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Athelstone replied to the topic 'The Five': A Dissenting Voice in the forum Blogs 7 years ago
Before I forget to say it “Great blog, Richard”.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years ago
Installed a CPU fan in a mini-PC, cooked a chowder and a loaf of bread, watched a film, cleaned the kitchen and washed the floor (put the vacuum cleaner round the house while I was at it), measured up for a new side gate and some fencing, lounged about quite a bit. Actually supposed to be writing. Managed < 500 words 🙁
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You need to give up cleaning, Ath. It’s an addiction. Once started people find themselves having to do some or all of it every day and it ruins their health, their lives and their relatonships with their loved ones. I got help a few years ago and have managed to kick the habit. But it was hard, very hard.
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Let’s see if I can do 1000 words today. Although, having said that, there’s a pile of laundry to sort out…
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Step away from the dirty clothes. You know you can…
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Step away, Ath, step away. Acknowledge the temptation, then remind yourself you do not *need* housework. Deep breaths. I believe in you (and your soon-to-be-dusty house).
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stepped away long enough to do a few hundred words. Who would have thought laundry would have such a fascination.
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Dirty clothes are great. People will stop visiting or inviting you around because you smell so bad, which means there will be no distraction from writing. You can always wear a gas mask if your own smell becomes too much for you! Leave that laundry and housework alone. 🙂
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Only time I got the cleaning habit was when no.2 child started school, 3 months before no.3 child arrived. Never tried it since (& no.3 child now 41)
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Yes, but apart from the fact that I’m a bit fussy about keeping the kitchen clean, the only time I’m struck by the impulse to do housework is when I’m sat in front of the keyboard trying to write.
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That’s alright then. Just Say No.
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Yes, Sandra! I think many of us have had a narrow escape from the clutches of cleaning and can look back and think ‘There, but for the Grace of God …’
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It’s a dangerous road, indeed – I have never been seriously tempted down The Cleaning Way, except perhaps like @athelstone as a procrastinatory device. Much better to maintain low standards. It’s hard work, but worth it (all that TIME!). Also, kids. Train them up. They get quite useful as they get older.
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@janeshuff is that actually a true story, or tongue in cheek? I am intrigued…
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Sadly not @kazg. Not even sitting in front of the computer preparing to write makes me want to go and clean.
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🙂 you and me both, @janeshuff
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Athelstone replied to the topic Help/brainstorming needed please – using antagonist narrator in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 1 month ago
Thanks Bella 🙂
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Athelstone replied to the topic Help/brainstorming needed please – using antagonist narrator in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 1 month ago
Is that video on JW, @philippaeast? I just can’t spot it.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Opening of new WIP- 1289 words in the forum Critiques 7 years, 1 month ago
Once I’d read through a couple of times, my overall impression was curiosity, which is generally a good thing, and I felt comfortable with the way the story is moving. When I read through the first time though, I was a bit confused as to what was going on. I don’t mean the bare facts, I mean things like whether Bethany wanted the phone call,…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Opening of new WIP- 1289 words in the forum Critiques 7 years, 1 month ago
Once I’d read through a couple of times, my overall impression was curiosity, which is generally a good thing, and I felt comfortable with the way the story is moving. When I read through the first time though, I was a bit confused as to what was going on. I don’t mean the bare facts, I mean things like whether Bethany wanted the phone call,…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Writers & Artists short story comp in the forum Podium 7 years, 1 month ago
Oh, Raine, that’s just fantastic. You deserve recognition.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 1 month ago
Goodbye, Ranking Roger. You made me feel cool, which took some doing, when I listened to you.
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Not for me. I would love to see everyone but that price tag is not a great inducement.
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It’s my biggest disincentive. Last year it ruled things out plain and simple. I’ll be honest, I’m thinking about it this year because I may have a viable book to take. That hasn’t been a reason for any of my previous visits,
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Also, I’m going stir crazy as I haven’t been out more than ten times since mid January
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The jury’s out for me as yet, Athers. It depends on whether I get a reply from DHH re Doris. If he doesn’t want it, I might be tempted to take it to York. I’m also mulling over going only Saturday and meeting old friends, though it depends on how many are going.
