Writing Workshop Group - TOEGTW Discussion: Please Read First Post

[Glen]

Originally Posted by AnyaKimlin

I now have two copies of the book lol

You're going to have to work twice as hard as the rest of us...

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by TacticalLoco

Folks, my sincerest apologizes.
As I'm sure is quite evident by now, I simply do not have the time to devote to a study group right now.
I still think it is a great idea and of course wish all the best developing your writing skills.
With lunch I may be able to jump back in later.
Good luck!
Tac

Originally Posted by mithril

I'm sorry folks... I decided that I'd definitely submit the exercises for this week. Doesn't seem to be happening.To be honest my WIP has been getting all the 'writing time' I've managed to scrounge up recently...

I had high hopes from this discussion but I don't think I'd be regular at all and so it's only fair to let the group know.

All the best everyone!

Sorry to hear that TL and Mithril. I'm sure no one will be bothered if you choose to continue following along onthe periphery. I do fully understand. As you may have noticed I have been away without internet all week. I'm now frantically trying to catch up with the Chrons and then I'll try and get the exercise done!

Originally Posted by Glen

I had thought the exercises in Ch 15 were going to be relevant only for business / non-fiction writing, but I found myself using one of the techniques yesterday.

I have been surprised at just how much of the stuff on Essays in general can actually be very relevant to fiction writing. Sure, maybe not used quite as formally (I can't see the points being covered in an expository paragraph being numbered too often in creative writing!) but there is still a lot of relevance for using the techiniques for things like emphasis, illustration, comparison, unity etc. Ideas like the syntactic patterning, repeated keywords, linking words etc. can work extremely well in anything from exposition to plain old dialogue.

Originally Posted by AnyaKimlin

I now have two copies of the book lol Will jump in.

Yay!!!

[Glen]

It has been interesting to read other takes on the exercises. One thing I noticed is that the comparision exercises seem necessarily to have a good deal of repetition - we need to keep referring to the subject and the points of difference - which can make the paras difficult to read.

I found the earlier exercise using restatement to be difficult for the same reason - it was difficult to make the para sound good. Now, there may have been an element of my being a poor student here, wanting to get the exercise finished, but the challenge is still there. If we want to use the technique well, we are going to have to work hard to make it sound good.

My comments in the exercise section, while flippant, hold true. I really did think my output sounded like Just A Minute and Swiss Tony. And my challenge, using these tecniques, would be to avoid that.

[choccoweeble]

Apologies for not getting last week's exercises in, or doing any commentary. I had a friend pass away so have been a bit distracted. I'm going to try and catch up this week. Keep up the good work everyone!

[Vertigo]

Chocco, I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences.

Glen I think it is very natural to have a certain amount of repetition when comparing and or contrasting. But I agree about the restatement exercise. I found this particularly hard to do; it just didn't seem to come naturally. I was also a little unclear about how to do it.

In the first example in the book (about American men crying) the writer simply seems to have used the word crying multiple times. Is that really restatement? The second example seemed more explicitly restatement with the repeated clause 'There were pirates', except that the repeated clause isn't really the statement, the rest of the sentence is the statement and that is different each time.

I definitely have a problem distinguishing the repeating keywords or the syntactic patterning from ch13 from the restatement of ch14. They seem essentially the same in execution and the only difference is that the use in ch13 is for emphasis and in ch14 it is for illustration, but then that is also really a form of emphasis... isn't it?

Incidentally (and this isn't a dig at you Chocco) I'm a little sad that there hasn't been more discussion of the chapter contents.

I'm going to shoot over to the exercise thread and see if I can chuck in a few words about the submissions, but other than that I guess it is onwards to chapters 16 and 17

[springs]

To be fair, I think at least 4 of the participants are planning submissions to either AR or SC this week, so time has been perhaps limited this week. I know I've been flat out and struggled to read teh chapters and do the excersises and still get ready for deadline.

[Vertigo]

Ah I was unaware of that. All these things like deadlines, work and so on really do tend to get in the way of life don't they!

[Glen]

Originally Posted by springs1971

planning submissions to either AR or SC

Springs, tsk, tsk, more acronyms.

[springs]

Ooops.

A new one.

SFAAW?

(stop faffing around, and write.) Just for you.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by springs1971

SFAAW?

Lol. I've made my target for today, in fact exceeded it by one word. Now I can faff all I like.

[Glen]

What's that sound? Crickets? Perhaps.

Ok, I've worked through Part IV, Chapter 18: The Sentence!

Here's the good news. It's an ok chapter. It gave me some insight into the names of the things I work with when writing. It has no exercises. It is all summarised in < 1 page at the end of the chapter.

The bad news. There is none.

BTW - how many of us are still in this? Its getting a bit quiet. It reminds me of Culhwch's story in the last 300 wd challenge - we're all turning into stone.

[Abernovo]

I'm still in this. My only problem just recently has been time. However, after tomorrow, I'll have more time on my hands again.

[springs]

I'm half in, if there's such a thing. I'm reading the book and keeping up, but not posting, if that's okay.

[Vertigo]

I'm still here, or rather I'm back here after a 2,700 mile round trip from Inverness to Perpignan (that's a lot of driving in 5 days). I got back on Thursday but have only just plucked up the courage to go on the Chrons and try to catch up!

I have worked through ch18 and half of ch19. There's some good stuff in there, I'm really enjoying 19 and even the exercises!

One thing I notice in the examples in this chapter is there are a lot of semicolons knocking around (just for you Springs). I'm not entirely sure why some of them are used as opposed to commas. Possibly to distinguish from commas used in the two clauses being separated and possibly to put a greater stress on the pause than a comma would have given. But there are certainly a lot of them.

One niggle, at least with the edition of the book that I have, is that every time the text refers to another part of the book by page number it's wrong! Grrrr, and I have to try and estimate which page it actually is and then try and find it. Tacky job by the publishers!

Another thought I had, and have so far been too lazy to conciously implement, is that most of the material in the exposition chapters would be very appropriate to general posting on the Chrons. At least posts answering questions. I really ought to try and put them into practice more often when posting

[springs]

I noticed the semi colons! I think they are vastly under utilised, and should be celebrated as the missing link...