Parody

[Richard]

You might like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eo9M4-BrJA

[seahermit]

I finally got round to watching the video, wasn't carried away to be honest!

But I scrolled down through YouTube, came across a video of the first Riverdance performance (at Eurovision) and spent a thoroughly enjoyable time exploring Irish step-dancing videos and Google articles on same.

Thank you, Richard!! Lots of fascinating stuff on YouTube for lockdown refugees.

[Richard]

I don't see how Riverdance compares to a parody of Bohemian Rhapsody.
But it's good to have you around seahermit, instead of the alternative, even if the edge of the cliff is approaching fast, despite Covid and all that jazz.
Wild women being another matter altogether!

[seahermit]

No, there isn't much comparison, sorry! But the fact is that YouTube has it's merits, lot of interesting historical stuff on there, music, some great films.

I think that, after Covid, the encroaching cliffs (or sea) will be our next worry. We'll know in the next twenty years in which way humanity is going to meet it's demise. The odds are not good, I think.

Not sure about the relevance of wild women, although I suppose there is always a place for them - if you can find 'em.

Back to music etc., I have found the lockdown and the disappearance of cultural activity quite hard, but atleast the extra time has led me to a grand sort-out of all my writing (thirty years of it!) and also my photos. Taken a lot of the latter in and around Hastings, so I am again looking for useful things to do with all my stuff - any ideas would be welcome! More on that later maybe, I know there are one or two small publishing concerns in Hastings, not sure how active they are at present.

[Richard]

Writers' and Artists': Writers' & artists' yearbook 2018: the essential guide, is available for under £4 on ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Writers-arti ... %3A2334524

[seahermit]

Yes, got that one on my shelf, thanks. One of the obvious roads maybe but totally new territory for me! It's like sticking a pin in somewhere .. and just as I'm ready to really give it a try, the lockdown has severed all my usual sources of contact and advice. We still rely quite a lot on physical contact, exchange of ideas etc.

There are some very good little books published locally - about Hastings, the history, local people. But they seem to end up as just a few copies in Hastings bookshops. I'm trying to be atleast a bit more ambitious!

Well, I have had a couple of encouraging remarks from as far away as the USA - people who stumbled across the little website I am trying to put together. So there's a market out there somewhere ..

This is how I am getting through the lockdown - you have to keep busy with your obsessions.

[Richard]

That 'Writers' & artists' yearbook' has been very useful for a friend trying to sell a book.
I am not sure, seahermit, whether you are trying to sell or just get a readership.
Either approach is valid.
Advertising costs but is effective.
If you have a website with a shopping cart then you need to attract some 'victims' and, of course, a supply of material in a format (books, pamphlets) which can be posted, postal rates vary accordingly and by country.
Attracting victims and getting them to bite is a positive experience!

[seahermit]

I have, to some extent, a readership - some of my writing still appears on websites at times and I am looking to greatly expand that. Not sure about proper blogging - it becomes an end in itself for some writers but I haven't the time!

I am doing a lot of groundwork towards hopefully publishing later. If that happens, most writers seem to prefer the convenience of a publishing/selfpublishing concern or Amazon for distribution. I am quite good at the business issues actually but they bore me, I would rather spend my time on writing and of course you cannot ignore promotion.

That's the problem with publishing. There is a mass of info to absorb and many pitfalls/scams if you don't do your homework!

[Richard]

You are inviting people into a world, your world, your story, offering an interpretation that pleases.
Perhaps something quite ordinary, but structured in such a way that makes for compelling reading.
A unique view in your mind's eye, unfolding in a creative manner, that shows how you are in control of a 'composition' and enjoying the ride.
Skillfully weaving strands of experiences inside an overall theme.

Many authors bring several characters into play in a work of fiction, Ruth Rendell and her book 'Portobello' is but one example.
Here Ruth weaves several stories that are connected but, at the point of climax, allows some to peter out, failing to satisfy the reader's curiosity and spends too much time 'padding out' the story by banging on about an addiction to a small sweet in one of the main characters.
People with various issues are brought together, by happenstance, in a small area of London and, even though many of them are undoubtedly interesting, the whole work seems as if it was finished off too hurriedly.
I haven't read any of Ruth Rendell's other works, no doubt many are very interesting.

[seahermit]

The only writer I can immediately think of who very successfully inserted numerous characters into his stories is Dickens - but then he was a master and also used a completely different form of writing to modern styles.

But many modern writers create various characters in a book and often it doesn't work well. Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor is a great story but flawed - lengthy digressions into the schoolboy sub-plot which in my opinion weaken the overall pace and structure. But simple, well-written plots about largely a single character can be very powerful - e.g. Camus' The Outsider, Robinson Crusoe (!), some of Simenon's psychological thrillers. It's the quality of writing which matters.

Getting back to parody for a moment, I have done several satirical articles and parody-poems, quite sharp and biting at times but they were easy to write and worked well. Some writers seem to do their best stuff when they are being bitchy!