General Discussion Thread

[Tamur]

Just a reminder for participants that Lesson 6 assignments are due soon. The current week's assignment deadline was extended to Thursday GMT 00.01 due to my AFK-ness last week.

I've had a couple of requests via PM to extend the deadline to Tuesday at midnight on the other side of the world (NZST or UZ11, i.e. GMT -/+12). We may start that with lesson 7.

[Timsup2nothin]

Just an observation on deadlines, and perhaps my own dysfunctionalness...

0001 deadlines have always made me crazy. I relate to the 'Wednesday' before I relate to the time, then have to figure out that I really only have until the end of the day Tuesday...then 0001 Wednesday GMT has the poor grace to fall somewhere in the middle of Tuesday so I don't really even have until the end of the day!

[Tamur]

hehehe... I know it. Setting deadlines for a 24-hour wide world is its own nightmare!

Maybe what I should say is "Tuesday before you go to bed, no matter where you live in the world"? That's what this new deadline is in essence.

[Timsup2nothin]

Likin' that!

[MountainTroll]

Argghhh.. I should really try writing sometime other than the middle of the night before an assignment is due. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/image...gc/gc-wall.gif


I thought this one was tricky because your assignment had to show the reader from the outside the character, as well as mix in something from the "self-viewpoint" or whatever you called the Dostoevskii example.

[MountainTroll]

And by the way mead hall writers, I have still been thinking about that little debate a week or so ago about depressed versus happy writing. I have tried to make note during my days of moments of pure joy and look around and see how I could describe that. Initially it was annoying to have my feelings interrupted by such a logical task (right brain, left brain battle), but after a while I was amazed at how often it happened. I have a lot to be happy about!

I was also really struck thought by TimsuptoNothin's comment:

''Adults generally believe they get up because 'they have to'. If I ever let myself believe that again I'd just as soon die in my sleep."

It has made me think about what I look forward to the next day, and if there is nothing... then to plan something. It has added more fun into the days, which is always a plus! I was surprised I had gotten lulled into that brain-numb worker bee mindset.

[Timsup2nothin]

It has made me think about what I look forward to the next day, and if there is nothing... then to plan something. It has added more fun into the days, which is always a plus! I was surprised I had gotten lulled into that brain-numb worker bee mindset.

To have my comment credited with this result is to be credited with having fulfilled, at least briefly, the intention that gets me out of bed every day. Thanks.

You will be even more surprised if you try the experiment I suggested.

[MountainTroll]

Timsuptonothin,
I can only imagine the looks I would get... and that is enough to keep me from trying it! I don't need to be known as that "crazy lady" about town!

[Timsup2nothin]

On assignment six...

I was perhaps trying too hard to completely isolate the four styles, which was challenging. Then I made it even harder by alternating tenses, just because I'm a bit masochistic. I really did learn a lot from this one though.

I see that all the portrayals of Ron were very centered on the band, but I was looking ahead somewhat. Ron needs to be very compartmentalized, to an extent that when he is set in his various environments the reader is almost left with 'is this the same person?'.

Hopefully in assignment seven I will be able to show him passing across one of his disconnects. I'm working out his wife as the second character so I can contrast the 'Rockin Ron whose life is the band' with the 'family Ron whose band is the job that supports his wife and kids'.

[Tamur]

Comments are up. These were very enjoyable to read, but you're all too advanced! MountainTroll's especially could have served well for the next assignment, since she had character interaction thrown in. Ah well, I'm not going to complain too loudly about good writing.

Unfortunately I'm under a deadline here, would love to join in the discussion! Maybe I'll be able to make it back a bit later.

[Ironsword]

Ed. 1: Is this the potter from the other assignment?

Yes, I wanted a younger mischievious counter-point to him...

For the next assignment I've created characters closer to my main fictional love. A little less complicated perhaps, but more fun to write about!

@Timsup2nothin I've taken your advice and now say 'fantastic/splendid/wonderful' etc. when asked how I am, and boy, what a difference a word can make...!

[Tamur]

...A little less complicated perhaps, but more fun to write about...

Last year I was working on a historical fiction story and constantly felt like I was falling short on research, daily life detail, etc etc. It's a very rich story with lots of possibilities, and it's good to stretch into uncomfortable areas. But I came to be half done and needed a nice long break, so I stopped and wrote about characters who required no research at all. The feeling of freedom was amazing, never appreciated my "own" characters as much.

[Timsup2nothin]

@Timsup2nothin I've taken your advice and now say 'fantastic/splendid/wonderful' etc. when asked how I am, and boy, what a difference a word can make...!

Excellent. If you keep at it you will find some really surprising cumulative effects. After five years I'm at a point where it is literally too much trouble to have a bad, or even just ordinary, day. So I very seldom have them any more.

[Tamur]

Just from a quick read it looks like you're all finding what you enjoy writing, which is a great find indeed. I hope as we go onward that you learn something about your likes and dislikes, what's easy and what's difficult. Although the course is on writing techniques and methods, one of the best lessons you can take away is what makes writing truly enjoyable for you. And that's what it's all about.

