• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    The Myths of Fiction Writing Lectures

    Fiction Writing Myths Lecture Series… The first five lectures on the myths of fiction writing are now available on Teachable.com. There will be twenty lectures total, twenty different myths in four different lecture bundles. This first bundle of five lectures we are calling Creation. There will be three other bundles of five lectures each, totally twenty different lectures of nine or so videos each lecture. (They will appear as I get them recorded.) In other words, each bundle of five lectures has around 45 videos. Each lecture will have nine questions we ask about each myth. The nine questions for each myth are: — What is the origin of the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Before Something Fun Tomorrow

    I Wanted to Make Sure I Had Everything Announced… Not kidding, got a nifty new thing to announce tomorrow that I have mentioned a few times in passing. It is on myths. The lecture lifetime subscribers are going to be really happy. (grin) But first, I wanted to update a few other things. —– ASK KRIS ANYTHING still has spots open, but they will close off shortly. She was only going to do this for one year and she only has the six-month option left open on Teachable. So don’t miss getting a chance to sign up and ask Kris anything you like for a hour a month on a…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    New Pop-Up on Thinking Big

    Pop-Up #11 Available… This one is on how fiction writers need to learn how to think big, dream big, plan big. And how to do it. It’s a good one. And it has a really fun short story prompt with it. (Due date only just over a week or so off.) Get it on Teachable.com All the previous Pop-Ups, #1-10 are available still in the bundles of five or ten. (Normally each Pop-Up is $150 each, but in the bundles they are cheaper.) Each one is from 12-15 videos on the topic, plus a short story prompt. You can only turn in the #11 short story to me, since the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Day Job Thinking

    DAY-JOB THINKING VS LONG-TERM THINKING (I first published this post back in 2015 or so. Had a couple of conversations that reminded me of it, so I went looking, updated it, and put it here on this fine Friday evening.) Day-Job Thinking goes like this: I need a certain amount of money to make my bills this month and a day job gives it to me in a “secure” fashion. Nothing at all wrong with that thinking. Nothing. We all have to live and make bills and eat and all those sorts of things. This is survival thinking, folks, plain and simple. So again, nothing wrong with that kind of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Challenge Stories Headed Back to Writers

    Some of You Already Know This… Some of you will find out more in the next three or four days. But the reason I didn’t respond to stories in the challenge over the last three or four weeks was because I wanted to read three or four stories from the same author at the same time. I figured what that would do was give me a real sense of any strengths and weaknesses and I would be able to tell the writer if I saw anything. Plus there are few enough signed up and still going in the Great Challenge for me to be able to do this. (And yes,…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Bunch of Stuff

    But Nothing Finished… Worked on finding some art for a few projects, worked on some experiments on learning InDesign, worked on the next chapter of the Trademark For Fiction Writers book. (Have about three chapters done now, so will start posting soon.) Recorded another week of the Writing Westerns workshop. Will start recording the new Attitude Workshop soon. And I worked on this nifty thing on fiction writing myths that got triggered by a number of events. A couple of questions while in Colorado, a few letters the last few nights, and then me bringing back up Pulp Speed. All those and a few other things (I can’t remember right…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Pulp Speed and the Indie Writer

    Great Question This Afternoon… How does an indie writer balance the writing at pulp speed with all the publishing stuff? Got a hunch I’m going to be returning to this question a number of times in future posts, but for a short, first answer, here I go… PULP SPEED ONE About 1,000,000 (1 million) original words per year. This averages to about 2,750 words a day for 365 days. (numbers rounded) Or about 83,300 words per month.  So if you do 3,000 words a day and over 84,000 words per month ON AVERAGE for a year, you are writing at PULP SPEED ONE. So first lets use me as an…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Sorcery and Steam Storybundle…

    Now Live!!!… And folks, I have a brand new, never seen before, Poker Boy collection in it. And Kris has a brand new, never seen novella in it. And on top of that, Annie Reed has a brand new collection in the bundle and Fiction River Presents: Sorcery and Steam is also new. Plus Laura Anne Gillman’s nifty novella “From Whence You Came had very little distribution before this bundle. So this bundle is chalk full of original-to-the-bundle books. And I put it all together. And had a blast doing so. This is only available for a very short time. So grab it quickly. Here is my blog from the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Pulp Speed Back Once Again

    Third or Fourth Time… (I wrote this post in 2014, then brought it forward again in 2015, and I think one other time, but wanted to bring it forward once again, update it a little, because people ask me about it.) PULP SPEED… Not at all sure why this idea sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths. A writer has to have all myths under control to even attempt this. So this post might just make you angry because it hits at belief systems I’m afraid. The second reason I can’t shake this idea is because for all of my…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Got Attitude

    Attitude Online Workshop Starting… August 6th. ——- ATTITUDE IN WRITING FICTION Attitude is everything in fiction writing. From beating back fears, to taking the courage to try something new, to believing your work is worth publishing. Attitude can help you overcome doubts, believe in yourself on the outside while you doubt everything on the inside. A good attitude in fiction writing can be learned. There are also some really bad attitudes in fiction writing, ones that will quickly or eventually kill your writing. This workshop will deal with those as well, give you warning signs. Mostly this workshop teaches attitude and the confidence it takes to believe in yourself, in…