Jackie Wesley

I’ve had positive MS assessments on two MSs (in the case of the second one I was told it was ‘an incredibly powerful and engaging story that really draws you in,’ which is pretty encouraging), but got absolute apathy from agents with both of them. Although I have the confidence that yes, I can write, I’m left with the feeling ‘What the hell do I…[Read more]

Totally barking, Ath, but very very well done!

MPO is that if the cloud goes then all communication with participants goes too and you aren’t responsible for that. Attempting to continue with a subset wouldn’t be the same competition, would it?

Sounds interesting – will look it up

Daeds issues with trying to regain the rights to his book after leaving his publisher was the one that’s closest to home. He said he might post an article on it on here as it has some useful advice in it.

Also while keeping an open mind to the feedback you receive, don’t forget you’re in charge and you can ‘Accept, adapt, reject’. You don’t have to take on board all advice you’re given and the best way to decide what is and isn’t useful is to read feedback and then give yourself time to think about it, coming back to it after a little break with a…[Read more]

It’s worth reminding ourselves here of Neil Gaiman’s famous quote:

‘When someone tells you something isn’t working, they are nearly always right. When they tell you how to fix it, they are nearly always wrong.’

Yes, there wasn’t much fantasy being written then, certainly not on the industrial scale we have today.

Obscure though Cabell is to the reading public, he has been quite influential in his genre. He nfluenced later writers of humorous fantasy like Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber, whose stories also feature protagonists who fall some way short of…[Read more]

Tried to insert an image but can’t do it properly. I see the three sticky topics, followed by your Test topic.

Ooh Squidge, I’m not sure I’m brave enough for that. After hearing horror stories i’m a little gun-shy. But now i’ll have more time to research them, I know i’ll stumble upon some darlings.

Thanks to all for your comments thus far. Very helpful stuff.

I see the lifeboat FAQ and the house rules thread as well as this topic and the creitique FAQ

Can I add something extra to this list, Jules?

By all means, give examples of how differently something could be written when you give feedback – sometimes seeing the work written differently helps you as the author to understand what difference that kind of change could make to your story. But don’t be tempted to completely rewrite the whole…[Read more]

My agent experience is somewhat limited, but I’d add that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get one.

Although I worked with an agent for two/three years, when she decided not to work with me any further (bearing in mind that nothing was signed between us in all that time) it gave me the freedom to strike out on my own. Course, I…[Read more]

Hi Laure. please forgive me if I sound silly aking this question, but should I know you from the Word Cloud?