Eleanor’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2020)

Eleanor’s comments from the Gathering Of Dedicated Scribblers group.

Hi Tomas 👋🏼
It's great that you finished and publish one! I haven't managed to get past the edit/review stage of any of my efforts. $0.06 is both hilarious and depressing, though. It's soooooo much work for so little return. But I do hope to one day earn a few cents from something I wrote. Few of us make it big, but yet here we are, scribbling away 😆
Good luck with book 2. Hope it's going well.

It's the school holidays coming up soon and I'm hoping to do some writing. I've had an idea for a new story. It's been growing for a while. I can't find the will to rewrite or revisit any of my old stories at the moment, but maybe a new project will get the creativity flowing again.

Happy New Year!

I've finally got the writing bug back after a couple of years of feeling pretty 'meh' about it all. So I thought I'd pop in here to see if the group is still going. It's pretty quiet, huh?

Thomas wrote: "I like opening with a scene in which something is happening instead of opening with settings and intros. Well done.

I felt the word 'figure' was a bit overused. It is not a beautiful word when use..."

Thank you for the feedback. It's very helpful. I'll take your points on board when I go over this scene again. :)

I am working on starting my stories with a Bang! Going straight in with some action. This is the opening scene of a new story that I am writing. I'd be grateful to anyone who could read it and tell me what they think: i.e. Does it grab your attention? Would you keep reading past this point? If not, why not? What could I do to make it better?

Thanks in advance. Here's the link: https://editor.reedsy.com/s/mMhbovD

Thomas wrote: "Thanks Eleanor, I got your message.

So, an update: as soon as my Beta Readers return their feedback, I decided to send my manuscript out. I picked up an agent who works within the Sci-Fi and sent ..."

I tried to get some short stories published earlier this year. All rejected! I kind of knew it, but I thought it was worth a go. I've since gone back to the drawing board, working through a couple more short writing courses before I try again.

I never got into the real DnD but I've been replaying the video games this year (Baldur's Gate 1&2 and Planescape: Torment so far). They're pretty old now, but the stories and gameplay still hold up :)

Thomas wrote: "Hello there.
I got a book and I had Beta Readers going through it. I selected five and set a deadline at the end of the last month (it was already extended due to summer vacations). Two came back r..."

Hi, Thomas. That sounds like exactly my kind of story. I'll DM you!

Just dropping by to say hi.

I've just finished the last of the 4 Coursera Creative Writing courses and I'm waiting to start the Capstone Project. In the meantime, I'm doing a couple of Domestika courses that I purchased when they were on sale: 'The Art of Creative Writing' with Reneé Bibby and then 'Introduction to Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy' with Andrea Chapela.

Tomas wrote: "disallow refunds on books once you reach the 10% mark (or what's the length of a free sample)"

I'd always assumed this is what they did. It's ridiculous to let someone refund a book that has been 100% read. Hopefully, some authors are putting pressure on Amazon to fix this loophole.

I was just reading about this TikToc trend that's apparently hurting authors on Amazon: https://www.boredpanda.com/returning-...

(I wasn't sure where to post it)

I've just finished the 2nd course in the Wesleyan Creative Writing Specialization on Coursera (The Craft of Character with Amy Bloom). Wow, what a yawn fest :( I had to fight to finish it. So, so different from the 1st course with Brando Skyhorse. Anyway, I'm just now starting the 3rd (The Craft of Setting and Description with Amity Gaige) and this one looks set to be really good!

Is there a thread on GODs already for us to put links and reviews of writing courses?

Tomas wrote: "This is how things look right now, if you don't mind me posting another pic.

I have a whiteboard for my writing needs on the wall opposite my PC, but I'll only get the markers next week, so much ..."

Your room looks great! I'd love to write in there. I have a dream to one day have a dedicated writing space all of my own.

Andres wrote: "I haven't experienced anything like that but i've only taken the one course. I'm wondering if we shouldn't try to build our own step by step format here on GODS on how to write a book. There are se..."

That sounds like a good idea.

I did kind of fix the issue with Coursera. I had to resubmit my assignment 2 times and then I actually got some feedback. I'm going to keep going with these courses but I'm open to doing other things inside or outside GODS, too.

Hi, all. I finished The Craft of Plot with Brando Skyhorse on Coursera and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've just started The Craft of Character and I'm so frustrated with the anonymous spamy (literal spam links) and zero effort reviewers (one word replies) in this course. I've resubmitted my first assignment twice now in the hopes of getting some real feedback.

Has anyone else had this problem on Coursera? I've taken 3 other courses with them and not had this problem.

Andres wrote: "Eleanor,

Are you enjoying 'The craft of the plot' more than 'write your first novel'?"

Yes, But I did enjoy the 'Write Your First Novel' course at the time. It was one of the things that kept me sane through the lock-down - having that goal to keep hitting each week. But I thought that most of his videos were basically motivational - 'keep going...write 500 words a day...you can do it'. I didn't feel like I actually learned anything new from him.

This 'Craft of Plot' with Brando Skyhorse (best name ever!) actually covers techniques, approaches and ideas. It's more like a real course with a tutor. He interviews other writers, too. It's been interesting so far, and the instructions for the peer feedback is more structured. I'm planning to do all the courses in the specialization.

Andres wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm just getting back.

Welcome back Eleanor! I got stuck myself in my recent novel and think I am going to let this one simmer and jump back into my more previous novel that I was wor..."

Thank you.
I'll definitely finish my Coursera novel someday, but at the moment I'm really enjoying these other courses. I'm doing the Craft of Plot one first, and writing short scenes and stories to practices technique and slowly get back into the rhythm of writing.

Hi everyone. Has it really been over a year since I last came here? WOW! I haven't been writing AT ALL recently and I really miss it. However, I've just suffered a bereavement which has thrown everything into perspective and made me realise that there might not be a 'later' for all of us, so if I want to do something, I need to do it NOW. So, I've just enrolled on the Wesleyan University Creative Writing specialization through Coursera to help me get back into it and to brush up on the basics a bit more. I WILL go back to the Write Your First Novel course eventually, but I'm more excited about this specialization for the time being.

Hope you are all well. Looking forward to getting back into the community! :)

Andres wrote: "Wow congrats on chapter 19. At 20 the course finishes, do you feel your going to wrap everything up next chapter or will you continue writing?"

Hi. Thanks! My original plan had the story ending at chapter 20, but then I added some other details and the subplot with the old aunt, so now I'm not even sure HOW it ends, never mind WHEN. They were supposed to have a frantic dash around the ship in the last 2 chapters, and then it would finish with them safely on their way back to Earth. But now I don't even know if I'm sending them back! I guess I'm about 1 chapter behind my original breakdown, so I'll probably need to write a chapter 21 (at least).

Chapter 19: https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Thanks, guys :)