• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Running, Workshops, and Writing

    And Pretty Much in That Order… Got out of the house late and then had to run errands. Two banks and both of our stores. Then I spent an hour, with Kris’s help, getting myself so I could get some music over my bluetooth headphones from my phone. Then I headed to do my short run, which trust me, did not feel short or quick, even though it was only three-quarters of a mile. I made it, but it was not a pretty sight. Problem is I don’t have a pace or breathing down yet, so my pace was just under a 9 minute pace, way too fast to be…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    No Writing Tonight

    Just a Crazy Busy Day… It was a Monday. Errands from the moment I left the house until after five. Then workshop stuff at WMG, then home to do e-mail, take a nap, cook dinner, and then back on workshop assignments. Today and tomorrow has April workshops ending and May workshops starting assignments. Crazy amounts of stuff, plus doing some reading on the Strengths workshop and on the short story challenge. (Yes, still taking sign-ups on the Strength workshops.) Plus Kris gave me a brand new novella I wanted to get reading. Yeah, I have a tough life, reading stories. But alas, someone has to do it. (grin) But no writing…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Writing and Lost Track of Time

    You all know how that happens… I planned tonight to write one of the longer blogs on one of the questions from last week. So I’m banging along on a fiction project and I had taken a few breaks, but didn’t think to look at the clock until I realized it was 5:30 a.m. Those longer posts take me an hour or more, and a clear mind. Not happening at this moment. (grin) So soon. Time… when you are writing a story and having fun, it sure zips past. (grin) —————- FEBRUARY ONLINE WORKSHOPS Workshops start next Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes, it is February already. Still room in all of them, but…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Recommended Reading,  Topic of the Night

    Massive Numbers of Writing Things To Do

    Way Too Much To Do An amazing thing has happened to writers in this new world of publishing. We are all busy. Extremely busy, with to-do lists that stretch beyond any reality at times. I love this new aspect of writing and publishing. Completely love it. Why? Because it means I am in control. I have the control over all aspects of my writing and publishing. And I have accepted that control. (Amazing how many writers don’t accept the control.) Have you ever noticed in the real world that the person in control of something is usually the busiest person? I personally would rather be the person in control of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    More Running but No Writing

    More Running but No Writing Again today I spent most of my writing time working on workshop stuff. But in the middle of the day, Kris and I went out for a run. (She did all the running, actually) but I went along for a long walk (6 miles today) and one mile of that I also ran. I managed to run three quarter-mile legs with walking between, then three 1/8th mile legs with walking between. So today six miles total, one mile of which was running. I’ll take it because it felt like I can do this for the very first time. New Workshop and New Schedule Since a number…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Writing a Novel Quickly

    Here We Go Again Backed myself into a corner on getting a book finished, so need to do it quickly. So going to play here if you folks want to tag along and watch once again. Going to fire on finishing a novel from scratch, no outline, nothing, in seven days. Over 40,000 words. Going to use the same method as I did last time. Progression method. I want to see if it will work more than once for me. So minimum 3,000 words tomorrow, then add 1,000 words per day to the total needed for the day. Again, these are minimum words. What I want to do is be on…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops,  Writing in Public

    Sales Writing Problem

    Sales Writing Problem I want to talk for a moment about blurb writing. That is below in the topic of the night. Today I spent all afternoon (after walking) to work on workshops, then all evening, and also into the night. Just one of those days. No real writing today. But I am hoping to finish the novel tomorrow or Friday. And fire on the next novel. But I got over six miles in today on exercise. —————– Master Class Workshop. Since I worked on workshops all day, I figured I might as well give a plug to a coast workshop happening here from October 15th to late on the 22nd.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Bookstore and Writing

    Bookstore and Writing Worked in the afternoon in our new bookstore and wrote a bunch as well. ——- The Day Saturday so no real errands. Ended up in the new store working in the bookstore part of the new store for a few hours. Fantastic fun. Yeah, I know, paper books don’t sell anymore, but you need to tell that to all the people in the store today. (grin) Then I worked on workshop stuff, including the new Teams workshop. I’m having a blast doing that workshop and actually putting some things together myself. We have three people signed up for the teams workshop in July. Not even full at five…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Some Fantastic Writing Books!

    Writing Bundle Folks, there is a new writing bundle that just started with ten writing books. Two are mine. Another by Kris, another by Lawrence Block, another by Gerald Weinberg, another by JoAnna Penn, and so on. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one. I’ve read all but two of these books and trust me, they are worth a lot more than what you would pay in this bundle. Those of you who want to learn, this is the cheapest education you can get from people who know what they are talking about. The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle Here is Kris’s blog about the bundle: The Write Stuff…

  • On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night

    Topic of the Night: Making a Living Writing Short Fiction

    Can You Make a Living Writing Only Short Fiction? Every year or so I look at this topic once again, do the math, see if anything has changed over the last couple of years. And now, here in May 2016, things have changed some, but in my opinion it would still be possible to make a decent living writing only short fiction. Why do I like this topic? Actually, because I love short fiction, meaning any story under around 10,000 words. I love reading it and I love writing it. And doing this exercise is fun for me, even though no one will ever follow this path. Besides, I am…