Bren

  • I’m an Amcrastinator. I never put things off at work, only in relation to my hobbies.

  • Squidge replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Procrastination is nothing to do with commitment! It is everything to do with recognising that you need something completely different sometimes to get the authorly juices flowing again. I do it – it doesn’t mean I’m not committed at all.

    I prefer to call it what it is and look at WHY I’m doing it. If it’s simply time-wasting, then I give myself…[Read more]

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Yes, there is that. An idea that added a whole new dimension to one of my novels once came to me while I was laying the table for dinner.

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Not when you’re playing Freecell…

  • Daedalus replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    That’s a very sweeping statement.

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    I think it’s just human nature. Before we moved MrsB was a Beaver Scout Leader for twenty years, and over that time I lost count of the number of Beaver/ Cub/ Scout leaders I heard carrying on about what horrors their charges were, what a hard time it all was, and generally giving the impression that they were being put upon and they would rather…[Read more]

  • The following is a long and detailed twitter thread from the writer Delilah S Dawson on everything to do with literary agents. Well worth a read

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Yes, if you tell someone that you play, say, the guitar, they don’t normally up and ask you if you’ve got a recording contract, do they? Though I don’t think I’ve told anybody outside my immediate circle of close friends and family that I write.

    Apart from you lot, obviously.

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Or to put it another, slightly less discouraging way, if you’re writing fiction that’s coming from inside your head, right? So anything outside that is Real Life.

  • Jules replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Haha just seen your comment, Ath. 76,000 words so far on NaNo this year – I’m not quite as fast as you’re making out. (Also only 5 books a week maximum, usually)
    I think it depends what you write as well. I find urban fantasy is very speedy. Fantasy and historical are a bit slower. Sci-fi is slower to write again. Horror seems to be somewhere in…[Read more]

  • John S Alty replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    RL = Real Life

  • Philippa East replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Oh my gosh, well done guys! Hats off to you. Power to your elbows!!

  • Athelstone replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    I’m way behind – my family invasion came early and is continuing. On a more positive note, it has made me get going on a completely new novel that I’m reasonably happy with so far. I’m trying something I’ve seen recommended elsewhere and not bothering with chapters (yet). Seems OK for now.

    I’m doing a weekend away in mid-January (Dunford…[Read more]

  • RichardB posted an update 7 years, 9 months ago

    Editing: they say cut cut cut, don’t they? Hmm. I don’t work like that. When I finished the first draft of my ghost story six (My God!) years ago it was only 47,000 words long. When I submitted it two years later it was 74,000 words. Now its creeping up to 80,000. Mind you, there’s some rather drastic cutting needed near the end.

    • I think it works like that for some, doesn’t it? Writing the bare bones first and then fleshing out. (I’ve always hated the term ‘fleshing out’ – too many dissection classes and JEkyll and Hyde stories!)

      I seem to always end up at roughly the same word count – cutting a lot and feeling all pleased with myself, then realising I need whole new scenes…

  • Philippa East replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 9 months ago

    Time to make yourself an outline?
    Nice work though on the 16k!!!

  • Daedalus posted an update 7 years, 9 months ago

    This is just to say

    I have finished
    The Draft
    I was working on since 2014

    And which you
    Probably thought
    I’d never finish

    Forgive me. It was indulgent
    All 178 thousand
    Words of it

  • RichardB posted an update 7 years, 9 months ago

    Call me weird if you will, but I do love picking a passage apart and putting it back together again, better than before. So satisfying.

    • That’s not weird, Richard. I didn’t think I could be the only one who preferred working with an existing draft to creating a new one

      • Two different types of adventure, I think. I enjoy both but creating a new draft can be like swimming in very rough seas.

        • Definitely. Editing is a craft. Writinf a first draft is an extreme sport

          • I like that analogy. If it’s skiing, then I am currently uphill xcountry skiing, stuck in those parallel ruts and not sure whether they are heading in the right direction…

  • Yay! Such a beautiful and chilling story…. well done!!

  • Good to know! Coffman starters are great. Basically using a shotgun cartridge to start an engine, minus the lead shot of course. I don’t just do naval aviation btw, my last nonfic was a biography of a RAF bomber pilot, flying instructor and test pilot before and during WW2. Any technical queries, feel free to ask

  • Daedalus posted an update 7 years, 9 months ago

    Woohoo! Just got a rejection in six minutes. Six minutes! Beat that if you can

  • Load More