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Typing Fast vs Being Prolific
Two Very Different Things… I know a ton of writers who can type and write per hour a lot faster than me. In fact half the writers taking the Speed workshop ended up being a lot faster hour-by-hour writers than I am. So how in 2017 did I write seventeen novels and about sixty short stories and very, very few other writers did that much, not counting all the blogs and editing I did? The answer: I spend more time in the chair. And I have cleared out the myths. I honestly don’t care what you think of Bob Ross, folks. But in two posts my writing was called “happy…
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Killing Another Sacred Cow… Having Fun Makes Your Writing Bad
Having Fun Equals Writing Poorly… Wow, I flat hadn’t seen that one before until a couple of really insulting comments on my blog I did about Mariah Carey having fun. Then it dawned on me that I bet a lot of writers think that if something is fun to do, it can’t have value, that it can’t be any good. Check in with yourself to see if you are one of those folks. Then ask yourself where you learned that myth. I know the myth about you must “struggle for your art” and that happy BS. But I had never flipped that slimy rock over and looked at the other…
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Having Fun Advice
On The Voice… As always, lots of great advice that can be directly related to writing. But this week, Mariah Carey, who was advising all the singers at this level, told two young girls the following… “If you are going to devote your life to a music career, you also need to devote your life to having fun with it as well.” Mariah Carey on The Voice. I know many of you get tired of me constantly saying over and over to have fun with your writing. I know that goes against the myth that sitting alone in a room and telling stories is “hard work.” And that many of you…
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Back to Writing
Got Some Details and Schedule Figured Out… Finally… So this morning I managed a couple thousand words, a slowish day for me, but a bunch more than I have done in this setting before. And it felt right and felt like I was finally in the right spot with the right timing. So I guess I have finally made, after more than a month, the transformation from a late-night writer to a morning writer. Trust me, folks, that trick wasn’t easy for this old dog. And starting on Thursday, I will be mailing everyone who is following along with the 100 day challenge a letter again on the first day…
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2019 Anthology Workshop and 2019 Master Business Class
Both Have Openings… Over the next few days I will be starting the 2019 Anthology Workshop group list. And sending out hotel information and first story information. Now granted, the workshop doesn’t happen until March 1st through 5th in Las Vegas. But there is three weeks of writing three stories at the end of November and early December, then time off for the holidays, then three more weeks of writing in January. Then a lot of reading. So really the workshop starts at the end of November. So time is almost up. That’s right, for the anthology workshop you will write six short stories to specific guidelines for real markets.…
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Future Workshop Series Now Available
A Really Fun Series of Workshops… We spend so much time on all these workshops helping writers become better storytellers and better at business, but we haven’t spent that much time helping writers deal with their futures and the future of their writing business. And to be honest, we get really tired of writers spending all the time to learn craft and the business and then not know how to sustain and end up gone in a few years. The problem was the topic was so huge, we didn’t know where to start. We first boiled it down to six different six-week workshops. Finally we managed to get it to…
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Running Fun?
Still Totally Exhausted… But Kris and I were signed up for this Halloween 5k run this morning, so even though I had no energy at all, I managed to crawl out of bed at 6 a.m. and be going through a starting gate at 8 a.m. On the other side of the valley. Great costumes. I was so slow, at one point I was passed by a very overweight man wearing an alligator suit with a long tail. He said in a very friendly manner as he went past, “Let’s go!” I would have kicked him in the tail, but I was too tired and he was too fast. But…
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No Time
Watching World Series… 17 Innings and still going, so used all my blog time for that and still didn’t get to see the end, since I have to be up early for a run tomorrow. And I don’t even much like baseball on television or either team for that matter. But 17 innings. Wow, that was fun to watch for a time. Maybe a better blog finally tomorrow.
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No Real Brain Yet
Hold On… If I owe you an email from the last week I should be able to get to you tomorrow (Friday). Sorry for the delay. I had far too much fun in this workshop and learned far too much stuff and my brain just wants to veg. And I would not have done this much without this silly blog streak.
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While I Recover My Brain
Here is a Fun Video… Or a better way of putting it… Writer’s at Play… On the last night of the Master Business Class workshop, four instructors and three attending writers decided to go on the Fremont Street Zip Line in Las Vegas. Back at the party in the Golden Nugget Hotel the others kept up with our progress through texts I was sending back. And many came down to watch us fly over when the time came. I decided to get a helmet camera to film it all. Christina F. York, the science fiction and mystery writer was one of our instructors. She is in the middle with two…