General Discussion Thread

[Tamur]

This thread is for any of the participants in the Mead Hall Writers' Society writing group to post up comments, observations, and general chit-chat about the lessons, writing in general, or what have you.

Those who are joining us new, feel free to post here and introduce yourself!

[Monk]

When I saw you were moving ahead with the Workgroup I took the liberty of sticking the original brainstorm thread. Hope you don't mind.

[Tamur]

No problem at all, thanks in fact It looks like we've a good-sized group but it's always helpful to get more exposure!

[Tamur]

A quick note on the observation assignment: make sure to follow the First Rule of the Artist: Don't get caught staring!

...unless you want to, of course but with police and drug-dealers, it's usually a really bad idea. I don't know how many times I've been caught staring while clandestinely drawing portraits, but it's always tough to cover up, and often incredibly embarrassing.

[woad&fangs]

Next time you are in a restaurant, market, grocery store, or any other public place where individuals, couples, or groups gather and interact, jot down your observations in a notebook.

In one paragraph, describe a loner's looks and behaviour.

In another, describe the looks and interactions of a pair or group of people.

In the third paragraph, describe how anyone with an official role interacts with everyone else. This could be a waiter, checker, stall owner, police, street cleaner, match official, etc.

Good first assignment I'm an actor so I actually do this all the time, 'though I usually just remember instead of writing my observations down. I'll try to do this assignment if I can find the time to observe people.

[scottishranger]

Good first topic, though damn you for making me actually go out and talk to people!

[Tamur]

I promise, this won't happen again! well, not often, I mean. relatively speaking. *cough*

[Timsup2nothin]

One thing that wasn't mentioned, at least not that I noticed...deadline. Assignment issued on Tuesday, but no guidance about when it should be posted. Probably a comfort for those who want an informal group, but my background is journalism and without deadline pressure I'm pretty near indistinguishable from dead.

[Tamur]

Wow, completely missed that one. The lesson thread has been edited, but I'll add it here as well.

Post up Lesson 1 assignment materials by a bit past midnight GMT this coming Wednesday (7 May). Thanks Timsup2nothin, it was very clear in my head.

[Monk]

Aaargh! Wednesday!? Oh jam. Must finish!

[Tamur]

Oh jam? will have to use that one!

[naut]

Jam indeed!! Finished two paragraphs, one more to touch up.

[Timsup2nothin]

Wow, completely missed that one. The lesson thread has been edited, but I'll add it here as well.

Post up Lesson 1 assignment materials by a bit past midnight GMT this coming Wednesday (7 May). Thanks Timsup2nothin, it was very clear in my head.

Ah, so due date is day after next assignment...and I beat a deadline by...THREE DAYS!!!! Woooooohoooooo!!!

Sorry, that's just never happened before. Three hours maybe once, frequently three minutes, but never three days.

[Tamur]

Well done Tim!

Just a note to remind everyone - you've precisely 12 hours to post your writing for Lesson 1! Gah!

Don't be shy -- this is the internet. I'll be posting materials for Lesson 2 later today.

I've really enjoyed reading the posts added so far, and hoping for more, and a good discussion to follow.

[Timsup2nothin]

With twelve hours to deadline this may be a little late, but I have a suggestion for my fellow aspiring writers from my journalism experience.

Learn to read what you write.

When I was told this I looked at my editor like an extra head had sprouted from his shoulder, so he explained. When you read what someone else wrote, and they have words that are just jumbled out of order (which happens to everyone at least occasionally because we think so much faster than we write), you are just stoppered by it because it makes no sense. You think the writer never bothered to even look over what they wrote, but they probably did. Most people can run their eyes over what they themselves have written and their mind sees what they meant, not what they wrote.

I promptly took back the copy I had given him and read it. Repeatedly. I was really amazed when on the fourth pass I was still finding words out of order, mismatched tenses and forms, and other 'glaring' errors. Fortunately for me, with practice, I learned to separate my reader from the writer and I can usually read my own work with almost the same eye that I have for someone else's, so now I can get most things sorted out in one pass.

