January 2010
5 posts
5 tags
>Jamie Empathy
Empathy. This is a tough one. I have been told by many people wiser than me and read in many blogs that you need to create characters that your reader can feel empathy with. But, what does this mean in the context of fiction? It isn’t sympathy, although sympathy can create empathy. It isn’t a matter of liking the character either. But it is certainly one of the main components of...
Jan 30th
Richard - Matching to a mentor
I sent my work off to TLC and awaited a response. Within a few days I had a response from TLC with the name of the person who was to be my mentor. I read about the writer to be my mentor and after much heartsearching and deliberation I decided to contact TLC about the choice. In my head I’ve got a clear idea of what I want to get out of the mentoring scheme - someone to help develop me as a...
Jan 23rd
6 tags
>Jamie- extract 2
I sent my second extract to Tim still bubbling with ideas from the first response. His first crit had been about general thoughts, so I was interested to see whether the second extract would cement his opinion on the piece. I included in the package a chapter breakdown so that Tim could see where I was going with it. This in itself proved to be a worthwhile exercise. I had outlined the novel...
Jan 16th
>Richard - Starting Out
At the end of December I was delighted to be awarded a place on the mentoring scheme through Writing East Midlands. Just before Christmas I was advised that the first stage of the process is to submit a short (2,000 words) piece of work and a synopsis that would allow TLC to match me up woth potential suitors. I wrote the novel I’m working on, “Bloody Bones”, about 2 years ago...
Jan 14th
11 tags
>Jamie Overwriting
Overwriting. Over egging the pudding. Purple Prose. No, not the saucy type of Purple Prose, not the raunchy stuff. What I mean is literary masturbation. The love of the sound of your own fingers on the keyboard. An orgy of metaphor and simile. See, I’m doing it again. It turns out that I can’t help myself. It’s such a hard thing to nail down though. Where does it stop...
Jan 10th