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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…
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Various Stuff
Got A 5K Run In The Morning… So some quick stuff tonight. First off, still a spot, maybe two, in the mentor program. I might be convinced to go to four, but no more and right now there are two who are in. So still open. Write me if you want information. Information two posts back and it will be a lot of fun and learning, I can promise. Second, the January Regular Online Workshops are now on Teachable. Here is the list. Note they start on the 1st and 2nd. Class #1… Jan 1st … Depth #3: Research Class #2… Jan 1st … Author Voice Class #3… Jan 1st … Dialog…
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How to Think About a Challenge
New Year Is Coming… And many writers, me included, are starting to set up challenges to help us reach goals with our writing. But the question is how to make the goals large enough to be challenging and yet not set up for failure. So let me tell you how I do it, since I have started and backed off a challenge twice now that I will be starting for the third time on January 1st. I do not consider the two first false starts as failure. Not in the slightest, actually. They were learning. So that is point one… Never think about failure. Just think positive about the challenge…
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A Bunch of Workshops Moving to Classic
It Will Take Me A Week… But I will get them moved and announce which ones. I wanted to get a bunch moved before folks buying the writer Christmas Box had a chance to decide what to take in ten days. There will be more selection. Right now, this is the last day or so to sign up for the December Regular Workshops. They have all started last week but no too late except for a few of them, which I have pulled off the schedule. Jump in on Teachable. So the following ten are still available for another day or so. Then January workshops will be up and available and…