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Posts:231
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| 02-05-2012 9:23 AM |
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Hi all,
What's your PB word count in a one hour Race? Mine's 480 words (paltry, I know). Think you can beat it? Join us tonight at the Writers Races and prove it!
It starts at 7.50pm AEST. Come along and share your goals, then write, write, write. Remember to join us at half-time for your Quoteraides (inspirational quotes), then it's full steam ahead to the finish time. At 9pm join us again to share what you've written (if you want).
Remember to use the "quick reply" button to add your comments. |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 7:23 PM |
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Hi all,
Welcome tonight. Just a quick disclaimer, my internet is being particularly craptastic tonight. So, if I take a while to reply or seem to have disappeared, I'm not ignoring you, I'm trying to reconnect. (Or I could be exploding from all the dinner I ate).
When you jump on, feel free to share your goals or what you're working on tonight.
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Jo
Posts:19
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| 02-05-2012 7:49 PM |
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Hi,
First timer here and with my mum - we missed out last week but have huddled together in the south!
I'm totally stuck in writer's block - we're only just deciding what we will each be doing tonight.
I'm going to aim for 300 words second person narration. Not sure how that will go, but that's the idea of trying to break the block I guess!
So Hi, thanks for having us :) |
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Shirl
Posts:11
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| 02-05-2012 7:51 PM |
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Hi everyone. This is my first foray into your writing excersise. Wish me luck.
This is a kick start back into writing after a layoff of several years.So here goes.
My goal is a 300 word creative response to a comical graphical depiction of WInter.
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 7:52 PM |
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Hi Jo (and Jo's mum),
Great to meet you, glad you got to join us this week. Hopefully just dedicating an hour to write will help with your block. |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 7:53 PM |
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Hi Shirl,
Great to meet you too. Good luck to you too. |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 8:00 PM |
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| Ok, I guess we're off to a start. See you at 8.30 for half-time. |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 8:29 PM |
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Alrighty, time for some half-time Qutoeraides (inspirational quotes that'll fire your fingers like Gatorade and keep you typing till the finish line).
“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at 9 am every morning.” – Peter DeVries
So much of writing is just sticking with it and keeping motivated. Glad you’re all here doing just that!
“Ever tried and failed? No matter. Try again and fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
Each time you write and make a mistake you learn something. Embrace failure (and not in a depressing way).
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Jo
Posts:19
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| 02-05-2012 8:42 PM |
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Thanks Mandi and thanks for the welcome and the half time inspiration!
My mum is Shirl :) |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 8:50 PM |
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Hi Jo,
Yeah, I realized that after I posted. Too late by then :-P. Glad you like the Quoteraides. Good luck getting to 300 words! Not long now. |
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Jo
Posts:19
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| 02-05-2012 9:00 PM |
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I'd love to be inspired at 9 am, but am more of a late afternoon & evening person. I need to find a morning muse perhaps.
I've exceeded my goal - but think I've started something that will be a much longer piece, so at least it gives me something to come back to. Yay for that!! |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:02 PM |
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| Yeah, I'm a midday person - which is just weird. Glad to hear you exceeded your goal - block broken! Feel like sharing anything? No pressure if you don't. |
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:06 PM |
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| How about you Shirl? How did you go? Reach the 300-word mark? |
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Jo
Posts:19
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| 02-05-2012 9:10 PM |
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Yes, happy to share:
My Own Private Dystopia
You look at things in slow motion, like really slow, like frame by frame until you feel that your mind has actually ground to a halt. Is that possible, can a person stagnate in life so much that they’re almost incapable of registering activity? Yeah, well it happens and you’re none too pleased as the TV flashes imagines that imprint on your retina in full colour yet without sound, you’re sure you turned the volume on, but was that yesterday or last night or today, how can you be sure? It’s all become one long day that rolls from preacher to prostitute, from rapper to rapist, from muppet to madness and you’ve yet to change the channel. Your head feels heavy, hard to lift, maybe like one of those women, the tribal ones with the neck rings, your neck rings are gone and at any second your head will come crashing down and smash spectacularly into the couch arm, but without sound of course, someone may hear it but it sure as hell won’t be you, you’re too busy swimming through molasses to get to a single thought. It just might be possible that a doctor could be a wise call, but you’ve never made a wise call in your life so why start something new now, you may not exist tomorrow anyhow, drowned in molasses, you feel a thought forming, the labour of birthing it makes you feel even worse, yet you welcome it. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Crap, that thought was stillborn, but it never had a change with you did it? Chaos happens, oh God don’t think about the chaos, a bad habit, you’ll grow out of it one day or not, no tomorrow, maybe, don’t worry, you think, don’t worry.