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I would love to see everybody and if enough people were going and I could combine it with seeing family in the UK, I might think about it…
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I’ll be deciding before the ‘early bird’ offer expires because the cost of the full weekend without the Friday mini-course is actually £40 LESS than I paid 5 years ago.
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Not for me, this year @Athelstone. I’ve actually applied for a bursary for Mslexicon, which is Mslexia’s new writing conference. It’s just as expensive as YOrk but there seems to be a bit more on offer, and the bursaries are open for people like me (chronic illness). We’ll see, would be fun to try a new event, but not at full price.
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@raine Mslexicon looks absolutely brilliant and I wish you luck with the bursary!
In other news, I spotted an agent I’d really like to snag and I have now (impulsively) booked a place at York. Later in September my nephew is getting married in Edinburgh and I have to book flights for family. I WILL BE BROKE BIG TIME.
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Oooh, but if you have time whilst in edinburgh, we might be able to have a wee writer meet-up!! I’m sure @seagreen will come in (if she is in the UK, obv).
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Probably a really packed schedule but it would be sad not to fit in a tea/coffee and a doughnut perhaps!
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Include me too in any Edinburgh meet, please! Bursary sounds fantastic, Raine, best of luck with that, and, Ath, that you’ve a novel ready to go is brilliant. Seems ages since I had contact with writers in person 🙁
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No York for me, but Edinburgh is definitely do-able.
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Do let me know if you do plan that. I am a flight away
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Not this year, I’m afraid.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
Updates losing comments:
OK, there’s a bug, probably in the BuddyPress code or in a plugin (or somewhere), that is preventing the ‘show all comments’ button from appearing (but only sometimes) after old comments have been tucked away out of sight. Very irritating. Here’s a workaround if you get this. Not pretty, not convenient, but at least you…[Read more] -
Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
Hoorah! At last, after an overload of dithering, I am back on the path that Julie Cohen recommends and writing sh*t.
Don’t you hate it when people put an asterisk in a word, converting a perfectly good piece of Old English into the illegitimate cousin of a euphemism? It’s as though it’s somehow more pol*te.-
Not getting at anybody in particular and I’ve done it myself many times over the years. Anyway – main point, writing!
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Me too Ath. As of this morning. Mine is utterly shit too. 177 words of complete garbage so far. And I don’t care! I might even try to write another 100 words of tosh before lunch!
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But CONGRATULATIONS. If I could remember how to insert an emoji, I would. So just imagine champagne bottles popping, streamers and smiley faces.
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🙂
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I haven’t written any shit today, because I haven’t written anything at all. I’m mulling stuff over. But one H*rry B*ngham once pointed out that he’d spent a whole week in his study mulling things over and not writing a single word, and still counted it as writing time because it produced results later. A murrain on daily targets, that’s wot I say.
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Yes, but my mulling had moved on to how to add to my collection of noir films, or should I make myself another PC and had even reached the outskirts of ‘I wonder what’s on Channel 4’. Luckily that turned out to more Brexit so I started writing again.
The most immediate problem is that my characters are having a conversation and won’t stop bloody…[Read more]
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And congratulations on the tosh, Jane!
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and now I can only see my original update and my own first reply. No other replies and no ‘show all replies’ prompt.
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I’m just getting your two comments, too. So I reckon the rest were so full of swearing that the Den went all puritanical on us??
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Yep, not pointing fingers but somebody here is 100% potty-mouth!
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Your bug work around worked! I managed to find all the comments. Congratulations on all your characters talking. I rewrote the first chapter of my WIP for the thousandth time this morning. It might be getting close to being THE ONE. But there again…
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Hoorah, your kind comment has made the ‘Show all 10 comments’ button to appear, for me anyway.
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Congrats on getting back to writing, Ath. And working round the program glitch.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
Den of Writers is a FREE forum. That means that nobody pays for membership and if you join you are absolutely entitled to use and enjoy the place as much as anybody – in fact, you are encouraged to.
However, people have enquired about contributing to the cost of hosting the site, so the Donations group will show you how to if you want to.…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Plotting workshop notes in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 2 months ago
Just brilliant notes.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 2 months ago
Brilliant news, Stevie. Well done!
