Libby

One week left for the monthly competition!

Here are the requirements:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the word sabulous itself if you wish but you don’t have to.

Be liter…[Read more]

School literature lessons often had a lot to answer for @Athelstone . I gave up with them and returned to Eng Lit A level ten years later at evening classes. A vastly improved experience 🙂

This discussion is really helpful. I feel a bit fraudulent talking about this stuff as though I spend hours every week beta reading and have heaps of experience. Apart from requests from my self-edit group I generally feedback on short pieces of writing about once a week, if that, on Jericho Writers’ Townhouse. I might also review a synopsis or p…[Read more]

I think I’d be a different kind of reader, @RichardB, if I’d been a more instinctive writer. It took me a lot of patience and many disappointing surprises to learn how fiction works, and how my own writing didn’t make the grade. I still have a way to go. Having been quite good at academic writing – though a plodding academic for the short period…[Read more]

A quick reminder to anyone interested in this month’s competition that we are half way through the month. Here’s a repost of the details:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the…[Read more]

Beta reading other people’s writing has taught me all sorts of things. I wouldn’t want to be without it. It’s satisfying too, that link with someone else’s thought processes and their ambitions for their work.

I can come back with my experiences of being beta read but in the meantime, as Jane says: ‘my experience of the book as a reader.’

Y…[Read more]

My theory, Richard, is that the program looks at content rather than style. I leave you to decide if that idea fits with your novel! Possibly the program throws POV into the mix.

I suppose Joyce and Brown both spent some time in Paris…

PS That should be: I could definitely, not probably, learn a lot from other beta readers 🙂 At the moment I do beta reading in a particular way and that’s probably not the best way possible or at any rate not for all authors. Expanding my ideas would be a good thing.

A discussion on beta reading sounds a good idea. I could probably learn a lot from the way other people approach beta reads.

I don’t think I’d want to offer my beta reading services to a wider public, as it were. I’m happy to do it for members here and for people who pop up on the site asking for a reader from whoever is available. I generally…[Read more]

@Bella I hope the writing mojo comes back. And the reading and sax playing. These big events like Covid can really knock the oomph out of all sorts of things.