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Running Picture and Cat Picture
After Laughing at a Beginning Writer’s Ego… In the last post, I figured I had better post two pictures. First one is of my hoping to the heavens after running over six miles that someone will meet me in about fifty steps on the other side of the finish line with a wheelchair. No one did. First 3.1 miles was all uphill. Oh, my… Second picture is of our cat Cheeps looking as handsome as ever.
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Writers Blaming Editors
Funniest Thing I Have Read… Now granted, for most beginning writers, if they read a writer blaming an editor for a rejection, they would nod sagely and say, “Yeah, editors just don’t get me either.” Uh….no. More than likely your story didn’t work. Or it didn’t fit what the editor was looking for in their magazine, or the editor had just bought a story similar to it two weeks earlier, or… or… or… But blaming an editor because the editor did not “see” how really deep your subtext was on page seven and your nifty plot twist on page twenty… Uh… no. And I bet if you are thinking like…
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New Regular Workshops
THE SCHEDULE THROUGH APRIL Here is the next four months of online regular workshops. January is available to sign up now on Teachable. I will also get up February and March fairly shortly as well for sign-ups. Three new workshops included. Starting in January: WRITING ROMANCE. Starting in February: FLOATING VIEWPOINTS Starting in March: MAKING A LIVING Here we go into 2020. Class #1… Jan 7th … WRITING ROMANCEClass #4… Jan 7th … Writing into the DarkClass #5… Jan 7th … Writing Sales CopyClass #6… Jan 8th … Depth in WritingClass #7… Jan 8th … Writing Short StoriesClass #9… Jan 8th… Writing with EmotionClass #10… Jan 8th… Advanced Depth Class…
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Rejections
Most Beginning Writers Think of Rejection Wrong… And for some reason, lately, I’ve been noticing that more and more. And finally, today, after hearing issues with rejections from three different writers, I finally decided I needed to say something here. Let me say this as simply as I can: Rejections are positive. That’s right, they are the best indicator in building a publishing career that you are doing a lot of things right. — You are mailing your stories to editors to try to advance your career and get great advertisement for your indie work. — You are trying new things, pushing your own limits, working to be a better…
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A BUNCH OF WORKSHOP BUNDLES
And I Mean a Bunch!!… And some of these bundles would make fantastic holiday gifts for your writer friends. Or for yourself. And they are all less than buying each item on its own. And they can all be found on Teachable. So going to list them right here, just for fun. To start, there are four different Lifetime Subscriptions…. Workshops. Lectures. Study Along. Las Vegas. Then for the Pop-Ups, there are both 5 and 10 bundles. There is a bundle of the four Futures Workshops, maybe four of the best workshops we have done. There is a bundle of three Negotiations Lectures. And an Advanced Business Lectures bundle. And…
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Fun New Workshops
New Pop-Up and A Romance Workshop Fun day today. I have two new workshops up and available, plus all of January Regular workshops are available for sign-up now. LOCKED ROOM MYSTERIES Pop-up #17 is now available. I love locked-room mysteries, but there is not enough about them to fill a six-week workshop without getting into extreme depth of topic, so tips on how to write locked-room mysteries fit perfectly in a Pop-Up. And it is also in the bundle of Pop-Ups #11-20. Second, I put up the new regular workshops for January, starting on the 7th. And the first workshop in January is Writing Romance. All are available right now.…
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Real Life Sensory Lesson
But Taste is So Hard!… I get that all the time from writer after writer who always seem to be under the misunderstanding that to taste something, the character must actually be chewing on something. Nope. So when I say use all five senses every five hundred words in a story to really add in character and depth, the complaint about taste comes popping up. So here is what happened today… Kris and I had walked to a great lunch spot in the Arts District of Las Vegas. Day was warm, not too hot, sun was out, flowers blooming along the sidewalks. (Yes, flowers bloom here in the winter.) For…
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Writer Delusion
There Are Numbers of Them… But only going to talk about one at the moment. However, just like myths, writers have many, many delusions that hold them back. Delusion: A fiction writer knows for a fact they can write good sales copy. Reason for the Delusion: After all, they are fiction writers and it is their story. Fact: I know of maybe a handful of fiction writers who know how to write good sales copy. And not one New York fiction editor. But most writers have the delusion that they can write sales copy, the second most important element in sales after the cover. And then wonder why their books…
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Anthology Workshop News and A Cat Picture
On Teachable Now for Assignments If you are in the anthology workshop and did not get a letter from me tonight (Sunday) on how to get into the anthology workshop on Teachable to get the third assignment, write me. ANOTHER RUN… Two in two days, although the Santa Run wasn’t much of a push because with that many people, running was almost impossible. Too much fun, anyway. But today was another matter. I was up before the sun came up and we were going off the starting line in Henderson at 8 am. Cold, wind in our faces, and uphill for exactly 1.5 miles. Without a break. Brutal. But I…
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Promised Pictures of Craziness
10,000 or More Santas… In one place. Running and walking 5K. At one point about four blocks into the run, I climbed up on some courthouse steps. As far as I could see in both lanes of Las Vegas Blvd, headed toward the Strip, were Santas. And as far as I could see, stretching back into downtown Las Vegas and Fremont Street, there were Santas. Kids in Santa suits, dogs in Santa suits, all sizes of humans in Santa Suits. We did this last year and that was one of the first moments I knew I was going to love this crazy city more than I already had over the…