As a wise friend of my father's often said, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

[Tamur]

Comments up... finally. Thanks to you three for your patience. Doing this reminds of how much I enjoy reading the writing closely and noticing all the work you put into it. It makes me commit to carve out bits of time daily for enjoyable things in future.

[MountainTroll]

Hey there Tamur,
I want to say thanks a bunch for carving out time for us and this course in your busy schedule. I appreciate your feedback and the focus the assignments give. I hope you've been able to sort out and balance your different responsibilities. Burn-out is a bad sign. Maybe you need a vacation? It is summer after all! :)
Here's an idea: If you don't have time one week for comments you could sub-contract them out to one of us 3 that are regular participants. Just a thought.

[Prince Cobra]

Oooh, I have a headache... I missed 7 lessons (lucky number) because of my tests...

+

I am happy this is progressing.

=

example of mixed feelings

[Tamur]

Thanks for thinking of us, Stephen

MountainTroll, I just realised I never did actually respond to your post. I think it would be great to assign out comment duties! There are weeks during which it would be such a relief to know it's in someone else's capable hands...

So, MountainTroll, Timsup2nothin, and Ironsword, if any of you is interested in helping out with this, PM me about it. It going to be fairly rare but the occasional help would be very nice.

[Tamur]

Egads, that one sure slipped through the cracks... I just posted the Assignment 9 thread, sorry all!

[Prince Cobra]

I hope you will like it. Well, certain scenes are... provocative. I also have much work to do on my style...

The first one is based on my story in the Mead hall, twenty years earlier before the start of the story. The second is based on Kagemusha's Interactive, especially on chapter 7, autumn 1561, page 17 of the thread. That was an experiment, a different point of view :P

That's it for Excercise 9. I am back.

[MountainTroll]

I thought Lesson 9 (making a plot from a setting /making characters into a plot) was fun. It went really smoothly for me. My favourite was working from an event and place and developing a plot from there. Tamur, I liked the line you put in the assignment that said something like : Plot should wrap around a character. I hadn't thought before how central a good character is. Before I'd always stressed over the storyline.

[Tamur]

Glad you enjoyed the writing! It looks from what you wrote that you especially had fun playing with the first example

It really is a good rule to follow - centring the story on characters. In your setting-centred writing this week, for example, you have a wonderful world created but when you actually get to the writing, the story "camera" has to drop down on an individual in the midst of all of that's going on.

[Tamur]

So, I can't do this all the time, but I did have to share this from the BBC website, which I saw as I track Wimbledon. This is a description of a single game in the Murray v Nadal match going on at present:

Rafa stands in the only quadrant of sunshine left on court and leaps into his serve to breeze to 40-0. He tucks a stray strand behind his bandana, blows on his fingers like Boris B and noses in front when Murray adrenalises a forehand beyond the baseline. Back on his changeover chair he glugs down some mineral water while his left leg bounces up and down like a nervy hare's.

A few things I like about this:

First, it moves quickly. It starts off at 40-0 (with the game nearly over), and the next sentence finishes the game off, to move on and describe what seems very important - the way Nadal is acting.

Second, the rhythm of the words. I love the way this flows when spoken. "Back on his changeover chair" is especially nice - nearly dactylic. There are lot of good spots like that.

Finally, the images. It doesn't simply say, Rafa hits a solid serve and Murray's return goes long. Murray "adrenalises" the return forehand, Rafa blows on his fingers before serving, his leg bounces as he sits drinking.

Sports writing at its finest...

[naut]

Although I've only participated once, I've been reading the advice and pointers in each lesson, and they are really helpful. Thanks Tamur for doing this.

[PowerWizard]

Though I'm not a native English speaker, I'd like to sign up and join the writing society.

[Tamur]

Just to let everyone know, I'll be putting up comments today on lesson 9. My editor friend has had trouble getting to the past week's comments so it'll just be me this time around. After comments are up I'll put up the next lesson, and will extend the deadline till Wednesday next week.

[Tamur]

Just have to say, thanks MountainTroll! haha, totally unexpected interpretation of the scene, which is why these assignments are such fun.

A reminder that the deadline for lesson 11 writing is tonight before you sleep.

[Tamur]

I just ran into this on my daily trawl of the internet as I wait for the computer to do its thing at work...

Kurt Vonnegut on style

Since we're spending three weeks on voice, I thought this might be interesting to someone out there. Some wise words there.

[Tamur]

hi all,

With a great deal of hesitancy, I write to let everyone know that I will have to call off the course. A couple of very large real-life projects have sprung up and are clamouring for my attention. These projects were completely non-existent at the time we began 14 weeks ago.

I would offer to at least write up and post the lesson materials for the remaining 12 weeks, but even that would be subject to major postponements as it stands. However, I will be writing all the remaining materials so that, whenever my schedule eases up, we can resume the course (or restart if too much time has elapsed) with everything ready to go except for feedback on exercises.

I deeply apologise for saying we would plough onwards regardless of what happened. This is a classic case of eating my words. It would be a deep disservice to those who have contributed so wonderfully to the course to continue to say "I'll get to it soon" on reviews and posting lesson materials.

Thank you to everyone who contributed. I've learnt a deep respect for the quality of writers who live here at the Org.