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For Jane Austen-Based Creative Writing
Re: Five Conversations Which Never Happened - 6 months ago
I think it would be a crime against nature to not embed one of these conversations in a story!by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Leaving Nothing to Chance - 8 months ago
In many ways, comedy is harder to write than tragedy, and you brought it off wonderfully! Like farce in the theater, a good comic story depends on timing, misunderstandings, confusion, and lots of physical movement. Delightful~ Anne seemed like an 8 year old or an autistic 22 year old. In either case. she remained the blank slate you talked about . There's no there there.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Thank you, Susan... - 9 months ago
I see both points of view about finding symbols in everything. On the one hand, as Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; but on the other hand, once a work is out there, a transaction occurs between the reader and the text, and the meanings reside there -- in that middle space. T.S. Eliot says that he was often surprised at what others saw in his poems. But he acknowledged that a lot oby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Wordsworth and the natural world - 9 months ago
I also think bridges and caves are important symbolically. In order to cross the bridge that divides them (E has to make the longest crossing), each has to go into the "cave" of him/her self. In other words, if Austen thinks that self-knowledge is the highest value -- and I think she does -- then in order to attain it, bridges must be crossed and caves explored.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, Epilogue - 11 months ago
I started out thinking the title was not only from P&P, but from Auden's poem: "If equal affections cannot be/ Let the more loving one be me." I think Darcy initially felt that way, but he found that he didn't mind being the more loving one; he simply couldn't be the only loving one. The arc that took him there in your story was a beautiful one.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 23 - 11 months ago
QuoteShe wondered if his hand had been like this a month ago, or if it was his time in Hertfordshire while he was waiting for her that had effected these marks. I love the metaphor of the hand. He offered her his hand weeks ago. That hand has changed, and it was she and his stay in Hertfordshire that had effected those changes.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 22 - 11 months ago
I like the way you use free indirect speech so that we get into Lizzy's mind without the exact quotes. We can feel what she feels rather than just hear what she says. Well done!by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 21 - 11 months ago
I agree. Darcy isn't smarting from petty concerns like how the town will see him. His deepest interest is how the girl he's in love with will see him. He's in turmoil now, but from that place he'll grow in understanding, both of himself and of her. Despite the pain he's suffering, which none of us likes to see, he'll be a better husband as a result of it. She's going through her own turmoil, andby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: A shade in his character - 1 year ago
The story has been a WIP for years, so I doubt we'll ever know the ending.by Susan W - Tea Room
Re: Simply Lovely - 1 year ago
The content, as usual, compelling, but this time I must comment on the rarefied way it was expressed. Your writing is just lovely, the dialogue sublime and the little vignettes that added dimension to minor characters inspired. You just sprinkle fairy dust through your magical writing,and I have a feeling I speak for all your readers when I say that we're transfixed.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Not just the Regency time period - 1 year ago
Yes Suzanne, that is beautiful. It's the word "belong" that carries the freight. If you say it as poetry, it works. When you say to someone about to walk away, don't forget you belong to me, it doesn't have the ring of, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Which by the way is also beautiful in the original Hebrew. Sounds something like this: "Ani le dodi ve'dodi li",by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 15 - 1 year ago
Wrong. That old canard about never ending a sentence with a preposition hasn't been accepted for years. I think Churchill gave it a good death when he said on a radio broadcast in which someone talked about using prepositions at the end of a sentence, "That is a notion up with which I will not put." Worrying about that preposition can give you some truly awkward sentences. Suzanne got the "whomby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 15 - 1 year ago
LauraN Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Ugh!! You are so amazing to make me feel such > contradictory feelings about this story! I love > every bit of this tale, but I HATED Darcy's last > line in this chapter. It must be my modern > sensibilities, but it grated on my every nerve > that he said she BELONGED to him. Grrrrrr!! >_< I > am trby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 15 - 1 year ago
