Den of Writers | Bren | Group Activity

Raine replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 12:26:14 +0000

Sorry – not been in for a couple of days. Is this still an issue for people (it’s not for me, but I’m the admin…)? I’ll change group to public then back to private and see if that sorts it – let me know.

Woolleybeans replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 3: Character 2 – Inner Lives in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 18:07:56 +0000

Sorry I went quiet – forgot I existed again. It happens.

Okay, I am going to set up the next class starting this coming Monday, so we have a few days to mentally prepare.

Athelstone replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 10:19:28 +0000

Yep, it’s vanished again. When I list “My Groups” the caption says 1 to 10 of 10 groups, but it only actually lists 8, i.e. the DIY MA and my Testing Text groups are hidden from me too.

The workaround seems to be to for the group admin to unhide the group – change its setting to a private group.

Athelstone replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 10:13:42 +0000

I searched through activity in my limited admin dashboard (top left where there’s a dial thing) and found some test posts on my hidden forum. When I un-hid it (using “manage”) it popped back into existence and is listed under my groups. I’m just going to try hiding it again to see if it disappears for me as well.

Hilary replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 07:06:32 +0000

Yes me too.

KazG replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 22:03:26 +0000

Well, its HIDDEN private groups anyway, it seems.

KazG replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 22:01:58 +0000

The Den is eating its private groups! I wonder why…

Athelstone replied to the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 21:01:30 +0000

Yep – me too.

Also, I had a private hidden group to mess about with text formatting that seems to have disappeared.

KazG started the topic Lost my group! in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:53:01 +0000

Hi fellow DIY-ers! I seem to have lost my group – it’s not showing up in my groups at all anymore. The only way I can get here is to look at my notifications and activity and get in that way. Is anyone else having this problem?

Bella replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I don't remember" - Hilary in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:41:01 +0000

Oh, this packs a punch. The add-on sentences say so much, and the voice is great.

KazG replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I don't remember" - Hilary in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 21:24:56 +0000

Wow, this is so rich @hilary. So much there, so many hints and glimpses and twinges of pain and longing and sadness. There’s a sort of yearning behind of these lines that breaks my heart a bit. Such powerful fragments.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 18:16:24 +0000

Amazing piece, Raine. A wonderful example of writing a character through the eyes of another one. Very sad.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 18:13:16 +0000

I wonder if he will end up getting away with the misbehaviour? Interesting piece.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 18:08:40 +0000

Great contrast between the two letters, Bella. And yes – what is buried within – that’s the most interesting bit. Very clever.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 18:04:04 +0000

An amazing piece of writing, Kaz. Very powerful. Strong imagery. Brilliant.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I don't remember" - Hilary in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 18:00:36 +0000

Oh, except the Dad drawing. That’s from a character in one of my stories.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I don't remember" - Hilary in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 17:59:58 +0000

I enjoyed doing this. I didn’t really think about the Burroway while I was writing – it was more a free-writing exercise. And it’s not in the voice of any character I’m already writing. Just came out of nowhere.

Hilary started the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I don't remember" - Hilary in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 17:58:45 +0000

I don’t remember when my Dad stopped drawing. Or why.
I don’t remember my Mum ever being soft.
I don’t remember ever laughing while I was eating, or spluttering bits of cake. I saw other people do it though.
I don’t remember the taste of the wine. It didn’t really have a taste. But I remember it was too warm.
I don’t remember how I got the v-s…[Read more]

Hilary replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 3: Character 2 – Inner Lives in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 17:09:04 +0000

Liking this: All good characters are created round, but some are created rounder than others.

Hilary replied to the topic Class 2 Writing Exercise Jane in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 16:43:13 +0000

Hello @JaneShuff
VERY late to this, but I’m trying to do a bit of a catch up with class 2 before I get on to class 3. I LOVED meeting Dipsy in the initial passage and then reading your questionnaire about her. I agree about not needing to answer al the questions, but they are great prompts.
Anyway, thanks for posting.

