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Topic of the Night: Learning in the New Year
At the professional writer lunch today, a lot of the conversation on writing turned to how the industry is changing, bookstores, and so much more about the future. Great conversation. And tonight on a nifty program on the Travel Channel, I learned a little about how books were sold door-to-door after the Civil War and up into the last century. It was a major way books were distributed, and publishing company sales forces were basically door-to-door salesmen. When I came into the business in the early 1970s, the major publishing sales force had morphed into selling to bookstores, and only encyclopedias were sold door-to-door. Wow, has publishing changed. (grin) Now…
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New Year: First Day
New Year After much dithering and pestering people around me and working out details, I have finally decided to just go for this new challenge. All outlined in the Topic of the Night that is above this. ——- THE DAY Pretty standard up to a point. Headed up to WMG Publishing around 3 p.m. and talked with a couple of other professional writers there for a time before getting to work. I did a bunch of workshop stuff and getting the office ready for Monday. Then headed to the grocery store to get dinner and went home, took a short nap and cooked dinner. Then I got in here…
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More Year End Stuff
More Year End Stuff Kris and I went to see Star Wars. No I will not talk about it here or anywhere for that matter. (grin) Stay safe on New Year’s Eve. It’s amateur night with the drunks. Dangerous out there. ——- THE DAY After the movie we had a nice late lunch. Then I headed up to WMG offices to work on year-end stuff there. Then home to cook dinner and get my 10,000 steps done. Haven’t missed since November 11th. Then in here to get the new chapter of Heinlein’s Rules up. Then after some television, I started into the big switch of computers. I bought a brand…
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Working On Year End Stuff
Year End Stuff Mostly a normal day. Dialog workshop announcement below. New chapter of Heinlein’s Rules book above this. And for fun I looked at how many words I wrote so far this year. Ready?…. 1,257,000 original words. 711,000 of that was fiction and nonfiction. The rest was e-mail and blogs. I did not count replies on the various comment sections I moderate. That’s Pulp Speed Two. (Pulp Speed One is over a million words, Pulp Speed Two is over 1.2 million words. Pulp Speed Three is over 1.4 million.) ——- THE DAY Got a bunch of walking in and planning for 2016, did workshop stuff, cooked dinner, got…
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Just Dripping Along
Just Dripping Along Every day I sort of get some more words on the Dead Hand novel. Not that many, but that’s because I haven’t been giving it any focus, meaning time. Hope to change that soon. I’m enjoying writing it when I get there. ——- THE DAY Managed to get some errands done and then to WMG Publishing by 3:30 p.m. Headed out shortly after to walk with two other professional writers. Got way over 10,000 steps today. Made it back to WMG Publishing offices to work on moving stuff and workshop stuff until 7 p.m. Home to cook dinner, then back in here to do workshop assignments.…
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Productive Day
Productive Day Workshop stuff done, moving stuff done, nonfiction written, and some fiction as well. Not bad. ——- THE DAY Managed to get some errands done and get to WMG Publishing offices around 3 p.m. Worked there on workshop stuff and moving stuff until I had to run more errands a little after 6 p.m. Home to cook dinner, then in here to do workshop assignments. I was also way behind on my 10,000 steps, so after getting the assignments done, Kris and I went to watch the Voice finals and I paced while doing so to get my 10,000 finished. Then in here to work on Heinlein’s Rules.…
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Learning is Attitude
Learning is Attitude Tonight, for the third night in a row, the storm hit again. Flooding all over the entire Pacific Northwest, and power was out here for three hours tonight. But now that the power is back on, I’ve decided to just go on as normal until it flickers and goes out again. After 20 years living here on the Oregon Coast, you get used to this, sadly. At least the power came back on after three hours. —– THE DAY Made it through the monsoon rains to the snail mail, the grocery store, and then to WMG Publishing around 2 p.m. for work on continuing to set…
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When Writers Face the Deadly Saying… “What’s the Point?”
Tonight’s Topic: When Writers Face the Deadly Saying… “What’s the Point?” This topic is the reason why I have been talking about the addiction to results and the other topics last week. This is how it manifests. Read those from last week and then read below. (Tomorrow I will go back over ROI and how it works with tracking money without numbers.) —— THE DAY Made it up to WMG Publishing around 1:30 to open up for the regular Sunday writer’s lunch. The restaurant we met in is moving, so until they reopen, we’re meeting at WMG in the kitchen and bringing our own lunches. Then I stayed around until almost…
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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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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…