Writing Workshop Group - TOEGTW Discussion: Please Read First Post

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.
 
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.
 
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 :eek:
 
:D I agree completely; they add strength and character to your writing; hopefully people will think you know what you're doing!
 
I've just posted up my exercises for ch19.

I must say I found this chapter extremely interesting. I've never really understood the difference between well and badly constructed sentences. By that I mean that whilst I can certainly tell when I read a really good or bad one, how to turn one into the other has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Likewise, I occasionally feel I have constructed a really good sentence but I don't really know how!

This chapter, by giving me at least a first step towards that understanding, has, I think, been my favourite so far. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this part of the book :).
 
Quite. The sound of tumbleweed bowling along a dusty street springs to mind.

However, I got a lot of value out of this book so I've decided to continue. I'm going to go through chapters 19-23, then 30 & 31, one chapter a week which should have that lot complete by 3rd August. I'm not sure about the other chapters. Also not sure if I'm going to do the exercises, but will do some kind of summary for my own benefit, and I will post that in the exercise section.
 
Yay someone's still going then.

I too feel I have got a lot out of this book. Though I am going to have to get a book specifically on Creative writing. Building characters, building motivation, action etc.

I am still working though TOEGTW but rather more slowly without the discipline of doing this workshop. I have read up to ch 22 but I am planning to work through all the remaining chapters. I am more than happy to discuss the chapter contents but you will find chs 20-23 don't seem to have any exercises in them.
 
I found it didn't really give what I needed. It was useful for the technical stuff and made me think about it, but I needed things like pov and how to get close. Heck, I just needed it to write me the perfect novel. I stopped about chapter 20 but am using it as a useful reference guide, so glad I got it!
 
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