-
Thanks To Those I Met This Morning
Some Wonderful and Very Smart Writers… It was great to meet so many names that I knew from here or workshops, but had never put a face to. That was super fun. Thank you! I had to be up this morning early (so no writing this morning) to be at the 20BooksTo50K Conference here in Las Vegas. I had 40 minutes to give a short course on Writing into the Dark, a topic that takes six weeks to go over in a regular workshop. (Just starting now in November, actually. Information below.) I had fun with the forty minutes and no one shot at me from the audience, so I…
-
Anthology Workshop Started Up
And There Are Now Seven Openings… I started the 2019 Anthology Workshop group list. And will be sending out hotel information and first story information over that list shortly. So if you were planning on attending the workshop in March, which we start writing for in three weeks, contact me now. That’s right… there is three weeks of writing three stories at the end of November and early December, then time off for the holidays, then three more weeks of writing in January. Then a lot of reading. So really the workshop starts at the end of November. So time is almost up to sign up for this one. And you…
-
Go Vote
Just Do It… For those who live in the States and are reading this, and you haven’t voted yet, go vote. Now! There is flat nothing in your life at this moment that is more important than voting today.
-
New Future Series of Workshops Starting Up
A Really Fun Series of Workshops… Starts on Wednesday… We spend so much time on all these workshops helping writers become better storytellers and better at business, but we haven’t spent that much time helping writers deal with their futures and the future of their writing business. And to be honest, we get really tired of writers spending all the time to learn craft and the business and then not know how to sustain and end up gone in a few years. The problem was the topic was so huge, we didn’t know where to start. We first boiled it down to six different six-week workshops. Finally we managed to…
-
Another Fun Run
Last One Before the Big Weekend… Every week Kris and I have been going out and doing these early-morning fun-runs for different causes. This morning was something to do with the Marines. A platoon of clearly recruits (very young, meaning college age) or something were running at cadence and I fell in behind them and stayed with them for over a mile. Not bad for an 67-year-old guy. I ran the last part with a 71-year-old Navy guy who served on submarines during the Vietnam War. That was interesting and he left me in the dust near the finish. I have dropped about 22 pounds since the first one of…
-
Typing Fast vs Being Prolific
Two Very Different Things… I know a ton of writers who can type and write per hour a lot faster than me. In fact half the writers taking the Speed workshop ended up being a lot faster hour-by-hour writers than I am. So how in 2017 did I write seventeen novels and about sixty short stories and very, very few other writers did that much, not counting all the blogs and editing I did? The answer: I spend more time in the chair. And I have cleared out the myths. I honestly don’t care what you think of Bob Ross, folks. But in two posts my writing was called “happy…
-
Killing Another Sacred Cow… Having Fun Makes Your Writing Bad
Having Fun Equals Writing Poorly… Wow, I flat hadn’t seen that one before until a couple of really insulting comments on my blog I did about Mariah Carey having fun. Then it dawned on me that I bet a lot of writers think that if something is fun to do, it can’t have value, that it can’t be any good. Check in with yourself to see if you are one of those folks. Then ask yourself where you learned that myth. I know the myth about you must “struggle for your art” and that happy BS. But I had never flipped that slimy rock over and looked at the other…
-
Having Fun Advice
On The Voice… As always, lots of great advice that can be directly related to writing. But this week, Mariah Carey, who was advising all the singers at this level, told two young girls the following… “If you are going to devote your life to a music career, you also need to devote your life to having fun with it as well.” Mariah Carey on The Voice. I know many of you get tired of me constantly saying over and over to have fun with your writing. I know that goes against the myth that sitting alone in a room and telling stories is “hard work.” And that many of you…
-
Back to Writing
Got Some Details and Schedule Figured Out… Finally… So this morning I managed a couple thousand words, a slowish day for me, but a bunch more than I have done in this setting before. And it felt right and felt like I was finally in the right spot with the right timing. So I guess I have finally made, after more than a month, the transformation from a late-night writer to a morning writer. Trust me, folks, that trick wasn’t easy for this old dog. And starting on Thursday, I will be mailing everyone who is following along with the 100 day challenge a letter again on the first day…
-
2019 Anthology Workshop and 2019 Master Business Class
Both Have Openings… Over the next few days I will be starting the 2019 Anthology Workshop group list. And sending out hotel information and first story information. Now granted, the workshop doesn’t happen until March 1st through 5th in Las Vegas. But there is three weeks of writing three stories at the end of November and early December, then time off for the holidays, then three more weeks of writing in January. Then a lot of reading. So really the workshop starts at the end of November. So time is almost up. That’s right, for the anthology workshop you will write six short stories to specific guidelines for real markets.…