The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Lesley Silvester on April 23, 2014, 02:54:50 pm
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I am about to start another free online course through Future Learn. It's at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction) if anyone wants to join me.
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That looks great, unfortunately our internet connection isn't fast enough for anything involving video.
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Ditto Mowhaugh, I can't even watch a YouTube piece of a minute or less on my old laptop now..
As I'm currently near completion of my second novel, at which point I intend to go back and complete/edit/rewrite chunks of the first, it would be either really useful or totally offputting, not sure which, to study how I should have been doing it! But I'd take any handy hints you glean from your studies :) Just no clips!
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I'd love to have a go at a novel, but don't have the time for a course at the mo, may be next time you do one?
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I wouldn't worry too much about the videos as they always have a transcript (which I save for future reference) so you can just read what has been said.
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I'm very tempted - not sure if I have the time at present. How have you found them & are they actually 100% free with no hidden extras? x
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i might try this one. i do find net based courses a bit tricky as i like to have the book in my hand to read it. i do have 2 on the go just now, just need some discipline to get started.
i tend to get sore eyes looking at a screen for too long. maybe they have de-glare filters or something? iv no idea.
but yes, id love to try this one.
2nd novel ellied? is your 1st one published? :thumbsup:
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Shropshirelass, you can pay for a certificate to say you've done the course if you want but otherwise there is nothing to pay.
Shygirl, if you print off the transcript you can hold it and read it.
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i might try this one. i do find net based courses a bit tricky as i like to have the book in my hand to read it. i do have 2 on the go just now, just need some discipline to get started.
i tend to get sore eyes looking at a screen for too long. maybe they have de-glare filters or something? iv no idea.
but yes, id love to try this one.
2nd novel ellied? is your 1st one published? :thumbsup:
No, I haven't attempted that part as writing a novel was a lifelong ambition just for me and it had never happened until last year. The second is based in the same little world that is just my own, full of my imaginary friends and a place to go to alone for the most part.
I am waiting for the frame of mind that Stephen King wrote about in "On Writing" that you change from "my baby" that you're protective of, to "my work for publication" which you're prepared to do over within a framework that a publisher and reading audience will approve of, like, pay for and admire you for creating. He said a first draft manuscript should be left at least 6 months in a drawer, untouched while you do other things, before you even try to go do a first edit to submit. Sending it without that reduces your chances of being accepted for publication, and your ability to cope with the inevitable setbacks and changes along the way. Definitely not there yet!
The retrofit of book one will impact on two and any further ones I write, so I ought to be getting back to it when I finish the second story so things like continuity and back stories don't clash. There is a lot of character interaction in them but not enough plot, action etc for a commercial success, so I also have to decide whether to make it into a mainstream read or a niche interest and then find a mindset to do that and put it out there for judgement and critique. I struggle with all that so have signed up for the course to get used to the "being read" part of it. And while it says the focus is on character and I think that is the part I have, there will no doubt be a lot to learn about dialogue and pace and such and it maybe that knowing my characters and explaining them aren't the same thing once someone looks at it cold and has to find them in my words :/
So anyway, I'll be there tomorrow, after the hospital and somewhere in among the hay delivery, coop cleaning and feed routines ;)
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Good luck with it, everyone. If anyone is interested there is also a Writers' Cafe group on Facebook.