@jennytong
Active 7 years, 9 months ago-
Squidge posted an update 5 years, 11 months ago
July’s comp is now July-and-August’s comp! If you fancy having a go, check it out here: https://www.denofwriters.com/forums/topic/monthly-comp-july-2020/
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Jules replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 11 months ago
Pretty sure Stephen King now has a team of fact checkers. But yes I imagine the tone of those letters is gleeful. What I’ll say for King is that even though he’s writing speculative fiction, he portrays characters who’ve had life experiences he has not respectfully. The same cannot be said for Boyne! One of the big problems with The Boy in the…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 11 months ago
There are degrees to this and a dependency on the type of book being written. I am not searching for an artificial precision in moral culpability. I am not saying that there are some absolute rules at play. I am saying that if you bend the truth to suit your story, while at the same time maintaining that what you write is authentic, then there are…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 11 months ago
This is a lightweight blog.
I was just settling down after reading about the astonishing performance by George R R Martin at the Hugo awards, when my son approached brandishing his phone.
‘Look at that,’ he said.
I looked. My son has been a fan of the Zelda video games since he was little. I played a few along with him in the last few years,…[Read more]
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I didn’t gasp – too world weary – but I can see why you’re annoyed, Ath. On a lighter note I was disappointed, having hoped to learn something more about nightshade! Woody nightshade grows in our garden, is pretty and you could imagine the berries being used for dye. It’s also poisonous. But when I got a bit further I’d have switched off if you h…[Read more]
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Here’s a review of the book https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/06/a-traveller-at-the-gates-of-wisdom-by-john-boyne-review-an-ambitious-era-hopping-epic
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Thanks, Libby. A really interesting review. I hadn’t realised that the Zelda mistake was one amongst many. Aside from characters deep in history musing about their peers in the language of C20th psychology, we have ‘…kimonos and obis to the Chinese, igloos to the Norse Icelanders, and steel and horses to pre-Columbian South Americans. Potatoes…[Read more]
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That makes me flippin mad! All the hard work we put into our MSs, and he just… 😫
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Absolutely agree. I accept that the ‘worlds’ we base our stories in have a lot of the unlikely and improbable in them but there is a big difference between that and not bothering to do proper research.
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Squidge posted an update 5 years, 11 months ago
SO sorry, folks – had completely forgotten to check in on the monthly comp! Have no excuse other than I’ve been rather focused on Tilda 3 recently and got carried away.
As it’s already the 4th August, and there were only three entries, does anyone object to it running through this month too? Hopefully get a few more folk having a go?…[Read more]
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I’m happy with your suggestion to extend, @squidge
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No probs.
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I’m happy with that.
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Squidge posted an update 5 years, 12 months ago
Any more for any more on the July comp? Not going to be inundated for judging this time unless there’s a last minute flurry…
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Mad Iguana replied to the topic The $2,000,000 Guitar in the forum Blogs 6 years ago
I saw that and thought of your post, and your memories.
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KazG replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: The Beginning Place, by Ursula K Le Guin in the forum Blogs 6 years ago
Thank you Richard – sorry, my original reply has also slipped through a portal. I hadn’t heard of this book and as a HUGE admirer of Ursula le Guin I will do my best to remedy that (might be a challenge, from what you say). Thank you for a fascinating blog and for highlighting so clearly how fantasy can be just as powerful, if not more so, at…[Read more]
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Raine posted an update 6 years ago
Our lovely Fiona (Bric) is on this tmrw – register here to watch….
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_p0_gtnBjRMyAoswPP36ZbQ -
Raine posted an update 6 years ago
For those of us in the North – Harper have opened their ‘northern’ (Manchester, still quite south from where I’m standing 😀 ) office & are doing an open submissions to northerly writers. I don’t know how long they’ll be doing that & imagine they’ll switch to agented only fairly quickly so if you’ve got something ready, might be worth a punt?
