Welcome to Writer's Cafe...

Introduction for the new writers.

Welcome to Writer's Cafe
Surely, you're here to parley--
Words, sentences, even gaffes
Myriad of bumbling laughs

Stay awhile if you can play
This velleitious, verbal clay
Take a bow for your retorts
To be among many sorts.

When you've had enough today
Remember what you convey
Happiness, chagrin, dismay.
Set aside these for a day.

Reviews

[Dean Kuch®]

Such a wonderful and interesting way to welcome new-comers to WC. One can feel quite lost here, at first. A vessel full of poetry and stories to be shared, yet, for fear of unfavorable reviews and reprisals, often quit, leave, or simply silence their individual voices. I should think, after having read this, they would be more apt to...stay, and play.

[Parsimony]

Thank you for reading and your fair review.

[ANTO]

This should be a 'must-read' (I don't mean that in a police-state way lol) for anyone joining WC .
Very well put Parsimony
X

[Samuel Jack]

Perfectly encapsulates this awesome community, I've never felt so mentally stimulated, kind of sad I can't get this face to face in my daily life, but you know what humans are like..........

[OBWhiteHawk]

I like it. Wish I would have come across it when I first joined the site but oh well.

[EdgarLovecraft]

Cool

[James Hanna-Magill]

Dear Parsimony

Thank you for your recent review.

I thought I would return the compliment and picked this off the top our your list.

A few comments.

1) I like the fun topic. It seems related to the group for first time writers. As Top Reviewer on this site shortly after I joined until now, except for a week I was in hospital, I now have over 1,200 read requests. As I tend to review long and in detail, there is no way I can ever settle that score.

I tend to choose how I focus. One is on those who review my work, especially my novel Split on here and the other is new members, as I feel it is a good thing to welcome new writers to the site. So I am aligned.

If I join that group, what do I do? Explain please. Or is it just newbies who join? That I would like to help with - reviewing and encouraging the new.

2) As for structure, 3 quatrains of rhyming couplets. So has a sophistication about it.

3) Use of English: Very rich. I am not sure 'velleitious' has yet hit the English Lexicon. But if it hasn't it should have done. It is an adjective based on the noun 'velleity' -' low level of inclination, even passive'. I think words should be made up. I think as a group, writers should.

One of my favourite authors is Mervyn Peake. I read his Gormenghast trilogy when I was 15, His vocabulary was so rich I used to have a note book where I would every other page write down words he used which I had looked up in a dictionary. But sometimes I couldn't find them. It was only in later life I discovered he made some of them up.

There is a lovely related quote by Mervyn Peake which is:

"We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect.”

4) Favourite lines; You middle verse:

'Stay awhile if you can play
This velleitious, verbal clay
Take a bow for your retorts
To be among many sorts'.

A superb way of putting the vicissitudes of being on this site.

Actually, I love Writers Café. I used to be an active member of an ex BBC site which sadly closed. I looked around for a new site to pitch my writing tent and looked at many sites. This I found to be the best.

That's about it. If there is a group that helps review new members, I would love to join.

Your friend

James

[Parsimony]

Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful review. No wonder your reviews are in such demand. Take care.

[Chris]

I opened the piece to see if you were a "Greeter"...

in a sense you are, you give a small hint and raise an expectation.

A working rhyme scheme and the tones feel right.

[Parsimony]

Greeting is the polite thing to do. Thank you.

[Sirius King]

a nice into to WC

love it

[Parsimony]

Thanks, it's a bit callous since I can be quite frank but it's mostly light-hearted.