Emma Robinson

Ah yes, I wondered about the various roles of garnet @seagreen after I’d started looking it up. I’d no idea. It’s very interesting. Geology in general, not just the applied stuff, always feels like a significant gap in my knowledge.

Those rigs have a fascination even for a landlubber like me. The meeting of elements perhaps. At sea but fixed -…[Read more]

That’s interesting @knickylaurelle – makes me enjoy the piece even more. I think it’s hard to write well about one’s own experiences – at least I find it so!

Wow! This is the best collection of stories I’ve read in response to a single competition. They’re a joy to read and completely daunting to judge.

What impressed me most, on top of all the individual skills displayed, is that every piece is such a distinct rendition of the author’s voice. I’ve read most of you before and could recognise you in…[Read more]

It was the same every year.

She took as many precautions as possible, wrapping everything carefully, keeping the box closed tight until the right moment came, making sure her hands were washed clean when it did.

And then…

Ordering everyone to sit down, sit still. Questioning each participant in turn to make sure she knew their exact r…[Read more]

One week left for the monthly competition!

Here are the requirements:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the word sabulous itself if you wish but you don’t have to.

Be liter…[Read more]

Wowser…beta reading…

As a beta reader, I do try to find something good to say as well as making suggestions for improvements. I don’t think I go into it with a checklist per se – I use gut feeling a lot as to what feels ‘right’ to me as a reader. But I sometimess feel that I’m not an objective enough beta reader – I don’t always ‘get’ other…[Read more]

School literature lessons often had a lot to answer for @Athelstone . I gave up with them and returned to Eng Lit A level ten years later at evening classes. A vastly improved experience 🙂

This discussion is really helpful. I feel a bit fraudulent talking about this stuff as though I spend hours every week beta reading and have heaps of experience. Apart from requests from my self-edit group I generally feedback on short pieces of writing about once a week, if that, on Jericho Writers’ Townhouse. I might also review a synopsis or p…[Read more]

I think I’d be a different kind of reader, @RichardB, if I’d been a more instinctive writer. It took me a lot of patience and many disappointing surprises to learn how fiction works, and how my own writing didn’t make the grade. I still have a way to go. Having been quite good at academic writing – though a plodding academic for the short period…[Read more]

I’ve found beta reading an excellent way to learn. I think it’s easier to see crafting mistakes in others work, and then I try to carry that knowledge across to my own writing. Easier said than done.

I always jot margin notes as I read to record my initial reactions. It’s harder on a reread to see the parts that jolt me, and you only get one…[Read more]

A quick reminder to anyone interested in this month’s competition that we are half way through the month. Here’s a repost of the details:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the…[Read more]

Beta reading other people’s writing has taught me all sorts of things. I wouldn’t want to be without it. It’s satisfying too, that link with someone else’s thought processes and their ambitions for their work.

I can come back with my experiences of being beta read but in the meantime, as Jane says: ‘my experience of the book as a reader.’

Y…[Read more]

My theory, Richard, is that the program looks at content rather than style. I leave you to decide if that idea fits with your novel! Possibly the program throws POV into the mix.

I suppose Joyce and Brown both spent some time in Paris…

PS That should be: I could definitely, not probably, learn a lot from other beta readers 🙂 At the moment I do beta reading in a particular way and that’s probably not the best way possible or at any rate not for all authors. Expanding my ideas would be a good thing.