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Daedalus replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoAs do I, although I just have this feeling that the fact I’ve essentially written ghost stories, broadly defined, for the last four challenges straight is not going to help me in the slightest
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Athelstone replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoHah! Completely unintentional but the choices are taking on something of the evangelical hymn titles I remember from my Methodist upbringing.
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“Onward Denion soldiers” you mean?
Yeah, and for the first time in these challenges, my mind keeps trying to force a story in advance of the theme.
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Away, unbeliever. Watch!
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Lol
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Daedalus replied to the topic Susie in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
Wow Richard, what a story. I really wasn’t expecting that ending. It’s funny when you meet people who just have this sort of energy about them, who you know in your bones are remarkable. Lovely bit of real life at a deep emotional level, beautifully told
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Daedalus replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoAway, believer, ring
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Athelstone replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 9 months agoMy selections, chosen for me by our wonderful administrator, Jules, are:
Away, Believer, Watch
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Athelstone started the topic Things that go bump in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
Well, I’ve gone and done it again. Time for a short story challenge I believe. This one has a ghostly and supernatural theme. If you’d like to find out more then hurry over to the group Things that go bump. Once you have joined, you can read all about it in the forum.
You know you want to.
You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
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Phew – it’s been on mind for the past week or two … on my way.
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That time of year already. Hooray.
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Athelstone replied to the topic A Want of Discipline: Abergele, 1868 in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
Fascinating, Richard. Rich’s words may have been ahead of their time, but that serves to emphasise how persistent the root causes of these disasters are. We still do it, even with our modern safety culture. Sadly, there are forces working to erode what gains have been made. The “Health & Safety Gone Mad” slogan may not belong to a formal campaign;…[Read more]
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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 9 months ago
Some advice please. I have just started reading aloud everyday via Facetime to my father who has Alzheimers and we are close to getting to the end of the book he had picked up. So I am looking for something else to read? Does anyone have any recommendations? His passion was sailing although he is quite happy to read anything. Short stories might…[Read more]
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Sorry – can’t really help. The only remotely sailingy books I can think of are @daedalus‘ eponymous book, ‘the life of pi’, ‘this thing of darkness’ and MM Kaye’s ‘trade winds’. He’d enjoy Daed’s perhaps? And ‘this thing of darkness’ is awesome, (& ~biographical) but the other two prob not ideal!
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What about that perennial fave of mine, Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’? It’s quite short, the plot and language alike are stripped down and simple, yet it’s so moving.
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Oh, and for most of the story it’s a man alone in a boat. Ought to be right up your father’s street.
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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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Athelstone replied to the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
There are degrees to this and a dependency on the type of book being written. I am not searching for an artificial precision in moral culpability. I am not saying that there are some absolute rules at play. I am saying that if you bend the truth to suit your story, while at the same time maintaining that what you write is authentic, then there are…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic A gasp escaped me! in the forum Blogs 5 years, 9 months ago
This is a lightweight blog.
I was just settling down after reading about the astonishing performance by George R R Martin at the Hugo awards, when my son approached brandishing his phone.
‘Look at that,’ he said.
I looked. My son has been a fan of the Zelda video games since he was little. I played a few along with him in the last few years,…[Read more]
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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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JaneShuff replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoI think most writers are also great readers and have acquired an instinctive grasp of story structure. That doesn’t mean a bit of conscious knowledge won’t help. But sometimes you have to trust your unconscious.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoOoh what an interesting conversation!
I think it’s quite hard (impossible for me) to tailor a novel according to a detailed framework and I will often start with only the inciting incident, the external problem the MC has to fight/solve and the antagonist forces, whether they’re people or circumstances, then let the story develop a first draft…[Read more]
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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 10 months ago
i amtrying to write a synopsis for a novel with multiple timelines and viewpoints. I cannot write the synopsis so that each time and POV shift is noted because it will be too long. Do you think it is OK to say something along the lines of….. Meanwhile, told from the POV’s of X, Y and Z, in 1957, this happens, that happens and catstrophe e…[Read more]
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I think your approach is fine, though in the interest of saving words I would not bother referring to POV in the synopsis. You could mention the book is seen from multiple POVs in the covering letter, perhaps?
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This might be a candidate for starting with a single sentence stating the basic premise of the story, then adding a second sentence and then a third. etc. mentioning time span only insofar as there are several. Good luck!
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In a word, yes. You can definitely sum in up in that tell-y sort of way in a synopsis.
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Or as Bella says, just mention that it’s from several POVs at the start and then just talk about the events without mentioning the POV it’s from as you go.
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Thanks @kazg. And thank @bellam and @sandradavies. I’ve had a another go just concentrating on telling what happens and ignoring the POV and it is falling into place.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoThis is about as not stupid a question as I can think of. In essence it’s ‘how do you write’. The supposed divide (classically) is between pantsers and plotters. Plotters, apparently, plan every detail, before they begin. Every chapter and plot point is set out. if a chapter should end with a challenging hook, then it’s there in the plan. Once the…[Read more]
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I think most of us are probably ‘Plantsers’ in reality. And yeah, it means you do end up on the wrong path sometimes. Lots of times, actually… I’m trying to sort one out at the mo in Tilda #3, and it’s hard to back-track and find the point where you actually first stepped off the path.
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I’m convinced that you need to be both a planner and a pantser – yes, a planster. The planning and pantsing parts of your brain need to find a way not to just to give each other space but to support each other.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoThe starting point for every book has been different for me and my process has changed as well. I used to plan very little but now I do try and start with the main thrust of the plot clear in my head otherwise I risk wandering too far down interesting paths that lead nowhere. But I need the actual process of writing words and sentences to…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: The Beginning Place, by Ursula K Le Guin in the forum Blogs 5 years, 10 months ago
Aha, this was the first Ursula K Le Guin book that I read and it made quite an impression on me.
I think you’ve put your finger on why a mixture of normality and fantasy is so effective. The magic becomes a metaphor for the way that changes happen in our lives. As well as providing entertainment for those of us who like a bit of magic in our…[Read more]
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