Thea

  • I asked it about limits and it recommended breaking text into chunks, so I divided the input into blocks of chapters, but as I was about to do the final block I hit an error, which I think was the limit of my free access: there was a message about that soon afterwards. Annoyingly inconclusive! Some chapters were summarised in full, others were…[Read more]

  • I tried a 500 word synopsis. It was curiously like a “bad” synopsis that an inexperienced writer might try, too much detail at the outset and then broad generalisations for the middle and end. It always concludes by asking whether you want any refinements, so I asked for more detail about the conclusion and it invented a character and several plot…[Read more]

  • As we are in imminent peril of being swamped with things-AI if Mr Starmer and our present government are to be believed, I thought I’d bite the bullet and give ChatGPT a whirl. As an experiment, I thought I’d try for a summary of my WIP. Since that’s something I will have to wrestle with when I come to submit, I wondered whether it might be…[Read more]

  • Regrettably late to this – and non-participant – but what a joy to catch up with those that did make the effort- thank you @ Richard and @Terrie

  • Oh Lord. Two entries. Both very different from what I expected. Not that I expected anything in particular, but I know what I mean. Both excellent. Richard’s engrossed me, as the protagonist was engrossed in the model. Terrie’s made me laugh out loud. There’s no winner or loser here, because it was a virtual toss of the coin. Richard, choose us a…[Read more]

  • Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago

    Anybody thinking of entering the last Monthly Competition of 2024? Still plenty of time for a few hundred words, but it’s getting closer.

  • Athelstone started the topic One Christmas in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 8 months ago

    Back on the WordCloud I started a group called Advent for Christmas-related posts. It was slightly popular, but back then we had an active wall and plenty of other groups, so it never flew especially high.

    I posted a short children’s story. It needs a good edit that I might give it one day, but i think it’s quite fun, so if you’re in need of some…[Read more]

  • Athelstone replied to the topic Happy Christmas in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 8 months ago

    And many thanks to you, Libby, and to the other happy few who make this place worth keeping. A very happy Christmas to us all.

  • I did the first one of the year. Here’s the last. I’ve been fitting a kitchen. Plumbing, carpentry, stuff to a standard I’ve never managed before. Came close to giving up once or twice.

    Up to 500 words on doing something really difficult.

  • Thanks Seagreen. Glad you laughed. Well, Terrie, there’s a coincidence. I’ve barely been able to write for the last month having been fitting our new kitchen. Completely new from top to bottom including having to rebuild joists under the floor and fit a kitchen to an accuracy of 1mm per metre. As I’ve never done anything to that accuracy except by…[Read more]

  • Sea,  I well remember, a couple of years ago admiring your shorter haircut when you picked me up at Markinch station, Promise I wasn’t thinking of the competition we might meet at Craigievar! I did hope to do something more inspired for this great prompt, but ran out of mental space, so well done Ath.

  • Anyone else got ???? Supposed to be a smiley face 🙂

  • Sorry for being so late with this…

    Sandra and Ath, thanks for entering – and both with a hair-related topic! ???? Alex, no worries. I’ll catch you next time.

    Sandra – your chosen article left me gobsmacked. Clearly, I have been a victim of this. Brainwashed into keeping my hair short because my good looks are a threat to other women. I’ll be on…[Read more]

  • I’m not surprised by this. For some time there have been AI editing features available with Prowritingaid, Grammarly and so on. I have the former, and although I seldom use the AI features, some of which are behind an additional paywall, I have given them a spin in the past. What you get from one of the reports does appear to be a reasonably…[Read more]

  • Argus 26 November 2024

    Brighton man grows hair for five years for special reason.

     

    I remember the blonde hair on the windowsill. My hair’s brown, so it must have come from Taz. Her hair is, or was, I should say, long, and rich, and blonde. Curious, I ran my fingers through my hair a few times and then examined what had come loose. Not a lot,…[Read more]

  • 5 days left to give me the lowdown on what really happened behind the headline!

  • Looks very promising. I shall be donning the headphones when I set about cooking dinner.

  • If it has any impact at all on the publishing world, I would be pleased. I can see that it is galling when an author with a genuine passion for writing, say for a young audience, hones their craft and achieves moderate success, and then watches a celeb waltz in like an unoriginal bargain-basement Roald Dahl, have a small fortune spent on…[Read more]

    • I wholly agree, though in a fit of madness, I thought that an increased gathering of writers might at least get our voices heard, if not have any bearing on sales. It would be a start if some regulation was brought in regards being able to blatantly claim someone else’s work is your own – but too many influential people are on the opposing side to…[Read more]

  • My view is that publishers are in it for the money, and celebrity sells more – and more reliably – than as-yet-unknown novelists (potentially supplying a profit which might enable them to take more chances on unknowns?) It might be seen as ‘not fair’, but in my view is more honest to trust readers’ appreciation of well-written novels than bombard…[Read more]

    • Sandra, it isn’t so much a bombardment campaign, rather a sharing of a meme to ask for support. I appreciate the view that regular novelists are enabled to be taken on because of the success of celebrity books, but the avalanche of them in such an unlevel playing field is instrumental in creating this huge imbalance, and I think the dishonesty is…[Read more]

      • I suspect, lacking conviction in my opinions, I’m not a campaigner.

        • I have bowed out of this. My intention was to be supportive, but the feelings stirred and opposing views given have me concluding that I should leave it to published authors and their representatives to fight the battle. Lesson learned.

  • This is not my take on the headline, but I’ve posted it here because I could not come up with anything more ludicrous.

     

    Short hair hints may be ‘sabotage” study finds.

    Publishing her research on the ’Science Direct’ website, under the heading  ‘Personality and individual Differences’  Danielle Sulikowski details how women were asked to giv…[Read more]

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