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
I expect many here know about Jericho Writers, the successor to the Writers’ Workshop that hosted the Word Cloud forum. It seems that they are about to offer a one-year Writing a Novel course to include a pass to the Festival of Writing and either the Getting Published or Self-Publishing day. It also includes a full MS assessment, one to one…[Read more]
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Oh yes (part 2): just to show how bad I am at reading things – it’s £4,950 / €5,700 / $6,500
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Well, that just answered my own question for me. At about half that price I might puzzle over whether I could stretch to it, but £5K is way out of reach
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Sounds to me like Harry’s got his head in the clouds again. Who on earth is going to commit that sort of money? Anyone who was confident enough of their abilities to make it seem worth it would be confident enough to think they didn’t need it, surely?
Incidentally, I see Retreat West, partners in this venture, is run by Amanda Saint, who was on…[Read more]
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At least 4 of the people in my self-edit group are publishing away, Richard. One of the our very own Bric. We definitely do not all move at the same pace along our paths!
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You’re as good a writer Richard. Anyway, people on each SE course are naturally at different stages when they come into it. Incidentally I still think that second novel of yours is cracking and would urge you to keep subbing it as well as working on AROS
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Agree with Daed and WB. We all take tge journey or mountain at what speed best serves us. And you should definitely keep going with AROS (as long as you want to!)
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Who the hell is going to pay £5k for that? For £5k you could probably do one of the more prestigious creative writing MAs
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Flippin heck. That is steep. With no guarantee at the end of it that you’d be published…
Amanda does seem to be getting on well – there are some other ex cloudies working with her now as well.
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Interesting… almost feels like they’re trying to offer something similar to the Curtis Brown Creative course. That’s a massive amount to invest.
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Ok that’s mad. For £84 you can join skillshare (having got the first 3 months free) and pretty much learn evetything being taught here from a choice of 100s of different teachers. With a bit of research and determination, you can find professional author groups to join that will give you a lot of the hand holding and help. Ok it includes the…[Read more]
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Yes, Jules, that’s just what I was getting at above. If you’re so near to the start of your writing journey as to need everything in this package it’s still basically a dream/hobby. And how many have that sort of money to blow on a dream?
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Chichester Uni’s creative writing MA costs £5,202, and features some fairly big names on the teaching roster. With all due respect to the people on the Jericho course, they ain’t Jim Crace or Kate Mosse.
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And of course at the end of that you have a postgraduate qualification as well as having received first-class teaching and support
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If I had 5k to spend, I’d spend it on an MA. YOu get the 1:1 tutoring from highly qualified teachers and writers, peer support, much more in depth writing tuition, and you end up with a degree that agents etc will sit up and pay attention to. No contest. (I wish I had 5k. I’d LOVE to study writing at MA level)
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Me too, Raine. And yeah if I had a soare 5k to spend on writing, that’s where my money would go too.
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Same
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Very much the same.
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Tick. I’ve learned that money spent on courses, assessments, etc isn’t necessarily well-spent. I’ve already wasted too much.
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Wow, Daeds, that comparison is a real eye opener. I wonder which will go best on a CV? He really has showed himself up for what he is IMHO.
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It is indeed a lot of money. It is rather aimed at complete beginners as far as I can tell, because somewhere (possibly in a blog about it) Harry has said that if you have completed a novel and are editing it then it probably isn’t for you (at least not for that novel) so it does seem like a write from scratch hand-holding affair. I’m sure that it…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Hull Paragon: The Million-to-One Chance in the forum Blogs 7 years, 2 months ago
I can definitely see the attraction in steam locomotives, and I have fond memories of holidays as a child, waiting on Newbury station for the express to arrive and whisk me away. I always prayed that it would be one of those wonderful swept-front, streamlined marvels, and was overjoyed if it was. Looking over the tracks to the Newbury marshalling…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Hull Paragon: The Million-to-One Chance in the forum Blogs 7 years, 2 months ago
Richard, it may be something I missed over the time that you’ve been writing these (excellent) blogs: I know where you used to work, but do you have a connection to the railway yourself?
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Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Robert Aickman's Bad Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
Sounds like my kind of writer and you’ve definitely sold him to me.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Publishing Deal in the forum Podium 7 years, 3 months ago
Well done, Philippa – just brilliant news.
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