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Marlowe and Christie Writers
273 members • Free
11 contributions to Marlowe and Christie Writers
29d •
Behind the Scenes
Just to let you know where we are with the contest. We don’t like reading on a screen, so we send the entries off to a printer and get them back in big ring-bound booklets. Then we annotate, produce feedback for those who have requested it and work out who will be commended or long-listed. Good luck all!
1 like • 28d
@Tami Winbush I do that too! Except without the fancy binding. I print two pages to a page (to save paper, plus it looks like a book). It’s so much easier editing on paper first—especially if you change your mind about something, then it’s never lost. For major initial edits, I even cut paragraphs up to play with the order. It’s so interesting hearing other people’s processes 🙂
0 likes • 28d
Thanks for sharing, Issy! That’s a great way to do it so every judge has their own copy they can bookmark and write comments on. I’m so glad that’s not my entry in your photo! 😅
1 like • 28d
@Soom Bard phew! that’s a lot of information in a single sentence! Some gorgeous imagery though which I think could shine even brighter with a bit of sentence hacking 😅
1 like • 28d
@Matthew Fothergill I love the imagery here, how you use the wave as a metaphore for her crashing decision. I think it might read better if the paragraphs are swapped around, as they feel like they’re in the wrong order… 🤔 I’m thinking: A darkening wave rose and tilted light along the harbour wall, hitting the stone offbeat, as though it already knew. It answered before Ellie decided—then faltered, as if unsure it should have. She hadn’t realised she’d stopped breathing.
Dec '25 •
Opening Para (bookclub fiction)
There’s a faint knock. The door opens before I can answer—not that I could. The words are there, they just won’t come out. A woman steps in, long dark hair pulled back, movements deliberate. No white coat, no stethoscope. A slim folder tucked under one arm, hospital badge catching the glare of fluorescent light. “Good morning, James.” Her voice is low, rounded by an accent. “I’m Doctor Bhatia, clinical psychologist here at St. Thomas’s. I’d like to sit with you for a while, talk about how you’re feeling. Would that be alright?” I nod—a reflex, not an answer.
0 likes • Jan 7
@Thomas Gabb thanks for clarifying! That’s interesting to know. The woman visiting James is a clinical psychologist come to assess him. James’s “no white coat, no stethoscope” observation is to suggest that, up until then, he’d only been visited by doctors assessing his physical recovery, so this woman is different. Also, he is very used to hospitals so knows the protocol. Would “no scrubs, no stethoscope” sound too contrived, or how about simply “no stethoscope”…. Or like you suggest, scrap it altogether?!
1 like • Jan 7
@Lorna Riley thanks Lorna. It’s good to know you’re already concerned for him as that’s the intention!
Jan 5 •
On Clarity
Clarity is so important, and often where good pieces go wrong. But over-explaining is a problem. How do you balance the two?
1 like • Jan 6
@Kathryn Brown thanks for the top tip! I always read my work out loud, change the font, print it out… but you can never remove yourself enough. I’ll give that function a go 👍🏻
Jan 5 •
Wordcount discrepancies
Hi all. I was going to post this on Dalia’s thread about the competition word count, but thought I’d generally throw it out there… when trying to reduce my word count for the comp, I discovered a 40-word word count difference between MS Word and Google Docs on the exact same text. The Google Doc version counted 40 words less. I could not work out how! @Issy McCann I’m interested to know if comp organisers are aware of this? 🤔
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