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Paying Attention Sale
Holiday Here In the States… The holiday here is called Memorial Day which honors those who served in the military and also family members who are no longer with us. And it is a time where people take vacations since it is a three-day weekend, or they spend time with their families in picnics or other activities. Experts also say that today is supposed to be the busiest travel day of the year as well. And for writers, this tends to be the first major weekend of the Time of Great Forgetting. Writers just forget about writing and learning and publishing and often don’t come back to paying attention until…
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Just Writing Fiction Tonight…
The City is Quiet… My email is quiet, and I want to do some reading tonight of stories I am behind reading, and Kris’s new novel. But first I’m going to spend a few hours just writing my own fiction. To be honest, that feels weird. I normally have so many things that must be done yesterday, so much so that I work in the fiction writing late at night. But tonight I am going back to my schedule of getting to the fiction by midnight and if I can do that regularly, I will be back up to my old speed. So during this time of forgetting for most…
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Decisions…
We All Make These Kinds of Decisions Every Day… I have spent the entire day on errands and then recording some videos and then doing assignments and answering email. It’s a Monday. It is now 2:20 AM and I have not gotten any writing done. So instead of spending my last waking hour tonight doing a long blog, I am going to shut this business screen down and go to my computer and get at least an hour of words done. There, I lead by example.
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May is Screaming Past
Time of Great Forgetting is in Full Force… Amazing how every year at this time a vast majority of new fiction writers and early professional fiction writers just forget everything about their writing goals and ambitions. Professional fiction writers and those writers working hard to get to that place do not have this trouble. But it happens every year to more than I can count. About the last of April, the attention is drawn to other things besides writing and by now (end of May) writing has mostly been forgotten, or something to be done later. Spring is at hand and everything that means for each person. This forgetting goes…
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Another Day of Needing to Write
Romantic Suspense Workshop In Town… I honestly am doing nothing with them, but I am recording the study along videos and reading the stories from those assignments for those taking the Study Along. It is not many because this is the time of great forgetting.. And Allyson from WMG is here and we are having great meetings and such as well. So no long post tonight, but soon. Again, questions on the first seven parts of the series, feel free to ask. Or something I have not talked about and you would like me to, feel free to ask on that as well. Off to write.
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Writing Tonight…
Writing Fiction Instead of Nonfiction… Got a late start today, so going to spend the next numbers of hours writing fiction tonight. The series I have been writing has a number more parts to it. So if you have questions, feel free to ask. Kickstarter Updates will be happening in the coming days as well, so if you have kickstarter questions about one we have done, hold off on those. So now over to writing fiction. So much more fun than writing nonfiction, that’s for sure. Hope you are having a great weekend.
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Writers Often See The Dark Side…
At Least Beginning and Early Stage Writers… I have noticed this over the years, but a couple things over the last few months really brought this concept home. This functions in two ways. For example, in the Depth workshop, one of the assignments is to see an ex-spouse at the end of a setting assignment. 99 out of 100 of those assignments are negative, hateful, full of loathing or disgust or fear of the ex-spouse. Fiction folks. You have a choice to move away from the cliche and the negative. Writing topics in other workshops go along with this trend. If there is a choice between positive outlook and a…
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Memory and Perspective
The Beach Boys… Tonight I watched the first half of the Grammy salute to the Beach Boys. Some of the major artists were up to playing Beach Boy songs, some were not, but the history of the music and the writing so far has been fascinating. And seeing all five remaining original Beach Boys sitting in the same box in the theater was so cool. Especially after all they have been through. 60 Years Ago… Yes, I said sixty… I went out on a first date with a woman I now know longer even remember her name, to a Beach Boys concert being held in the Boise High School auditorium.…
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Challenges Are Battles Against Yourself…
Nothing Else Matters… Just You… Challenges have this nasty habit of quickly uncovering issues in your motivation and your consistency in writing and other life issues you are dealing with. This challenge for me uncovered that my vision stamina is not strong yet. If I spend a lot of time during the day, as I did a few days this last week, at my business computer, by the time I get to the writing computer, I am very limited in the amount of time I have. I love writing at night, and my eyes are better at night. I expected to be slow, didn’t expect that sight issue would be…
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Slow Starts Are Perfectly Fine
No Reason At All To Worry… A number of you have decided to take the writing challenge with me for the next nine months, until the end of the year. But I have gotten a number of letters worried about starting slow. And I am starting slow, as I said I would. This worry can really invite in critical voice, repeating over and over that you are failing. Not sure why anyone buys that a few days into a nine month challenge, but if you buy into it, and let critical voice take over, it sort of becomes a self-fulfilling thing. Yikes! The key is to focus on the writing…