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Libby replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
I’m impressed by your research @kazg
My mother used to read books by Monica Dickens, Charles’s great-granddaughter (just checked that one on Wikipedia 🙂 ). I enjoyed some of them too when I was a teenager. I don’t know if anyone still reads Monica Dickens.
I also enjoy your blog posts on https://www.karenginnane.com/
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Libby replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
Thank you for this post, Richard. I didn’t know the Manchester-Liverpool route was the first intercity connection. My WIP features the Manchester Ship Canal in the 1930s. I believe, though I haven’t checked my notes, that the Port of Manchester docks had the largest private railway system in the country at that time.
Thank you for the…[Read more]
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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 9 months ago
Hi @janeshuff I’ve had a quick look through the public library catalogue. I haven’t read any of the following but how about:
In the wake of heroes : sailing’s greatest stories introduced by Tom Cunliffe
London : Adlard Coles Nautical, 2015.
All at sea : true and tall tales / trawled by Libby Purves. Fontana Paperbacks, 1984. Published to…[Read more]-
Joshua Slocum’s ‘Sailing Alone Around The World’ is great. Then there’s Francis Chichester’s book about his own circumnavigation, which I think was just called Gypsy Moth, or possibly Around The World In Gypsy Moth? Thanks for recommending Daedalus @raine – very kind. It’s OOP now but I’ll see if I have any spare copies left
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Thanks @richardb, @libby, @daedalus. Great suggestions. If you had a spare copy, Daeds, I would happily buy it.
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Thanks Jane. I only have two left I’m afraid, and I didn’t want to go lower than that. There may still be some in a shop or two somewhere which I’ll chase up but very few of the places I sent copies to on sale or return ever got back to me
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If you can that would be great Daeds.
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Haha right there with you! And I completely agree – the truth in historical terms is often far more interesting than the Everyone Knows version. Also agree that writers have to be free to make unintentional mistakes without being pilloried for them. It’s inevitable that some small detail will be wrong but as you say, why not try to be as correct…[Read more]
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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 9 months ago
That’s mean to be ‘historical fiction’.
It’s the heat. I can’t remember what I’m supposed to be.-
Or how to spell.
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Haha right there with you! And I completely agree – the truth in historical terms is often far more interesting than the Everyone Knows version. Also agree that writers have to be free to make unintentional mistakes without being pilloried for them. It’s inevitable that some small detail will be wrong but as you say, why not try to be as correct…[Read more]
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Libby replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
I agree with you Jules. It’s worrying that schools will teach misleading literature.
One thought from my perspective as a writer of realist historical writer: the truth is more interesting than the invented even if it’s harder to work with. There’s a smaller point too that we can all make mistakes so might as well aim to get as much as possible…[Read more]
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That’s mean to be ‘historical fiction’.
It’s the heat. I can’t remember what I’m supposed to be.-
Or how to spell.
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Haha right there with you! And I completely agree – the truth in historical terms is often far more interesting than the Everyone Knows version. Also agree that writers have to be free to make unintentional mistakes without being pilloried for them. It’s inevitable that some small detail will be wrong but as you say, why not try to be as correct…[Read more]
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Even in fantasy – I do some research! Not in depth, granted, cos I’m not seeking to reflect accuracy, but I do have to do enough to make the processes I describe (like melting precious metals; making a catapult out of just string; rules about coats of arms for example) so if anyone reads it who also has that knowledge, I’ve given enough to make it…[Read more]
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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 9 months ago
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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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 9 months ago
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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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 9 months ago
I’m happy with your suggestion to extend, @squidge
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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 10 months ago
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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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 10 months ago
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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Libby replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoI outline before I start by knowing the probable ending or at any rate an ending I’m heading for – it could change though hasn’t done so far. And I know what the midpoint or turning point will be – the tightening up when the main character(s) are stuck with what’s happened and have to deal with it in a focused way. This applies to short fiction as…[Read more]
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly Competition: June 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 11 months ago
Congratulations, Squidge! I really enjoyed your story and everyone else’s too. Thank you, Jill, for the themes and the comments.
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Libby replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 11 months agoThis forum is a great idea, Andrew.
Re show-or-tell, I can’t add much to what’s already been said so well. The only thing I can think of is that sometimes, even with telling, you might want to write quite descriptively. Emma Darwin gives an example in the showing and telling post Jane mentions.
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Libby joined the group
A place for Stupid Questions 5 years, 11 months ago -
Libby replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 11 months ago
The character questionnaire. I’m with Richard. I don’t doubt they’re great if you find them useful but for me they are disheartening.
The other ‘favourite’ which sends my spirits groundwards is the implication, sometimes a very thinly-veiled instruction, that creative prose should learn from film or TV. If studying that medium helps fire…[Read more]
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Thanks, Libby.
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Well done, Kate!
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Libby posted a new activity comment 5 years, 11 months ago
It’s interesting when a piece of writing develops a life of its own. And encouraging too I hope 🙂
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Thanks for reading Libby! I hadn’t heard of Monica Dickens.