Amanda Berriman (Skylark)

Congratulations Alan. Excellent news. As Raine says, do let us know how the course goes!

Wow, well done, Alan. That’s a major bit of validation, and those courses look great. I’ve eyed them a few times, but never bitten, so will be really interested to hear how you get on.

Yes, sorry, meant to congratulate the worthy winner – great, unsettling and dreamlike tale that owns the innate silliness of the tiny guitar and the bizarre phenomenon of the vast ukulele band. Great stuff, and thanks Sea for a challenging and fun competition

Congratulations Jonathan, fascinating story – sounds like there’s a lot more to it than in the words on the virtual page. And congratulations to everybody who entered. I’m in awe of how you manage to come up with stories at the drop of a hat. Every month I read the prompts and think I’ll have a go but somehow I never do. Maybe this month….

Thanks @philippaeast @Daedalus @kazg @anna @hilary

I’m inclined to go for the finish and edit as by the time the course starts in January, I (should?) have made a start on another novel. I think not the pitching course, as I feel atm I’ve had my fill of cover letters and synopses.
Has anyone done these courses?

Oh, well done, @alanr! That’s fantastic. So which course are you going for?

That’s a fantastic achievement @alanr! Congratulations! What an exciting choice to be faced with …:-)

That’s great Alan, well done. The courses sound superb

AAARRRGGHHH! (as it used to say in my comics)

Up with the count. Resisted the temptation to count the 2500 “seed” words that I had before the start. I think I’ll have a couple of hundred more to do before I give up tonight. Remarkable difference in the way I feel about making myself write at this pace which, honestly, isn’t that high a word…[Read more]

I haven’t entered a comp for a while though lack of time but this one intrigued me and my entry is short.

I suppose it’s a form of Writer’s Block – except that I can’t stop writing. Does that make sense? Probably not. Think of it as writing your way around the surface of a Klein bottle. Yes! That’s it exactly. Thank you. I know where I am now. I…[Read more]

@kazg, thanks so much for that link.

And you’ve expressed above so beautifully my exact thoughts on story structure – including the necessity of balancing all our technical knowledge with room for the subconscious to speak.

I’m not sure what fascinates me more – the list of items you came up with or the fact you came up with them when you were caught by surprise…🤔

Wow. Gobsmacked. I wasn’t expecting this. It’s a change from the crack of regular rejections I’ve been getting used to, so thank you Seagreen! Great entries all 🙂

I’ll set another prompt shortly. Just … got to come up with something.

Thank you all for taking the time to post an entry, especially Sandra, who kicked things off (phew!), but later withdrew by reason of unavailability to set the next comp should she win.

Anyway, as most of you know, I’m rubbish at any kind of feedback so I’ll keep this short.

Sandra – strong voice. And some perfect turns of phrase – ‘Like a…[Read more]

I know @raine!! It’s just too good to be true eh? AND now you love me forever 🙂 What a very fine day this is turning out to be. Back atcha BTW (and apologies to all others for PDA. She’s Scottish and I’m Aussie so the English emotion rules don’t apply :-))