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Results Addiction
Results As An Addiction Over the decades I have watched a certain problem stop writer after writer from having a career. The problem is a focus on results. See below. —— THE DAY Made it to the WMG meeting by a little after 2 p.m., then spent an hour or so up at the WMG offices, leaving around 5 p.m. to combine grocery shopping with getting my 10,000 steps for the day. Since all the stuff over the last few days, I didn’t expect to get much writing done and I didn’t. I cooked dinner, took a very long nap, watched some television, then watched more television. Then made it…
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Learning in 25 Books
LEARNING IN 25 BOOKS That’s right, here comes the NaNoWriMo challenge starting up in November. And last year I was lucky enough to be a part of a bundle of how-to-write books. This year, I am lucky enough to be a part of that bundle again with the How To Write Fiction Sales Copy book. 13 books this year, plus the 12 from last year are all being offered together. You can get the new bunch, or for $25.00 you can get all 25 writing books from both years. And the new group includes Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman and also the impossible-to-find Writing to the Point by Algis Budrys.…
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Learning (A Newsletter-Like Post)
LEARNING Did some learning today that was darned cool. I’ll talk about it below in topics. —— THE DAY Running around the entire day, from an early meeting around 1:30 p.m. to two more meetings and then Kris and I headed down the coast to Newport to get some supplies and have dinner down there. Left the house around 1 p.m. and didn’t get back in here and done running around until almost ten p.m. That’s silly. Then did e-mail and took a very short nap before going to watch some television. Back in here around 1 a.m. to write. I sat down and off I went and I’ll be…
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The Dream is Not Going to Just Come to Me
“The Dream is Not Going to Just Come to Me” Maybe one of the smartest things ever said by any artist on The Voice. And yet I run into writers all the time who think if they just do some writing for a few years, if they put up a few books, the dream of being a professional writer will just magically come to them. And those people quickly get discouraged and vanish into What-Ever-Happened-To? land. I admire the writers who just keep going, just keep learning, just keep doing their best to get better and find out how to chase the dream, especially in this new world where the…
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Sales Numbers: Part Three
Sales Numbers: Part Three That’s the topic of the night below. —— November Workshops Now Listed Spent some time today working on getting the November workshops all set on the different sites. I think the November list is the best list of workshops we have ever offered. Each regular workshop is six weeks long and takes about 3-4 hours per week to do at your own pace and your own time. The new workshop starting in November is titled: ADVANCED DIALOG. All workshops have openings. Class #41… Nov 2nd … Pitches and Blurbs Class #42… Nov 2nd … How to Write Thrillers Class #43… Nov 2nd … Adding Suspense to Your Writing Class #44… Nov 2nd … Advanced…
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Sales Numbers: Part Two
Sales Numbers: Part Two More on sales numbers below in the topic section. — It is now last call for October Online Workshops. Still room and time to sign up. Remember, the workshop only take about 3-4 hours of your time each week at your own pace. And even if the workshop started on Monday, you can still sign up. Not behind at all. Class #31… Oct 5th … Advanced Depth Class #32… Oct 5th … Character Voice/Setting Class #33… Oct 5th … Pacing Your Novel Class #34… Oct 5th … Ideas into Stories Class #35… Oct 6th … Character Development Class #36… Oct 6th … Depth in Writing Class #37… Oct 6th … Making a Career…
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Sales Numbers
Sales Numbers Kris is doing much better. Learning how to get around the house in her knee brace and crutches. So great there. She thanks everyone for the well-wishes. And her attitude about this is great. — It is now last call for October Online Workshops. Still room and time to sign up. Remember, the workshop only take about 3-4 hours of your time each week at your own pace. And even if the workshop started on Monday, you can still sign up. Not behind at all. Class #31… Oct 5th … Advanced Depth Class #32… Oct 5th … Character Voice/Setting Class #33… Oct 5th … Pacing Your Novel Class #34… Oct 5th ……
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Pulp Speed Post Brought Back
Pulp Speed (I wrote this post about a year ago but wanted to bring it forward because people ask me about it. Here it is again) I’ve mentioned this concept a number of times on my nightly blog and in the Topic of the Night little sections. But since Pulp Speed was almost impossible in the new traditional world, it belongs as a post in this series. Not at all sure why this idea sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths. A writer has to have all myths under control to even attempt this. So this post might just make you…
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Ten Stupid Writer Business Practices
Because I had a wonderful and long conversation today with a friend who has been a major business lawyer for forty years in the real world, I decided to do this post. The conversation with someone who understands real business was refreshing after spending most of my time around writers who actively ignore sane business practices. So in no particular order, here are ten of the really head-shaking business practices writers do that would be laughed at in any real-world business setting. 1… Give 15% of a piece of property for the life of the property to a person who does a few chores. (I call it giving the gardner 15%…
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How to Write Fiction Sales Copy: Chapter Nine (Last)
HOW TO WRITE FICTION SALES COPY CHAPTER NINE (Summary. This book is coming about because I need to write 32 story blurbs for the 32 short stories I wrote in July for a book titled Stories from July.) In the first chapter of this book, I touched on what I call “The Author Problem” and gave a basic formula that I sometimes use to give blurbs a structure. And in chapter two I laid out another formula for writing blurbs. In the third chapter I talked about a method Lee Allred uses. In the fourth chapter I talked about the idea that sometimes using first lines can help. In the fifth chapter, I…