KazG

I’ve always got a soft spot for Kipling’s style – it is so much fun to read aloud to small people. As for the really strong dialect sample (not got my book with me so can’t remember which one that was – about the frog!), I can admire it and enjoy its differentness … but for anything beyond flash length, I’d really have to care about the…[Read more]

WOW. I’ve been out of the Den for these v busy last few weeks rushing around UK and Bulgaria and have just popped in.

THANK YOU @woolleybeans and @raine! I’m so appreciative that you’ve both gone ahead and applied scientific clarity and teacherly experience to this huge project and marshalled it into a manageable form. I am SO KEEN and very…[Read more]

Gorgeousness is clearly in the eye of the beholder 🙂 I’m not fussy for the Kipling or Gloss examples but rate the other two.

I’m on a ferry tmrw, so hoping to do some eavesdropping there… Although the forecast is not marvellous so that may hamper my efforts!
I’m liking some of the exercises in the books so may play with them over the next few days.

Good idea to beautify something already written…it might be easier than trying to do it from scratch if it’s not the way you naturally write.

I’m going to have a go at ‘writing gorgeous’ but I thought I’d pick a passage I’d already written and try and ‘beautify’ it. Personally I think a little of some of the examples goes a long way. The Kipling and the Molly Gloss, I love, and I think that’s because the ‘gorgeousness’ doesn’t obstruct the sense but enhances it. The other two, I’m not…[Read more]

Started on an impromptu dialogue capture while Billy-no-mates in the pub prior to NIBS on Weds. Worst bit is trying to capture the dialogue (background noise, speed of dialogue) and not getting annoyed at people who like the sound of their own voice. 😉 But I now know a lot about CBD oil… and eating peas.

Oh, and does anyone understand what…[Read more]

Thank Jules and Bella. I have now booked a trip to the UK at the end of October (to visit family rather than purely to record people) and I’ll do some recording then.

Ooooh the Hadron Collider is a good one although I did watch a TV programme about it, I think, but still am none the wiser. Funnily enough this was the first exercise I tried. There is something about it that just made me start automatically. By the way, we are all posting in the wrong thread.

Oh, the Hadron Collider! Now there’s something else I know nothing about!
For me, the fun is in the not knowing and the annoyance is trying to list the things that wouldn’t automatically come to mind because I know nothing about them anyway. If that makes sense?

@Seagreen – I’ve just finished reading the first chapter of Burroway and nearly all of the writing prompts make sense to me (in that I can see how I can write something) but the ‘things I know nothing about’ suggestion has me rather stumped.If I truly know nothing about it (and the Mariana Trench qualifies for me, too!) then what is there to…[Read more]

@janeshuff – not read this thread but it may have something useful in it

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3712927-To-ask-for-your-interesting-and-shocking-overheard-conversation-experiences

Favourite thing on the list of ‘Things I know nothing about’ (and there are six so far) – the Mariana Trench.

Feel like I’m going to fall at the first hurdle, as my diary over the next few weeks is chokka, and I’ve never been a very disciplined writer.

But – am going to try to get one definite session of at least a couple of hours under my belt every week, day to be flexible.

@janeshuff try going on Youtube and looking for News items. Pick somewhere English speakinh and aim for a local news report. I’ve found there’s lots of excerpts of dialogue in local interest stories that way.

Can I leap in early and say that I would really like to do the overheard dialogue exercise, but I’m in France without access to native English speakers other than my OH and he’s a man of few words. If anyone else does this exercise, might they be able to share the recordings with me? Or does anyone have any ideas where I can find real dialogue on…[Read more]

This is marvellous, WB. My books should arrive tomorrow!

Thanks, Wooleybeans, this is all looking great. Just waiting on the books before digging in.