• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Workshop Finished Here On The Coast

    Workshop Finished Here Today was the last day of the Historical, Time Travel, and Alternate History workshop here at the coast, taught by Kris. What a fantastic group of writers who attended from all over the world. Kris was the instructor on this one, so I played behind-the-scenes support, but last night I got to read a group of stories from them because Kris wanted me to be reader feedback. I was impressed and got to give them my feedback today. Some of the most innovative ideas came out of there and I got a hunch I’m going to be seeing a lot of those stories as parts of new…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    A Workshop Day

    Workshop Day I spent most of today, in one fashion or another, on workshops. For those of you who missed it, the workshops now have a curriculum, or at least a suggested order to take them. That is under the Workshop Curriculum tab at the top of the page. The entire things is broken down into core workshops, business workshops, craft workshops, and genre workshops to make them easier to find. I also in two areas suggest order and what you should take first. And for those of you who signed up for workshops through our Kickstarter drive, the first week of October I’ll send out a survey through Kickstarter…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Just Hours Left!!

    Just Hours Left! The  only has eleven hours left as I write this around 4 a.m. Pacific Time. What is in the subscription drive? Discounted subscriptions, of course, on Fiction River and Fiction River Presents. Both electronic and paper. We are also offering a package of writing books. And discounted lectures and discounted online workshops. And since we have hit the fourth stretch goal, even if you sign up for a workshop you get four free books as well as a Fiction River subscription. That’s right… FOUR FREE BOOKS for the support. Discounts on Workshops! Numbers of people have taken advantage of either the single workshop or the three workshop package.…

  • workshops

    Workshop Curriculum

    Workshop Curriculum 9/19/2016 I’m going to divide these down into areas of study. And the numbers are my suggestions on the order to take these workshops because many of them build on others. FOUNDATION COURSES 1… Depth 2… Advanced Depth (Depth required) 3… Plotting with Depth (Depth required) 4… Teams (Depth suggested to help) 5… Advanced Character and Dialog 6… Point of View (Depth suggested) 7… Author Voice (Depth suggested strongly, as well as Advanced Depth) 8… Pacing 9… Cliffhanger These nine workshops will jump you so far ahead in your writing skills, you won’t be able to see it, but your friends and readers will. And I know, interesting that Teams workshop…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    A Regular Sunday

    A Regular Sunday Writers meeting with just a few writers today until after four, then I headed out for a walk with a half mile of running in the middle, then back to the office to work on workshop stuff until time to go home at 7:30 to nap and then cook dinner. Spent the evening on workshops and other things, then watched a bunch of television. Slowly feeling more rested. ——————– New Workshop and New Schedule As I said last night, a number of people have used the reward for supporting the Fiction River Kickstarter drive to buy workshops from November forward, so I wanted to get more choices up. So now…

  • On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    New Workshop: Point of View

    POINT OF VIEW Understanding every detail about how to use a character point of view. Most writers will think, “I don’t need this. I know Point of View. It’s not hard.” And yet most of those writers still work under their old beliefs and learning they got from non-writers like English teachers.  The truth simply put: Most fiction writers know little or nothing about the power of viewpoint. As with the Speed workshop, this area Kris and I have avoided for two reasons. First, we don’t believe many will sign up for it, believing writers think they know it all about viewpoint. Second, this is such an advanced technique area, it…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Working On Workshops

    Working On Workshops Didn’t do much today except spend a bunch of time working on online workshops. I want to have the January and February online workshop schedule announced for those taking the workshop option in the Kickstarter subscription drive for Fiction River. (Option for one workshop or three workshops starting from November forward.) And also we are going to be adding in one more new workshop this fall, in October, the last one for the fall. Basically, the new workshops will be called Point of View and will be how to use them correctly, when, and how to use viewpoints to your best advantage, and so much more. Viewpoint is…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    A Little More Running

    A Little More Running   A very busy day today, as was expected after a long weekend. And from all the people I ran into in the banks and post office, I wasn’t the only one having a busy day. But still managed, even though it was raining a little, to meet Kris at the lower parking garage for the mall and do some running and walking while she ran the entire time. She’s way ahead of me on this running thing. Way, way ahead. And a lot smarter about it as well. I am down 17 pounds from July 1st, but still too heavy to push the running too…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    September Online Workshops Starting

    September Online Workshops Starting And there is still room in all of them including the new Speed workshop. It’s a really good list of workshops. The new mystery workshop, the new expectations workshop, the new speed workshop. Dialog, cliffhangers, pacing, depth, and author voice, plus how to write thrillers. Click the workshop tab above for description and sign-up or go to www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com. Questions about any of the workshops, feel free to write me. Class #21… Sept 6th … Author Voice Class #22… Sept 6th … How to Write Thrillers Class #23… Sept 6th … Speed Class #24… Sept 6th … Writing Mysteries Class #25… Sept 6th … Character Development Class #26… Sept 7th … Depth in Writing Class #27… Sept 7th…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops,  Writing in Public

    Sales Writing Problem

    Sales Writing Problem I want to talk for a moment about blurb writing. That is below in the topic of the night. Today I spent all afternoon (after walking) to work on workshops, then all evening, and also into the night. Just one of those days. No real writing today. But I am hoping to finish the novel tomorrow or Friday. And fire on the next novel. But I got over six miles in today on exercise. —————– Master Class Workshop. Since I worked on workshops all day, I figured I might as well give a plug to a coast workshop happening here from October 15th to late on the 22nd.…