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Squidge posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 6 months agoMy slomo so far has been to draft a Christmas newsletter (rather a Marmite thing, I’ve found, for the recipients), planned a few writing exercises for a group I’m talking to tonight (which I will also be using for NIBS next week), and about 150 words of something I like for Room with a View (although I have no idea where it’s heading or why I’ve…[Read more]
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John S Alty posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago
I see we have four new members who could use a vowel or two in their name. What’s that all about?
Anyway, Wlcme! -
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Squidge posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 6 months agoVery late to this – two days gone already! – but I blame it on an overnight visit to Germany to see friends and celebrate Advent.
SloMo… I jotted a few ideas down for Room with a View, then decided I didn’t like them and another idea popped into my head this morning. Not sure it’ll work, but might play around with it this afternoon. I shan’t…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 6 months agoA good last few days. This weekend I have sorted two probs with my revived MS, the ghost story A Record of Sin.
The first was the paragraph formatting. which was in a mess inherited from the days when I didn’t know how to do it properly. I’ve been through the whole MS and put it right.
The second was a last, rather tricky POV change. Tricky…[Read more]
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthly competition – Nov 2018 in the forum Monthly Competition 7 years, 6 months ago
Well done, Raine.
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 6 months agoThis has got to be my spiritual home. I do everything in slow motion. Ask MrsB.
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthly competition – Nov 2018 in the forum Monthly Competition 7 years, 6 months ago
Editing
“Listen to me, Luigi; we’re always on the lookout for new stage plays and this one sounded interesting. Ingenious plot, bit of sex, incest, prostitution, a potential murder and ending up with a suicide.” He put down the cigar he had been waving like a conductor’s baton and folded his hands on his expansive belly. “What’s not to like?”
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Squidge replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
Procrastination is nothing to do with commitment! It is everything to do with recognising that you need something completely different sometimes to get the authorly juices flowing again. I do it – it doesn’t mean I’m not committed at all.
I prefer to call it what it is and look at WHY I’m doing it. If it’s simply time-wasting, then I give myself…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
Yes, there is that. An idea that added a whole new dimension to one of my novels once came to me while I was laying the table for dinner.
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RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
Not when you’re playing Freecell…
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RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
I think it’s just human nature. Before we moved MrsB was a Beaver Scout Leader for twenty years, and over that time I lost count of the number of Beaver/ Cub/ Scout leaders I heard carrying on about what horrors their charges were, what a hard time it all was, and generally giving the impression that they were being put upon and they would rather…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
Yes, if you tell someone that you play, say, the guitar, they don’t normally up and ask you if you’ve got a recording contract, do they? Though I don’t think I’ve told anybody outside my immediate circle of close friends and family that I write.
Apart from you lot, obviously.
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RichardB replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
Or to put it another, slightly less discouraging way, if you’re writing fiction that’s coming from inside your head, right? So anything outside that is Real Life.
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John S Alty replied to the topic NaNoWriMo in the forum Coffee Shop 7 years, 6 months ago
RL = Real Life
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago
Editing: they say cut cut cut, don’t they? Hmm. I don’t work like that. When I finished the first draft of my ghost story six (My God!) years ago it was only 47,000 words long. When I submitted it two years later it was 74,000 words. Now its creeping up to 80,000. Mind you, there’s some rather drastic cutting needed near the end.
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I think it works like that for some, doesn’t it? Writing the bare bones first and then fleshing out. (I’ve always hated the term ‘fleshing out’ – too many dissection classes and JEkyll and Hyde stories!)
I seem to always end up at roughly the same word count – cutting a lot and feeling all pleased with myself, then realising I need whole new scenes…
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Yes, I know that Debi (for one) works like this. so there’s a published author as an example.
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
Call me weird if you will, but I do love picking a passage apart and putting it back together again, better than before. So satisfying.
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That’s not weird, Richard. I didn’t think I could be the only one who preferred working with an existing draft to creating a new one
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Two different types of adventure, I think. I enjoy both but creating a new draft can be like swimming in very rough seas.
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Definitely. Editing is a craft. Writinf a first draft is an extreme sport
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I like that analogy. If it’s skiing, then I am currently uphill xcountry skiing, stuck in those parallel ruts and not sure whether they are heading in the right direction…
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John S Alty replied to the topic TV appearance – Quest, 'Wings of War' in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Well done, Daeds, a star is born!
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Well, that’s progress then! Nice work on the Room With a. It’s story. Hope it collaguates soon.
*Room With A View
I love it when something insists on being written even if you don’t have a clue where it’s going.
How did the writing group go @squidge?
Sorry – been out of sight for a few days. Writing went well – the group of mainly older ladies (70+yrs) seemed to enjoy the exercises I set, and convinced quite a few that they could write after all. Yet to try it on the NIBsers…