@libby
Active 15 minutes ago-
Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 10 months ago
OK, I had a try at the Beta Reading group. Soon after I posted, I felt that it was too public. I didn’t want my synopsis etc on show. Temporarily I’ve made the group private while I have a think. Apologies for the confusion. Ideas welcome!
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Athelstone replied to the topic August 2024 monthly competition in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 10 months ago
Another great competition. Thanks so much Libby. Congratulations to all, especially Sandra. Very well deserved.
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Athelstone replied to the topic August 2024 monthly competition in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 10 months ago
I had been thinking of writing a piece about the regular assembly of early morning imbibers near the local pier. My idea was to call it The Breakfast Club, but in deference to the competition it is as requested. Note that the language at these events is often rough. I have tamed it a bit but there may be a trace…
Shall I compare thee to a…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 11 months ago
I’d be grateful for some thoughts. I read a section from my WIP at a writers’ meeting and somebody commented on the name I chose for a character aged around 40. I named the character Carol. She said that this seemed rather an odd name for somebody of that age and that if you see “Carol” you immediately assume somebody older. This hadn’t occurred…[Read more]
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As far as I’m concerned the answers to your questions are ‘No’ and ‘No.’ I had a similar experiance about ten years ago when my daughter suggested that Angela was an unlikely name for a twenty-year-old, but the character had been with me in some shape or form for years and I couldn’t imagine her being anything else, so i stuck with it. And lo and…[Read more]
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I’ve realised for a while that I’ll need to change the name of one character. I introduced her simply for a physical look and mannerisms that I could understand and write about with some realism. But the name belongs to a real person and I’m not the only one who knows her. So…
But the other name? Is my critic opinionated? I couldn’t possibly…[Read more]
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I don’t remember anyone called Carol in the 80s and my younger sister did not have any friends called Carol that I know of. However, I do not associate the name with any particular generation in the way that I would, say, Mabel or Enid or Hilda.
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I knew a couple of Carols at work, but I think they were both probably born in the 60s. I also know a Carol (as I said up there) who’s in her early 40s now, so would be around the age of my character. I suspect that the person who was so definite on associating the name with an era was extra sensitive to it because she was a Carol herself. I’ve…[Read more]
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I’m late to the conversation but I think it’s fine to have a character with an out-of-era name. The only problem I could see with a story is if all the names were old-fashioned or unusual in some way without the author giving any explanation.
Seeing Carol and Angela now, I’m struck how pretty these names are. When they were in commoner currency I…[Read more]-
As a matter of interest (or not…) my character isn’t usually referred to as Angela. It’s part of an authorial joke. I gave her that name so that she could have the nickname Jelly, with the excuse that that was how she said her name when she was learning to talk and it stuck. The girl is a head-turner, and ‘jellyroll’ (as in Jellyroll Morton,…[Read more]
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I’d better not describe the original Teabreak to you as that might break something. Personally I can’t see anything wrong with Carol for the 80s, although I might add an “e” to the end (Carole). I’d go with what you’re comfortable writing with – you can always do a global change when finished if you really want. In other news I know at least one…[Read more]
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Well, thanks for the replies. She stays as Carol, with a suitable comment or two to settle her age. I’ve given this some more thought. In the novel her age is quite clear anyway because this and her appearance are described before Teabreak gets to know her. That’s one of the possible disadvantages of offering critique (especially “definitive”…[Read more]
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Jelly Roll Blues
A century old this year
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Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Fragment 31, by Sappho in the forum Blogs 1 year, 11 months ago
Great blog, Richard. Sadly I have very little internet right now. Will get back asap. Also, yikes! One of the updates has broken my menus (at least in mobile mode).
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 11 months ago
Apologies to anybody who had a problem logging in to the Den in the last couple of days. Our hosting company jumped the gun (by a day or so) and turned off SSL (Secure Socket Layer which provides us with some of our site security) prior to the bill falling due.
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Thanks for keeping us going, Ath.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition July 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 11 months ago
Well done Libby! And well done to Sandra, too. Made me smile!
I didn’t read the other entries until after I’d posted mine, but I have to say 1) I was struck by the way we all had some common themes 2) I thought at once that Libby’s piece was a bit special.
Thanks for the competition, Terrie.
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Thank you, Ath!
