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Some Challenge and Lifetime Questions Answered
Lifetime Subscriptions and the Challenges… I got some more questions I thought were good ones about the lifetime subscriptions, so here on a Saturday night I figured I would quickly answer them to hit my streak of daily blogs. (grin) And remind you about the short story and novel challenge starting in September. First, to the Lifetime Subscription Questions… In the regular lifetime subscription, you get all regular workshops and classic workshops. There are a lot of them. In fact, if you paid for all the workshops in the subscription, it would cost over $13,000. Wow! No idea there were that many. The key is that you can take workshops…
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Being Clear On Rewriting and Other Stuff
Got Some Interesting Questions This Week… So I figured for fun here on this fine evening I would just lay out in very quick points exactly what I believe about writing and how I write. Clear up some confusion (or make more, we shall see. (grin)) 1… I do not rewrite. I cycle back and forward through the manuscript as I write, thus ending up with a clean first (and final) draft. 2… I do not use ideas and haven’t for decades. I use triggers to get me typing with a character and I just entertain myself from there. (You guys have all followed that here through some of my…
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Reminder of the Lifetime Subscriptions Available Now
There Are a Number… I got some questions over the last two days about the lifetime subscriptions to different areas and realized that I couldn’t remember ever putting all the information about them in one place. Write me at dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com with any questions on these or to sign up. So here is all the information in one place. REGULAR WORKSHOP LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION You get all regular workshops and classic workshops in this subscription. There are a lot of them. You can take workshops at your own pace and do assignments on the regular ones at your own pace as well. For new workshops, like the two new announced yesterday, they…
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Two New Regular Workshops Posted
How to Study Workshop and How to Use Tags Workshop… Both new workshops will start in September and both are available right now to sign up for in Teachable. I think both of these will be as amazing as the Information Flow workshop. And the Tag workshop might be as game-changing as Writing with Depth. Not kidding. And we will present it in the same example method so you can really see them for the first time. Both of these workshops have been added to the lifetime subscription for workshops. Lifetime subscribers are already in the workshops if you want to take them in September. Otherwise you can wait until…
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Pathological Need for Ideas
Something That Might Free You… I have heard lately from a few beginning writers who are afraid they won’t have enough ideas. Now I hate to admit this, but I have no ideas. Haven’t really even thought of an idea for a story or novel for decades now. Never occurs to me. I just write books, get inside the character, let the character tell the story, and find the ending when I type it. And as many of you know, I often just start with a title that is a mash-up of two other titles. Just a trigger. This is called writing into the dark. Yet I have heard from…
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Already Feeling Better
Very Annoying… But since I started eating very healthy, lower calories, more protein, and got my exercise going again, I feel better. I knew that would happen but every time I am shocked. I am over 5 miles walking per day (10,000 steps for my stride), a new streak starting, and have run at least a half mile two of the last three days. And the weight has started down. Shock. This is sort of like I feel with writing, and what I hear others expressing as well. Starting is hard, but once you start writing regularly, you feel so much better, so much more joy at the world. And…
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The Rewriting Myth
Got a Letter Today… A very real private letter from a very, very frustrated person who had just seen the Sacred Cow posts I did all those years ago. (Some are dated but they are all still here.) The writer was thanking me for talking sanity. The letter was heartbreaking, described how it had taken a year-and-a-half to write the novel and two-and-a-half more years rewriting and the writer still wasn’t happy with it, but wanted to move on. The writer was clearly having a long-held dream crushed by the myths that range from writing slow and sloppy to rewriting and needing editors and agents and so on. Once again,…
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Challenges Coming Up
I Am Getting Closer to Setting Some For Myself… Since my challenge of publishing 67 major books in my 67th year failed so fantastically due to the life roll of a sudden move to Las Vegas (I will manage about 20 or so), I’ve been thinking about maybe doing 68 major published books for my 68th year. I have a little time to decide. I am also thinking of the crazy idea that came up in some comments a week back. “Living at Pulp Speed Five.” Writing ten finished novels in 100 days. Yeah, that is crazy, but could be great fun. And it would be a great nonfiction book…
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Depth Done Right
An Example of What I Try to Teach… I’ve been reading the new Dean Koontz thriller series that started with The Silent Corner. His character, Jane Hawk is great. Now I study Dean Koontz a great deal because his writing is often invisible, his characters built to be real people, his plots usually twisted. And he is a master at all kinds of techniques, from floating viewpoints to pacing that won’t let you go. So on looking back through the second book of the series, The Whispering Room, I happened to notice how well Koontz sat the scene with depth every chapter in one way or another. Now we have a…
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Master Business Class Information
Still Have Openings… The workshop is October 19th through the 23rd in Las Vegas. A firehose of information at the top levels of indie publishing business. Folks, you don’t want to miss this one. Write me at dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com to get more information and instructions on how to sign up and pay for the workshop. The workshop is being held at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas in a beautiful and modern convention center. There is a block of room you want to be in because it will be cheaper and also for ease and other reasons. I will send you a code to get into the workshop room block…