently. SO glad it’s not up to me to do the formatting.
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Athelstone posted an update 6 years, 10 months ago
Joining and choosing, joining and choosing! A brief reminder that there are fewer than 10 days to join “Songs of Innocence & Experience”.
We now have 26 members and 19 choices.
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26 and 20 🙂
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26 and 21 🙂
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JaneShuff replied to the topic National Creative Writing Industry Day in the forum Competitions, Open calls and Writing Opportunities 6 years, 10 months ago
I can’t @Raine. I’d love to though… But do tell us what it’s like.
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GippsGirl replied to the topic 12 UK Literary Agents Seeking New Clients NOW in the forum Competitions, Open calls and Writing Opportunities 6 years, 10 months ago
Thanks @Raine, but I am YEARS away from submitting anything!
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