Judith Leask | Fiction Editor

Whatever you need to tell yourself to stay loyal to the most catastrophically unpopular PM pretty much ever, including Liz Truss. To justify losing an uber-safe seat, even for a by-election.

This week I've had a man confidently correct me wrongly several times, and I'm wondering if the English language needs a word for that. To co-wrong someone?
#writingcommunity

It's been three and a half years, and still when I see a sentence such as 'The Queen arrived...' I think, 'From beyond the grave???!!!'

Happy 'Andrew's been arrested' day to all those who celebrate.

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What sparks a story in your head? I've realised different people have different things in their heads before they start writing. For me it's often 'I wonder what it was like living at a time when...' Then I add some characters, and then I might think about writing something down!
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Updating my WIP: I think the story is basically sound, but needs more stakes. And there's one thread that's resolved too easily - it needs another obstacle. I love writing scenes but find plotting harder - getting a second opinion has really helped.
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I've picked up my novella-length WIP again. I don't think it's totally pants (but who knows?) and I'm now drowning in scribbled and disorganised notes. Time to put them down and keep writing. That's the fun part, anyway!
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The relevance of art ❤️

Big lesson for me is seeing how Mandelson being influenced as business secretary while unelected and using a wholly undemocratic setup to implement policy. This is men who believe they have the power to arrange whatever they want, however they want it.

Perfecting your viewpoint Getting your viewpoint right in your fiction is a key element of good writing – and one of the most common things that an editor will comment on.Which character?Getting your viewpoint right involves d...

There's so much in the topic of viewpoint. Do you head-hop? Transition gently between POVs? Use limited? An omniscient narrator with their own voice? Slip into neutral and leave your reader at sea? Go deep, so there's no narrator at all? It's all in here.
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bit.ly/49WKzD9

Do you ever admire an author more for their values and what they say in real life than for their writing? I've just bought Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (what a great title!) because I'd love to love her work more - even though I don't read much science fiction.
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George Monbiot is spot on. Labour's authoritarian pro-business mindset gave us Mandelson and everything he did.

And actually, many are condemning Green policies that would produce better equality - calling them the politics of envy etc - so they don't even agree superficially

They may agree in public because it sounds good, but when put to the test deliver otherwise via half-hearted policies. Only the Greens have policies for really delivering that.

It sounded like a misquote from Laura - the Greens are not JUST for 'the tree-hugging middle class'. Everyone benefits from a more equal society, services that work and caring for the planet.

Let's hear it for the editors 😊
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Unfortunately, it's Starmer's blandness in the face of the country's severe decline that's helping 'what's coming next' along

I saw a piece recently about authoritarian neoliberalism, and that's Starmer's Labour to a T. Resist, resist

It's absolutely right to remember the holocaust, and the many other victims of the Nazis and other genocides. We should know more about other victims by the Nazis, including trans people, and let's recognise, also, that the Greens are the best trans allies in politics right now.

People are amazing 🥹

So ironic if the only time the violence is taken seriously is when it's against a guy with a gun

Succulent jade plant leaves in a circle on a pot of soil with tiny new growth at their bases

Nature is fun. Patience is needed, though! About three months ago I took some cuttings from a jade plant and stripped some of the leaves. They looked a bit daft just arranged on top of the soil. But look! Tiny new plants!

So people are pretty sensitive about stalking. It's fairly horrific, and jokes about it play poorly

Your average stalking victim doesn't tend to go about in an armed gang in combat gear, assaulting and murdering people

Even people who are relatively comfortably off can get behind this. Inequality makes for a horrible world.

Help us make hope normal again.

Join the Green Party now.

It's said that to be a socialist is to be right but six months early.

Even if the report was fair (unlikely), they found no evidence of antisemitism, just 'exaggerating the threat' of the Maccabi fans (not by the people of Birmingham, as was made out at the time). The police were too cautious. The way these politicians are speaking, you'd think there'd been a massacre

Typical Starmer - adopt a heavy-handed ban that limits normal people rather than take on the technocrats

YouTube video by Philip Labes jeff found a genie

I've seen this guy before :)
youtu.be/VJFZodY9jp0?...

FOX: Where’s the protest against the regime that's killing people in the street right now?

Trent: They are doing those today. It’s called the ICE protests

FOX: Are they talking about Iran at the ICE protests?

Trent: No, I think they are talking about the regime that is shooting people in the face