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Sixth Pop-Up Launching
Writing Mysteries into the Dark… This is the sixth and last one for this year, of course. I will be announcing two or three more in a week or so. We will do at least two or more per month, and they are only up for two weeks at a time. Details of all of them are below. However, you can still get the earlier ones in the bundles. We have three bundles available. The first five, the second five, and the first ten. As of today there are six Pop-Ups available in the bundles. Information about them is below. But again, the first three are only available in the…
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Looking at Gaining Energy
I Actually Have Two Challenges That Will Help… As I have detailed out before here, my two challenges are to lose about 25 more pounds and write ten novels. All in 100 days. I was talking with Kris about the two elephants, working on how to carve three hours for writing and three hours for exercise out of every day for 100 days. I have done as we teach, looked and written down my schedule, and if I remain focused, the six hours are there, no issue. But just thinking about it made me tired. (You know, elephants.) Then I found myself saying that once I got the writing going…
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Soaking Up Story
I Have No Idea What For… I know I will be really picking up speed with the writing over the next few days before the first of the year so that by the first I will be at full speed. (Doing the same with exercising and reducing food intake.) Watched most of two movies tonight and a good episode of The Rookie. Not a clue why I am watching and reading so much. Also finally finishing up the last stories from the challenge and will be getting everyone feedback once my notes are typed into an email. So story, story, story. No idea why more than normal right now, but…
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Impression
By Sir Edmund William Gosse… On this Christmas Eve, I thought I would put a poem here about writing. Read it carefully and you will see he is talking about today, about what Kris and I often talk about. Over the years I have had the first two lines of the third stanza of this poem on my wall and office door. And the third line of the fourth stanza describes why so many people rewrite their work to death. An amazing poem for this evening. Merry Christmas. Impression Sir Edmund William Gosse IN these restrained and careful times Our knowledge petrifies our rhymes; Ah! for that reckless fire men…
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One Week Until The New Year
I Know, Another Holiday First… And I hope everyone has a happy holiday, no matter how you celebrate. But at the moment, I have been working on my goals and challenges for the new year. So I will show you here, out in the open, what I am now thinking. First off… Health. Can’t write if I am not healthy. My doc a few weeks back told me I could drop my blood pressure medication in half once I got under 190 pounds and could end it completely if I watched my pressure, was running almost every day, and was under 180 pounds, if not before if I started getting…
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Critical Voice Kills Take Two
I Wrote This As a Comment Response Yesterday… So thought it would be good to clean up my comment, expand a little and put here so more people see it. It is on the topic of critical voice shutting off your enjoyment of other author’s work. It is a matter of taste. Read the last post before reading this. When a book kicks you from the story, it is your taste, not the author’s fault. Always the case. What that author did is simply not to your taste, even if a craft thing. Why does that happen with craft? Because we writers have one way of writing something. When you…
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Critical Voice Kills Everything
Including Your Own Enjoyment of Reading (and Watching Movies)… For some reason, early on, writers think they must start being critical about all sorts of things. Books they don’t like because they are not to their taste, certain types of movies, the wrong use of one thing or another in a story by another author. This is the critical voice, the very thing that works to stop you from writing. And also makes you believe that everything you do must be perfect, therefore you must outline and rewrite and not put something out anywhere until it has been polished to a shine. The job of the critical voice is to…
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Last Hours On Two Things.
And Some Fun Stuff… Very short time left on both of the Christmas Boxes from WMG. They end at NOON on Wednesday, the 19th, West Coast Standard Time. So if you get this after noon, never mind. (grin) Second, I have three in the Mentor Program for 2019, but I will take just one more. Kris and I have decided I can handle four without a problem and it will be more fun, actually. Write me if interested in the last spot. Details in a post a ways back. Do, if you get a chance, read that post from Steven Barnes I put up yesterday. Amazing. And if you want…
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A Post Very Much Worth Reading
From Steven Barnes… Steve put up this great post on Facebook talking about how a writer can kill his own joy and purpose in writing. Sadly, I know exactly who he is talking about. I met the person he talks about a number of times and it was exactly as Steve said. I even got that same card and was just as disturbed by it. I constantly tell people to not write to market, to write what they love, that doing anything else is a quick path to the end of your writing. So if you don’t listen to me on this, listen to Steve. He says it so much…
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New Pop-Up Available
The New Year is Coming… How to set goals and challenges and streaks and habits and so much more for the new year is in the 5th Pop-Up now available on Teachable. It is called “Remaining Focused” and has all sorts of things that can help you hit your writing goals in 2019. Plus it will be there for you for the entire year on your dashboard to review if you remember. — Also, a spot still open in the Mentor Program I am doing for a few writers for the entire year of 2019. Information a few posts back if you are interested. — Another thing on this late…