KazG replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 02:42:25 +0000

Oh my lord @raine this is magnificent. Heartfelt and raw but with real beauty too (I don’t think you can help your writing being beautiful, frankly). That images of the monsters under the sea and the line about undoing her smile as if it had never been, the line about her joys being taken away – joy in his kindness, moments of softness. So vivid,…[Read more]

KazG replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 02:36:51 +0000

ooh, very interesting angle @sandradavies.I like using a secondary character to shed light on the story and this is a very vivid reveal – of both the son and father. The impression I got of the father was a sadistic bully who asserts power and enjoys it. The lines about the Duncans implies a family of note of some kind – or maybe notoriety? these…[Read more]

KazG replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 02:32:14 +0000

So very interesting @bellam, especially as your explanations show just how much you have buried below the surface of the letters. Very well done, both of them.

I too got a sense of a unreliable narrator in the first letter – do we believe her? I doubted her – and in the second one you have nailed the young, inexperienced voice and that line…[Read more]

KazG replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 02:26:34 +0000

thank you all! It was a surprise for me how it took off.

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 13:40:19 +0000

Nope, Raine, it does not 🙂

I’m trying (struggling) to write a man who, the more I get to know him, the more I realise he has psychopathic tendencies, from the hiding in plain sight/joy of transgression PoV. Born into (8th generation) family business but wants to forge his own path (while holding on to respectability) so secretly deals in…[Read more]

Raine replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 12:56:53 +0000

Thanks @sandradavies and @bellam both. It’s interesting – as I was writing this, I was thinking that it didn’t really tell me anything about the ‘inner lives’ of either Abigail or John. But in hindsight, perhaps it does. More about John though than Abigail, I think?

And yes, I think she needed to get out fast, and I think she did. She felt quite…[Read more]

Raine replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 12:53:23 +0000

This does give me a good sense of the father though, I think. A shouty, philandering, ‘man’s man’. Working class. I get the impression he’s one of those people who puts others down a lot but always in the form of jokes so any hurt feelings can be laughed of with a ‘can’t you take a joke?’. Does that come close?

Raine replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 12:46:40 +0000

Aaaah, that makes so much sense now – re the lie! Very clever!

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 17:49:25 +0000

“the miscarriage story is a lie” – aha! I did think there was something over- … stilted? about the letter. A bit too well-composed for the trauma undergone.

Bella replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:12:23 +0000

@janeshuff – yes, Waltraut was trying to escape him. He wasn’t pulling the strings, she had simply tired of him.

@raine – glad you picked up on the unreliability. Waltraut ultimately got him out of her life by framing him for cheating in his exams, resulting in him getting thrown out of school and all manner of other ills. As for the second…[Read more]

Bella replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:01:26 +0000

What a fantastic voice!
“…who can take my own smiles and undo them, undo them until I forget how they were ever made” – wow. Just wow.

I’m very sorry that Abigail had the misfortune of loving someone like John, who, I suspect, may not even be capable of love.

Bella replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:56:13 +0000

Ooh, how interesting. And I like the idea of doing the exercise around a minor character to see what it may reveal about a major one. Even if it does result in the minor pushing in.

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:21:14 +0000

I remember Waltraut as being a well-established character of yours, even though I don’t remember reading anything about her. The writing, of what ought to be written, and the tearing up – is it weakness or selfishness? (my money goes on the latter).

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:16:53 +0000

Heartbreaking. Those inconsequentialities so poignant and the “plucking a sunripe fruit from a tree, pressing it against your cheek for the simple joy” such a vivid recollection of the good. Yet my impression is she got out – had the strength of character to get out – much earlier than many.
I’m wondering if she posted this, though?

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:05:34 +0000

Thanks Raine – son has been quite insistent about making space for himself! It’s his father who keeps eluding me, despite him having to be MC (apart from the usual duo of Luke and Baz)

Raine started the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:17:24 +0000

I had a go at the breakup letter. Not edited much because I wanted to keep it untouched, to see what came out without tinkering, if you see what I mean. Anyway, here it is…

Dear John,

Funny that, isn’t it? Your name being John, and the fact that I never once thought I’d be writing to you like this. Like all those women.

