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Squidge posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
The spambots are very pretty in the membership column, but I wish they’d beetle off! Can we lock the doors for a bit and hope they find somewhere else to play?
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Athelstone replied to the topic Getting An Agent Blog in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 7 months ago
Fascinating then and fascinating now! I think one thing that you express so well here is the sheer workload of writing a successful book. OK, not everybody is going to make the huge changes that you did, but the fact remains that ‘tinkering’ is almost never enough. Great blog.
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Philippa East started the topic Getting An Agent Blog in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 7 months ago
Hi guys,
This blog was previously up on the (now defunct) Word Cloud. I thought I’d post it again here, in case it is of help to anyone else climbing the same parapets…
Breaching the Citadel
(aka Getting a foothold in the Publishing World)Everyone’s journey up there is different. Following the fine Cloudie tradition, here’s min…[Read more]
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Hilary posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 7 months agoHello fellow slomoers (?)
I’ve been very slow… but I now know how my novel is going to end! I have an outline for the bits I’ve still got left to write. Need to flesh them out a bit and then get on with it. That will be the third draft done, then.
Well done to all of us! And keep going all of us! Might do a Janowrimo!-
That’s fantastic @hilary! What a relief for you. Such a good feeling when structural chunks fall into place like that. Well done you, and everyone! I’m liking SloMo very much – think I’ll be joining you for JanNoWriMo!
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Well done @hilary! I never know the exact ending till about 2/3 of the way through, and it’s always a bit of a relief to figure it out! Hope it helps you move through the last few bits now you’ve got it mapped out.
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Yeaaaarrrsss! Nice work, Hil on the ending! Looking forward to hearing more about it…. Yes, please can we continue in January???? I need all the kindly support I can get!!
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
Coast walk this morning with a steady 40 mph wind off the sea blowing hail horizontally. Not nice round stuff either: jagged lumps with sharp bits that stung like hell. Got hit in the eye and it felt like a punch. Couldn’t see properly for 10 minutes, but cobwebs all blown away and once my fingers had thawed out managed to scribble some ideas down.
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Win.
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Absolutely 🙂 or possibly ;(
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Elle replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Congratulations Stevie!
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John S Alty replied to the topic Writing Advice in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 7 months ago
I came across this piece of writing advice by Sol Stein which appeals to me:
“….be sure you don’t stop the story while describing. You are a storyteller, not an interior decorator.”
Probably a shot across the bows of so-called literary prose. King likes to emphasize this point too, but doesn’t do it quite as succinctly.
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Philippa East replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Oh well done, Stevie! That is super news. And good point about still being able to submit elsewhere too! Here’s to a double whammy.
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Hilary replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Congratulations, Stevie!
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Daedalus replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Well done Stevie, that’s a great accolade. And nice to have the story in your back pocket too.
Be amazed at yourself – the link works!
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Elle replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Glad to hear the launch went well.
I would love to attend a Den meet-up.
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Philippa East posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 7 months agoUg. Today I feel like I’ve gone backwards in my editing process. I’ve put in my three hours, but most of that was spent unearthing problems in my “back-plot” (or lack thereof) that have now thrown the other plot threads out of whack.
I feel like I’ve discovered dry rot and woodworm in a house I’m trying to redecorate.
How much backstory…[Read more]-
I’m actually reducing the number of words in my WIP which had reached around 50,000 (guess why) and has now shrunk to about 30,000 – rapidly. Work on it has stopped while I think about my Room With A View entry (836 words right now), and I have to get a first chapter in some kind of shape for a writers’ w/e in January (If anybody has a moment…[Read more]
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Oh yuck to backstories! Hope you are feeling less yucky about it today @philippaeast. I don’t know. I don’t think we need to know everything about a secondary character’s past, as long as their character and story are ‘real’ to us. Apart from bits of their past that are relevant, obv. I figure I don’t know everything about a friend’s past, but I…[Read more]
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That is definitely an issue with launching into an unplanned story: the pain of squashing continuity errors, conflicts and missing detail. I think you can get away with quite a lot as long as there are no bugs. If your MC was two years old in the year 2000 but somehow was in favour of staying in the EEC in 1975 then you have some explaining. If…[Read more]
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Hah hah @raine, who said anything about secondary characters?! These are my main characters I’m talking about! But hopefully as @athelstone says, it’s about there not being obvious “bugs” in the writing. Yeah the issue I stumbled into was that, psychologically, a particular character arc made sense if certain events happened when her child was…[Read more]
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Philippa East replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Den get together would be fab. I am in Lincolnshire, but I can travel to London easily
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Hilary replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
(not sure I want to meet the bots though)
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Hilary replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
The launch was great, thanks! I enjoyed the reading – luckily I went first, so could then relax. It was great to meet some of the other writers too.
I love meeting other writers…
We need to have a Den get together… In RL, I mean. -
Daedalus posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
A poem, for our new bot friends…
This is just goto PRINT
I have input the plums
That were in the
Folder
And which IF
You were probably THEN
Saving for breakfastForgive me
They were SQR
So EXP and so RND-
I’m changing my name to jhnlty and starting a group – should be very popular.
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🙂
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Hello. I’m rn. Less a bot than a nanobot.
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BLLM here. Sounds like what I say when I really want to swear but we have company.
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Daedalus posted an update 7 years, 7 months ago
“Writing a book is like filling a teapot with an eye dropper. Only every now and then the teapot springs leaks and there’s always a risk your elbow will knock it off the counter and it will shatter on the floor.” ~V.E. Schwab
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I have cats. My teapot spends most of its time getting knocked to the floor…
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Oh God, this analogy is all too apt….
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Ah yes. So true.
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Janette replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Many congratulations, Elle and Hilary. Enjoy the read, Hilary x
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Philippa East posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 7 months agoWell, I’m sure glad for this SloMo month… until the start of this week, I had too many distractions to focus on writing and the lack of progress was just making me increasingly panicked. But for the last three days, I’ve managed my plan of a few hours a day. I feel less panicked now, because I feel sort of ‘back in the familiar groove’ and I can…[Read more]
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Sounds good, Philippa. And I think you are right to acknowledge that some days are just not meant to be writing days. I can never write when we are away, even if I have the time. It used to annoy me but now I accept it.
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Yes… I’ve found if I try to write in the evenings (i.e. after work), my brain gets too wired and I can’t switch off to sleep. Also, because I’m like a dog with a bone with stuff, and enforced break from writing is probably good for me, to prevent me getting obsessed and overwhelmed. It also means I make better use of the other days, knowing I…[Read more]
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Not surprised you can’t focus after work! But well done for moving through the panic and getting into things again. Hope the weekend lets you keep the momentum up…
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Philippa East replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 7 months ago
Oh wow @hilary, what an honour!! Congratulations again on your placing. I hope you had a wonderful time at the launch x
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I wonder if there’s a tougher way to ask prospective new members to prove they are human? Not sure what BBpress offers in that regard
Are they not all the same? The ‘tickabox’ to say you’re not a robot, or the ‘type in these letters you can barely read, even if you ARE human’ box? 😉
I can’t remember what we had when we signed up. I imagine some are easier for bots to beat than others
We are now trialling a plugin that should deal with the issue. The vast majority of bots did get stopped by the system software and those few that managed to register were blocked, usually within the hour, manually. Hopefully the plugin will prevent any further spambots getting through!
Wahey!