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.

I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful that is and how lucky I feel to have a friend like that. It was a wonderful dinner and great conversation in a beautiful restaurant looking out over the ocean.

I wonder if either of us ever thought when we first started hanging out together we would still be hanging around together fifty-plus years in the future. I sure didn’t, but only because I couldn’t see more than six months ahead back then, let alone five decades.

Sometimes it’s really nice to get a reminder about how lucky I really am.

Other things…

— Sent out the October online workshop letters. If you are in an October workshop and didn’t get a letter from me, write me off list. I had one person’s e-mail bouncing from both of my accounts.

— Patreon supporters will be getting two issues of Smith’s Monthly shortly.

— Kickstarter supporters will be getting surveys in a week or so about their rewards. Maybe two weeks. Going to take us some time to get them all together. And Kickstarter has yet to finalize everything.

———————

October Online Workshops Start On Tuesday

Click the workshop tab above for description and sign-up or go to www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com.

Questions about any of the workshops, feel free to write me.

All still have room at the moment.

Class #31… Oct 4th … The Business of Writing
Class #32… Oct 4th … Character Voice/Setting
Class #33… Oct 4th … Writing Mysteries
Class #34… Oct 4th … Speed
Class #35… Oct 4th … Teams in Fiction
Class #36… Oct 5th … Depth in Writing
Class #37… Oct 5th … Point of View
Class #38… Oct 5th … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #39… Oct 5th … Writing and Selling Short Stories
Class #40… Oct 5th … Advanced Depth

Classic Workshops and Lectures are also available at any time.

If you are wondering what order would be best to take some of these workshops, we have done a curriculum for the workshops. You can see that at https://deanwesleysmith.com/workshop-curriculum/

——————–

Totals For Year 4, Month 3, Day 2

Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,109

Total Miles This Month… 10 miles

— Daily Fiction: 00 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 00 words

— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 00 words

— Blog Posts: 200 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 200 words

— E-mail: 12 e-mails. Approx. 500 original words. E-mails month-to date: 20 e-mails. Approx. 800 words

— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 0 Covers

———-

— Year of Short Fiction Goal: 120 stories (July 1st to June 30th). Stories finished to date: 8 stories.

— Yearly Novel Goal: 12 Novels. Novels finished to date: 2 novels.

——–

You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Thanks for your support.

7 Comments

Prasenjeet

October 4, 2016 at 12:58 am

Hi Dean. I came across a book called “Writing Fiction for Dummies” by by Peter Economy and Randy Ingermanson. Any idea whether the book is good for beginner writers?

Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Dummies-Peter-Economy-ebook/dp/B002XGICAO/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

dwsmith

October 4, 2016 at 1:56 am

Not a clue. But the key is to look at the authors bios. If they have been writing fiction for twenty years and both of them are over twenty or thirty novels, then it might have some value. I don’t know anything about either of them to be honest, so check them out. That’s how you tell if a writing book has value.
- Prasenjeet
  
  October 4, 2016 at 7:37 am
  
  Thank you so much. 🙂

Prasenjeet

October 4, 2016 at 7:57 am

Hi Dean. I had a look at the two author bios. One has only written guide books of all kinds including MBA guides, housing guides and how to make money type of guides. No experience in fiction writing. The other one has written seven novels, his bio doesn’t say how long he has been writing fiction. So, as you say, I am staying clear of them. 🙂 I guess the same logic should be applied to developmental editors as well.

dwsmith

October 4, 2016 at 1:41 pm

Why would you need a “developmental” editor, whatever the hell that is???? Why not believe in your own art, your own writing, and let the readers decide. We all need, however, a copyeditor to help clear out typos.
- Prasenjeet
  
  October 4, 2016 at 10:51 pm
  
  Exactly. 🙂 Another thing I’ve noticed is that an author needs to have twenty years of experience (in your opinion) before beginner writers should take their advice seriously. So just the number of novels published is not sufficient in your opinion. What’s really the difference between an author who has published 30 novels in five years than an author who has published the same number of novels in 20 years?
  - dwsmith
    
    October 5, 2016 at 12:51 am
    
    Twenty years if they have been a bestseller. Anyone could write twenty novels in one year and know nothing about the craft. You survive through everything in this business for twenty years and you can maybe learn how to relay some of that survival.

Prasenjeet

October 4, 2016 at 12:58 am

Hi Dean. I came across a book called “Writing Fiction for Dummies” by by Peter Economy and Randy Ingermanson. Any idea whether the book is good for beginner writers?

Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Dummies-Peter-Economy-ebook/dp/B002XGICAO/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=
- dwsmith
  
  October 4, 2016 at 1:56 am
  
  Not a clue. But the key is to look at the authors bios. If they have been writing fiction for twenty years and both of them are over twenty or thirty novels, then it might have some value. I don’t know anything about either of them to be honest, so check them out. That’s how you tell if a writing book has value.
  - Prasenjeet
    
    October 4, 2016 at 7:37 am
    
    Thank you so much. 🙂
Prasenjeet

October 4, 2016 at 7:57 am

Hi Dean. I had a look at the two author bios. One has only written guide books of all kinds including MBA guides, housing guides and how to make money type of guides. No experience in fiction writing. The other one has written seven novels, his bio doesn’t say how long he has been writing fiction. So, as you say, I am staying clear of them. 🙂 I guess the same logic should be applied to developmental editors as well.
- dwsmith
  
  October 4, 2016 at 1:41 pm
  
  Why would you need a “developmental” editor, whatever the hell that is???? Why not believe in your own art, your own writing, and let the readers decide. We all need, however, a copyeditor to help clear out typos.
  - Prasenjeet
    
    October 4, 2016 at 10:51 pm
    
    Exactly. 🙂 Another thing I’ve noticed is that an author needs to have twenty years of experience (in your opinion) before beginner writers should take their advice seriously. So just the number of novels published is not sufficient in your opinion. What’s really the difference between an author who has published 30 novels in five years than an author who has published the same number of novels in 20 years?
    - dwsmith
      
      October 5, 2016 at 12:51 am
      
      Twenty years if they have been a bestseller. Anyone could write twenty novels in one year and know nothing about the craft. You survive through everything in this business for twenty years and you can maybe learn how to relay some of that survival.