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Anthology and Craft In-Person Workshops…
Only Six Spots Left in Anthology Workshop… The anthology workshop is a really fun workshop (held this year for the first time since the pandemic). In April and May you write four short stories for four different live anthologies. Then four or five editors will be reading stories and actually talking about them and buying them for live anthologies right there in front of everyone. The editors will talk about why a story works or does not work for them. Fantastic learning listening to professional editors disagree. And every writer attending will have read everyone else’s stories, but can’t say a word. Only the editor’s opinions matter. This is amazing…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 9…
Bad Choices by the Writer… In previous parts of this series, I have been talking about why I will stop reading a story. I have mostly focused on craft issues in the telling of the story. Craft issues can be solved with learning and study and putting a lot of words through your fingers (combined at the same time with the learning and study). But for this part, I want to talk about the lack of understanding by the reader of two major elements of commercial fiction… 1…THERE ARE READERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORDS… In the early stages of writing, writers only focus on the words and…
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New Regular Workshop
Using Paradox in Your Fiction… This is a new regular workshop starting February 7th. It will be available as a regular workshop for at least six months. It is on Teachable. As we said last fall, we will be adding in a bunch of new regular workshops this year. This is the first. Here is the basic description… Learn how to use the concept of paradox in your fiction writing. Paradox pits two seemingly unrelated elements together, which by the very nature creates great stories and tension. Nothing in great fiction is ever what it seems. And in fiction, if it is, that is boring and boring is deadly to…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 8…
The Problems I Talked About in the First Parts… Are still the majority of why I pass on a story, or why a story does not hold me as a reader. No depth, information flow, wrong character and so on. But the last couple of days I found and remembered a couple of other things. Now, understand, there are no real rules in writing. If you are a skilled enough storyteller, you can make just about anything work for readers. But the key part of that is “skilled storyteller.” So really skilled writers can make these two problems work. Writing in Second Person… You know, the writer got so arty,…
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Last Day of Lifetime Sale…
All Lifetime Subscriptions Half Off… One More Day!!! Only lifetime subscriptions. Not any of the bundles or anything else. Just the five lifetime subscriptions. Use the code: LIFETIMESALE At half price, they are very good deals, especially the Lifetime Everything. And if you have another lifetime subscription, I can take a little more off that Everything price. Write me for details. February Regular Workshops Are Posted… See the list to the right. They start next Tuesday. Also the Writing Safe Mystery Stories special workshop second session has started today. FIFTY YEARS OF LEARNING… This year marks 50 years since I sold my first two short stories (and started selling a…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 7…
Buying Stories Can Really Slow An Editor Down… Here is what happens when I find a story I want to buy. First off, the writer makes me read all the way to the end and I like the story and it fits Pulphouse. Great! Always fun and exciting for me. But then I can’t just go back to reading. Why? Because I would be comparing the new story to the great last one I just read, and that would not be fair to the next writer in line. I really, really work to give every writer who sends in a story the exact same chance. Just the same as I…
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Sale and Classes
All Lifetime Subscriptions Half Off… Just through the end of January. Only a few more days. Only lifetime subscriptions. Not any of the bundles or anything else. Just the five lifetime subscriptions. Use the code: LIFETIMESALE At half price, they are very good deals, especially the Lifetime Everything. And if you have another lifetime subscription, I can take a little more off that Everything price. Write me for details. Fun New Class… This year marks 50 years since I sold my first two short stories (and started selling a lot of poetry as well.) Over those 50 years, I was stunningly lucky to have some amazing mentors (who also became…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 6…
Kris and I Have Fun Brainstorming… These days it is usually over lunch, working out stuff we need to talk about in a workshop. (We never talk about our own writing… just never… she has no idea what I am working on and I have no idea what she is working on… You all should protect your own writing in the same way.) But we do talk a lot about publishing and teaching, all the time actually. Tonight I was sitting here at my business computer, getting ready to work on a publishing product when Kris walked by and mentioned the series of Editing and Observations I have been doing.…
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Editing and Reading Observations… Part 5…
Kris Gave Me This One… And I noticed it right off the last few nights of reading after she mentioned it. This one is a little more advanced than just needing to add depth or pacing or information flow. This one is “Why should the reader care?” Be honest with yourself. You have read or started to read a book or story and just shrugged. and put the book down. And the best sign of this problem is that the reader can’t remember anything that happened in the story just shortly before. The reader just doesn’t care. The writing might be fine, good depth fine pacing and so on. But…
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Introduction to A Class About Learning…
A FIFTY YEAR PERSPECTIVE OF LEARNING… As I said last night, this year marks 50 years since I sold my first two short stories (and started selling a lot of poetry as well.) Over those 50 years, I was stunningly lucky to have some amazing mentors (who also became friends.) Jack Williamson, Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Algis Budrys, Harlan Ellison, Frederick Pohl, Julius Schwartz, and others. As I said, stunningly lucky. So I figured that since I am still around after 50 years of selling fiction and they all told me a lot of great stuff, I am going to do a nine-week class talking about and telling stories about…