A good article on turn-offs for lit agents: http://www.writersdigest.com/article/what-agents-hate/
The turn-out for the writers’ workshop broke all Riverside Writers’ previous records. There weren’t enough printed handouts to go round, unfortunately. So much for my guess-work! Among the crowd was Sci-Fi author Colin P Davies, who visited our group as a speaker some years ago. http://www.colinpdavies.com/index.htm
Anyway, the workshop on constructive criticism - which I'd organised - generated a healthy amount of group discussion, which was one of my intentions.
The practical exercise I’d prepared brought some levity. I read one page of what was supposed to be the start of a novel, which was written awfully on purpose, and people had to pretend that a member of the writers circle had presented this in all seriousness. How, then, would the group offer constructive criticism? Once they’d all stopped laughing, I pointed out that if they were to laugh at fellow writer’s efforts, then that person might be terribly upset and never come back. It was interesting—and amusing—to see how people then proceeded to try and conjure a diplomatic and useful crit.
Soooo, on with my own work… Bethany Rose now stands at 49,500 which means the 50,000 half-way mark is but one hop away.
Richard has bought a boxed set of all the Magnificent Seven films. I “blinked” half way through a gun fight, and woke up to see Margaret Rutherford drinking tea. Hmm, did I miss something there?!!
The turn-out for the writers’ workshop broke all Riverside Writers’ previous records. There weren’t enough printed handouts to go round, unfortunately. So much for my guess-work! Among the crowd was Sci-Fi author Colin P Davies, who visited our group as a speaker some years ago. http://www.colinpdavies.com/index.htm
Anyway, the workshop on constructive criticism - which I'd organised - generated a healthy amount of group discussion, which was one of my intentions.
The practical exercise I’d prepared brought some levity. I read one page of what was supposed to be the start of a novel, which was written awfully on purpose, and people had to pretend that a member of the writers circle had presented this in all seriousness. How, then, would the group offer constructive criticism? Once they’d all stopped laughing, I pointed out that if they were to laugh at fellow writer’s efforts, then that person might be terribly upset and never come back. It was interesting—and amusing—to see how people then proceeded to try and conjure a diplomatic and useful crit.
Soooo, on with my own work… Bethany Rose now stands at 49,500 which means the 50,000 half-way mark is but one hop away.
Richard has bought a boxed set of all the Magnificent Seven films. I “blinked” half way through a gun fight, and woke up to see Margaret Rutherford drinking tea. Hmm, did I miss something there?!!
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