Debi Alper

Absolutely agree with you Daeds about the caveat.

But is it possible to keep the comments linked to the entry. The way we do it now won’t let that happen, as Jonathan showed. Is there a way round that? Having a master thread for each comp with threads within it for each entry?

When I see post from people talking about some version of UWS or whatever the letters were, it seems to have a lot to do with being arty with words but without really knowing what they want to say. And not just for the joy of playing in the wordbox, which I think most writers have done at some point or another (gods, but teen-me loved fancy words,…[Read more]

Yes, I like all of those. I never really understood the Cloud thing of ‘comment on the person’s wall but not on the thread’. This thing is pretty informal anyway. So Perhaps we can allow, indeed encourage, comments, with the slight caveat that people don’t go heavy on crit or be negative.

I think it feels sometimes as though it’s trying too hard… The kinds of words used, particularly. I know there’s a place for fabulous language – certain Denizens often take my breath away when I read what they’ve written, for eg! – but sometimes it feels laboured. As if the author thought ‘I must describe this thing beautifully to get across how…[Read more]

And more apologies – 411 words

HOW TO LEAVE A HUSBAND WHO ADORES YOU

Six Month Plan

Step One
Decide to do it.
Shut off all those voices inside you saying what a wonderful man he is and how lucky you are. How he does everything for you. How most women would give anything to have a husband like him.
Note: Do not tell anyone what you plan to do.…[Read more]

“Some of the stuff I see posted is very…not pretentious, exactly, but it is fairly obvious that for some on the courses, they are still at the experimental and learning stage which means they are sticking to tried and tested formulae in order to ‘make their way’ in the world.”

This is really interesting, @squidge. Can you describe more what you m…[Read more]

Yes, I think you are right, John. How does everybody feel about that? Here are my thoughts. I’d be interested to know what you all think…

I’d like comments to be part of the monthly/bi-monthly competition. I think it would remove some of the pressure off the competition setter to feedback on the entries and make it more interesting for us all.…[Read more]

Glad you asked that Jane, I was also wondering.

I know this is written down somewhere but what’s the policy on other people commenting on monthly comp entries?

I’m glad someone else does that too, Sandra!

Yes, Squidge – soon as I pressed ‘go’ I thought that myself!

I think some ARE young, Sandra, but what I’ve seen of the Masters, it tends towards a fairly older crowd, often folks who’ve been doing other things in life first.

Sorry I was MIA recently – thanks to all for contributing and it looks as though you’ve all sorted things. Well done, going to look at new comp stuff now

At the risk of sounding ageist, is it not the case that a high(ish) percentage of those doing degrees/Masters are quite young, and are unlikely to yet have the confidence/experience to ignore publishers et al?

I think there is a different approach to writing if you do a degree/Masters in it. It’s almost as though, at the point of graduation, most folk have a perceived idea of what writing should be. Qualifying this because I know a creative writing lecturer, and am in a facebook group for one of the CW courses at a local uni. Some of the stuff I see…[Read more]

Ah, Jonathan, you and I (and Harry) are thinking along the same lines. And yes, there is more. The full blog is here:

https://jerichowriters.com/find-voice-writer/

When I was (a lot) younger I used to snort in contempt when I read in an author’s bio on a book cover, usually American in those days, that they had a degree in creative writing. Hah! I thought, either you got it or you ain’t. You can’t teach it like you can physics or history. It’s not hard and fast stuff like that.

Much later, after discovering…[Read more]

I always thought that one of the strengths of the SE course was the range of different books people were working on within each group if they were anything like mine – children’s, YA, fantasy,crime noir, women’s fiction, literary fiction and so on. It made it unlikely that you’d start picking up on each other’s styles.

Thank you for the book…[Read more]

Sometimes professional book reviewers complain that creative writing graduates have a CW style. I haven’t spotted it myself and perhaps am being dense. If any Denizens can describe it I’d be grateful!

I do notice trends and fashions but they seem to apply to most trad published novels.

Re the workshop style, there must be a danger that if you’re…[Read more]