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sorry – forgot to add: Harpernorth.co.uk
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Coming from the Manchester area myself I’m pleased one of the big publishing companies thinks this very populous, diverse and influential area is worth direct support. (If I knew how to add an emoji signalling a combination of weariness, irony, relief and some kind of optimism, I’d put it here.) I have to agree, Raine, that Manchester is hardly…[Read more]
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Seagreen replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoWhat about ‘Save the Cat’ by Blake Snyder, Sandra? It was one of the recommended reading books when I started Golden Egg.
Regarding plotting, I use the 7 Cs as a framework:
Connection to character – introduction to the character as he is now. Forging a connection i.e. why the reader should care about this person.
Catalyst – Inciting incident.…[Read more]-
Thank you, Seagreen. The 7 Cs is the most useful and memorable framework I’ve seen – and one comes across a lot of them. Definitely the 7 Cs is a mnemonic to save for next time I need to think about plots.
Many plotting techniques remind me of ‘My Way’. Techniques, I’ve seen a few/many/umpteen, but then again too few to mention.
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Squidge replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoI always sit in on these ‘story arc’ kinds of sessions in the hope I’ll find one that works for me. I never have…
I do have two that help remind me of the essentials though.
The triangle…I learnt it on the self edit course (now run by Jericho Writers) and blogged about it here:…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update 6 years ago
Any more takers for the July comp? We’re halfway through the month…
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Go on! You know you want to. It’s only 400 words. Don’t let me be the winner by default – I want my brilliant words to do it!
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I’m half way through an entry.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoThis is about as not stupid a question as I can think of. In essence it’s ‘how do you write’. The supposed divide (classically) is between pantsers and plotters. Plotters, apparently, plan every detail, before they begin. Every chapter and plot point is set out. if a chapter should end with a challenging hook, then it’s there in the plan. Once the…[Read more]
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I think most of us are probably ‘Plantsers’ in reality. And yeah, it means you do end up on the wrong path sometimes. Lots of times, actually… I’m trying to sort one out at the mo in Tilda #3, and it’s hard to back-track and find the point where you actually first stepped off the path.
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I’m convinced that you need to be both a planner and a pantser – yes, a planster. The planning and pantsing parts of your brain need to find a way not to just to give each other space but to support each other.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoI start with a name – a character who rattles a stick along the boundaries of my subconscious. Someone who, when I am not looking, will sneak through a gap in the railings and broadcast snippets of conversation to pique my interest. If this character stalks me when I am waling the dog, or when I’m driving, then I might allow him/her free-write…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoI normally have a character and and end in sight when I start. Apart from that, I don’t do much planning at all – my brain simply doesn’t work like that. I’d love to be more organised, but personally it’s stifling. I am full of admiration for peeps who do the whole character file/in depth plot/post-it scene arrangements etc!
I do a lot of…[Read more]
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Squidge posted an update 6 years ago
In case Denizens are interested… I’m doing a digital zoom launch for Tilda#2 next Friday – details here: https://squidgesscribbles.blogspot.com/2020/07/you-are-invited-totilda-2s-book-launch.html
If you can’t make it, there’ll be a recording which I’ll post at some point in the future.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: The Beginning Place, by Ursula K Le Guin in the forum Blogs 6 years ago
Aha, this was the first Ursula K Le Guin book that I read and it made quite an impression on me.
I think you’ve put your finger on why a mixture of normality and fantasy is so effective. The magic becomes a metaphor for the way that changes happen in our lives. As well as providing entertainment for those of us who like a bit of magic in our…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp: July 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years ago
Month of the Cat
To be clear, although Gus didn’t get on with the cat, he was never cruel to it. When his wife, Mildred, died he didn’t want to go on taking care of it.
‘It’s vindictive,’ he said, ‘it kills half a dozen birds every day. It craps on the decking, wrecks my flower borders, and last week it scratched up the wallpaper.’…[Read more]
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