General Chat

omg.... i can't do with technicalities...lol

i have written my piece and intend to send it out as it is, not double line spaced or anything like that..i have edited it and it will be going out just as it is.
all these technicalities take away the pleasure of writing for me



ah 350 words.. well if i add anymore it will spoil my piece so i hope Jill will accept that :o))

:o))

Rach, you don't think I actually sit and count my words do you? LOL


BC, If you need any help, gissa shout. Double spacing settings are easy peasy, once you know where they are.

Sorry i don't have time for playing games I am a writer you know pmsl!

*blows raspberry at Rach.....lol....

Hi girls my puter tells me how many words (it took some finding but I found it lol) And I think I am gonna be teachers pet! lol

*gulps....TW, I am only coming to terms with using a document thingy, havent learned how to double space or indent....

*bangs head...have got writers block already! lolol BCXX

Generally speaking, if submitting anything it should be double line spaced, with NO paragraph breaks, but each paragraph should be indented. Suitable margins either side to allow for notes too.

But I'm not sure if Jill wants to be too rigid in that, unless she is thinking of encouraging some to submit pieces, in which case the layout does need to be adhered to and the habit formed. Again, I can only let her confirm this or otherwise.

thanks TW that is what I wanted to know, and sorry for the questions but should the finished piece, if prose, be spaced at 1.5?

As far as I know Ann, don't and words like it, (that'll, I'll, isn't etc.) count as one word.

I'm not sure how rigid Jill is planning to be regarding word count, but I am being rigid with it myself because I have to for my course work anyway, though there is a 10 per cent margin either way. ie, a 500 word request could be 450 to 550 and still be acceptable. But I think it's fairly open here, with a word count being a rough guideline. I'll leave it to Jill to confirm though.

Tell me when a number of words is set, is it stuck to rigidly? And, if so would you count don't as two words?

I bet you could Posh.

Why not try it, just write a little something, an experience, a place, anything. Write what you know, and use as many of the five senses as you can to describe it.

That's the idea of the group, to give it a go, get the feedback, learn from it, and improve, all the while learning the craft. It can be done, but won't be done unless you write.

I think that it what holds a lot of people back. Seeing the written work of others, whether it be an article in a magazine, or a book from the library, they feel intimidated against such well written work, but what you read is often several drafts down the line from the original work, which is probably complete crap, with spelling mistakes, grammar and punctuation mistakes or missing, lack of prose or too many adverbs, repetitions, all of which have to be polished again and again until the writer feels it is right, readable, and says what is intended without going on and on.

I know I felt like that until I read 'On Writing', by Stephen King, ironically, the one writer who really intimidated me and had me talking myself out of actually trying. That book really showed me that good writers don't get it right first time, nor the second time, in fact, probably not until they have revised and polished several times, even Stephen King himself!

lol Posh you haven't read anything yet ;) you might sit there afterwards and think " I can do better than that " . Please have a go anyway if you have time

Teresa I finished re-reading 'Small Island' and went on to "Notes from a Big Country ' had them both for years and re-read from time to time :)

Jill , will bite the bullet soon then

xx

What a talented bunch you are...I wish I could write but I am useless. I do read a lot though and I look forward to reading your stories. xxx

Rose I've just finished a Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island, and like you, I was chuckling away as I read it. It's a really good lesson on how to write humour though, so always useful. Follow the example, don't be intimidated by it.

Jill, back to feedback, I agree it might be better all on one document. Perhaps, as we email the piece to all, perhaps feedback could be placed in the reply, and we could 'reply all', so we can all see that feedback and learn from it.

Deadlines, well they are not a bad thing. Many writers have to keep to deadlines, and it's not as evil as you might think.
Many find it daunting to write a lengthy piece, and often say 'I don't have time,' But if you wrote just 200 words a day, which wouldn't take long, you'd have 1000 written in just five days.

Some of you will have heard of NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, usually November. The idea is to just write 50,000 words of a novel between November 1st and midnight on November 30th. Sounds huge doesn't it? But break it down and you'll see that it requires just 1,700 words a day. I can usually write that much in an hour or two. So to write one 500 or 1000 word piece in two weeks means you only need to write for a few minutes each day. There is no need to worry about deadlines, just break it down into manageable chunks, and it will seem less demanding than you think.

Besides, as Rose has demonstrated already, once you start writing, and let it flow, you'll have far more than that in no time at all. Many people set aside just 30 minutes or an hour a day for their writing, slotting it in between their other commitments, you can do it too.

But if you were really worried about your work you could put off reading others' work until you'd finished your piece ... I know what you mean though! We will all have to be very brave, bite the bullet and send it all round!

Jill

I thought that Jill...and then I thought again lol... for instance if you sent me what you had written a week before i finished mine, and yours was brilliant I might feel I shouldn't even be thinking about writing and be thoroughly discouraged:)

I was reading Bill Bryson last night , and know I will never write anything so funny .... I was like Mutley sniggering so I didn't wake Dan lol

xx

I was thinking about that this morning Rose. We will have to allow ourselves a bit of time for all that reading won't we?

Would it be easier to send round as you go - so it arrives in dribs and drabs and spreads the load a bit for the readers? Might be confusing - and harder work - if it all arrives at the same time ...

What do you all think?

Jill

Hello Jill and Ann ~~~ Just got in,

Was just wondering , Jill, are you going to set a date for everyone to send their piece on to others ? I know we're aiming for two weeks, but should we all send on same day if possible...or in dribs and drabs lol

Rose xx

Thanks Jill, be prepared for a newby (at writing that is), always written a lot of letters, both to friends and family and magazines, and scribbled for my own benefit, holiday diaries etc. But never anything for criticism before.

No Ann - I think a few of the "non-writers" will join in at some stage.

I will move you across to the writing list ...

Jill