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Getting the New Look of This Site Together
New Look Coming Not much tonight other than I have been really getting some great help and some good discussion over the last few days about this site. And ways to clear the clutter and get it better focused and functioning. So not only will I be hitting the writing hard starting next week, but will be making changes here. And doing more writing blogs because I’m learning a lot this week. So nothing tonight. Too late and I have to be up too early to say anything sane. (grin) But fun stuff getting planned. ———————- November Online Workshops Click the workshop tab above for description and sign-up or go…
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Trust the Reader
Trust the Reader I have a hunch that the phrase “trust the reader” is going to come out of my mouth a lot this week. Just guessing. What exactly does that mean in general? Basically, it means to let the readers decide if something you wrote works or not. How do they decide? They spend money on it. If it doesn’t work, they won’t buy it. Trust the reader. Sounds so simple, but for most writers, almost impossible, if not flat impossible. Writers have this ego thing that makes them think they are the best judges of their own work. And, of course, no story is ever perfect, so writers…
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Workshop type of day
Workshop type of day Short post tonight. Been working on different things with workshops all day. Kind of surprised that so very few are signed up yet for the November online workshops. Too many things going on in the world I suppose. My focus has been taken for a short time for a personal reason, but it is interesting how I am noticing almost across the board that other writers’ focuses are off as well. In one week I will be back at full speed on the writing, but I have no explanation for why it seems across the board (workshops are only a minor sign) that this October is…
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Fun Day
Fun Day Worked on first the master class, then recorded another week of the POV workshop, then home to cook dinner, take a nap, and work more on the master class stuff. Great fun. This workshop is going to be a real challenge and the POV workshop is already a real challenge to try to present such a vast area of information and techniques and have it make sense. So I am challenged and when I am challenged, I have fun. The Point of View workshop is also offered in November, but trust me, you don’t want to even try it without the depth workshop first. — This is a…
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A Celebration
A Celebration I want to have the 36th issue out of Smith’s Monthly this month. (Go ahead, try to wrap your brain around that. A novel, four or five short stories, serial novel, all mine, every month for 36 months. Yeah, go ahead, imagine doing that. (grin)) Why this month? Because this is the 36th month since the first Smith’s Monthly came out. So since the writing is slow at the moment due to massive amounts of other things which will clear shortly, I decided to put my entire first published novel, Laying the Music to Rest, in the 36th issue. Thought that would be cool. I had been serializing the…
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New Stuff
New Stuff As I said yesterday, I drove to Salt Lake and spent a few fun days at a great romance writers conference there. Well run, lots of great writers. It was an honor to be invited. I ended up teaching two classes, one about indie and one about business. Of course, both topics are so large an hour didn’t begin to start to cover either topic. But tried to cover some basics and then opened it up for questions. Got some great questions. What I noticed the most and that was the most fun for me was being around so many writers hungry to learn. That hunger is infectious.…
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Getting Refocused
Getting Refocused Sometimes, when the world hits with far too many things, we all lose focus. I am no exception to that. But I am pretty good at getting refocused. So I have two major things I am going to refocus on. I have a marathon I want to at least start in November, so over the next weeks I need to give that some top focus. So that’s first. Very short term. So for the next month I will be reporting at times and doing some more videos on the marathon progress. That starts on Wednesday (today as you read this, tomorrow for me). Second, going to be bringing…
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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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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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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.…