Hi everyone.

[John Hunt]

Hi all, very pleased to be here. I'm currently finishing the Curtis Brown course 'Writing YA and Children's Fiction' with the BRILLIANT Catherine Johnson, and massively panicking as I won't have access to her telling me - without pulling any punches - exactly where I am going wrong! Nor will I have the forum of other aspiring writers on that course, who have been extremely supportive to each other. I'll miss it. Looking forward to Litopia which I came across whilst looking for info on Maal Peet, which took me to Redhammer and links to Litopia.

I like writing about sport. Maal said about writing about football: "I used to play all the time. I would play football when it was light and read when it was dark. Now I play football vicariously". I love that quote and that's exactly how I see it. I'm not writing about football, but I aspire to the technical knowledge and authenticity of Maal's writing.

Looking forward to contributing.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hello

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Hi all, very pleased to be here. I'm currently finishing the Curtis Brown course 'Writing YA and Children's Fiction' with the BRILLIANT Catherine Johnson, and massively panicking as I won't have access to her telling me - without pulling any punches - exactly where I am going wrong! Nor will I have the forum of other aspiring writers on that course, who have been extremely supportive to each other. I'll miss it. Looking forward to Litopia which I came across whilst looking for info on Maal Peet, which took me to Redhammer and links to Litopia.

I like writing about sport. Maal said about writing about football: "I used to play all the time. I would play football when it was light and read when it was dark. Now I play football vicariously". I love that quote and that's exactly how I see it. I'm not writing about football, but I aspire to the technical knowledge and authenticity of Maal's writing.

Looking forward to contributing.

Welcome. I'd love to hear your views on the Curtis Brown course (sounds already as if you valued it). Everyone seems to be very helpful and supportive here, so you might not miss Catherine Johnson after all

 

[John Hunt]

Hi Rachel, great to be part of Litopia. Thanks for the support in advance! I have really enjoyed the Curtis Brown course, it's been excellent. Basically, you send in a submission and then are selected for the course. Of course I cannot say for sure how many people apply or what that selective process means, but I was very pleased to have been accepted. Each week there is a topic, led by Catherine, with video. This topic has writing exercises. You then comment on three 3000 word submissions from your fellow students. This is good because you have to mark up their manuscript and supply detailed comments. In doing so you start to see the mistakes that are universal. You have two submissions reviewed in this way and receive a detailed document of feedback. You also get two video tutorials with Catherine, which I found very helpful. This is the final week and we are writing submission letters which will get feedback from the CB team.

I think the course has really sharpened things up for me. I haven't finished the story I have been writing, and inevitably the feedback means you revisit and refine the stuff you have already done. So far I have dumped or rewritten 15 thousand (ish) words. so it's kind of like taking a step back to go forward. Please do ask any specific questions if you have them, I'd be pleased to try to give an answer.

Overall I would say that if you haven't done any sort of writing course before this would be excellent, the flexibility of the on-line delivery has really worked for me. Even if you have done a course, the interactivity and process of review could still be most helpful.

 

[Rich.]

Hi John, welcome to the Colony! I'm sure you'll find this an excellent place for finding critique partners and generally chewing the writers' fat.

 

[John Hunt]

Hi John, welcome to the Colony! I'm sure you'll find this an excellent place for finding critique partners and generally chewing the writers' fat.

Thanks Rich!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Welcome to the Colony, John.

 

[Carol Rose]

Welcome!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Welcome to the colony!

 

[Lex Black]

Welcome to the Colony!

 

[Island Writer]

Hi John - welcome aboard!

You'll find you are in good company here as there are a number of us who write MG/YA. What is your book about? Is your MC football mad, girl or boy?

 

[Louise]

Welcome John! I know nothing at all about football but I hereby volunteer to be your reader if you ever want a 'knows nothing about football' test reader.

 

[MaryA]

Welcome, John!

 

[Matthew Snoding]

Hello John. Welcome. I like football, but support Arsenal, so I'm trying to avoid the whole subject at the moment . . .

 

[John Hunt]

Thanks all. Nice to meet you all. Sorry for giving you the wrong impression, I'm not writing about football, and as a West Ham fan, I'd have nothing constructive to say about it anyway...!
The story is actually about motocross...!
I just really like the way Maal Peet knows football, when he writes about it he knows how it works, how the game flows, the technical side of it. I played football all my life (until forced out with recurring knee injury) so now I coach and ref. So I appreciate that knowledge and authenticity in his writing. My story is about Jake, a 14 year old boy obsessed with motocross. I'd like to be really accurate about motocross, like Maal was about football.

 

[Howard]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've sometimes thought that Curtis Anderson would be a great name for a sinister spy, owing to the sibilant alliteration. It's certainly more threatening a name than 007's..."Hi, I'm Anderssson, Curtisss Anderssson" That would be like shaking hands with an anaconda—I'd run a mile!

 

[AgentPete]

Hi John, good to have you here. P.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I've sometimes thought that Curtis Anderson would be a great name for a sinister spy, owing to the sibilant alliteration. It's certainly more threatening a name than 007's..."Hi, I'm Anderssson, Curtisss Anderssson" That would be like shaking hands with an anaconda—I'd run a mile!

Similar to Clovis Andersen of N° 1 Ladies Detective Agency fame.

 

[Marc Joan]

Welcome!

 

[Louise]

Thanks all. Nice to meet you all. Sorry for giving you the wrong impression, I'm not writing about football, and as a West Ham fan, I'd have nothing constructive to say about it anyway...!
The story is actually about motocross...!
I just really like the way Maal Peet knows football, when he writes about it he knows how it works, how the game flows, the technical side of it. I played football all my life (until forced out with recurring knee injury) so now I coach and ref. So I appreciate that knowledge and authenticity in his writing. My story is about Jake, a 14 year old boy obsessed with motocross. I'd like to be really accurate about motocross, like Maal was about football.

I would love to say I'm good on motocross but ... erm ... still, the offer still stands if you need an ignorant test reader!

 

[John Hunt]

I would love to say I'm good on motocross but ... erm ... still, the offer still stands if you need an ignorant test reader!

Many thanks Louise...That would be great!