@squidge
Active 1 month, 1 week ago-
Hilary replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 5 months ago
Oh, Elle – just read your flash piece. So sad and beautiful. Congratulations.
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Hilary replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 5 months ago
Tomorrow is the launch of the Bath Short Story Award anthology. Excited about reading a page or so from my story, and meeting other winners and shortlisters.
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JaneShuff posted an update 7 years, 5 months ago
Am bored. Am very bored. Hairdresser is running an hour late.
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JaneShuff posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoGot my 500 words done. The first 500 words of a new WIP. Had to remind myself several time – Don’t get it right, get it written! Suspect it might show that I loved doing my research a bit much! Tomorrow’s target is the same – 500 words. Then I’m off to London for a big weekend so won’t get anything written until I get back. Hope you’re all doing…[Read more]
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Good stuff. Every 500 words adds up
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Good going! Starting new wip is definitely something to be pleased with.
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Oh well done! Any words on a new WIP is great. And that research all counts too.
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Daedalus posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoAll I did today was trim 500 words from a short story so I could submit it to Barren magazine, which has an upper limit of 4000 words. It was worth doing as it tightened the prose a bit, and I spotted a few mistakes as well, which was unsettling as Iād submitted that version a couple of times. Iām pleased I did that much tbh, as itās been a diffi…[Read more]
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Well done Daeds and I hope you have a less disturbed day today.
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Thanks Jane. The main problem is that they get here early so I have to be up early, so my usual sleep patterns are ruined and I’m permanently exhausted
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I hate the getting up early and having to talk to strangers in my house!
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Me too.
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Me three
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Me a billion. I feel your pain. Great work on the short story though, and good luck for the submission
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KazG posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoSo I managed 203 words yesterday. That’s a little too Slo Mo for my liking. I think I need to embrace the theme of this group a little less enthusiastically.
In my defence, it was the day after said music festival, kids had music performance of their own AND husband back in the house after a month away. So not a normal day…
Have to get…[Read more]
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Good luck Kaz. I am off to bed now after a fabulous evening learning about search and rescue dog training.
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Ha ha! My SloMo is mutating into ReallyQuiteSloMoActually! Fingers crossed for more words today.
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203 > 0.
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š Indeed!
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Hilary posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoSorry I’m late, but here now for mutual encouragement. I’m working on structural edit of novel, having done one and two-thirds drafts. Have been trying to hone and clarify main story arc and am now trying to work out how and where the subplots intersect/have an impact on the main plot. Like some of you, I am feeling the fear, mainly because it’s…[Read more]
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Oh good luck! I feel your pain! Are you doing the splendid post it notes!?
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Congrats on being a runner up, Hilary. I also feel I’m making progress then decide the opposite is true. It sounds as though you’re making v good headway. The structural stuff needs doing and you’re doing it. Congrats on that too, and pat yourself on the back.
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Thank you, Libby and Raine. Yes, post-its have played a part; also multi-coloured highlighting in Word. It all helps.
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I use a chapter plan in a separate word doc too. This can be changed as often as required but without it I’m lost.
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Well done @hilary on pushing on. I know what you mean about the false summits, but keep,faith. It does just take that long. If it’s any consolation I’m on draft, er, 20 with at least another round of edits to go! And trust me: the agent will wait, there’s no rush. I took a whole year between the request for the full and sending it, and it was fine.
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JaneShuff posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoI didn’t have a lot of time today but I think I have got the planning to the stage where I need to start writing. So that’s the plan for tomorrow. Although I won’t have a lot of time, so I’m going to do the background research for it tonight and set myself a gentle target of 500 words.
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Philippa East posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoOkay, well today has gone well, I think. I managed about two hours, working on balancing the various twists, climaxes and (false) resolutions in the book. I think I’ve managed to pin down the problem more clearly and sketch out a general solution.
I still have to work out the specific details I’ll need to add into the story MS itself to pull…[Read more]-
The turning up at the desk strategy works for me, Philippa.
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Sounds like excellent progress, good work
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Raine posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoGoal of 1k words today have mutated into a goal of just getting through the day in one piece. And possibly printing out an MS. I’ve been told I need to trim it back by 10-15k. Which is a little daunting, and like @philippaeast with her more esoteric edits, I need to make sure I am doing this in short enough bursts that I am genuinely paying…[Read more]
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I have had to do major trimming in the past, Raine, and actually found it quite liberating once I had got into the right frame of mind.
