General Chat

*emerges from under pile of tissues*

Apologies everyone, I have loads to catch up on, but with this cold I can't do much for long without having to stop and blow my nose. Feeling a bit better today so I will endeavour to send back all my comments.

Still no sign of our leader then? Hmmmm...

Helen I agree with you there. I was thinking much the same thing yesterday. It's all a bit random at the moment.

How about, (and this is only a suggestion) that we all send on a certain day of the week, ie Sunday, giving us all the rest of the week to read through and comment as and when we can. At the moment, no sooner do we have one bit cleared up, when another pile come in, and as the group is still growing, it'll soon be impossible to keep up with it all without some structure.

*puts hand up. I agree, like I said before, it doesn't stop us writing (now that we are all in full flow) I think once a week would be fine, maybe two poems or one piece of prose? And are we having a limit on words?

Only if this suits everyone:-) Hope your cold is better soon, TW, and you havent given it to the cat...lol BCXX

We tried to apply a word limit before but that didn't work once we all got going.

Besides, some are writing novel length peices and sending chapters out, so I think it would be unfair to make a limit to our free writing.

BUT, that said, if there was a specific topic or exercise then maybe we could limit those.

The cat's fine BC, thanks lol....blame Hagar, he gave it to me. Why oh why do men cough sneeze and splutter all over the place?

*Slap Hagar for me:-) Yes we don't want to be scared off with too many rules etc (it may stop the flow of our creative juices! lol) but maybe we could all leave our opinions on this thread and we could work something out/

XX

Hi Teresa and BC, I think once a week sounds better, that way I could get some structure back in my life!!

As to limits of words, I love all the outpourings from everyone and the chapters of novels have been fabulous, but for myself I was kind of expecting to be required to write a certain amount in a certain period of time to create a writing discipline?? And then to have lots of constructive criticism? Maybe I was taking it too seriously.

But either way, if we send something out once a week, hopefully we would all hear back from everyone else fairly promptly and be able to progress. I am still working through all the work sent to me so apologies if you haven't heard back yet, I am on the case!

As regards criticism, Helen, we have all being going gently on each other up to now as we are just starting out and didn't want to scare foks away! But we could get tougher *gulps *as we go along.

"Gulps" as well!

I have to say Teresa has been a great help to me with criticism and passing on her knowledge.

OK I will go with sending out on Sundays then. (may need a reminder). I have actually stopped writing at the moment because of the feedback about being swamped. I think we have been free wheeling because we were expecting Jill to discipline us. However it has got us going, I think too much structure is inhibiting and too much like school. But by all means limit the number of pieces we send out and have some pieces which are structured as we did with the words exercise that Teresa set.

i think it would be a better idea to submit on Sunday..one piece of prose, chapter of a story or two poems.

That sounds structured to me, then we are not reading and commenting in a hurry in case more work comes in .
Do we propose to start this coming Sunday, that will give us the rest of this week to "catch up?"

xx

Good morning Girls and hope you're feeling better TW.

Think once a week ie Sunday would be okay with me................Stella ..one piece of prose,a chapter annnd poetry?....*gulps even louder... and scared at 'tougher' criticism ;O) X

No no no Mau

either one piece of prose or one chapter or two poems...lol

xx

Morning Ladies, I've just been catching up on your comments re structure and agree that once a week sounds like a good idea, it frees up our time a little and allows time to think about what we want to write.

Sounds fair to me , submitting on a Sunday .

personally, I always find time to read the pieces sent however many but don't have time to make constructive criticism on all so I tend just to send that if I notice something particularly 'obvious' that might help.

oh and Good Morning Ladies , sorry a bit shattered today,

xx

The only thing I am worried about is 'going off the boil'. I find I work better if |I keep going but I do appreciate that I am retired and have the time to do things so will fit in with everyone else. I haven't written any more because I am not sure whether the last two pieces should have been one or two chapters and of those who commented it was 50/50. anyway, I have diverted to my scrap booking and card making so all is not lost.

Hope your cold will soon be better Teresa, meant to say that before.

Hi Ann, don't go 'off the boil'! when you are writing a long piece that is very easy to do and very hard to get back into it I find.
Just keep writing as and when you want and ,if you want to, send it out to those who think they have time to read ? ( I can read as I do that in bed ).

xx

Thanks Rose. Did you get my last one where Ia sked one chapter or two? I don't think you have said. I have the next bit in rough so will get round to it soon.

Ann, by us limiting our sendouts to once a week, provides you with a deadline. You can keep writing, but you don't necessarily have to send the whole lot. You can send a part you're perhaps not too certain of and want the critique for. Or, perhaps you can set yourself a daily word count, maybe just a few hundred to a couple of thousand.

I would also suggest, that for those who want it, perhaps we could set a short exercise along with our pieces, with no pressure to actually do them. The choice could be yours.

I have a variety of short writing exercises, which are done just for fun, like the one I set last week, with the five random words, or a part-sentence to be completed, a specific topic and so on. So I don't mind setting them on here if anyone wants to do them.

Hi Ann in Glos, don't stop writing, just save up all your work for distribution on Sundays. No-one wants to stop anyone's creative abilities! Then if you have a week when you are busy, you will always have something ready to show.

I don't think it would be fair to send out extra copy to those who have seem to have more time to read on a daily basis - it sounds a bit like creating a sub-group when we are supposed to be one group.

Teresa, I like the sound of your idea.

Hi Ann, yes I have got them but plunged in without reading the question the question , DOH! sorry .
chapter.

Just as a generalisation, having a quick look at some of the books I have to hand, chapters seem to be around a minimum of 10 pages paperback.

But that depends obviously on the content.. in this case I think your two pieces should be one chapter as they aren't 'seperated' by the story having moved on to a 'new phase' ...sorry that's not put very well lol,