I talked about beating a deadline by three hours. That was in print. When I made the transition to internet journalism I frequently had ninety minutes from event to deadline, so beating it by three hours would be impossible, and my editor had thirty minutes from submit to post. If I gave them bad copy they would have no choice but to replace me.

[Tamur]

Just closed the Assignment 1 thread. Sorry to those who almost but not quite hit the deadline, but I need to print off the posts to give to my offline editor/helper in this process. Definitely join us in the Lesson 2 assignment!

And thanks to everyone who contributed.

edit: had planned to post reviewer comments by 18.00 GMT today but it's not to be. My outside help had to put of our review till tonight, so it will be GMT morning on Thursday before reviews are up this week.

[Timsup2nothin]

I have to ask, since in eastern cultures the family name is given first...what is the relationship between Offline Help and Offline Participant?

[Tamur]

hehe! Ah, coincidental. My offline participant isn't related to my offline help. Very funny thought though. I should gather up a few more and we could have an entire Offline side for a game of football!

[Tamur]

Going along with this week's theme, I was talking with a friend a couple of days ago about a story she's writing, and how there is a big disconnect at times between imagining a scene and writing it. It's inevitable that details will be lost in the translation. We talked for a while about strategies to limit the damage done by this loss.

The best one we could come up with is to examine every word in an initial scene description and be conscious of what's being left out -- and ask questions about it like whether the dropped detail could add anything to the unveiling of character, or plot, and whether the details included *are* necessary. If not, is it really worth the reader's time to know about it?

It yeilds good results, but it's fairly labour-intensive. Anyone have an easier way to deal with this?

[Tamur]

We arent' quite to it yet, but this article shows how character building details can work well in a news story. The moments and expressions picked out by the writer are master strokes at creating an image of two very different people.

[Tamur]

Just a note to say, sorry for being late with the lesson 4 material. My usual group work time was demolished this week but I will be putting up materials tomorrow, along with the #3 comments.

Sorry for the hang time.

[Bartholemew-Varath]

I sorry that i missed the last few assignments, i was busy with exams and WoW, but i think im back now, so ill probably be writing in the next assignment

[Tamur]

Sounds great Bartholemew-Varath! I should be able to post next week's materials in a couple of hours.

[Bibbin]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and.... sorry if my writing is horrible, this is my first time doing it. I have written in stories of my own but this is my first time posting something on the writing site.

[Tamur]

Hi Bibbin and welcome to the Mead Hall and the Org, glad you're here. And don't worry, we're all learning how to write better.

Thanks for posting already in the assignment thread, it's great to have another writer on board!

[flyd]

This is pretty cool. I have suddenly gotten the urge to write a story for which I didn't have the characters, the setting, and the events already provided to me on a silver platter by a PBM. I'll take a crack at the current assignment tomorrow.

However, be warned, my background is in engineering, and most of my writing has been technical reports. Expect awkwardly constructed language, exceedingly long sentences (sometimes with semicolons), a plague of superfluous commas, and outright odd descriptions. I do, at least, promise not to use the word 'sinusoidal' to describe anything.

[Tamur]

hey FLYdude, good to see you here! Don't worry. Even if you used "affline transformation" I think we'd survive. Barely.

[Ironsword]

Apologies for missing assignment 3. Heavy work commitments and delayed flights condemned me. I did complete it though, and I suppose that's the point, to get us doing these exercises!

Assignment 4 I found hard, perhaps I need to let go of trying to make a story out of everything and just write in a stream of conciousness! Still, see what you think!

I look forward to reading all the other posts too.

[Tamur]

Hi there, nice to see you back Ironsword! No worries about assignment three... if you're doing them, that's what really counts. I look forward to reading through this week's entries. I agree about this week's assignment. I found that trying to create a mood in the setting, without falling into melodrama, is a tough task.

[Tamur]

Just a note... if anyone needs examples of anything talked about in the lesson 5 material, let me know. I wanted to add examples but it had grown so long already...