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Stages of a Fiction Writer: Last Summary
(Last very short summary chapter for this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) Links to first six chapters at the bottom of this short summary. STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Summary As I have said a number of times, no writer skips over any of these four stages of a fiction writer. We all go through them starting at the beginning if we ever get to stage four, the top level of…
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Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter Six
(Almost done with this short book. One more chapter after this. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter Six Stage four in writing is hard, at best, to describe because for most writers, it is a level of craft that is impossible to see. So how do you move through stage three and get to stage four writing? Mostly, the answer boils down to one simple thing:…
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Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter Five
(Every day or so, sometimes longer, I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter Five Starting into stage four, the top stage. I got a question after the last chapter when I put that chapter on my blog. “How many writers are in stage four?” Think of stage four as a decent-sized town. Selling stage three writers could fill…
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Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter Four
(Every day or so I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter Four Almost all writers reading this will be in stage three. If you see yourself in stage one, all focused on the writing and polishing of words, you can move quickly out of that once you understand the location you are stuck in. And then start making…
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Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter Three
(Every day or so I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter Three As we move into stage three, it’s time I bring in the poker analogy I promised earlier on in the book. As I said, I have always had cards in my life. I paid most of my way through college with cards, and also played professional…
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The Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter Two
(Every day I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter Two Stage two of commercial fiction writers is again a stage we all go through. I was no exception, never met a writer who missed this one. However, many writers can go through this stage quickly, often in a year or so. But at the same time, this…
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The Stages of a Fiction Writer: Chapter One
(Every day I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done. Please note: This is advanced reader copy. This has not been proofed. That will be taken care of when I turn in the final book to WMG Publishing.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Chapter One There are four basic stages of commercial fiction writing that are pretty clear. For this book, I just number them one through four. I kind of think of them as places where writers live. Basically, I’m an early-to-middle stage four writer. So is Kris. And we’re working to…
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The Stages of a Fiction Writer: Introduction
(Every day I will put another chapter here of this book. Patreon supporters, you will get the full book sent to you when it is all done.) STAGES OF A FICTION WRITER Introduction About twenty-five years ago, I was struggling to figure out where I was on the path to becoming a fiction writer. I had sold novels, lots of short stories, been an editor, owned a publishing company, and had readers buying my books. But honestly, none of that mattered to me. I liked it, sure, but my goal was to be a better writer, a better storyteller, actually. And I had no idea at all where I was at…