Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s Comments (group member since Sep 20, 2013)

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s comments from the Net Work Book Club group.

Having trouble concentrating on any one book lately. (Also having trouble relaxing in general.) Maybe it's time for another Maigret.

There's an old writer's dictum: always kill your babies. That means, be prepared to cut that description, or dialogue, or subplot, that you think is a shining jewel.

Much!! I won't have many classes this month so we will be cash poor, but I did need a rest and I intend to enjoy it. It's only DH and me so Christmas will be a home made curry, quite possibly from Rick Stein's India. Intend to spend the holiday period working on a crazy quilt and reading and generally daffing the world aside.

Crumbs, where is everyone?

That's true, Cynthia. We have to write for ourselves first and foremost. I have written many things, some conferences given in public, that got little reaction. I'll never forget speaking for 45 min on a topic I felt passionate about (by request); a friend was in the audience and about 5 min after I'd finished I asked him, "So, how did it go?" He immediately self-referenced and assumed that I was asking him about something in his personal life, not the talk he'd just listened to.

But I said what I had to say, and know I said it well.

I direct your attention to this article, here in the Author Tidbits section of our board:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You have to remember, particularly with Internet critics, that some people simply have issues and it's easy to be hostile when a) there's a screen between you and the person you're criticising (particularly if the website uses screen names instead of real names) and b) a lot of the harshest critics have never written anything that's been published, either. Most drama critics have never acted in a play, let alone written one. Film critics don't make movies. Kibitzing after the fact is a lot easier when you've never sweat through the actual labour of creativity.

There are "writer's handbooks" that will help you find out what you need to know about formatting your work before sending it to a publisher. They are available online or through bookstores. Specify that you want one for fiction writing.

I also suggest you find a literary agent; most publishers, like most producers/directors of film, work with agencies more than accepting unsolicited manuscripts from a person they have never heard of. Yes, there are fees involved, but it's like selling a house: it's usually much easier and quicker through a realtor than trying to just do it yourself.

I'm with you there, Elyse. The fashion for "dark, gritty" stuff passed me by completely.
Also with you on the hugs and holiday wishes. I too am busy, and tired, and not very talkative, but that don't mean I don't love y'all cuz I duz.

Hi all. I'm not around much, very busy but doing a lot better and sleeping much better. Being ill seems to have reset my body clock. It's an ill wind, indeed.

It's true, it drives me nuts when people write books set in the 19th century or even the 1920s and then use slang and phrases that became current in the 1980s or whatever. I've been reading The Winter Garden Mystery and Ms Dunn often commits anachronisms...such as a character saying they've done something "since forever." In the first volume of the series one constable speaks of "nooky" to mean sex...pretty sure that word is a) of American origin b) was not used in the twenties.

I have to say, turkeys are not nice here in Spain...they never make gravy! Even the ones I buy in Lidl, from Germany. So this Christmas we are having curry! LOL

We don't have it in Spain either, Kathryn. For several years I would do the turkey thing and invite American friends, but it got to be expensive and people didn't really seem to appreciate it. The last time I went all out, everyone cancelled the night before, leaving me with a fridge full of food as I'd planned on about 8 guests plus us. Gave me the feeling they'd all got together after accepting and decided to ditch us. ..so I have to be grateful all year. ;)

"It's 50% off."

Love to hear that!

If everyone wrote only what they know, there would be no fantasy, no sci-fi...and darn little in the way of erotica.

Kath, hearing that someone is "at death's doorstep" always makes me laugh. I know they mean "at death's door" but I get the image of someone lying there next to the milk and the newspaper, just under the letterbox...

"I brought you something...hope you like it."

Don't hear that one often, but I do like to.

Yeah, he might could.

I have been very very sick with some nasty gastric virus (we've both had it) which carried with it a 48-hr migraine for me. Very slow bouncing back. Or rather, not bouncing back...slowly dragging myself back.

I keep finding in printed books the strange phrase "he stood to his feet." He got to his feet, or he stood up. But he "stood to his feet"???

I do that mrbooks and like you I mean them. "You may do as you like" when asked by Himself if he can turn on the dishwasher (we don't have enough water supply to, say, run that and take a shower at the same time). When asked if I want to go out for a walk/shop/whatever, I often respond "Como tú quieras"--"As you like". I mean it, though. If he wants to go, I'm up for it!