Knicks

  • Also @squidge – The entire universe makes profound and powerful sense when Craig talks!! 😀

  • @richardb and @squidge – I don’t think there’s anything wrong in not wanting to use models like these! I have a penchance for graphs, which is probably ~60% of why I love it! No – I like the tie-in between internal and external, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

    @athelstone, yeah you’re totally right, I agree it’s foolish to think that any…[Read more]

  • I feel much the same way, Squidge. I never have been able to get on with charts, graphs, grids or any other kind of science-ish analysis. I’m not knocking it for those who find it useful, but my eyes start to glaze over when faced with such stuff, and it seems to place a barrier between me and my creativity (if any). I suppose I might conceivably…[Read more]

  • For me, “Tasha and she” would flow better as “She and Tasha”. But apart from this I thought it was a very neat story. I particularly liked the moment where she and Jezza are in bed and then suddenly it switches to a physics metaphor. Also when she changes, it’s good to see it from her perspecive, with the beast being an outside entity at…[Read more]

  • I remember doing these sessions at York…it all seemed to make perfect sense when CMT was explaining it, but I can’t put it into practise. I don’t think I have the kind of logical and structural mind that can break a story down into these kind of segments. Which is annoying, because I know it’s all good stuff and very useful – I just can’t apply…[Read more]

  • Very nice… There were a couple of points only that tripped me up in the reading:
    ‘Tasha and she nicked the lipstick’. Didn’t sound right. I wondered about ‘She’d nicked the lipstick when she was with Tasha’, but wasn’t sure how that’d affect your word count.
    ‘The salty scent of sweaty skin trapped in every pore’. I read this first as the sweaty…[Read more]

  • So I have been working on this story on and off trying to improve and refine it and I am keen to get some feedback on the latest version of it.

    Also it has gone through a change of title and is now called ‘Bad Consequences’

    Thanks!

    ———

    She had never seen a naked man before. She had glimpsed unclothed parts in isolation at the local…[Read more]

  • I find this sort of structural analysis interesting – and useful because I’m convinced that there’s a kind of validity to it. So I’m really happy to steal the ideas and use them. What I’m not so sure of is whether something with a “universal” explanatory power – or even scope – is being described. And that goes for the stages of grief as well.…[Read more]

  • @katemachon glad it makes some sense & hope it’s helpful! 🙂

    @philippaeast that’s so interesting. The thing that’s always drawn me to this model is how it really explores the psychology of the character and how that drives their interactions with the external world. BUt I’d never made the comparison between that and things like the stages of…[Read more]

  • That’s great, @raine, and so nicely explained.

    I find so many similarities between the many varied “models” of story structure, and the many evolving models we use in psychiatry to diagnose and treat mental health conditions.

    Mental health conditions (the fairly predictable ways in which the human brain breaks down) have a sort of inherent…[Read more]

  • This is great Raine. I’ve read a few structure books and I can see how they all reflect in this arc. It’s nice to have it in this concise summary. I’m going to print it out and pin it to the wall!

  • Raine posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago

    Dara MArks’ Transformational Arc came up in my regional NaNoWriMo chat board, so I’ve posted my notes as a blog to share with them. Nod to the wonderful, lovely and eloquent Craig Taylor who introduced me to this, and who I’d happy adopt. 😀

  • To allow me to share this wider, I’m posting my notes on the Transformational Arc from Dara Marks’ book ‘Inside Story’.

    Here’s the pretty graph itself:

    Dara Marks’ Transformational Arc

    The Transformational Arc expands/combines the basic character arc and 3 act structures into this:

    Act I: Character is in ‘Resistance’ – at the start of…[Read more]

  • JT. posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago

    Hope everyone has managed to get a bit of writing in today. It’s lovely to look out on to the autumnal garden and get inspiration.

  • Market day in town so I’m off to see what treasures I can find at the book stall.
    I’ve rediscovered the joy of real books now I’ve ditched my annoying Kindle.

  • Seagreen replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago

    Ace! Our very own SloMoWriMo. Looking forward to it 🙂

  • Don’t think I’d qualify as I’m not looking to change genre but am already published… Also can’t commit to the time at the moment 🙁

  • Raine posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago

    Been doing research for new wip today. Photos of the Llyn peninsula, stats on welsh cob ponies AND OS MAPS YAY FOR OS MAPS

    • I did wonder, many moons ago, when I was thinking where to set a WIP, whether a forum for writers to exchange places might be helpful. I live by the sea in Finistere for example so if anyone ever wanted to set a novel in that sort of environment, I would be happy to send photos and information and when, like now, I am thinking of setting something…[Read more]

      • Can’t help in this instance. You can’t get a lot further from where I live and still be in Wales, isn’t it?

        • Ohmigosh – we went to the Lleyn EVERY year for holidays. I remember having shop-bought Victoria sponge on the beach on my birthday in June… Nefyn, Morfa Nefyn, Whistling Sands, Llanbedrog, Baa-Lamb Beach (our name for it, no idea what it was really called!) Abersoch and Aberdaron… Happy days.

          • I had a holiday there in the eighties, on a farm somewhere near Abersoch and Hell’s Mouth (delightful name – Porth Neigwl in Welsh). I particularly remember the day we went to the pub in the nearest village. I left the wife and kids at a table in the garden and went into the bar to order. There were a good thirty people in that room and a fair bit…[Read more]

      • I loved reading The Price of Water in Finistere, and had the pleasure of visiting there many years ago. You’re lucky to live in such a wild and beautiful place, Jane.

        • Oh, Hell’s Mouth! We didn’t go there often – saved it for really awful days, but you could lean 45 degrees into the wind and get held up. We used to find allsorts on the beach, washed up. I think that’s where it got it’s name from, cos all the shipwrecked bodies used to wash up there…

        • Just looked The Price of Water up on amazon, @anna. Sounds interesting. I’ll have to put it on my TBR pile.

      • Jane I am in and out of the Calder valley area of W.Yorks and thoroughly recommend it as a novel setting – get your Bronte/Ted Hughes/Gallows Pole on, sort of thing. Happy to provide pics, though I am very much a “smartphone photograhper”. As I write fantasy it doesn’t feature per se but it is certainly an inspiring spot.

    • Oh, good luck with that one, Raine – I love doing research, but alas can’t help you on this occasion.
      I love the idea of a group to share locations though, @janeshuff. I’m basing my wip on West Yorkshire (where I live), namely the 60s era, but am more than willing to share info on my part of town.

      • Ooh thank you Jonathan and Janette. I’ll message you with my email address. I’m at the very early stage at the moment.

    • @janeshuff, that sort of forum would be great wouldn’t it? Perhaps worth setting one up sometime.
      @squidge & @richardb, it’s a gorgeous place, isn’t it? I had a couple of trips there to stay at a residential welsh language school in the most stunning, stark, kind of depressing setting. I love all those abandoned mines/quarrys/houses. Softer than…[Read more]

  • Jonathan replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago

    I could SloMo.

  • RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago

    SloMo – definitely sounds like my kind of thing. I’d be up for it. Might encourage me to get a bit more editing done on the notorious ghost story.

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