I love my Darcy any way I can get him, but this one concerns me. I'm made uneasy by Darcy's fierce behavior. Of course, she was wrong to allow Wickham to impose upon her. She's the one I wanted to hit. She's capable of telling him off, pulling away. Why didn't she? Of course Darcy would be enraged and wildly jealous, but there's something about his love for her that doesn't feel healthy. We all wby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: You're right -- bad a behavior all around - 1 year ago
I like all the points of view, but it's Suzanne's explanations that clarify things for me. She's in complete control of her material and of her characters. She keeps them on a taut string that she's using to weave her story and never lets it go slack. I for one am reassured by her words. Like Darcy after being with Lizzy, I'm calmed.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: You bring up an excellent point about the interaction between Mr. B and Darcy - 1 year ago
Nice try about the goodness aspect. Lazy seems to be the operative word if you ask me.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 13 - 1 year ago
But of the word esteem she said nothing. That closing line was worthy of Jane Austen herself.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: it's that "probably"... - 1 year ago
Does anyone remember in Jane Eyre, before Bertha Mason becomes known, when Rochester buys Jane clothes and things, and she complains that she feels like she's a doll he's dressing and cosseting. They split up after she sees the madwoman in the attic, but the truth is that thematically they can't get together at the end until she inherits money and more a sense of who she is that they can come toby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 11 - 1 year ago
I have to confess, much as I like this story and the writing, that I find it a little stalkerish-creepy-discomfiting that Darcy moons over her so openly like that, surveying her form (which she very much realizes), and then when aroused enough, he kisses her. And then, talk about knowing what comes next: how about after he sits with her hair wrapped around his hand? Does that seem to anyone elseby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Plot bunny - 1 year ago
I agree with Mallory's comment that ends with the ball in his court. And Mallory, I think you're the one who was putting me on with the plot bunny. All I can say is, Duh.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 10 - 1 year ago
Mallory Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I love Kent's opinions. And, this discussion > births a plot bunny that perhaps some enterprising > writer would want to address. > > Caroline :“I should like Balls infinitely better if they were carried on in a different manner … It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing madby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 10 - 1 year ago
What a lovely writer you are, Suzanne. Besides the original plot and exquisite characterizations, it's a real pleasure to read your subtle prose and delicate and moving dialogue as they do their dance of moving apart and then coming together and then moving apart and then coming together....and so on. Also, if I thought the Auden allusion was lovely, I'm ecstatic about the lines from "Tintern Abby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Title of story - 1 year ago
Suzanne O Wrote: > > Anyway, with all this talk in various stories > about the idea of unequal affections, I thought it > would be interesting to explore a relationship of > that sort, one that was openly that way, with both > people honest about their feelings, both trying to > do their best for the relationship (even while > failing at times) and see how it unfolded.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Title of story - 1 year ago
I may have asked this earlier, but I wonder, Suzanne, if you had these lines from Auden's poem in mind when you chose the title. It would certainly be Darcy's view so far. "If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me."by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: But perhaps he did care about acceptance by the ton? - 1 year ago
Suzanne O Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > Darcy's moment of "pride" in this chapter > represents a move from thinking that he fell in > love with Elizabeth despite his better > judgment, to realizing that he fell in love with > her because of his better judgment. It > means he's making his peace with some of those > things about herby Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 7 - 1 year ago
LizyDash Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sigh! I like the subtle romance.And the flirting. > And Elizabeth's recognition of her own power. I agree, but she must be careful to tease, but not toy with him. Given the circumstances, it would be unseemly and unwise for her to be careless of his affections.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 6 - 1 year ago
Charlie, ...Spoken like a true man. :-)by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 6 - 1 year ago
I'm sure I'm not the first to note this, but I love the allusion to Auden's lines: If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild
Re: Unequal Affections, ch 6 - 1 year ago
Suzanne, How many chapters are in this story? I love the way its taking its time to unfurl like a spring flower.by Susan W - Derbyshire Writers' Guild