@libby
Active 5 days, 15 hours ago-
Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 2 months ago
I don’t think it has a problem though it perhaps sounds old fashioned, which could be the intention. In a contemporary story I’d be more likely to say, ‘As my eyes adapted to …’.
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Libby replied to the topic Where Does Your Writing Inspiration Come From? in the forum Blogs 2 years, 2 months ago
Coordination: that’s exactly it. I can’t get coordinated with notebooks. I have one on my desk and it travels to my bedside table and back again. I admire people who use notebooks when they’re out – they seem more intuitive and open than I am. I think their minds flow more smoothly. They’re even Romantic with a capital R, with all the creativity…[Read more]
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 3 months ago
Being a bit Zen seems to be the way to approach them. Relaxed but focused? Though I’ve yet to achieve this with a pitch.
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 3 months ago
Hi @janette, I grew up close to Manchester in the 1970s. I don’t know a great deal though can remember the atmosphere and what it looked like. There was a sense of desolation despite the moneyed suburbs. I don’t know anything about the theatres – a memory of the Library Theatre but that’s all. But if you think I can help, send me a private message…[Read more]
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Thank you, Libby, I’ll bear that in mind. It’s mostly theatre life I’m interested in, but I may want to pick your brain some time when I come to refining descriptives.
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Hi @janette, feel free 🙂
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 6 months ago
Sorry I didn’t manage to do a story, Alex. I had work to finish, and it’s a busy time of year.
Congratulations, Ath. A lovely story, exactly right for the season. -
Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 6 months ago
Hi Ath, you did reply! I received an email on Christmas Day: “And to you, Libby. And a very happy Christmas to all of us.”
It never appeared here on the site. I put this down to a computer glitch.
Thank you for this reply and the next one. Happy new year 🙂 -
Libby started the topic Season's greetings in the forum Podium 2 years, 6 months ago
A moment to acknowledge all you’ve achieved this year and to jettison regret for what you haven’t. At least that’s my philosophy. Happy Christmas, Denizens.
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 7 months ago
I’ve heard the new-queue-lar version. It does sound odd but I’ve wondered if, unlike me, the speaker isn’t old enough to have grown up with nuclear as a familiar word and a consistent threat.
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Hah, that did occur to me. Hardly a day went by from the late 50s to the 80s when somewhere on television, radio, or simply in conversation, the word nuclear didn’t crop up.
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 7 months ago
Perhaps it’s the same. Place holder for the captain under whose command the lieutenant is acting. Does that make sense?
Re pronunciation, here’s the OED:The origin of the βtype of forms (which survives in the usual British pronunciation, though the spelling represents the αtype) is difficult to explain. The hypothesis of a mere m…[Read more]
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Speaking of the nuclear threat, I’m reminded that Aldermaston, where the Canpaign for Nuclear (never new=queue-lar) Disarmament used to march to when Ah were a lad, is in Berkshire. Now I wonder when we started pronouncing that Barkshire, because a certain piece of rhyming slang suggests that Cockneys, at least, used to say it the way Americans still do.
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 7 months ago
New Queue has a hint of birdsong about it. A distraction in these ghastly times? :/
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It’s one of those words. I hear it mispronounced almost as often as it is pronounced correctly. The curious thing about it is that it really only has two parts, both of which are simple word-sounds in their own right: new and clear. I even hear people who work closely with things nu-cue-ler get it wrong.
There’s a theory that the British, and a…[Read more]
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Libby posted a new activity comment 2 years, 7 months ago
Um, fingers crossed and a fair wind …
It might be more of a description than a story. My brain is full of other stories at the moment. But I’m interested in the task you’ve set @Janette -
Libby replied to the topic Monthly competition – October 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 8 months ago
I enjoyed this prompt @Seagreen . At first I thought I wouldn’t have time to enter the comp this month but being able to work on something I’d already written gave me fresh energy. My piece still needs a bit more work but the exercise you gave us was very helpful and one to be remembered.
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly competition – October 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 8 months ago
Congratulations @Janette . I loved this excerpt. It feels so realistic. I could really hear her voice too in your brilliant dialogue.
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Thank you, Libby. Like Sea, I loved yours and Sandra’s too. It’s remarks like this that tell me not to give up on Grace, so thank you.
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Libby replied to the topic Monthly competition – October 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 8 months ago
This is from my novel. It’s 1937. Hester is shortly to leave school and has asked her father if she can have flying lessons. He’s said no, it’s too dangerous. That’s the novel’s inciting incident. The is the next scene, told from her father’s pov.
412 words
In Worcester Cathedral, Hester’s father Frederick Longley gazed at the vaulted ceiling…[Read more]
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Libby replied to the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 2 years, 9 months ago
Yes, Salter’s detachment. Is that what makes his writing interesting? I think it may be – for me anyway.
John, I wouldn’t press Salter on you, or anyone, but his prose is an example of American spareness if you ever want to investigate same.
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Libby replied to the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 2 years, 9 months ago
@sandra
The short stories are very good, Sandra. I liked a Sport and a Pastime but it can feel dated even though the writing was, for me, compelling. Salter can fall into the trap of his generation. Some of his writing about women can seem as if he didn’t ask the women around him how they thought and felt. On the other hand he’s also a very…[Read more]
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Libby replied to the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 2 years, 9 months ago
I posted too soon. My comment may look as though I’m suggesting you don’t, Daeds, which I certainly didn’t mean! Your study of Salter brings a clarity and atmosphere to your writing which I’m sure it would have anyway. It’s interesting to think, in this influences process, how much we’re drawn to authors who provoke writerly neurones that we…[Read more]
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But I think there could be a grammar question in there, Ath. This is where I show my uncertainties about active v passive but accustomed on its own is active. In a compound with an auxiliary verb it’s more passive I think. ‘My eyes became accustomed.’ The OED says, ‘In passive use sometimes approaching the stative adjective; cf. accustomed adj.’
My eyes opened to darkness.
My eyes were opened to darkness.
In which ‘opened to darkness’ is adjectival. Sometimes you want a straightforward active verb and sometimes you don’t.
I’ll stay sitting on this fence 🙂
And I’ll chuck in a quote. ‘The ear is not accustomed to exercise constantly its functions of hearing, it is accustomed to stillness.’
J. Ruskin, Modern Painters vol. I. 60
Lucky Ruskin.