Stevie

Has to be “A Lyttle goes a long way.” Excellent title.

Saw John’s news, but congratulations to Mad Iguana too – what an achievement for you both.

Well done, Jules and thanks for the horse breed check list, correcting my belief that a destrier was a sort of fast carthorse. I’m a big fan of Dorothy Dunnett so this will be added to my list.

Well, congratulations and I hope the book does wonderfully well.

I guess not. Google “troubleshooting font problems in word”, you should find this:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/918791/overview-of-fonts-and-how-to-troubleshoot-font-problems-in-microsoft-w

You might find this useful, scroll down to the troubleshooting section:

Assuming this link works!

In general,Squidge, although I know exactly what you mean, I don’t. Partly because a lot of the time I am writing ‘badly’ to start with, so much needs to be improved (and the correct word substituted for the one I couldn’t remember – I’m grateful for Emma D’s suggestion of putting then in [ ] so as to later find.

At the moment, writing a…[Read more]

Excellent … your fame is spreading, and rightfully so.

‘Specific questions’? – yes indeed, particularly in the light of the current one – Raine’s saying “It’ll be judged purely on ‘how much do I want to read on’” (which strikes me as a genius note to strike when setting a competition.) Of those posted so far I would say there are those which I am unlikely to pursue, simply because they are not the g…[Read more]

Entirely agree with Knicks and Jane. If critique is wanted it should be specifically asked for; where someone believes it would be helpful, a pm is the best place to start. For myself, comp entries are often little more than the flexing of writing muscles.

Compliments are what comes to mind when I consider the definition of positive commentary. Stating what you liked about a piece to encourage its writer. If someone specifically wants a critique they can ask for it plainly when posting their entry. But I think the general consensus is that this won’t really be the forum in which to offer…[Read more]

I think you have to activate reply threading, but I don’t know for sure.

Guidelines suggest not posting on the thread with the entries, until after judging is complete, but you can make a general discussion comment tagging the appropriate person. I think I have that correct.

Glad you asked that Jane, I was also wondering.

Yes, Squidge – soon as I pressed ‘go’ I thought that myself!

At the risk of sounding ageist, is it not the case that a high(ish) percentage of those doing degrees/Masters are quite young, and are unlikely to yet have the confidence/experience to ignore publishers et al?

To some extent (not that I’ve done any really full-on writing courses, just SE, some reading and building on experience) I do notice that my very early writing has a freshness of approach that more recent, more self-conscious writing does not.

And I do cheer when I come across writers such as Eimear McBride and Eley Williams (both James Tait…[Read more]