@sandradavies
Active 2 days, 1 hour ago-
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Sandra posted a new activity comment 6 years, 5 months ago
Don’t know – it’s Windows 10 I’ve just acquired.
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Sandra posted an update 6 years, 5 months ago
Probably everyone knew this already, but I’ve just discovered George on my new laptop: he reads my novel aloud for me! Gets the names wrong but shows me where commas could be usefully inserted.
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I love my George too. Shows up all my silly spelling mistakes.
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Will I have one? I have an old Mac. Or is there an Apple equivalent?
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Don’t know – it’s Windows 10 I’ve just acquired.
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I love my read-aloud facility, and can change readers and reading speeds. I do have a giggle at the mispronunciations, but it really does highlight the little faults often missed.
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Sandra replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 2: Character 1 – Outer Worlds in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 5 months agoHa! Thanks @Squidge for the Julie Cohen notes, and I see I commented on your blog back in 2013,
(tho’ never went to one of her workshops) But immediately, with this, I see the beginnings of a character emerge. Admittedly, built onto the murderer I was groping for with the various questionnaires, but certainly growing. -
Sandra replied to the topic Monthly Comp – November 2019 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 6 months ago
Patience undoubtedly a virtue (308 words)
In the same way that Christmas cards seem each year to embrace a different theme – last year it was robins, the year before gold-embossed letters and musical notes – this year’s trend in ‘In sympathy’ cards appeared to be fallen leaves. Drifts of them, beneath trees, along kerb edges, gold and yellow sc…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 2: Character 1 – Outer Worlds in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months ago@JaneShuff – I haven’t even started the book yet, just 300 words of random scenes … but glad to hear it works for you.
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Sandra replied to the topic Craft Seminar Class 2: Character 1 – Outer Worlds in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months agoLike Squidge, this is an alien way of working for me, but … I need a murderer. One who isn’t immediately identified as such. (And while I know the (probable) victim I don’t know why or how) so I’ll be attempting to discover him (probably him) with this approach.
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Sandra replied to the topic Monthly comp – October 2019 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 6 months ago
Well done, John, and the Honourables, and thanks Ath for the prompting of a memory.
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Sandra replied to the topic Feedback on the Course in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months agoI’m a bit of a sleeping partner in this; not fully committed, so will dip in and out, attempting to keep to time structure and maybe lax in commenting.
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Sandra replied to the topic Class 1: Writing Exercise, Raine. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months agoRead your dialogue soon after a trip to Mull. Wish I had the memory to write down what I hear i passing. And your ‘I remember blue tiles and the smell of drains and old food.’ sums it up; as you say above, you only need a couple of telling details.
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Sandra replied to the topic Class 1 Writing exercise, Sandra in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months agoAnd this a long ago piece deliberately adopting a Neolithic voice:
Always an edge to beware, to be aware of.
First at Liddle had been slabs, as thick as three of her three-year fingers, flat patterned stone, hard and often sharp when new, both separating bed from bed and on which they lay, degree of comfort dependent on the depth and newness of…[Read more]
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Sandra started the topic Class 1 Writing exercise, Sandra in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 6 months agoI decided not to buy the books and would prefer to dip in and out on this, so herewith my contribution.
I remember a Christmas, the dining table, taller than me, piled as high again with presents (and bigger ones beneath) and the focus of five adults, all on me.
I remember my Dad laughing on a Sunday morning when stopped by a policeman for…[Read more] -
Sandra replied to the topic Monthly comp – October 2019 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 7 months ago
This only 269 words but says what I intended
Time to play
Clearing a 25 year-old to-be-replaced kitchen, and the resultant sense of temporary displacement, gave time and focus to a wider realisation of things no longer needed. Delays gave more time than anticipated to jettison stuff, then the lovely announcement of a visit from good friends from…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic September 2019 in the forum Monthly Competition 6 years, 7 months ago
Congratulations on the win Ath, and for what it’s worth I found it uncomfortably horrific in its pervasive cult brainwashing manipulation – the sort of thing I usually avoid reading and very definitely cannot write, so am as admiring as I am uncomfortble with it.
And thanks Squidge for the competition which I took as opportunity to try out a…[Read more]
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Sandra posted a new activity comment 6 years, 7 months ago
It’s all the substitute for ‘he said that so resonated with me.
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Oh, yes.
‘Funny?’ she interrogated.
‘Hilarious!’ he expostulated.
‘Surely not!’ she declared.
‘But how to you know?’ he exclaimed.
‘Says you!’ she objected.
‘That’s the last thing I’m willing to say,’ he concluded.And that’s just some of them.
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I love the book. It was reassuring to see mistakes I knew I was avoiding – and be gently reminded of some that I WAS making, without realising!
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Sandra posted a new activity comment 6 years, 7 months ago
That was the first book about writing I ever read – bought it for my daughter – and one of the very, very few whose advice I remember well enough to follow.
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Me too. Is that because it also pointed out how writing could go horribly wrong? I remember, ‘Wearing only his underpants, she watched her boyfriend swim across the lake.’ :-))
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It’s all the substitute for ‘he said that so resonated with me.
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Oh, yes.
‘Funny?’ she interrogated.
‘Hilarious!’ he expostulated.
‘Surely not!’ she declared.
‘But how to you know?’ he exclaimed.
‘Says you!’ she objected.
‘That’s the last thing I’m willing to say,’ he concluded.And that’s just some of them.
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I love the book. It was reassuring to see mistakes I knew I was avoiding – and be gently reminded of some that I WAS making, without realising!
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Sandra replied to the topic Syllabus and course materials. in the forum
Andrew Wille's DIY MA course 6 years, 8 months agoA daunting expenditure on books, too … time to hie me to the library methinks.
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Sandra joined the group
Andrew Wille’s DIY MA course 6 years, 8 months ago -
Sandra posted a new activity comment 6 years, 8 months ago
Best l thing I got out of it was the friendship of a core of valuable fellow-attendees; we still regularly meet, though not as often as desired and have done since January 2014.
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YES! I think this course is so good that it will help almost anyone. I would do it again in a flash. And the one to one attention is worth the price alone!
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Definitely not as often as desired! But agreed – the course was great, but the group of friends is greaterer.
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Hell, yes – to all of that.
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Sandra posted a new activity comment 6 years, 8 months ago
Certainly the first, writing part for me.
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Oh gosh. That looks really involved… I don’t know whether I’d be able to do all of that.
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what a good idea! I’d be keen.
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@squidge and @sandradavies I’m sure we can set it up so that people are free to participate in the units that interest them, and not the ones that dont. I think there are probably advantages to having a core group that go through the process together, building on what’s been covered. But I also don’t see the point in making it too ‘strict’, or…[Read more]
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Besides, it’s structured as a full MA (two years of work) so I think most of us would rather take it slow and be free to dip out when RL/other commitments get in the way.
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Completely agree with everything you say, @raine. Slow and gentle. Let’s have a go and discuss as we go along….
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I love my read-aloud facility, and can change readers and reading speeds. I do have a giggle at the mispronunciations, but it really does highlight the little faults often missed.