Mad Iguana

I’m pretty sure I do this anyway, probably 100++ if I’m honest. I see it as essential as I’m in the process of fine-polishing, and we all know a MS has to be as good as possible before submitting to agents. And frankly, if I should miss a day, I would feel guilty.
Today, I’ve had raging toothache, so I worked on my synopsis.
Make every day count.

Haha! He’s the one! I could picture him…but not remember his name!

I looked up the author – her novel sounds brill, must look it up. I like the idea of women ruling the world 😉

Thanks all!

Stella, I’ve not heard of Naomi Alderman at all – I’ll have to look her/her books up.

It’s sods law that what I’ve written makes you think of someone else’s work – originally the Power was rings, and I got slated by an agent over it being too LOTR, when the story itself is nothing like.

Ah well, they do say there are only so many…[Read more]

Thanks for posting this, Skylark. I, too, was very sorry to miss your speech, but glad to hear about it and glad it all went well. You continue to be an inspiration to others of us who are taking a LONG time!

Good tip @John T I’ll try that.

I downloaded a voice recorder app for my mobile so that when I’m out and about finding inspiration on my country walks, I can record ideas that pop into my head and save the mp3 files into their own folder for future use.

One I picked up from Brian Keaney at York for intense, magical or transformational scenes (to be used sparingly). Write it as prose, rewrite it as poetry (however crappy) then rewrite it again as prose. The idea is to knock away your own familiar turns of phrase and find a different language. I’ve already tried it in the last couple of days, and…[Read more]

I can see replies here @KazG but can’t see where they are in the thread or how to continue the conversation. Pfft. I’m currently trying to get to grips with the new platform for the course before it starts tomorrow so I’m probably being dense. Just want to say I’m eagerly awaiting a link to say you have a deal (!!!) so I can add you to our Hall of Fame.

I did a version of this… Rather than setting myself so many days up front, I just made a grid and marked off one square every time I wrote something. That way, there wasn’t so much pressure if I had to allow myself time off when life got busy or I needed a short break. I always wrote in the date so eventually I worked out that a break of any…[Read more]

@alanr It’s definitely v tricky to find a balance between not selling yourself enough, and being horribly ott, isn’t it? Factual seems to work best. Actually ‘tidy’ isn’t bad! Means you havent waffled on too long or included unnecessary info which can both be fatal.

Hope the 1:1s gave you some direction for what could be changed, even the…[Read more]