You roll your head to one side and retch with such force you believe you’ve discovered a new way to give birth, well maybe to an alien, and sideways. You keep it up for a good five minutes, or for five seconds, time has ceased to have relevance to you. Thorough your blurry vision, kind of one and half, not quite double, you see the empty pills bottle on the floor, you smell the alcohol that you just evicted from your system and it mingles with the smell from the bottle next to you, and you retch again. You feel full of violence, in your breathing, slight movements, all violent, like you’ve passed out on the roughest street in the county not your lounge room. Privacy doesn’t equate to dignity you conclude. Flailing one arm about you grip a bottle of water, empty, what now. You have to move. There is no choice but to get that head of yours up in the air and move somehow, crawl, yeah crawl, to the kitchen and take whatever liquid is left there. The dystopian nature of your world is beginning to lose its novelty, there’s no longer anything of the angst you started with, or the rebellion you believed in, don’t worry, you think, don’t worry.
The kitchen tap is too high for your head and the fridge has been stripped so many times it could retire in Kings Cross.
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Shirl
Posts:11
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| 02-05-2012 9:11 PM |
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Did get well past the 300 but was slow with the typing and learning new skills on Internet.
Winter
What a huge chuckle it was for me today to find a comical cartoon depicting a small ant wearing socks on it's antennae. On a cold winter's day it was a tonic to the soul and warmed the cockles of my heart. Anything humorous anytime is a given with me but this ant wearing antenna socks made my day and as I chuckled on an on I forgot how cold the media morsel I say thank you. Not that I'm an ant eater just an appreciative reader who does enjoy the lighter side of life. Mostly the media depicts the sordid side of things which tends to put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day , so hallelujah Ant!
Winter with all of it's icy bits does have it's warm sides like hot showers and electric blankets. Not forgetting soups of every sort and roast dinners and hot chocolate drinks, the list goes on.
Layers of clothing and fur lined boots are a boom in winter, phew I'm on fire now just thinking about the warmth they bring.
My cheery cartoon and I say pfft to winter. Someone bring me a mint Juliep please!!
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:15 PM |
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Hi Jo,
Thanks for sharing. You had some really nice sentences in there.
My two favourite were:
"It’s all become one long day that rolls from preacher to prostitute, from rapper to rapist, from muppet to madness and you’ve yet to change the channel" I like the alliteration of the p's, r's, and m's. It keeps the pace moving but also gives a real sense of how fractured the character feels.
"too busy swimming through molasses to get to a single thought" I like the word molasses - it feels great in your mouth when you say it aloud. And that sense of trying to push through the inertia is great.
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:20 PM |
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Thanks for sharing as well Shirl.
I love how you mention the great comfort food that everyone loves to eat in winter. . . makes me hungry just reading it!
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:22 PM |
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Well ladies, I'm going to turn in for the night. Thanks for coming along - I hope it motivated you to write, that's what it's all about.
Hope to see you next week. We've got a special guest Christine Bongers coming along. So don't miss it.
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Mandi
Posts:165
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| 02-05-2012 9:23 PM |
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Well ladies, I'm going to turn in for the night. Thanks for coming along - I hope it motivated you to write, that's what it's all about.
Hope to see you next week. We've got a special guest Christine Bongers coming along. So don't miss it.
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Jo
Posts:19
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| 02-05-2012 9:25 PM |
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| Thanks for the feedback Mandi, we shall try to do it again soon :) Really enjoyed us both breaking the dry spell! |
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