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Courage in a World of Artistic Freedom
Artistic Freedom From a Different Perspective… Last week I did three posts about the artistic freedom that all fiction writers have in this new world. Artistic freedom, at its base level, means the freedom to pick your own path in fiction writing, write what you want to write for whatever reasons you want to write it, and be responsible at the same time for your own mistakes. Artistic freedom means having the choice to try to chase a traditional big-five book deal, even though the consequences of catching that brass ring is loss of the book and massive frustration. Artistic freedom means you can write whatever novel or story you want.…
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Writing to Market… Timing
Artistic Freedom Part Three… I got some great comments on yesterdays post on this topic, but a few people, both in the comments and in private e-mails to me are confused about what I mean exactly about not writing to market. I finish my work, don’t I? Isn’t that a form of writing to market? Nope. I try to sell what I do write. Is that a form of writing to market? Nope. What I have been attempting to say is this: When you decide, before you have written a word, to do a project because you think it will sell (because you know more than anyone about selling books,…
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Chasing the Market
Artistic Freedom Part Two… Yesterday I talked about the wonderful artistic freedom this new world gives writers. If, and only if, the writer takes the freedom and even knows how to recognizes the freedom. I got a number of questions, mostly in e-mails, about what I meant by not writing to market in that post. In short, writing to market means thinking that writing something you have heard is selling well only because you want to make money. In other words, you write into areas you don’t know, don’t even much like, or even like to write, just for the hope of a few more sales. Horrid writer death that…
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Change of Format Again
Change of Format Again… Okay, I tried the other form for an entire week and honestly, some of it worked and some of it didn’t work for me and some of it didn’t work for numbers of others. Got a few comments, but mostly private e-mails saying people liked the new form on the main page and they liked being able to forward and tweet posts, but not the form having to go to another page to see the counts. So going to leave the new form on the front page. All good there. And going to keep doing posts that are not cluttered so people can share them with ease…
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Sometimes It’s Just a Day
Friday again… I tend to be at a loss of energy on Friday nights. I have always wanted to believe the loss of energy was caused by the fact that for 17 years of my life I tended bar and Fridays were the big day. Friday, the day of the week when all the amateur drinkers went out and pretended they knew what they were doing. Now understand, I haven’t tended bar since I sold my first novel in May of 1988. Same day, actually. I wish I could say I was stupid and quit my job when I sold my first novel, but actually I had just been laid off,…
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The Power of the Creative Voice
Trust the Process… I have said that simple statement a lot over the years to other writers. And for years at a time I had that simple saying over my computer. Trust the process. So simple, yet so hard to do at times. Tonight, let me tell you about something that happened to me to illustrate that saying. Point one… You all know I write into the dark. I have no idea where any book or story is going, never do any work ahead, just sit down and write and trust the process, trying to entertain myself as I go along. Anything else would be too boring for words and…
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Two New Online Workshops Announced!
TWO NEW ONLINE WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED… That’s right, not one but two. Writing Endings will start in January and Writing Secondary Plot Lines will start in February. And above this is the announcement for a special on online workshops because so many people missed the Kickstarter we did a few months back. It’s a one week special, so don’t miss it. We won’t do anything like it again until the next Kickstarter campaign two years from now. Besides that, the online workshop schedule is posted now for December through May to help with planning into the new year. You can sign up for any of the workshops on the list at any…
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Go Slow
Go Slow… Not sure if anyone is tracking my progress on the fiction page linked below, but I have been starting back up again after having over a month where I did little writing. Very little. And for me it was for no reason other than my attention was diverted to other stuff. But many times all of us stop writing for various reasons from health to family to world events. But then we come back and that’s when things get interesting. I did an entire lecture on starting and restarting. But let me tell you here, quickly, how I am doing this. — My focus is no pressure on the…
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Intensity in Your Writing
Intensity in Your Writing… In the Point of View online workshop, in the last week of the class, I mention in passing a major area of fiction writing that is never taught. Intensity. And the reason this area is never taught is because of the advanced nature of it. In fact, most writers never notice it until long into their career. And never really know how to work it for the longest time. But when realizing there are readers on the other side of every story, one goal of the mind control of readers is to play on their emotions. To even understand that your words will generate emotions. Emotions are…
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The NaNoWriMo Challenge
The November Annual Challenge I have had a couple people write me and ask me what I thought of the NaNoWriMo challenge that goes on every November. Well, I think it’s fine as far as it goes. Anything to get writers motivated to write is a good thing in my book. But at the same time, I often feel it is tragic. The people who push the challenge are so far down into the myths, they bode no other methods. What they push is this: Write sloppy, train yourself to write sloppy because you can always fix it later. And very, very few writers ever spend the time or have the…