northie
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Everything posted by northie
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🤨😄 Maybe the courts could run a competition...
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As an author, that made my day. It is a chapter where a lot happens, mostly good.
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Yes, indeed. Thanks, dugh.
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I'm happy to leave you to write the second chapter. 😘
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Thank you! Here you are:
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Get me a plate of triple-cooked chips! Perfect, salty, fat, golden chips. Money no object. Tim licked his lips. That was more like it. He stared wide-eyed at the message projected onto the side of the living room in his quaint – not rundown – cottage. No more bargaining with tight-fisted clients over a scoop of mash or the worth of one pocked, frost-bitten tuber. Life as a spud-hunter was hard. Ever since the UK declared potatoes an unwanted foreign invader, spuds had become worth thei
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In an England without potatoes, Tim is a spudhunter. The best. Really - the very, very best.
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Pride at getting through to the end of his first week as a temporary receptionist at Shawcross, Emery and Partners made Ben smile. His abilities hadn't exactly been stretched by answering the phone, forwarding email, and dealing with visitors, but working with people both suited and interested him. The young man tugged at his formal shirt and straightened the unfamiliar tie. His hair wasn't so easily tamed. A squint at his reflection in the large Georgian windows showed a mess which looked as if
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I agree with this concept completely. Language choices are important. Language choices can be hugely important. I remember cringing through an otherwise pretty good police procedural whenever the two MCs got going in the bedroom. While the scenes weren't full-on romance, they had an emotional importance which was utterly negated by the language employed. English is a language of many dimensions. As @Comicality says, take time to find words, the right words.
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I wrote Soul Music early on (particularly the first volume) in my writing development. That is, before I had a proper sense of character psychology or back stories, or character arcs, or sustainable plotting. 😬😄 As such, if I ever go back to those characters (much as I loved them at the time), it would be to rewrite the entire thing. Two things come out of this. Neither Geoff or Tony have made themselves heard at all over the intervening years. Plus, my intention, as far as reworking goes, is to spend time on the first (and some of the second) parts of Eric's story. Eric is part of me and I think there is much more value (of all kinds) to be derived from making his story the best I can.
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This is one of the central issues in most cases of domestic violence. What can appear so black and white from the outside, might seem much more grey close up. Thank you. You're very kind to say so.
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Like my reply to @drsawzall, I'll just say this piece isn't suddenly going to turn into a melodrama. Drama, yes, but comparatively restrained.
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I think all I will say is bear in mind this story is essentially about Eric. Other characters have their tales to tell but they're not there to overshadow the central, fairly gentle action. It's not a piece that's suddenly going to turn into a melodrama. Plus, domestic violence is notoriously difficult to deal with, especially if you're part of the family.
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It's not so much putting 2 and 2 together but rather being able to unpack what's been said, and not said.
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Cardboard boxes lay scattered throughout the house – full, empty, and every state in between. Emily Standish sighed. It represented progress of sorts. Progress which would have to accelerate in pace and scope if they were going to be ready for the movers. She surveyed what could be seen of the ground floor from the foot of the stairs. The boxes resembled Brobdingnagian demerara sugar cubes tossed away without thought and left to lie where they landed. She climbed the stairs in search of Tom
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I imagine it has for a number of readers. Inclusive, non-judgemental sex and relationship education is essential. The shame is that people have missed out on so much due to ignorance, discrimination, and a lack of empathy.
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Thank you. As I said elsewhere, if I were to write the first volume again, more of Eric's backstory would be already out there. This came out as a kind of infodump - relevant but still pretty dense.
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👀 Thank you! ☺️ I also find stories without shade or a little darkness ultimately unsatisfying. This is a perfect way of putting it. Yes. to be aware of what you've missed, what you can't have is painful.
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It wasn't that easy to write either.
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I imagine it could do for a lot of people. That level of ignorance and shame (exemplified perfectly in Channel 4's It's A Sin) scarcely seems possible now. Is that good? Hell, yes.
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An excellent way to put it. Yes, Eric's life has been colourless, flat, boring - everything a good garden shouldn't be. How much change is possible? We'll have to see.
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For me, I came from a family that thought it was both. Or at least, that's what I think in hindsight. I can't imagine Eric's experience was unusual. At a small town school in the 1970s, there was no sex ed, never mind relationship advice.
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Yes. Of course, if I'd constructed a proper backstory for him in the first volume, you would've got some (if not most) of it then. 🤨😄
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Eric marvelled at the difference four months had made to Andy's garden. Though why he should be so surprised was a puzzle. He knew the seasons as well as the next gardener. A filled plastic salad bowl in one hand, he paused on the patio and looked around. August's latter half was rarely a good time to view gardens. Many plants had lost their flowers and as for trees, their freshness was a distant memory. He spotted a couple of repeat-flowering roses, cream and yellow, further down and what
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The help pages for posting a story at GA are here: Incidentally, if you have a query you'd like the staff (or members) to answer, give it it's own string. You're more likely to get a reply.