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Hi @raine. I feel your pain! Is that comment about trimming one that you have only just received? If so, then it might need a little time to digest. Is it a change that you are, in principle, in accord with? Do you think it’s a case of losing some scenes / a subplot line, or more a case of just tightening everything and trimming words throughout?…[Read more]
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KazG posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoThanks for setting this up @raine, great idea, and inspiring to read about all the gentle but still moving forward targets in here.
I’m in dire need of SloMo December, especially after coming back from a brain-and-soul-rejuvenating music festival in the beautiful middle of nowhere. Which was fabulous on every level but very lacking in sleep…[Read more]
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I didn’t realise you could keep using the nano site like that – oh YAY for the chart – That lovely thing gace me such a geeky glow of pleasure!
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Also, music festival sounds amazing! I spent the weekend on trains and hosting family, so slightly less rejuvenating!
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It was BRILLIANT. such a good vibe, amazing range of music, lovely people, food and coffee š
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I didn’t know that either, I’ll have to go check it out
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Yes, it’s a bit different to the normal graph in that you have to add your TOTAL every day, not just what you did that day and then it updates it for you (unless there’s a setting I’ve missed somewhere). I learnt that the hard way today, but luckily the grand sum of 203 (yesterday’s achievement) wasn’t hard to remember, so I just add that to…[Read more]
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JaneShuff posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoI am loving redaing what you’re all planning to do in December.
Having spent yesterday and today running and manning the local twinning committee’s ‘sell English products to the French’ Christmas stall in between dodging the Gilets Jaunes to take my OH to the airport, my aim tonight is to do enough RL work to free up tomorrow morning for a bit…[Read more]
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*reading
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That would be a very good end of year @janeshuff. I hope you are all ok over there. Awful to read about all the anger and destruction x
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Thanks @kazg. Luckily we are far from the mayhem of Paris and the gilets jaunes here were peacable enough. However they’ve started blockading the Port du Commerce which means no petrol deliveries and there was a spate of panic buying over the weekend which means the pumps have run dry!
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Oh yikes! Hope the blockade lifts soon, although I have to admire their protest power! Good luck for the writing today – and without the OH to interrupt!
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Oh no, hope you don’t get stuck! yes, the French know how to get protesting, don’t they? Phlegmatic they are not. Good luck with the writing @janeshuff
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 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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Well deserved G&T, I reckon!
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Philippa East posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoI’ve been inspired by the goals your guys are setting yourselves. I think I’m going to set myself the SloMo goal of doing (up to) three hours’ editorial work a day (on the days I’m not at work). That, for me, is enough time to get some solid work done, but hopefully not so long that I panic myself with how much I should be achieving. And I plan to…[Read more]
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I think I often try to do too much of that really close editing in a sitting, so start out being really thoughtful and ending up just drifting. So yes, time limits are probably something I need to be better at. Feels funny to limit your own writing time, rather than RL limiting it for you!!
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Yes, good point! But I agree, I think there’s a danger that we over-tax the creative subconscious by hammering away at idea-generation for too long.
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Daedalus posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoTrue to form I am late to the party with this. I had a very good start to NaNo and a terrible end – but the good start enabled me to finish the first draft of a novel I’d been working on since 2013. It’s currently a 178,000 word monster, but I will use SloMo to start the long editing process, and also to write a couple of shorts.
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Oh wow, @daedalus, that’s a HUGE achievement. Congratulations on getting that whole draft done. SlowMo editing. I like it. And the shorts too.
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Thanks @philippaeast – I donāt think I will set a target for the amount to edit, as Iāve no idea whatās realistic. Iāll just try to do some every day. Like yours, my editing will be pretty structural, looking at character arcs, in their own right and in relation to others. As well as seeing if itās possible to lose about 50,000 words.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly comp – December 2018 in the forum Monthly Competition 7 years, 5 months ago
I can work with that… š
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Raine posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoSo my aim for today was to post this month’s challenge and get the shopping done. And I have just done both. So now I am covered in cats and physically unable to get myself more tea. *weeps*
Tmrw, I am hoping for 1000 words…
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Good stuff, @raine! I sometimes refer to those kinds of tasks as āclearing the decksā work. Like, getting that pesky stuff done so that I have a clear run of time in which to get my head down. āClearing the decksā work is important work, not procrastination, because itās a means to the end of getting the creative work done successfully. AT least,…[Read more]
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