• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Six

    WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Six: Day Three The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Three Once again made my goal for the night. Barely. Counting 3,000 words for Day One and 4,000 words for Day Two, and 5,000 words for Day Three, I needed to be at 12,000 words or beyond. Hit that once again. I had 1,800 words in the bank before today but didn’t want to use the words…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Five

    WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Five: Day Two The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Two Once again made my goal for the night. Counting 3,000 words for Day One and 4,000 words for Day Two, I needed to be at 7,000 words or beyond. Hit that. The Day Managed to crawl out of bed around 12:30 p.m. and get to the grocery store and then to WMG Publishing before 2 p.m. to…

  • On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Three

    WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Three This is going to be fun. I want to repeat that often.  The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Ready to Go I’m going to start writing tomorrow. Honestly, I could have started today without much problem. But I scheduled starting tomorrow because of the work day outside of writing that I have on day three, where I will need to do 5,000 words. Day three…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Day Before The Start

    DAY BEFORE THE START All work on Smith’s Monthly formatting. And went through Kris’s comments on my last finished novel and got all that in. Just need to write an introduction to get that issue of the magazine turned in.  ———– THE DAY Did errands and worked on formatting Smith’s Monthly, the issue that has a Thunder Mountain novel in it called Grapevine Springs. So got to go through a Thunder Mountain novel before the writing challenge starts tomorrow. That was lucky. Sort of put the series back solidly in my head. Once again I want to put here the nifty cover for the book I am going to do in…

  • On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night

    Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter Two

    WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter Two This is going to be fun. I want to repeat that often.  The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Writing into the Dark Two days until I start writing. Tonight is Thursday, I plan on starting the novel on Saturday. So am I planning the book at all? Nope. This book I have a rough idea, more than normal, because of the short story in Stories…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Topic of the Night: Writing a Novel in Seven Days: Chapter One

    WRITING A NOVEL IN SEVEN DAYS Chapter One This is going to be fun. I want to repeat that often.  The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Why Does This Structure Work? Going to see if it will work, but pretty confident it will if life events leave me alone. And if you are reading this in a paper or electronic book instead of on my blog, you will know it did work.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Business Shift In Thinking

      BUSINESS SHIFT IN THINKING Well, Kris did a great article about some of the issues facing long-term professional writers like her in this new world of publishing. The shift from old publishing thinking to new publishing is hard for everyone. Information below.  —— THE DAY Meetings from 2 p.m. until after 5 p.m. In three different locations. Then worked for an hour or so at WMG after taking a walk with Kris, then home to cook dinner, then in here to do e-mail before taking a long nap. Then downstairs to watch television, back in here to work on things on this site and do one session on the book of…

  • Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing,  On Writing,  publishing

    Killing Even More Sacred Cows of Publishing: #3… Getting An Advance to Help You Write Your Book

    Book three in this series. Book one was KILLING THE TOP TEN SACRED COWS OF PUBLISHING. Book two was KILLING THE TOP TEN SACRED COWS OF INDIE PUBLISHING. Both books are available everywhere in electronic, paper, and audio. What I call a “Sacred Cow” is basically a myth spread around publishing like the truth. Myths such as “rewriting must be done for every story.” Myths such as “you need an agent to sell a book,” or “sell a book to a different country.” And so on. You can either buy the first two books to get all twenty of the Sacred Cows, or just click on the tab above and read them…

  • Challenge,  Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Another Sacred Cow Treatment

      ANOTHER SACRED COW TREATMENT Well, read one too many articles about the stupidity of giving a traditional author an advance so they could be free to write their book. That myth had to be stabbed at with my little sword. Oh, and I got back to work on the novel.  —— THE DAY Did an interview for a podcast this afternoon. Great fun and I’ll link to it when it comes out. Then off to walk, then to the mail, the store, and back to WMG offices where I worked on different stuff until 7 p.m. including starting on the Sacred Cow chapter. Home to cook dinner, watch some television,…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Where Did the Day Go?

      WHERE DID THE DAY GO? Blink and the day is over and I have no idea what happened. Hate that.  —— THE DAY Let me see if I can make some sort of sense of the day. Made it to the WMG store by 2 p.m. to meet a nice guy with some marbles, then for an interview with a possible future employee. Got out of there by 3:30 p.m. Post office next, bank, grocery store for some lunch, but no time to eat it. Got back to WMG Publishing around 4:30, did some deposits and headed for another bank. Finally got back to my lunch around 5:15 p.m.…