Comments for The Incompetent Writer http://incompetentwriter.com Modern fiction, it's often said, is merely competent. Here's to some "incompetent" fiction. Fri, 17 May 2013 19:11:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day three by Daniel http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/15/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-three/#comment-4049 Fri, 17 May 2013 19:11:27 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2600#comment-4049 Jenn, this is a fun vignette–and it was hard for me to remember, while reading, that you were only using one-syllable words. Impressive. I wonder if Dan could do something more boring, unpleasant, to justify Sam’s dislike. Or if Sam could begin the passage more into Dan, thinking he was great.

“Sam flicked her red hair out of her face and stole a glance at Dan. He was cute. But now she was pissed off, as his eyes were far off. He looked at the clock, then at the bar’s front door. Sam liked him, but she could not stand rude men, not since her ex…”

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day three by Daniel http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/15/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-three/#comment-4048 Fri, 17 May 2013 19:04:19 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2600#comment-4048 I’m glad this piece ended sunnily! Good stuff.

A suggestion: I suspect you need one more sentence near the beginning, to explain a bit more the conflict going on inside the character. “The thin girl stalks her head” is powerful but not immediately obvious as the key to her problems–is there a more prosaic, real world sentence that could clue the reader in (on first, rather than on second, reading)?

Thanks for trying this exercise out.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day four by Daniel http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/16/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-four/#comment-4047 Fri, 17 May 2013 19:00:19 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2603#comment-4047 Jenn: this is a very good start for a story. I wonder if the SE Asia setting and the skype conversation can interact in some way. Perhaps she sees something during the day that she only understands later, while yelling at her sister…

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing: day one by Daniel http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/13/seven-days-to-get-writing-day-one/#comment-4046 Fri, 17 May 2013 18:58:17 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2586#comment-4046 mulligrubs: these are really good. It took me a couple of readings to realise you’ve told a continuous story here. I particularly like the falling minor key that ends the final sentence.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day four by jenn http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/16/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-four/#comment-4044 Fri, 17 May 2013 02:44:07 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2603#comment-4044 Liza is a human resources manager in Chicago who thinks that all she wants is to just get pregnant already, then she’ll be happier. But really, in order to get over the depression she has been in, she needs work out who she is as a person, whether or not there are children in her future. She feels so lonely, and travels to Southeast Asia to “find herself”. While there, a “fight by skype” with her older sister makers Liza realise that she has been selfish, putting so much effort into her non-existent mother-child relationship at the expense of the great relationships she already has.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing: day one by themulligrubs http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/13/seven-days-to-get-writing-day-one/#comment-4043 Thu, 16 May 2013 19:34:56 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2586#comment-4043 1. The man named Charlie wears a three-day-gone shirt that droops in the heat.
2. He stands in a doorway, squinting westward, trying to divine meaning from distant puffs of dust.
3. The very hot sun of the Southwest has aged his skin beyond his thirty two years, and the only good to come of it is creases of humor around his eyes.
4. For the moment, his expression shows no humor at all, for the hour of his wife’s arrival has come and gone these five hours past.
5. Worried, weary, and beaten Charlie turns toward the house.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day three by Sylvia Schwartz http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/15/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-three/#comment-4042 Thu, 16 May 2013 16:35:34 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2600#comment-4042 Exercise Three (thought it might be fun to create the arch of disappointment at the head of the piece meeting a happier resolution at the end, after all it’s sunny out today):

Oh dear me! she writes. No! No! No! she writes. Red beets, good. Check. White bread, bad. Check. The thin girl stalks her head. Then she thinks. The heart, the soul, how are they to be fed? She draws a line. It curves. Swells. Jumps out of form. Then she writes: oh, my dear, yes. And puts the pen back down.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day three by Ramesh G http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/15/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-three/#comment-4041 Thu, 16 May 2013 15:32:34 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2600#comment-4041 Dear Daniel,

Sorry for troubling you over the mail. I have already sent two exercises. This the third one. If you are free you may comment. As you said I found this tough. But I enjoyed doing it.

thanks much

Ramesh * * * Tom’s hurt (Third exercise) * * * * * *Her blood boils when she thinks of Tom, her boss. He told her that she was dull in front of all. His words still ring in her ears and hurt her. Tom is numb and does not care for her pain. But things changed soon. Tom fell from stairs one day and limped. She was cool. And this hurt him much and made him see what he did to her. He felt sorry for her and said so. *

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day two by Daniel http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/14/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-two/#comment-4040 Thu, 16 May 2013 13:25:02 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2593#comment-4040 :) I was imagining some local interior design custom.

]]> Comment on Seven days to get writing again: day two by Sylvia Schwartz http://incompetentwriter.com/2013/05/14/seven-days-to-get-writing-again-day-two/#comment-4039 Thu, 16 May 2013 13:17:21 +0000 https://danielwa11ace.wordpress.com/?p=2593#comment-4039 No stupid questions. It should have been “where china doll eyes stared wide.”

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