-
You Can Learn Story from the HGTV Network
The Sequential Nature of a Story… Sounds like a well-duh, but so many writers are stuck in that problem. And that makes writing so much harder to do for themselves. What problem? Of course you write a story from the beginning to the end, don’t you? Nope. Basically, beginning writers believe they must start a novel on word one and write to the last word. That belief creates time-wasting things like outlines and rewriting, two of the more deadly practices to creativity ever invented by an English teacher. And if I believed I had to write from word one and not do anything but move forward until the last word,…
-
Protecting Choice
When You Decide to Not Write and That’s Fine… I can name a number of major events in a person’s life that will make then flat decide to not think about going to a computer to write fiction. Valid reasons to not write. — Health — Family Health or Event — Some forms of Travel — Day Job Explosion Outside of Norm — And so on and so on… down into smaller and smaller reasons. There is a point that all of us look at why we are not writing at a given point of time and try to decide if the reason is fear or a valid reason. We…
-
Encouraging… Really?
People Say I Am Encouraging… I have gotten that comment a few times this past week and a couple questions about why I spend the time and energy to help others. There is an answer, but not exactly what you might expect. Let me back into this for a second. I suppose if a person is really working to chase their dreams, I try to tell them the truth about fiction and writing if they ask. And if I think they want the truth. If a person is really working to become a better storyteller, I am willing to answer questions and give my opinion when asked. If they really want…
-
Busy Day for a Saturday
Auction, reading, some writing, some working on the estate, some workshop stuff… And I wouldn’t be reporting all this stuff if I didn’t have a streak going of blogging every day about something. (grin) Here is what the day was like. First to both our stores. Antiques Week is starting here and I wanted to see how things were doing. Starting off great. Then estate work since the day was nice and the light was good in the house. Almost got it. Monday should finish it for me. Then out to the auction for a while to talk with friends there. Then to the WMG offices to work for a few…
-
There Can Be Only One Topic Tonight: Ed Bryant
Edward W. Bryant Jr. passed away this morning. Writer, teacher, and great person, Ed was only five years older than me. I’ve known him since 1982. He was like a solid core of the science fiction and horror publishing field. Everyone knew and seemed to love Ed. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was a major supporter of Kris and my company Pulphouse Publishing. In fact, he seemed to spend more time in Eugene than Denver during that time and we loved it. Kris lead off the very first issue of Pulphouse Hardback Magazine with an Ed story, a classic called “While She Was Out.” And then he lead off…
-
Workshops, Bundle, and Big Estate Move Day One
All Workshops for February Started… March Sign-up Available… If you are signed up for a February workshop and haven’t gotten the opening letter from me, write me at once. March workshops are now on deck. A good list. Winter Mysteries Bundle. I’m in a great bundle right now on Bundlerabbit with one of my Cold Poker Gang novels. It’s called The Winter Mysteries Bundle. This is a great deal and you might want to check it out, folks. Some great books in this one. Click on the image. And scroll down on the page. You can buy the bundle not only from Bundlerabbit, but from Amazon, Kobo, B&N and others.…
-
Perfection and Writing
Some Tough Topics Tonight… I spent most of the day today at my friend’s house, going through stuff. Two great writers and friends, Chris and Steve York also spent their evening with me, going through stuff. Our main goal was to get things ready to be donated to the women’s shelter and to other charities around town. Thanks Chris and Steve!! They were also friends with the woman who died. In letters today I got numbers of questions about estates and wills for writers, but I want to deal with two quick questions tonight before I vanish into bed. The questions are related, so hold on. They are both about disease. And about…
-
Throwing Away A Life
Estates and Writing and Some Observations… Today I found myself back in the position once again of going through someone’s personal papers and tossing them in a black bag. Old financial records, old pictures of her and her husband, a few journals, 4-H ribbons, letters from home during the Peace Corp years. You know… details about a life well-lived. Just over five years ago, I found myself doing the same thing for another friend. His name was Bill Trojan and was a well-known book dealer in the sf world. I realized he had numbers of degrees. I tossed away his old wedding pictures and all his medical records that told…
-
Logic: The Lost Art in Being a Fiction Writer
Don’t Try Logic… Dangerous to Your Myths I have been going on now in numbers of posts about how we fiction writers sabotage ourselves. Fear without real cause is the normal reason. But I have another deeper reason tonight. Lack of logic. In a few posts I used math to try to make sense of the silliness of a few myths. Math tends to be very logical. Simply put, fiction writers, when it comes to the very basis of being a fiction writer, toss all logic out the window and listen to people who have never written or published a book. This goes on from the very beginning of every writer’s career.…
-
Workshops and Stuff
Worked on Online Workshops… I did that until around 7 p.m. today, along with the standard errands and stuff normal for a Friday. Then home, cooked dinner, napped, and went back to writing. Great fun. And then a bunch of reading, which I will be doing all month for the coming anthology workshop. Tomorrow I will start back on the book I left off before the trip. I hope to finish that one and get to some short fiction at some point soon. Or maybe do some short fiction and then finish the book. I don’t know. We shall see. Another Smith’s Monthly got out. Patreon supporters and subscribers should have…