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Formatting Meets Craft
Something So Basic… A little bit back I mentioned a bunch of workshops Kris and I were thinking of offering, and almost everyone said they would like to try “Advanced Pacing.” Now, that would be really fun for me to try to explain. I knew that, but then I got a bunch of stories in that I needed to read for a workshop. And half of them didn’t know basic fiction manuscript format, even though the rules said the stories had to be sent to me in that form. All of the problem ones had put extra lines between paragraphs, making it just damn near impossible for someone like me…
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Only Hours Left in Colliding Worlds Kickstarter!
Ends Today (Thursday) at 5 pm West Coast Time! This Colliding Worlds Kickstarter campaign hit all five stretch goals, so wow are all backers going to get a lot of cool stuff. Including a sixth volume of Colliding Worlds. The extras above the reward you pick includes six books of science fiction, two Classic Workshops and two Pop-Up classes. Also this is the last few hours to get the two special science fiction writing workshops. They are only offered through this campaign. How to Write Science Fiction Short Stories. How to Write About the Vastness of Space. Both workshops are three weeks long, each cost $150, and you can write…
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Colliding Worlds Kickstarter… Only About 60 Hours Left…
Don’t Miss This One… A great deal of science fiction reading from me and Kris, special workshops (two of them you can only get through this campaign,) and a bunch of other nifty things. And if we hit the next stretch reward, the five volume set becomes six volumes of our science fiction short stories. Check it out at Colliding Worlds Kickstarter Campaign. And only a few hours left to watch the video with me and Kris talking about collaborating. We had fun. About 60 Hours Left… The old fiction technique of a ticking clock is real with this campaign. Measured now in hours left.
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How I Did In January… My Challenge
I Learned and Did Fine… In my opinion. Here is what I said I wanted to do in 2021 on January 1st. (You remember, before the insurrection.) “So my challenge for 2021 is to write a story per day for the year, plus write a novel per month, plus publish over 70 major books.” Well, so far, so interesting. I managed 6 short stories in January, right up to January 6th, then got distracted for a few days. Then as I went back to it, I realized that my tracking systems for short stories sucked beyond words and I couldn’t even remember much about the six I wrote a few…
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March Workshops are Available
April Workshops Tomorrow… It is Friday, so I decided to get some chores done. So I managed to post and get live all the March regular workshops. List Below. And tomorrow I will post and get live all the regular April workshops as well. I am leaving two spots open in April for new workshops and one open in March. So thanks everyone, on the feedback yesterday. And going to give some thought to writing a short book on the Stages of Publishing as a series of blog posts, then put the entire book in Smith’s Monthly before I publish it stand alone. And do the workshop as well in…
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Ideas On My Lists for Pop-Up and Workshops…
I Have A List… Actually two lists, tacked on my computer with thoughts of “That would make an interesting Pop-Up” and the second list is possible workshops. Thought I might share a few of the residents of those lists here. Comments are welcome, but be nice. Remember, it is only your opinion and someone else may really love the idea or hate it. And saying you like it does not commit you to taking anything. Kris and I are always looking for more ideas if you got something that you think would be a good idea for writers to study or learn or that you want to study or learn.…
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A Sixth Volume in Colliding Worlds
That is the New 5th Stretch Reward!!! That’s right, if we get to that 5th stretch reward in the Colliding Worlds Kickstarter campaign in the next seven days (we are getting close to the 4th), Kris and I will put together a sixth volume of our science fiction short stories. (Yes, we do have enough. We even have enough for a seventh.) COLLIDING WORLDS Volume #6. So that means there will be 120 science fiction stories in the set of six books if we hit that level. We will not do that extra book if we don’t make the stretch reward. But if we do, everyone who has backed the…
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Colliding Worlds Five Volume Set…
100 Science Fiction Stories… Fifty from Kris, fifty from me, in a five volume set. Colliding Worlds We are slightly over halfway through the campaign and it is doing great. We hit the third stretch goal, so everyone gets more books and two classic workshops. Basically, tThis is us having a great time. We have also talked about doing joint collections of some sort of another, and then Gwyneth came up with the idea of us putting 100 of our science fiction stories in the same set of five books called COLLIDING WORLDS and both Kris and I loved the idea. Really, if you have a few minutes, watch the…
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Pattern of Work
When the World Lets Me… Which is has for the last few days. Great fun. I start off doing email when I first get up and get going. Usually around noon or so. Then errands and lunch. Then around 3 or so I go down to our office and work down there for about an hour and a half, putting things together, sorting, putting up shelves, you name it. Basically physical work. Then more email, then a quick nap and then dinner. After dinner I am in here doing other stuff, including assignments and misc work at my computer. Often reading some. (Remember, bad eye so computer time is limited.)…
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Why The Vastness of Space Workshop…
Because It Is Fun To Learn and Use In Fiction… Really is that simple. Problem is, so many writers (and I have read three just lately) who do not know space terms and measurements, or do not know how to fake it, or go around it. And using a term wrong is deadly to a story. The problem is that for almost all humans, understanding real distances in space is just almost impossible. Unless you work on it and are interested in it, your mind will not even pretend to grasp the real distances of space. But this does not mean you can’t write space opera and science fiction. Quite…