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Some Real Basics
Manuscript Format… Yup, doesn’t get any more basic than that, but so many newer writers have no clue what that even is. So I made it a requirement of The Great Challenge. I will count your story but not read it if you don’t have your story sent to me in a doc or docx attached file in manuscript format. A simple Google search will get you what it looks like. In fact, go to this link and there is even a picture of the first page of a manuscript exactly. https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html I found that link and others with a two second Google search. Oh, the horror… Point, I do…
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Reading Stories
Going Slow… There are few enough in the Great Challenge writing a short story per week (a number haven’t started yet), that I can just read a few stories each day during the week and really enjoy the process. A couple of the stories turned in that I have read today really worked, a few didn’t end. But that’s pretty standard. I am really going to enjoy this. The key is going to be the writers keeping my voice out of their heads and me out of their writing offices. Here is how that problem goes… — If I liked a story, the fear then crops up that the next…
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Never Give Up
A Very True Story… Some of you have heard me give the scary warning about Topanga Canyon, a writer who was so, so, so close to breaking in during the late 1980s and early 1990s. His real name is Preston Dennett. Well, I got to meet this wonderful writer and great person finally, after all these years, when he won in Writers of the Future. In fact, he and I share a table of contents, since we both have stories in Volume #35 of Writers of the Future. So John Goodwin, the publisher of Galaxy Press, thought it would be a good idea to have the two of us tell…
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Wrong Direction
Not One, Not Two, But Three Writers… Just today, when telling me for one reason or another about a project that they were working on said that they had gone in a wrong direction and had to toss out a bunch of writing. One person said almost a hundred pages. I seldom say anything when a beginning writer or early-stage writer says that to me. But I figured I could say something here. So if I did say something when someone made that “I went in the wrong direction on my novel…” comment, here is what it would be… First off, how do you know? Now every writer when asked…
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Ask Kris Anything Starts Sunday
And I Will Be Posting the Link to the Webinar Tomorrow… Instructions on how to send in questions ahead of time for Kris to answer during the live webinar will be posted on the site tomorrow as well. There is still room in this. You get a chance to ask questions of a long term professional writer, a major editor, a Times Bestseller, someone who has started two publishing companies, and someone who writes in most major genres. Webinar every month on Sunday at 11 am West Coast US Time. First one is this Sunday. And even if you can’t make this one, there will be 12 more. Sign up…
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#9 Pop-Up Free
The Author Problem… Pop-Up #9 on Teachable… I recorded it about four weeks ago before things went crazy with life, and so when I went back to put it up, it dawned on me that just about all writers need to hear this one. So we decided to make it free. And there is a story prompt for you to do a story from. Just don’t send this story in. I also loaded the first five of the twelve videos from the Pop-Up on YouTube. But the only place you can see all 12 videos is on Teachable. And speaking of new stuff on Teachable, we moved four regular workshops…
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Last Days of a Great Bundle of Novels
Space Opera Story Bundle… Only a few days left. Thirteen novels and a collection of space opera by some top writers. I am very proud to be a part of this one. So folks, give it a shot and if you get a chance, toss in a few bucks to the charity associated with this bundle, Able Gamers. To get the bundle, go to: https://storybundle.com/space ———– May Workshops Are Now Available… Only nine this month. A number of workshops are headed to Classic status in the next few days. I will announce them. But here are the workshops for May now available on Teachable. Class #41… May 7th … Depth #3: Research…
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Challenges Both Started
And Both Still Have Some Room… You can start any time with either the novel challenge or the short story challenge. On the novel challenge, you have to tell me when to start the clock ticking for the two months. (No writing ahead, finish your current project and when you are ready to start the next book, let me know if you are in the novel challenge.) For the short story challenge, the streak starts when you turn in the first story. There are prompts on the short story challenge each week and some stuff about novel writing on the novel challenge each week. And yes, you can move from…
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Never Give Up
Much Harder to Say Than Do… But this week at the Writers of the Future I heard a lot of fantastic stories about success because the writer just kept pounding the markets. I remember that when I started out. From 1974 until 1982, stories out, no sales. And then I started following Heinlein’s Rules and sales started. First year I sold six short stories. (One to Writers of the Future.) But I wrote 44 and had them all in the mail. All the time. If a manuscript was rejected, I sent it back out often within hours. So rejection was a way of life. I put all the rejections in…
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Some Questions About the Great Challenge
Got Some Good Questions Today… So let me try to answer them quickly tonight. — First of all, if you are taking another workshop such as the short story workshop, those stories would count. If you are coming to the Anthology workshop, or one of Kris’s Vegas craft workshops, those stories you write for the workshop would count. Just write one story per week and turn them in to me (or Kris, if in one of her workshops.) — Yes, this challenge will go longer than 52 weeks if writers are still writing. The first week to start is April 14th, when the first prompt will appear. And first deadline…