Do you remember the…[Read more]

Raine replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:15:21 +0000

Such a good series of thoughts, Kaz. So potent with the sheer physical bloody (pun intended) inconvenience of being female, and the subtle tension of having to acquire this knowledge and make the knowledge invisible too. And as for pre-teen daughters getting oggled. OH MY GOD THIS IS HAPPENING AND I WANT TO KILL ALL THE MEN EVER. Beautiful though,…[Read more]

Raine replied to the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:11:12 +0000

Ooooh *noice* seventeen year old son voice!! So much in there – family tension, big family belonging & identity conflicts; and lust and some highly dodgy goings on. So cool. Can son be in your book as well as father?

Raine replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:08:33 +0000

Love the contrast between formality and impropriety in the first, Bella. Created a lovely sense of the ambiguity and desire, and an unreliable narrator too, me thinks. Nice. 🙂
The second letter – is the writer very young? It’s quite disconcerting and definitely sounds like the voice of someone too young to really be processing their own…[Read more]

Raine replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 3: Character 2 – Inner Lives in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 13:23:23 +0000

I have had no time/mental capacity for this at all. But finally made time to read the Burroway chapter the other night & found it interesting. I quite liked the simplicity of the quote questioning whether a story has changed the character – ”What is visible now at the end of the story that wasn’t visible at the start’
Also loved the language in…[Read more]

Sandra replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 05:53:52 +0000

Thanks Kaz – this inspired me to have a go at fleshing out a new character from an unexpected viewpoint, as well as bringing memories of my own then ending with an adult viewpoint. That endless circle, eh?

Sandra started the topic Class 3 writing exercise "I don't remember", Sandra in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 18:59:41 +0000

I don’t remember my parents laughing together.

I don’t remember my father being silly; his ‘jokes’ always cruel or intending educational.

I don’t remember being shy at junior school because of how many cousins there were there.

I don’t remember, until this year in sixth form, being just me, and not one of ‘the Duncans’, but neither do I re…[Read more]

Kate replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 11:39:17 +0000

This is so clever, Kaz. And I didn’t expect it to go in that direction either. Wow. Excellent stuff.

JaneShuff replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 15:24:09 +0000

Ow Wow Kaz. That is fantastic. Funnily enough I have just come to a bit in my WIP that made me think of this exercise. I might have a go at it too!

Bella replied to the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 13:17:14 +0000

Oh crikey. That took me back and then whizzed me forward. I haven’t tried this exercise, but I think I will try to find time for it now you’ve done it and shown us just how powerful the stuff that comes out can be.

KazG started the topic Class 3 Writing Exercise "I Don't Remember" - KazG in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 21:00:06 +0000

Goodness. This one was really tricky, and then it spiralled off in a direction I hadn’t planned.

Has anyone else tried these “I Don’t Remembers?” That extra layer of knowingness or irony pushes it into different territory, for me.

I don’t remember not knowing how to wash blood out of cotton
I don’t remember if my mother told me, in pale wor…[Read more]

Kate replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:58:29 +0000

Very clever in the first one how the letter gives one impression of this inappropriate relationship, and then the following comment throws a whole new light on the situation.

JaneShuff replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:11:03 +0000

Two fabulously disconcerting letters, Bella. The first one couched in the appropriately formal language of a teacher to a pupil but revealing a wholly inappropriate relationship and posing a lot of questions. The more I read it the more I began to think that Maximilian was the one pulling the strings and Waltraut was trying to escape him.

Bella replied to the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 18:57:45 +0000

It occurred to me two minutes after posting this that I have an actual break up letter in my other WIP. So here it is for good measure. If anyone wants to comment don’t feel obliged to comment on both. I’m just putting it here since it exists.

Dear Lucien,
I don’t know how to soften the blow so I’m just going to tell you what happened on Saturday…[Read more]

Bella started the topic Class 3: Writing Exercise, Bella in the forum Andrew Wille's DIY MA course

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 18:49:37 +0000

Maximilian,

I have told you a thousand times that this affair is wrong. As your teacher as well as your lover I have only your wellbeing at heart. Your whole future depends on your examination results and our continued assignations are putting everything at risk.

People are beginning to notice your less than formal behaviour towards me.…[Read more]