originally posted by Myranda Rose
I didn't vote for a sneak peak…
I'm tring to be a good girl (its not easy these days 
) and wait to read the whole book in its entirity. Now this does mean that come the release date I'll be a quivering wreck… and the wait for the next three books will be like waiting for exams to end (I swear the never really do).
originally posted by Wendy Collett
I vote for Dakar and Fionn, echoing the request for any and all peaks you care to share! 
originally posted by Arend
Progress graph - gonna bust that chart.
You can find out here: (link removed). Now Updated! I can barely keep up with Janny 
originally posted by skeoke
Sneak peak? Sneak peak? Yes, please! I'll take any! I'm sure that any you deem tempting will be more than wonderful - and leave me eating my hat with dis-proven assumptions and piles of new assumptions!
Thank you!
originally posted by neil
Sneak peak? Sneak peak?
I've done a quick search (last 3 weeks…author wurts) and not found the sneak peak choices?
If we're not voting for Dakar and Fionn, what was the other choice?
originally posted by Technetus
The chart's starting to resemble a cross-section of Rockfell.
originally posted by Konran
Y'know what? I think that to distract ourselves from the wait for Stormed Fortress, and also to get things together in our heads a little better, we should make a wiki page like Wikipedia for WoLaS. We could even name it WikiParavia… It would be a neat resource for when one of us forgets Kamridian s'Ffalenn's name or something, and maybe also handy for Janny so she doesn't have to go digging through her file folders to look something up *teases*. Of course we wouldn't put in anything copyrighted like the appendix stuff from TK (unless we got permission) but just our own observations, like who's who, where they're from, what happened to them, etc. I think it would be totally fun and let us keep our heads in the world without freaking out over Stormed Fortress… maybe even bring some new theories to light with review of the facts.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to set one of these things up… but I bet the gryphon might… *dangles mutton*
originally posted by Trys
The gryphon has no experience with Wikipedia other than occasionally being pointed there by a Google search. However, to get a listing at Wikipedia would be great…
I will say that there is much information of this sort on the webpage AND there is a search feature that will bring up a list of links where the searched for word or phrase can be found.
As to a searchable dictionary, that could be interesting.
originally posted by Blue
Ooh, searchable dictionary… sounds like fun!
What say thee, Janny?
Status, Stormed Fortress - manuscript page count 802, with chapter 12's main sequence into full draft.
Har, how's that to kick off your weekend!
originally posted by Theresa
Janny - I think that's a quite fine start to the weekend.
Now I shall go crawl back under my rock…
originally posted by Trys
Teresa, I see I need to find a way to get of that rock so that you can contribute here more.
originally posted by Fanatic
Go on Munster, my weekends getting better and better
originally posted by Maddie
Janny
Any chance of a sneak peak please, Fionn and Dakar would be great or anything you wish. Can't wait for sf.
Also a question that really bugs me, why is it that authors start sentences with and or use commas before and? As I understood it and was more like a pause so never needed a comma and defintely never to use it to start a sentence. It is the same with but. I had been taught this is really bad English. This is directed to all authors just wondered if you could help. I never studied the English Language at a higher level except from G.C.S.E's at school.
Maddie -
Over the course of years, "rules" of grammar change - what was considered good style years ago is considered bad style now…some "hard fast rules" like no comma after the last of a list, with 'and' seem to change arbitrarily according to copyeditors doings…or younger set editors, or something.
Also, "writer's workshopitis" who take sweeping statements meant as guidelines for "beginner writers" to keep them on track until they understand their craft get coopted and turned into "rules" of "bad/good writing" from whence the original intent got trashed or forgotten.
Commas right now are "out of fashion" and to my mind, sometimes, this is to the detriment of the readability of a complex sentence. As I have a somewhat complex style, keeping the ideas segmented for readability is paramount. But "simple" is "in" and too often, commas that are out of fashion for "simple third grade level reading style" (of our national magazines standard) - where in a simple style, too many commas would be cumbersome - the same "fashion" gets applied to more complex work, to the detriment of understandability.
I do hate guidelines that make sense being turned into "RULES" or LAWS that do harm to us - actually hamper what is the right thing to do…both in governments and in grammar, this is one peeve of mine.
I think that's the point I tried to make in a recent novel - that doing "rules" without thinking is basically suicidal to the survival and wellbeing of the human race as a whole.
I suppose that comma or not should be a thoughtful choice not a hardfast line in the sand. If the comma makes the text work better, go for it, if it segments two concepts that need to be discreet - but if it interrupts a contiguous concept, junk it.
Wurts' rule of thumb, for what it's worth…
originally posted by Myranda Rose
I'm with Janny on this one… while we're taught the correct rules of the english language at school we're also given a great look into the evolution of the same language by studying shakespear (I'd bet that you all did study shakespear).
Queens English was the best selection from near 500 dialects in England at the time, which is why so many spelling "rules" have "exceptions". It was not meant as a set of laws that anyone disobeying them would be hung, drawn and quartered, but to help us understand each other.
If an author wants to use long sentances that are "too long" for good english and then make it flow and read better with a comma or two then good for them. The next Author will will probably do something else thats not within the "rules" When I was younger than I am now I read a book by Ian Watson, read brilliantly and generated brilliant mental images - but I had to stop every 5 minutes to look up a work that even after nearly twice as much living in the world I've still never heard or read elsewhere.
There is also the question of what sells… Dan Brown wrote 4 books with incredibly predictable plots, trashy dialect an art history lectures yet he's sold millions and millions of copies - I have 3 of his books and couldn't put them down, no matter how trashy they are. Lord of the Rings is another… one book so big that it had to be split into three volumes - more of that book is long winded padding than there is story long sentances that are grammatically perfect but hard to read. (Also he got a spelling wrong, plural of Dwarf is Dwarfs, but he used Dwarves - many litterary mistakes have become the standard spelling now).
I think if anyone is looking at a book and saying "that's spelt wrong" or "that's not grammatically correct" is missing the point - or the story doesn't speak to them and they're bored enough to be looking for it.
Ok - I caved to the begging. You have that preview posted…enjoy!!
originally posted by Geoffrey Andrew Elliott
Hi All,
I'm feeling like a bit of a dill, but, er, where is it posted?
originally posted by Geoffrey Andrew Elliott
Now I'm really feeling like a dill! Don't worry I found it. : )
Another subchapter in draft…and on we go, into the wrapup of 12 set…another bit closer.