Change in Meeting Date

Please note next meeting now on Tuesday 12 August at 19.00 at usual meeting place.

Contact Pauline  on pauline@leamingtonspawriters.org.uk  for further details.

New members welcome.

Douglas

Last and Next Meeting

The last meeting heard about strange goings on and abortive liaisons near Tesco in June and also from new member Ian Mathie about his writing experiences.

Next meeting on Thursday 7 August 19.00. 

* Contributions of up to 1000 words - a death scene.
* Discussion about future development of this web site.
* Participation in a project at Compton Verney ... and
* My deferred contribution of another episode of a sit-com under last month's topic.

Good writing and reading to you all ...

Douglas

More Russell Blake

After reading Room at the Top by John Braine I like writing in first person normally in present tense ... except where I drift back and forward in time.

 

In another recent post Russell states finding what to write - ideas and plots - is easy. The crafting of the story is the hardest part. Having started my self edit of my million words I am realising this to be so true.

 

Read on Douglas

 

Present Tense

Posted: 21 Jun 2014 09:17 AM PDT

I’ve been working on a NA romantic adventure, and writing it first person, present tense. And I’ve got to say, wow, what a difference in writing speed. I’m typically a turtle, managing 600-700 words per hour. On this? More like 1500.

I have no idea why that is. Could be because with NA I don’t have to spend nearly as much time considering word choice, trying to find the perfect fit to achieve the cadence I’m after. NA is simpler in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary, so a lot of the heavy lifting doesn’t have to take place – in fact, from what I can gather, you’d be writing over your audience’s head after a certain point, so it defeats the purpose. There are exceptions, like John Green’s latest, but that’s a notable exception, and I have a feeling if I went down that road I’d sell two copies. At least that’s what my research and beta readers have indicated.

Normally, when I write, I write prose, where I’m unconsciously trying to get a certain lyricism and musicality to the words. Whether I achieve that is besides the point, but that’s the goal.

Which is kind of silly, I suppose, given that I write action thrillers. I mean, how lyrical does a car chase have to be, right? Turns out, pretty lyrical. At least in my books.

Some readers hate that. Mainly other authors, who come from a school that was wildly popular in the U.S., where Hemingway’s lean, sparse prose was considered the ideal, and anything more than the absolute bare minimum was branded purple or flowery.

I have no problem with that school, and understand it well. But it’s just a preference, not a set of rules carved in stone. Unfortunately, as with Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, a whole group of silly preferences masquerading as rules (many contradictory, if you’ve read EOS recently) were taught in a dogmatic fashion, where that was the only way you could write “well,” and there are plenty of adherents. They, by and large, know what “good” writing is, and anything outside of the narrow parameters they learned is to be eschewed.

Those readers are almost always authors, because everyone but an author pretty much forgets most of that crap by the time the third beer’s poured on graduation day and they move on to shit that matters, like making a living or finding someone to cohabitate with or getting that damned car to start.

But back to first person, present tense. My customary approach is third person, past tense. It’s just how I naturally write, no doubt a function of the thousands of books I’ve read, almost all of which were written that way. But it does demand more thought, at least from me.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying I’m kind of digging the breezy quality of first person, present.

Of course, writing as a teenage girl is a little daunting, but that’s a whole nother story. Guess we’ll soon know whether that was a bad idea. OMG, LOL.

In other news, JET – Sanctuary has a gazillion sales on preorder, so June will be berry berry good to me. Oh, and Requiem for the Assassin just went on preorder, too, for a Sept release – which will also be when my co-authored tome with Clive Cussler, The Eye of Heaven, will go live. Other than that, the weather’s dependably in the low 90′s every day, the water’s warm and the beer’s cold, so I’m spending less time at the keyboard for a few weeks and more courting wildfire melanoma and cirrhosis. Which is as it should be. Live to work or work to live, right? Got to have a little fun every now and then…

Hope your summer’s kicking off nicely. Mine sure is.

Book editors are expensive.

http://www.smallbluedog.com/why-are-book-editors-so-expensive.htmlWhy are book editors so expensive??

I’m going to let you in on a secret.

Book editors are expensive.

Ooh, are you shocked? “But aren’t you One Of Them??” I hear you say.

Yes I am. But I’m also a writer. And very soon I’m going to have to hire an editor for one of my own projects, out of my own personal piggybank. And I’m dreading it.

So, why? Why are editors so darn expensive???

Well, sit right down and I’ll tell you a story… go to link to read on.

My thanks to Belinda Pollard

Douglas

Good news about Starstruck

Success - A Regency Reticule’s ‘Ridiculous Short Story Competition’  

One Inkplotter suggested recently the group’s members should attempt A Regency Reticule’s short story competition as a monthly exercise, to be followed up with entries being submitted.  There were three cash prizes on offer and two runner’s-up book prizes.  

Inkplotter Calvin Hedley was informed this week he had been awarded one of the book prizes for his entry Starstruck.

Well done Calvin.

Last and next meeting

The Inkplotters met on 5th June and everyone present took character parts in situation comedy pieces written by members. The exercise had been a challenge and a new and useful experience. The subjects ranged from a lost shoe, to changing society and government, life on a monorail system in a volcano onto a physic meeting in America in the 1880s. The group also listened to a further instalment of neighbourhood life with another death. Next meeting Thursday 3rd July 2014 at 19.00.  Subject - up to 1,000 words starting with .... Something out of the ordinary happened to me .... See www.leamingtonspawriters.org.uk for further details.

J R R Tolkiens Writing Habits

Hello

I receive various posts from Tony Riches from Pembrokeshire.

He has a series about writer's habits. See this post then list of other authors at the foot of the post. Thanks Tony.

Douglas

http://tonyriches.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/j-r-r-tolkiens-writing-habits.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/yeUQX+%28The+Writing+Desk%29