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition July 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 11 months ago
Don’t ever cross a crocodile.
Back when Chubby was chubby and not six inches taller than me and good looking, his nan died, and he went to the funeral. Afterwards, we met up near his gaff and he was in a bit of a moody with me.
‘All your fault, Teabreak, you twat!’ he goes.
‘Woss that then,’ I say, and I offer him a Number 6 to make up f…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – June 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years ago
Thank you for the challenge, Libby. And very well done to Terrie for another powerful piece of story telling.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – June 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years ago
Energy and shame
Understanding is a difficult word sometimes. We say, ‘I understand her,’ meaning that we know her reasons for doing something or other. It was as expected. Electricity feels rather different. Do I understand it? I mean, what is it? I was taught a load of rubbish at school about the movement of charged electrons. That isn’t elect…[Read more]
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Kate posted an update 2 years ago
I wanted to let you know that I’ve finally gone ahead and published my humorous middle grade book. I’m very excited!
Some of you may remember the characters Pix and Gabe from one of Athelstone’s short story contests. Well, the pair have now gone large.It’s launching on 12 July. If anyone is interested, you can pre-order an e-copy now, or get a…[Read more]
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Pix and Gabe are brilliant, 100% delightful characters who will entice any reader. Well done, Kate! I’m looking forward to reading The Shadow Deception.
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Thank you, Libby!
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Great news, Kate. I’ve watched your magical duo for some time now. I’m certain the Shadow Deception will be a winner.
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Thanks, Athelstone. Fingers crossed. 😊
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That’s such exciting news – congratulations, Kate! I’m sure your charming, quirky duo will enchant many young readers. xx
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Thanks, Kaz!
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Well done, Kate. I’m so out of touch with my writing people, but I love your writing. I’m busy finishing off my own WIP, Marigold (almost there), but will take a look as soon as I come up for breath.
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Thanks so much, Janette, I really appreciate that. And good luck with finishing the WIP.
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Athelstone posted an update 2 years, 1 month ago
Sorry for any oddities and issues with the site. I had a bumper crop of major updates to install and although I did my best to slip these in seemlessly, there are one or two niggles. In particular, Buddypress, which gives the site many of its social networking features had a complete rewrite. I did check all the prerequisites and tried it out on…[Read more]
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OK, quicker than I thought. We should have users online and a member list back in place.
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Thank you, Ath.
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Kate posted an update 2 years, 1 month ago
Is anybody else have trouble with group posts? It’s impossible to get to recent posts.
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Hi Kate, sorry , I’ve not been online much today. Can you give me some more detail on the issue you’ve got? What forum? What posts? Anything else you think might be helpful.
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Thanks, Ath. It’s in our SE course group. A forum has multiple pages but we can’t move beyond the first page to look at later posts.
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Hmm. OK, no idea at the moment.
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So, when you go to the forum, you’re presented with an original post (topic) plus any replies on that page, but you can’t proceed, i.e. if you pick page 2 or the arrow, nothing happens apart from the screen refreshing. I think it may be a problem with other forums as well.
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I think I’ve got a fix.
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That’s me borrowing Admin’s hat by the way.
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🙂 yes, that’s what is happening.
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Try now.
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That’s working. Thank you!
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – May 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 1 month ago
Why do you always insist on making this difficult?
Terrie’s Plant Song is almost a poem to the language of flowers. Rich and ancient with a deadly heart. The melody, she writes, is intoxicating, and I can’t think of a better word for the whole piece. I said “anything floral” and it’s hard to imagine something more floral than this. A wonderfully…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Monthly Competition – May 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 2 months ago
April showers bring May flowers. they say. But when is a flower a flower and when is it a weed? Anything floral in less than 501 words.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Comp April 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 2 months ago
Seagreen, thanks so much. A brilliant prompt for April. Thanks also to my co-authors. There were some great pieces of writing.
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Athelstone replied to the topic How I Cope With My Box of Bugs. in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 2 years, 2 months ago
To be fare, sometimes I don’t know the ending – or the story.
