Elle

Hi @raine — the set up and feedback I mentioned are only for their 6-week online courses. They have 3:

– Start writing your novel
– Write to the end of your novel
– Pitch and edit your novel

The more expensive and extensive 3-month and 6-month online courses are the same as the London-based one. There is more tutor feedback however I can say h…[Read more]

Hi Alan,

I have done the ‘Write to The End of Your Novel’ It’s good to remind you of the basis for dialogue, suspense, etc. You get video and notes on each subject and then a 500-word writing task that you post on the CB forum. During the 6-week you will get feedback once from the course tutor so all the rest of the feedback will come from…[Read more]

Interesting conversation.

For me it’s start with an idea of a character or a scene. Depending on how well formed the idea is I might start writing straight away or if I don’t I will stick it in my notebook for future use.

I often don’t know the end before I start writing. For example, I worked on a longer flash last month and for a few weeks I…[Read more]

@StellaOlivetti – thank you for your feedback and please don’t feel back about nitpicking. I like nitpicking, I want nitpicking because that’s what’s going to help me improve on my story so all your comments are very helpful!

The main reason about the grandmother being Russian is a kind of nod at Neil Gaiman and American Gods and the idea that…[Read more]

@johnSAlty — thanks John for your feedback it’s all very useful. As a matter of interest any particular paragraphs you felt were overwritten?

Thanks you both for your feedback.

@squidge — thanks for mentioning those sentences tripped you. I am sometimes unsure when a sentence makes me trip if it’s because it is or just because I am not used to it as English is not my first language.

@jonathan — thanks for spotting that typo, indeed it should be “lager” and not “larger”.

So I have been working on this story on and off trying to improve and refine it and I am keen to get some feedback on the latest version of it.

Also it has gone through a change of title and is now called ‘Bad Consequences’

Thanks!

———

She had never seen a naked man before. She had glimpsed unclothed parts in isolation at the local…[Read more]

Thanks @Daedalus @John & @JaneShuff 🙂

Thanks @Seagreen!

Thanks @Philippa — I was channelling my passive-aggressive self for that line and it just popped out!

So my short story “Did You Know?” has been published today in Story Magazine. Really thrilled as it’s a magazine I’ve been reading for a long time. Feel free to have a read:

https://storgy.com/2018/10/22/fiction-did-you-know-by-laure-van-rensburg/

Without any explanation those titles don’t say anything to me apart that it might be the MC’s name or the name of the place where the story takes place. Because it is not a recognisable name I would imagine it is a fantasy novel.

Hi Philippa,

From all the information gathered I would suggest:

– Missing You (works on several level depending on who the sentence refers to or who us doing the miss – if that makes sense)

– The Other You

– The Way Home (again can be interpreted on several levels)

– Little Girl Lost (again lost can be interpreted on several levels)

– Here…[Read more]

Sorry for the misunderstanding when I meant commercial, supernatural, etc… I meant submission in general not your novel in particular.

The prose is not typical however the story in itself is just the story of an Irish girl growing up in the 60s and her relationship with her sick brother. Just let me know what you think once you’ve read it. My…[Read more]

Hi Alan,

Regarding Galley Beggar, I think you might want to double check but I believe they only accept literary fiction so no genre fiction (commercial, fantasy, horror, etc…) so if your novel is a paranormal fiction I don’t believe it is something they publish.

The only book I read from them was Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, which is very experimental, stream of consciousness prose but I loved it (I just love her as an author)

Shame Derby is a bit too far for me for a weekday evening 🙁

I agree that sex scenes like violent scenes that develop the characters or characterisation shouldn’t be shy away from. I think the main issues with those kind of scenes is when they turn into the mechanics of what goes where and who does what. The scenes I have read where it have really works were when the reader is in the head of the character,…[Read more]

I personally like the idea of the nice middle-class town where once you scratch the varnish you start seeing the cracks and that not is all at it seems and not to trust a book by its cover (so to speak). After that I think it’s a question of describing the environment through the eyes and the emotions of the POVs. For example how would they…[Read more]

That’s brilliant news! Congratulations Janette.