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Future Workshop Series Now Available
A Really Fun Series of Workshops… We spend so much time on all these workshops helping writers become better storytellers and better at business, but we haven’t spent that much time helping writers deal with their futures and the future of their writing business. And to be honest, we get really tired of writers spending all the time to learn craft and the business and then not know how to sustain and end up gone in a few years. The problem was the topic was so huge, we didn’t know where to start. We first boiled it down to six different six-week workshops. Finally we managed to get it to…
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November Workshops Available
All Twelve Are There… And if you have a credit from the recent Kickstarter, just write me to get into the November workshops. Or you can use the credits at any time into the future. Sign up at Teachable.com And there are lifetime subscriptions available on Teachable as well if you decide to get serious and really try to take as many as possible. Class #49… Nov 6th … Depth #3: Research Class #50… Nov 6th … Author Voice Class #51… Nov 6th … Dialog Class #52… Nov 6th … Writing into the Dark Class #53… Nov 6th … Writing Fiction Sales Copy Class #54… Nov 6th … Writing and Selling Short Stories Class #55……
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Comments Have Been Interesting
My Best Advice I Can Give?… The comments over the past few days have been fun. Thanks, everyone who left a comment. I help a lot of writers learn in a lot of detail about specific areas of writing through the workshops. But if I had to boil it all down in some general way, here are my suggestions… 1… Read for pleasure. 2… Enjoy writing and telling a story. 3… Write only stories that you feel passionate about and that will entertain you. 4… Be passionate about wanting to keep learning. All the rest is a shrug. If you want my advice on the business of professional writing, that…
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Last Call On October Workshops
I Will Be Switching Them Out… And if you have a credit from the recent Kickstarter, just write me and I’ll get you into an October workshop if you want. Or you can use the credits at any time into the future. This month might be one of the best months of workshop choices we have ever offered. Sign up at Teachable.com And there are lifetime subscriptions available on Teachable as well if you decide to get serious and really try to take as many as possible. Class #37… Oct 2nd … How to Study Writing Class #38… Oct 2nd … Endings Class #39… Oct 2nd … Point of View Class #40……
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B&N In Trouble
The Sky Is Falling… Finally…And Again… Ever since the beginning of the ebook revolution, and then the collapse of the poorly run Borders, Chicken Little has been running around saying the sky is falling when it comes to Barnes&Noble. It wasn’t. For years B&N was fine, but clearly having issues and going the wrong way and not responding well at all to disruptive forces in publishing. (Huge understatement there.) But it was a sound business until one day this last year, it wasn’t. The bad management, too many losses, no direction, and too many CEOs finally caught up with it. Now some reports have B&N living on a $750 million…
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Sad News About David Willoughby
We Lost Another Great One in the Book Field… David Willoughby lost his battle with cancer. Now I did not know David that well at all. But I loved to see him coming toward me at a convention or a signing table. He was always cheerful and sometimes knew more about my books than I did. Actually most of the time. And this went on for decades. When he kept digging those books out of one of his bags for me to sign, it was always a joy. And he always felt bad that he had so many. I laughed at that and usually said it was because I wrote…
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Switching the Schedule To Daytime
Started Today… To get to writing and making things possible for me to write enough hours to do this ten novel challenge, Kris and I decided I needed to switch my schedule to writing during the day. It just fit everything about living here in Vegas. Just as writing late into the night fit everything about living on the coast. So today I got up a little before 7 a.m. and Kris and I were going across the starting line of a 5k race at 8 a.m. Now some of you know I have been trying to lose weight and I want to run a marathon in the middle of…
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Creating a Habit of Writing
How to Do It?… Make a schedule and stick to it. Pretty soon the schedule becomes a habit. That’s how. It really is that simple, but that difficult. First of all, I needed to want to write again. Got that going with the challenge. Forced my own hand there, maybe a little sooner than I should, but ah well, it’s going. Second, I had to get used to this new place and Kris’s world here since I have spent most of the last six months in Oregon cleaning out the house we lived in for 23 years. Spent the last six weeks plus learning to live and love this wonderful…
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Writing Habits
Habit of Writing Makes Everything Easier… I have, regularly, over the years, written out of habit, meaning I write at the same time every day. And when doing that, and managing a decent amount every day, the writing just gets easier. And I get a vast amount done. In fact, when I am in that habit state, I wonder why I ever have days I don’t write. So now, in my new place in Las Vegas, away from a house I lived in for 23 years and all the normal habits it gave me, I am finding it fascinatingly difficult to figure out a new writing habit. I have a…
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Planning Ahead in Writing Time
Knowing the Reality… I got this great question from a writer asking me how I managed to remain so calm while getting behind on this challenge and having so much get in the way. I would say the answer is one simple word… Awareness. I was aware starting into this challenge that I had this last trip, and the workshop next month, and a ton of stuff to do that fell early on that had to be done and would take time away from the writing. I also knew I had to build brand new writing habits here in my new home, and that would take some time. But I…