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Athelstone replied to the topic How I Cope With My Box of Bugs. in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 2 years, 2 months ago
I’ve written three full length novels and two shorter ones, plus numerous short stories. I’ve never been able to bring any planning tools to bear on the process, either widely advocated or self-invented. Yes, it is extraordinarily difficult and a constant worry as the story progresses, since I am an inveterate seat-of-the-pants writer. Yes, I…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Where Does Your Writing Inspiration Come From? in the forum Blogs 2 years, 2 months ago
@sandradavies, yes indeed – transfer of information. The number of times I’ve come across a note I’ve scrawled down when all that’s left is an incomprehensible collection of words and a vague memory of myself thinking that I must find a way of using this brilliant insight. the very embodiment of having all the nuance but none of the original…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 2 years, 2 months ago
Oddity Corner: accustom, verb, make someone or something accept (something) as normal. The other day, in my writing group, somebody came up with the phrase, “…as my eyes accustomed to the darkness.”
It immediately struck me as an odd phrase, but I was in a minority of one. I suppose my reaction is because I’m used to seeing accustomed as part…[Read more]
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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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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.’
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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.
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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.
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It’s definitely not intended to be old-fashioned. A twisty modern tale.
The nearest support I have found to my position when searching the internet, is the statement that “accustomed to usually comes after linking verbs such as be, become, get, and grow”.
I suspect that part of the issue is that, as the OED suggests, there is an adjectival…[Read more]-
I wondered if the transitive quality of accustomed was playing a part but couldn’t get my head round whether it was or not. This is where my thin knowledge of grammar fails me. I’m also easily lost when having to consider how one word can fulfil different grammatical functions which might overlap.
With accustomed, maybe it comes down to how an…[Read more]-
In the end, voice is probably the most important thing. If the character or narrator would use a linking verb, there should be one included.
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I think that’s what bothered me the most. It’s far away from a commonplace way of speaking. I’ve had quite a few conversations over the last three score years and (well not quite) ten, and read a fair bit, and I’m pretty certain that this is the first time I’ve seen “accustomed” used in this way.
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Why I’m wasting my time puzzling and researching this, I don’t know. Actually I do. I’m about to start editing and at the same time I’m at a difficult point in the rewrite of a short story that’s insisting on growing towards novella length. In other words, prevarication.
Anyway, I think I have it:
1) Accustom is a transitive verb. It requires an…[Read more]-
No good asking me about grammar, so I can’t give a reason for it but while I had no hiccup over “My eyes accustomed to the darkness” I mentally inserted ‘themselves’ after accustomed.
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Which is to supply an object to the verb and make it grammatically correct.
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Thank you for sorting this out, Ath. It has made me think more carefully about verbs 🙂
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I think the importance for writers is that we need to demonstrate that we can follow the generally accepted grammatical conventions so that our work is publishable. There’s an awful lot of correct grammar that simply reflects how the posh mates of C19th lexicographers spoke and wrote and sets out that other ways are wrong.
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More often than not , i find if something you write or read stops you from moving forward then it probably could benefit from revision. depending on the surrounding context of the piece i would have probably written something like … As my eyes adjusted I negotiated the dark shadows with growing ease.
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Late to this, but maybe I’ll make up for that by the pungency of my comments. Even before your careful explanation six posts back, that phrase just sounded plain wrong to me, like a bum note in music. Just because you were in a minority of one doesn’t mean the others were right. To extend the musical analogy, it’s as if you’d been in a group of…[Read more]
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@purplewitch absolutely. I don’t think it will be an issue because the writer in question is quite sharp. Anyway, if it gets to the point where a 3rd party is giving it a professional read, it isn’t going to last.
@richardb yep, that analogy is about right. In this instance I wouldn’t say the author has cloth ears (although the others might, I…[Read more]
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Adding a bit of nonsense to the conversation –
To write a pithy sentence and not use well-worn phrases
Comes with all the thinking and headache that it raises.
So, me, I play with words and, using inconsistent skill,
I hammer, pull, and twist them and bend them to my will.
I make them mine – reformed, unique, and, sometimes packed with w…[Read more]-
Very nice too.
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Also, now I think about it, apologies to anybody who might have liked to try the beta reading option, but couldn’t opt to make it private like I can
Do you actually need to provide a synopsis in a beta reading request? I would have thought a brief outline of what sort of novel it is – genre, style etc – might suffice. Then there wouldn’t be such a need for privacy.
I think you’re right. I put the guidelines together based on a variety of sources, and a brief synopsis was a common suggestion. However, it ought to be part of the private correspondence between author and reader, not out there on the web.