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Come Looking For Anger
Trolls Are Everywhere… But seems for me, they have to come looking. The reason is that I just ignore them and eventually, because they are starved for attention, they go away. Now, I know clearly that my opinions of professional fiction writing are only based on how it is really done, not on how some beginning writers think it should be done. I actually write and publish and make a lot of money, and that just pisses off a large part of the younger writers as well. But if a person doesn’t want to hear how it is really done, they tend to stay away from this blog and anything…
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The Rule of Three
Most Writers Don’t Understand It or Use It… Today, at lunch, Kris and I were talking about a ton of ideas we have for Pop-Up classes we wanted to do for the Spade/Paladin Kickstarter we will launch next week. We like giving writers Pop-Up classes in the stretch goals if the campaign hits a certain amount. And we liked them to sort of match the genre of the campaign, which this time is mystery. We decided and laid out some really good Pop-Ups. For example, a Pop-Up titled HOW TO GET AUTOMATIC DEPTH. Yes, there are ways to do that. Honest. And they are fun and it is perfect size…
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Holliday Collection
Holliday Collection Class… Starting on September 7th. In nine weeks, meaning basically the first week of November, you can have a five story collection of original holiday stories for sale around the world. We do collection classes and starting in September is the holiday stories class. You learn about collections and how to write holiday stories and write five original holiday stories, plus do the cover and everything and publish it, all in nine weeks. You got to admit, it would be fun going into the holiday season with a brand new collection of stories out for sale. And if you turn in all nine assignments during the nine weeks…
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Career You Learned No Longer Exists
Happens All the Time, I know… But it seems to really be happening just lately in fiction writing. Or maybe I am just noticing it more lately. But in Publishing in the 1970s through the early 1990s, it was possible to learn the career and it would remain as you learned it. In fact, there are still old pro writers teaching those old ways to young writers even today, even though the writing career of those times no longer exists at all. Kris and I used to tell writers it was possible to make a living with your writing in traditional publishing, because that was the only game in town…
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I Love Being In StoryBundles
For a Number of Reasons… First, I love reading, as a reader, what the other writers have put in the StoryBundle. Usually takes me the entire time the bundle is up before I get done reading or looking at them all. But just as a reader who buys it, I love all the different books in a certain topic. Great fun. Second, it helps people find different work of mine that chances are I would write, publish, and forget. Needing a book to put into a Storybundle is a great incentive. And I have actually written a few books over the years just for a bundle. And it gives the…
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Fantastic Writing Advice by Keith Johnstone
Maybe Worth Really Looking At… I found it amazing. This advice came from a blog post Johnstone did back in 2020. Sadly, since that time he has done very few. He is 87 years of age and no longer teaching as far as I can tell as well. But he is an actor, a writer, and is known as one of the pioneers of improvisational theater. In essence, he is amazing. One of his many thoughts in this random blog post of misc. stuff was called Five Ideas. You can read the entire post here… https://www.keithjohnstone.com/post/_misc I was sent this part of the post and think it is amazing. Thanks,…
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I Hope Everyone Had a Chance At The Sale…
I Tried to Answer Questions Quickly… On request of two people, I will leave the half-price discount code in place until I get up tomorrow morning around 10 am west coast time in case someone missed something. Then the sale will be done. Kris and I and everyone at WMG Publishing really hope the sale helped and the classes will help your writing and publishing down the road. Speaking of classes, Kris and I just finished putting together the last two Pop-Ups from the Pulphouse Kickstarter and all five Pop-Ups from the stretch rewards will be sent out on the 31st. Also, I will be contacting everyone who signed up…
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Last Day of the Workshop Sale… Six New Classes Added for Today!
That’s Right, Six Added Just In Time… This is the last day of the half-price workshop sale. Every workshop or class or subscription is half off on WMG Teachable. And wow do we have a lot of things to pick from. I detailed out some of them the last two nights posts. So any part of your writing craft or business, we have something that might help. Just find the class you want, hit purchase, then on the top of the next page put in the code: SETBACK And yes you can stock up. Just got to do them one at a time since Teachable does not have a shopping…
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Only Three More Days for the Sale!
Since I Have Been Doing Other Things… I figured I had better do a quick reminder post here on Sunday afternoon about only three days left on the sale. Every workshop or class or subscription is half off on WMG Teachable. Just find the class you want, hit purchase, then on the top of the next page put in the code: SETBACK September and October regular classes are posted and are all half off. Class #21… Sept 7th … Covers 101 Class #23… Sept 7th … Publishing 101 Class #24… Sept 7th … Writing into the Dark Class #25… Sept 7th … Writing Sales Copy Class #26… Sept 8th ……
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Learning is Forever…
In Writing and Publishing… Kris and I were talking today on the way back from lunch about some of the writers who have just faded away. And the more we talked, the more we realized that we knew the answer on what happened to most of them. They all just stopped learning. They reached a level that they were happy with their writing and stopped learning for a dozen different reasons. That is flat deadly in just a few years. The reason I hear the most and understand the least is the fear that learning something will upset some perfect balance in their writing and they will never sell again.…