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The Write Stuff Storybundle Launched…
Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch This is an amazing group of writing books and one of our workshops in one Storybundle. Let me have Kris tell you about it. THE 2024 WRITE STUFF BUNDLE The 2024 Write Stuff Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Every year, I put together a bundle on writing. Every year, I find new concerns and ways to help writers market their work. I also find inspiration books on craft and keeping the faith as writers struggle with the blank page. This year’s bundle has four distinct elements. First, the all-important craft. J. Daniel Sawyer teaches you how to put words on the page…
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Fiction Branding… Part 5
Not All Stories Are Created Equal… I hate to bring up this topic, but sort of needed for this series right about now. Why do I hate saying that not all stories are suited for branding? Because writers have the lowest opinions of their own work and will automatically take this as an excuse to not bother on some stories or series that could be branded. Here is the reality. Just because you can’t yet think of how a brand would even happen with a series of stories or novels does not mean it can’t happen. And the reverse is true. Just because you think a series of stories would…
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6 Science Fiction Novellas
New Kickstarter Coming Next Week! Six different science fiction novellas by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Fantastic short novels that all backers will get, plus new trade paper and hardback editions. You can make sure you are notified when this lunches next Tuesday by going to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/six-science-fiction-novellas And this will have some really amazing new special workshops and other cool books. Take a look!
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Updates On A Bunch of Stuff…
Writing Challenge, My Reading, and More Things… First off, I posted my word count to the right and will do so each month so those of you in the challenge with me can see how I am doing. Basically gaining speed is the answer to that. As each week goes by I can type a little longer without my arm cramping up and me needing an ice pack. I did manage last month to turn into WMG six projects, so a good month on that level. And I did more words by a ways than January. So with luck I will keep ramping up and be back to full speed…
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Bryant Street Surveys Are Out…
Thank You to All Backers… Surveys are out and I hope you backers get them back in quickly. That way everyone can get books and workshops and such. And the chance to write for Pulphouse directions will be sent at the beginning of each month as an update for backers only. Speaking of reading for Pulphouse, I only have a few of the Holiday ones left to read, a few more of the Fall and the Light themed ones. The last two themes I have not started reading for yet, but making good progress overall. By the end of March I should be all caught up, barring crazy things happening.…
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WMG WRITER STORE is Born!!
Just Getting Started… With The Art of the Novella… For years, Kris and I have wanted to figure out a way to teach in-person workshops on the art of writing a novella. But nothing we came up with worked. Too expensive, far too long, and so on. We do the novella add-ons not to teach, but to just give the writers who took the in-person workshop a chance to write a novella and have Kris read it. So as we were putting together the brand new WMG Writer Store (www.WMGWriterStore.com), Kris started wondering why we could not do what she called “pretend-in-person” classes teaching novellas in four different genres. And…
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Fiction Branding… Part 2
When To Think About Branding… Being a fiction writer is a fine balance in your head of being completely creative and telling the best story you can while at the same time holding in check all the critical voice stuff that says everything you are writing is crap. Long-term professional fiction writers have this controlled completely in one way or another. Early stage and middle stage fiction writers fight the battle with every story or novel. The key early on is to clear out or hold back the critical voice while trying to stay out of the way of the creative voice. Most writers fail and thus have short careers.…
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Editor and Reading Observations… Part 12…
Rejections Mean Nothing… Sending stories to editors is a game, one worth winning if editors start buying your work. It is fantastic free advertising for your overall work and you actually get paid for it, and then can republish the story later. All win-win-win… But so many writers take rejections from editors personally. I hear it all the time. And that is just flat wrong. No editor I know rejects a story and remembers the writer and puts some sort of blame on the writer. We can barely remember the writers we buy. Stories we reject we don’t care about in the slightest. Let me give you some help hints…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 11…
What Do You Do With All These Suggestions? To answer the question bluntly… You write the next story. None of these 20 or so observations are meant in the slightest to get you to take a story and rewrite it. Wow! What a horrid waste of time. These observations are for your creative voice, so that on your next story and the one after that you might not make the same mistake, or at least not make it in the same way. Also, these observations are to maybe help you spot where you need more craft learning and practice. (Practice is called writing the next story.) And thirdly, to help…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 10…
Character Issues… I am reading slowly through all the Pulphouse submissions. So if you haven’t gotten anything from me yet, don’t worry. Got two things about characters I have observed in stories lately that just drive me nuts. Again, most of my story returns are for reasons I have talked about in the first nine parts of this series. But these two character problems tend to crop up about one out of every twenty or so stories. Born on Page One… To be honest, I had this writing problem in my first years. The character has no past and shows no opinions that would have been formed in the past.…