Bren

It is an excellent fox. Foxes are cool.

I think I understand really well why you wouldn’t want a human face on the cover. A huge part of the pleasure of reading a novel, is the way the characters reveal themselves to us as the story progresses. A picture of somebody, fully-formed, denies the reader that pleasure. But you can understand why…[Read more]

Stunning, Raine.

Aaah, that makes sense! Yes, now you mention it I think I recall more attention on that aspect. I think it worked. Good on you, lovely to see your writing get more recognition

That’s interesting @raine, the story seemed pretty much exactly as I remembered it so I don’t suppose too much can have changed? Really glad to see my writing friends appearing in my favourite sources

I treated myself to the podcast this morning. Wonderful story, lovely to hear it being read. SH is a fantastic home for it, one of my very favourite mags

Well done, Janette!

Yay indeed – well done Janette! And well done for choosing from such a disparate selection, Athers.

Just Another Night at the Theatre.

Suspenders. Check.
Stockings. Check.
Corset and lacy panties. Check.
Stilettos.Check.
Pearl necklace. Make up to die for. Check.
Lab coat. Check.
Rubber gloves. Check.
Rice, torch, water pistol, newspaper, confetti, party hat, rubber gloves. Check.
Sense of humour. Check.
Willingness to participate.…[Read more]

As per Neil Gaiman’s fifth rule of writing:

‘Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.’

Oh – and contractions? Bunkum! If you have a distinctly voiced character, they will ‘think’ and describe in contractions just as much as they use them in dialogue. I’d have no luck with this editor cos I often write voice with contractions…makes it more real to me as the writer, and immerses the reader in the story, in my experience.

Is it worth having a look at how you’ve used ‘I’, Doug? If you’re using it frequently, then yes, definitely worth looking up psychic distance. There’s a big difference between ‘I sit at the table near the window. Outside, I see a man fighting to keep his brolly up in the wind and rain’, and ‘I sit at the table near the window and watch the man…[Read more]

Having written an entire novel in colloquial first person a la Catcher in the Rye, having made a conscious effort to break through my inhibitions about departing from Oxford (or Queen’s, or formal – call it what you will) English to do so, and having found the process liberating and rather fun, I’ll give a heartfelt ‘Hear, hear!’ to that. Okay,…[Read more]

Well bugger me. Apparently, if you just copy and paste a URL into here, without bothering with that ‘link’ button, it links automatically. You live and learn.

It occurs to me that one reason for over-use of ‘I’, or any other pronoun come to that, is filtering. This is another cause of the ‘frustrating distance’ Libby mentions, and Emma Darwin (Who else?) explains it far better than I could.