Jackie Wesley

Spot on, Kaz. That’s exactly what he is.

Well done indeed, Daeds. Authoritative, erudite and lucid. Once again you display that knack you have of making technical things clear to the layman.

Before I start writing (these days, anyway) I need to know the beginning (obviously) and some idea of the ending, but not necessarily everything that happens in between. Nothing is set in stone, though, and either may change before I’ve finished, depending on what happens along the way.

The two novels I’m prepared to own up to came about in quite…[Read more]

I’ve never started a piece of fiction knowing the ending. I like to start with a scene, put a character into it, and see where it goes. I enjoy the ride.

Hi L,

I think you could trim most of the paragraphs in the first half of the story, really. The Physics thing (tight pants) early on could go, you use this analogy later on anyway. Watching a film at the cinema, that paragraph could be less wordy I think.
And towards the end – “zipped her hoodie and pulled the hood over her head” etc. I know…[Read more]

I think “Spotting an opening…” needs a new para. The lipstick thing is a little over complicated, I think you could shorten it without losing anything.
The “pills like skittles” analogy doesn’t work for me.
“Small-to-medium-time” seems a cop-out, he’s a small-time crook, I think.
“Anticipated to sit..” should be “anticipated sitting”.

I’d take…[Read more]

I feel much the same way, Squidge. I never have been able to get on with charts, graphs, grids or any other kind of science-ish analysis. I’m not knocking it for those who find it useful, but my eyes start to glaze over when faced with such stuff, and it seems to place a barrier between me and my creativity (if any). I suppose I might conceivably…[Read more]

I remember doing these sessions at York…it all seemed to make perfect sense when CMT was explaining it, but I can’t put it into practise. I don’t think I have the kind of logical and structural mind that can break a story down into these kind of segments. Which is annoying, because I know it’s all good stuff and very useful – I just can’t apply…[Read more]

Very nice… There were a couple of points only that tripped me up in the reading:
‘Tasha and she nicked the lipstick’. Didn’t sound right. I wondered about ‘She’d nicked the lipstick when she was with Tasha’, but wasn’t sure how that’d affect your word count.
‘The salty scent of sweaty skin trapped in every pore’. I read this first as the sweaty…[Read more]

Don’t think I’d qualify as I’m not looking to change genre but am already published… Also can’t commit to the time at the moment 🙁

SloMo – definitely sounds like my kind of thing. I’d be up for it. Might encourage me to get a bit more editing done on the notorious ghost story.

Are you involved in WEM, Philippa? I just received their latest email update and it all sounded a bit highbrow!

SloMo. Love it. Matches me perfectly.

(Although I did manage a couple of hours yesterday on the WIP – nothing new added, but dialogue’s snappier!)

I like Two Cities and the Void, but wonder whether, for the novel as you’ve described it, The Void Between Two Cities works better? Which is more central to the story – the space between, or the actual cities? Looks like you’re getting closer to finding your title though.