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Dinner With Friends
Dinner With Friends Writers meeting at 2 this afternoon, a planning meeting afterwards, some exercise, and then dinner with friends, which was the highlight of the day. I am stunningly lucky. I still have friends from my days in junior high. I have known one of the friends I had dinner with tonight for more than fifty years. And my friend would just tell you that my being a writer was not something ever on my radar back then. I was a golfer and skier. And I hated writing. But no matter what crazy thing over the years I have done, this old friend just shakes his head and supports me.…
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Point of View
Point of View As I said yesterday, Kris and I took a day off and drove into the valley, an hour to two hour drive, depending where you go from the coast. And along the way we were talking and brainstorming about the new online workshop Point of View. I was telling her what I saw from beginning writers since she doesn’t see beginning writers much with what she teaches and edits these days. I was telling her about the character having “thoughts” like … I wished I was there, he thought… A huge viewpoint problem if not done right in a story. And I was telling her that I…
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Workshop Finished Here On The Coast
Workshop Finished Here Today was the last day of the Historical, Time Travel, and Alternate History workshop here at the coast, taught by Kris. What a fantastic group of writers who attended from all over the world. Kris was the instructor on this one, so I played behind-the-scenes support, but last night I got to read a group of stories from them because Kris wanted me to be reader feedback. I was impressed and got to give them my feedback today. Some of the most innovative ideas came out of there and I got a hunch I’m going to be seeing a lot of those stories as parts of new…
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Running Breakthrough
Running Breakthrough As I have talked about since the first of this month, I am in training to try to finish a marathon in November. I started this over twenty pounds heavier on July 1st and have been slowly and carefully working my way toward that goal of starting that race. Very, very carefully since I was overweight and have bad knees. My goal is to run/walk the marathon. I want to say that right from the start. Actually my goal is starting. Finishing is sort of a distant dream. I respect that distance. But after today it feels a little closer. I had planned on upping my daily milage…
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A Workshop Day
Workshop Day I spent most of today, in one fashion or another, on workshops. For those of you who missed it, the workshops now have a curriculum, or at least a suggested order to take them. That is under the Workshop Curriculum tab at the top of the page. The entire things is broken down into core workshops, business workshops, craft workshops, and genre workshops to make them easier to find. I also in two areas suggest order and what you should take first. And for those of you who signed up for workshops through our Kickstarter drive, the first week of October I’ll send out a survey through Kickstarter…
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Back To Regular Fun
Back to Regular Fun We hit the final hours of the Kickstarter this afternoon and it finished strong. Wow, just wow. Thank you, everyone. And through Kickstarter, when everything is done on their side, I will send out to everyone a survey for the information we need to fulfill the rewards, including the workshop and lecture stuff. That will happen in the first week of October. So now I want to get my focus back on three things. First, I am doing my best to ramp up my running. Second, I want to talk about the two fantastic bundles I have books in. And third, back to the novel and some…
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Just Hours Left!!
Just Hours Left! The only has eleven hours left as I write this around 4 a.m. Pacific Time. What is in the subscription drive? Discounted subscriptions, of course, on Fiction River and Fiction River Presents. Both electronic and paper. We are also offering a package of writing books. And discounted lectures and discounted online workshops. And since we have hit the fourth stretch goal, even if you sign up for a workshop you get four free books as well as a Fiction River subscription. That’s right… FOUR FREE BOOKS for the support. Discounts on Workshops! Numbers of people have taken advantage of either the single workshop or the three workshop package.…
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One Day Left
One Day Left! The only has one day left. What is in the subscription drive? Discounted subscriptions, of course, on Fiction River and Fiction River Presents. Both electronic and paper. We are also offering a package of writing books. And discounted lectures and discounted online workshops. And since we have hit the fourth stretch goal, even if you sign up for a workshop you get four free books as well as a Fiction River subscription. That seems to be very popular, getting workshops at a discount. I have just put up a curriculum for the workshops to help writers focus on what to take first and so on, since so many have taken…
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Workshop Curriculum
Workshop Curriculum 9/19/2016 I’m going to divide these down into areas of study. And the numbers are my suggestions on the order to take these workshops because many of them build on others. FOUNDATION COURSES 1… Depth 2… Advanced Depth (Depth required) 3… Plotting with Depth (Depth required) 4… Teams (Depth suggested to help) 5… Advanced Character and Dialog 6… Point of View (Depth suggested) 7… Author Voice (Depth suggested strongly, as well as Advanced Depth) 8… Pacing 9… Cliffhanger These nine workshops will jump you so far ahead in your writing skills, you won’t be able to see it, but your friends and readers will. And I know, interesting that Teams workshop…
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Two Days Left
Two Days Left! The only has two days left. And as I did this and posted it, we hit $20,000 and our fourth stretch goal. Wow, just wow!! What is in the subscription drive? Discounted subscriptions, of course, on Fiction River and Fiction River Presents. Both electronic and paper. And for the first time we are even offering lifetime subscriptions. We are also offering a package of writing books. And discounted lectures and discounted online workshops. That seems to be very popular, getting workshops at a discount. I have just put up a curriculum for the workshops to help writers focus on what to take first and so on, since so many have…