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Read All Night
Workshops and Reading All Day… Now I have to admit, not a bad way to spend a day. I finished Kris’s new Diving Universe novel just a short time ago (sun is coming up). It is stunning and is going to make every Diving fan happy, trust me. Made me happy. (grin) I also worked on workshops at WMG and tonight here. And read some challenge stories and novels earlier in the evening. No writing. I will be back writing solidly on the new novel on Monday or Tuesday. But I did get the steps back up over 10,000 steps and the weight is coming off, those last pesky 15…
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Slow and Fun Day
DOING LOTS OF READING… I spent a lot of today either working on corporation taxes at the WMG offices or reading. Mostly reading. I am not only reading the stories and novels for the summer challenge, but Kris has a new Diving Universe novel that has been sitting near my reading chair for a week. I have been dying to read it. So I do some novel reading on the challenge, then Kris gives me this incredible mystery story to read. Actually a novella. So I ended up reading that, then taking a break, then reading some of the Diving Universe novel, which is stunningly good. It was everything I…
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Just Getting Ready For July
Clearing Decks and Ramping Up… Getting ready to write four novels in one month takes some thought. Not on the books. Haven’t thought about those at all. But on time and life. First off, I got 11,000 steps today, about 5.5 miles for me. Ramping up. My plan (if it works, a huge if) is doing 11,000 steps a day while writing book #1. Then do 12,000 steps a day while writing book #2. Then 13,000 steps a day while writing book #3, and 14,000 steps a day while writing book #4. So mostly I have been working on how the time is going to work out. Actually I have…
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Why Is The Strengths Workshop Hard?
A Couple People Asked That Question Today… I will be announcing the new Strengths workshops (yes, there are more than one this time). And I said in the comment yesterday we don’t do these except once every few years because they are so difficult ON ME AND KRIS. Kris and I have writing to do, a business to run, life to enjoy. We contain our help of other writers to our blogs and to the online workshops and only four coast workshops a year. It might seem like a lot from the outside, but actually it’s not bad from our side. However, to do service to the writers signing up…
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Another Scam Firing Up
This Scam Starts in Traditional Publishing… It’s brand new, but I fear it will spread. Writers are that afraid. So what is this new scam? Sensitivity Readers. Not kidding you. Traditional publishers are hiring “sensitivity readers” to read books before they are bought or published. Wow, the amount of stupidity has just hit a new level in publishing, far higher than my cyclical belief thought it could. You can find the article and read it yourself if you want to be disgusted. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-publishers-hiring-book-readers-to-flag-sensitivity-20170215-story.html Sadly, some people will hire themselves out to do this and new writers are going to buy into this scam just as they bought into the scam of needing…
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Official Approval Fear
Did I Get it Right?… What a stupid, silly, useless question when it comes to writing stories. And yet… That one question covers some of the largest fears that fiction writers have. I got some of these expressed in the questions from last week. Thanks everyone. So let me see if I can make some sense out of all this… —Wondering if they got it right (fearing that they didn’t) makes beginning writers often spend thousands on book doctors or some other editor term, almost always from a person who has never published a word. —Wondering if they got it right (fearing that they didn’t) makes beginning writers rewrite the…
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Courage in a World of Artistic Freedom
Artistic Freedom From a Different Perspective… Last week I did three posts about the artistic freedom that all fiction writers have in this new world. Artistic freedom, at its base level, means the freedom to pick your own path in fiction writing, write what you want to write for whatever reasons you want to write it, and be responsible at the same time for your own mistakes. Artistic freedom means having the choice to try to chase a traditional big-five book deal, even though the consequences of catching that brass ring is loss of the book and massive frustration. Artistic freedom means you can write whatever novel or story you want.…
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Writing to Market… Timing
Artistic Freedom Part Three… I got some great comments on yesterdays post on this topic, but a few people, both in the comments and in private e-mails to me are confused about what I mean exactly about not writing to market. I finish my work, don’t I? Isn’t that a form of writing to market? Nope. I try to sell what I do write. Is that a form of writing to market? Nope. What I have been attempting to say is this: When you decide, before you have written a word, to do a project because you think it will sell (because you know more than anyone about selling books,…
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Automatic Confidence
Topic of the Night: Automatic Confidence Lots and lots of writers get lost in the process of publishing between the moment they finish their story or novel and the moment it gets into print in one fashion or another. Getting lost in this area often comes from a lack of confidence. And fear. Massive fear. Not sure what writers are afraid of, but sometimes releasing a work for a writer is like walking into nests of spiders. Or worse. This lack of confidence and fear leads to either not publishing or rewriting, which is a form of not publishing. So here tonight is an idea for you, something I call Automatic Confidence. A…
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A Little More Running
A Little More Running A very busy day today, as was expected after a long weekend. And from all the people I ran into in the banks and post office, I wasn’t the only one having a busy day. But still managed, even though it was raining a little, to meet Kris at the lower parking garage for the mall and do some running and walking while she ran the entire time. She’s way ahead of me on this running thing. Way, way ahead. And a lot smarter about it as well. I am down 17 pounds from July 1st, but still too heavy to push the running too…