KazG

That’s 2 of us, Daeds. When were you thinking? And how would it work? I’m quite prepared to set up a support group of some kind if that will help.

I’d be up for SloMoWriMo

A Story of No Importance
Or, Lady Wokingham’s Ban
Or, Baloné: A Tragedy in One Act

Was meeting the in-laws ever straightforward? Alton reflected on the frosty atmosphere as he pushed his food around his plate. Gwen gave him a smile when her mother’s attention was otherwise engaged but he could tell she felt as awkward as him. Every topic of conv…[Read more]

Ooh I love a good title debate.

Tbh, I’m not a fan of ‘The {x persons}’s {female relative}. BEcause a) there’s been a gazillion of them, and b) it reduces the woman/girl to an addendum to their male relative. Also, I think ‘The Time-stealers Daughter’ is too close to The Time Traveller’s Wife for me. I know that’s adult, and a bit dated now, but…[Read more]

😀 @seagreen. Perhaps December could be a Den SloMoWriMo, because December and writing do not appear to ever co-exist anyway!

The Banjo
The phone rings in the lost property office at Euston Station in London.
“Lost Property, Smith speaking, how may we help?”
He takes a sip from his tea, listens.
“Yes, sir, anything left on a train on this line ends up here. Assuming it’s turned in, like. What have you lost?
“So, a banjo is it sir? Well let me have a look, won’t be…[Read more]

Loved the story, Elle, congratulations!

Well done, good job as usual, L!

Great story Elle, well done. I agree with Philippa about that line!

Not tempted by the NaNoWriMo, but if the Den does a SLoMoWriMo, I’m in!

Congratulations, L. Another fine story 🙂

Yes, there’s something to be said for leaving all the polishing until the editing, and I’m sure it works for some, but not for me. If something I’ve written doesn’t satisfy me, it niggles at me until I’ve put it right.

I might sort of do it from the sidelines… use the general impetus and ground swell to push on with book 2. Very much doubt I’ll be hitting those targets, but I’d like to get some more chapters written.

Maybe we can have DeNoWriMo (Den novel writing month)

What a beautifully written story. My favourite line: “You said she made you feel young. How did she do that? I replied. Did she read you bedtime stories?”

This is brilliant! A great publication, @elle

I completely understand, and I tend to have the same issue. For me, the fact that NaNo is only a month means I can feel a bit more comfortable turning down the quality filter. I do like to construct first drafts carefully (I don’t really know any other way) but that’s far from the main reason I don’t write much. For me, the main challenge is in…[Read more]

I’ve never had a problem writing crap, but I do have a problem allowing myself to. That’s one reason I find it useful sometimes. Focussing on a goal other than perfect sentences stops me getting tied up in knots and losing all interest in what I’m doing. There is a view that all the polishing should be left for the editing.

Can’t say I’ve ever felt tempted. I find rigid targets counter-productive, and I fear that if I were concerning myself with the number of my words rather than the quality I’d churn out crap. And I can’t bear to write crap, even temporarily. Quality over quantity for me, any day. Yes, I’m slow, but I usually get there in the end.

@raine – you just post your word counts for each day, but towards the end of the month you can ‘validate’, which is to say, you paste all your written words into NaNo’s special word counting window, and it counts it and confirms your totals. This is so you can prove you’ve written what you say you’ve written, and also makes sure everyone is…[Read more]

NaNo generally works for me because I am patchy about my output the rest of the time, and my biggest challenge is just getting enough words down on paper to work on. That said, I can totally understand why it doesn’t work for some people, and in fairness there have been years when it worked brilliantly for me and other years when I churned out…[Read more]