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Too Many Hours
Too Many Hours Far, far, far too many hours in front of a computer today, not a bit of it writing. I got up and moved around regularly and rested my eyes, but didn’t even have time for a nap. So no writing tonight. Back at it tomorrow and back at Heinlein’s Rules as well. —— Anthology Workshop Notice Those in the anthology workshop, ten of you missed the first assignment. Second assignment is now posted. ——- THE DAY Got up early again, dealt with some business issues I didn’t want to have to ever deal with, then managed to get to the store and to WMG Publishing to…
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Heinlein’s Rules: Chapter Three
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing CHAPTER THREE Still working on rule number one. Rule #1: You Must Write. Back in 1982, when I climbed onto my challenge to use Heinlein’s Rules and write a story per week and mail each story every week, I had one major issue that I fought. Fear. No idea what I was afraid of, but the fear was real. On December 31st, 1981, my thinking was that every story had to be perfect, had to be worked over and over and before I dared send it out. And it had to be written slowly and carefully to be good. I believed…
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Heinlein’s Rules: Chapter One & Chapter Two
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing CHAPTER ONE For lack of a better way of putting it, Heinlein’s Rules allow you to get to the fun of being a writer. They also help us all remember we are entertainers. About a decade or so ago, I was asked by a professor of English at the University of Oregon to come talk to one of his advanced creative writing classes about the reality of being a full-time fiction writer. I had a hunch I was going to not do nice things to their brains. And I looked on that possibility as my sacred job description. But it turned…
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Learning is Attitude
Learning is Attitude Tonight, for the third night in a row, the storm hit again. Flooding all over the entire Pacific Northwest, and power was out here for three hours tonight. But now that the power is back on, I’ve decided to just go on as normal until it flickers and goes out again. After 20 years living here on the Oregon Coast, you get used to this, sadly. At least the power came back on after three hours. —– THE DAY Made it through the monsoon rains to the snail mail, the grocery store, and then to WMG Publishing around 2 p.m. for work on continuing to set…
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Heinlein’s Rules: Introduction
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing Introduction In almost 150 published novels (over one hundred with traditional publishers), I have always followed Heinlein’s Business Rules. And in hundreds and hundreds of short stories, I have followed the five rules as well. For well over thirty years now, actually, I have done my best to stay on Heinlein’s Rules. I must admit, I slipped at times, but I’ll explain why later on in the book. And how I climbed back on. So how did I get to these rules? A little about my personal story first. I started writing at the age of 24 in 1974. I had…
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Return on Assets
Return on Assets A number of very nice people who are deep into accounting and MBA reminded me today in letters and a couple of posts, that I was wrong as to what “Return on Investment” actually is. Well, sort of, and I forgot to do as I often do here to say, “I am talking in general to get the idea across to those without business and accounting experience. What I was actually talking about (realizing publishing and copyright is a very unique business in some ways) was Return on Assets, with your stories being assets. For those of you who don’t know what Return on Assets is, here…
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Figuring Writing Investment Return
Figuring Writing Investment Return The topic tonight comes from a couple people asking how a writer could figure ROI (Return on Investment) on their writing without following the numbers. More on that below. —— THE DAY Slept late, raining solidly here today. Nasty kind of rain, not our normal dump and then the sun comes out. I did errands, snail mail, bank, grocery store, other things, then got to WMG offices around 5 p.m. Worked there until 6:30 on Smith’s Monthly, then home to cook dinner, then back to WMG to work on Smith’s Monthly and do some work on the new store. Then home to do workshop assignments and…
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When Writers Face the Deadly Saying… “What’s the Point?”
Tonight’s Topic: When Writers Face the Deadly Saying… “What’s the Point?” This topic is the reason why I have been talking about the addiction to results and the other topics last week. This is how it manifests. Read those from last week and then read below. (Tomorrow I will go back over ROI and how it works with tracking money without numbers.) —— THE DAY Made it up to WMG Publishing around 1:30 to open up for the regular Sunday writer’s lunch. The restaurant we met in is moving, so until they reopen, we’re meeting at WMG in the kitchen and bringing our own lunches. Then I stayed around until almost…
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What Numbers You Need To Know
What Numbers You Need To Know A couple nights ago I did a blog about results addiction, the career-killing problem of watching numbers too much and other aspects of that addiction. I got a number of questions about what numbers are needed in an indie career, so below I’ll give you my opinion on a way to be a good business person without being addicted to numbers and taking those numbers into your writing. —— The New Workshops I was not clear on one thing last night about the workshops. The new workshop Plotting with Depth is now on the schedule through March. The older workshop we are bringing back,…
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Plotting With Depth Online Workshop Announced.
PLOTTING WITH DEPTH Online Workshop Announced Starting in December, two new online workshops. First, Plotting with Depth is now on the schedule. You must have taken the basic Depth workshop to take Plotting with Depth. Plotting with Depth is about the structure of all the openings throughout your novel, when to go deep with an opening, when to stay light, and how to hold a reader through a book by using Depth. One major area in this workshop is how chapter and scene openings differ from genre to genre. Critical to know how to hold your reader in your book. The Depth Online Workshop teaches how to get a reader down into your…