A Fun Combination Idea…
Got This Question From Two Writers Today…
And I realized it was a really fun idea I should tell everyone about.
We have a series of “Collection” classes. The classes are 9 weeks long and from week 2-6 the writers taking the class write five stories that by the 9th week will be published in a collection as part of the class. In essence from nothing to a five story collection in two months. They are fun and you can get a bundle of all six classes that will last you a year and you will write 30 short stories, or you can buy them one collection class at a time.
We also have a Publishing Challenge. Publish one major book every month for a year. That is the challenge. A major book is defined as a novel, a novella, a collection, or an omnibus.
The question from the two writers today is can a writer use the collection from the collection class in the publishing challenge?
The answer is absolutely yes.
So if a writer took all six collection classes and finished them, in one year they would have published six collections. Thus to hit the Publishing Challenge, you would just have to do six other books. (Like a novel every two months, which is another challenge.)
It had never occurred to me that the Collection classes and the Novel Challenge could help a writer win the Publishing Challenge. How fun is that?
And the five stories in each collections class also can be turned in if you are doing the Great Challenge of one story per week for a year.
Lots of ways to mix and match and really set some deadlines and get yourself moving through this next year.
Thanks for the question, folks. Really fun one.
5 Comments
Kari Kilgore
The Collections workshops are also a great combination with the informal challenge you threw out a while back: publishing a short story every week for a year. I’ve been formatting each short story as I put the collections together. So about a month after the collection comes out, I have a bunch of new short stories ready to go in ebook and paper.
Almost halfway through the year, and I haven’t missed a week yet! 🙂
Linda+Maye+Adams
I used those stories as part of the Great Challenge. Waste not. Story 40, ho!
LynW
I combined the Novel challenge (6 new books in a year at 2-month intervals) with the Publishing challenge (publish a new book every month) and completed both at the same time with a combination of short story collections, multi-author anthologies, and new novels. Win-win-win!
Mihnea+Manduteanu
So how does this work, using the collection short stories for the challenge? I start the challenge and resend them or the challenge counts as having started 5 weeks ago and I start with number 6 or how?
dwsmith
You send them to both, with the correct subject line on both. That way each story gets counted in both.