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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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Heinlein’s Rules: Chapter Four
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing CHAPTER FOUR Moving now to the second rule. Rule #2: You Must Finish What You Write. Say 9 out of 10 people who claim they want to write are wiped out by Rule #1 because they “just can’t find the time.” If that is the case, then my guess is that another half of the remaining writers are stopped cold by Rule #2. Now, I have to be honest, I never had an issue with this rule, so I mostly just ignored it. I always finished what I wrote. Part of that was the early challenge to mail a story per week,…
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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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Too Many Hours
Too Many Hours Far, far, far too many hours in front of a computer today, not a bit of it writing. I got up and moved around regularly and rested my eyes, but didn’t even have time for a nap. So no writing tonight. Back at it tomorrow and back at Heinlein’s Rules as well. —— Anthology Workshop Notice Those in the anthology workshop, ten of you missed the first assignment. Second assignment is now posted. ——- THE DAY Got up early again, dealt with some business issues I didn’t want to have to ever deal with, then managed to get to the store and to WMG Publishing to…
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Heinlein’s Rules: Chapter Three
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing CHAPTER THREE Still working on rule number one. Rule #1: You Must Write. Back in 1982, when I climbed onto my challenge to use Heinlein’s Rules and write a story per week and mail each story every week, I had one major issue that I fought. Fear. No idea what I was afraid of, but the fear was real. On December 31st, 1981, my thinking was that every story had to be perfect, had to be worked over and over and before I dared send it out. And it had to be written slowly and carefully to be good. I believed…
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Heinlein’s Rules: Chapter One & Chapter Two
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing CHAPTER ONE For lack of a better way of putting it, Heinlein’s Rules allow you to get to the fun of being a writer. They also help us all remember we are entertainers. About a decade or so ago, I was asked by a professor of English at the University of Oregon to come talk to one of his advanced creative writing classes about the reality of being a full-time fiction writer. I had a hunch I was going to not do nice things to their brains. And I looked on that possibility as my sacred job description. But it turned…
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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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Heinlein’s Rules: Introduction
HEINLEIN’S RULES Five Simple Business Rules for Writing Introduction In almost 150 published novels (over one hundred with traditional publishers), I have always followed Heinlein’s Business Rules. And in hundreds and hundreds of short stories, I have followed the five rules as well. For well over thirty years now, actually, I have done my best to stay on Heinlein’s Rules. I must admit, I slipped at times, but I’ll explain why later on in the book. And how I climbed back on. So how did I get to these rules? A little about my personal story first. I started writing at the age of 24 in 1974. I had…
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Return on Assets
Return on Assets A number of very nice people who are deep into accounting and MBA reminded me today in letters and a couple of posts, that I was wrong as to what “Return on Investment” actually is. Well, sort of, and I forgot to do as I often do here to say, “I am talking in general to get the idea across to those without business and accounting experience. What I was actually talking about (realizing publishing and copyright is a very unique business in some ways) was Return on Assets, with your stories being assets. For those of you who don’t know what Return on Assets is, here…
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Figuring Writing Investment Return
Figuring Writing Investment Return The topic tonight comes from a couple people asking how a writer could figure ROI (Return on Investment) on their writing without following the numbers. More on that below. —— THE DAY Slept late, raining solidly here today. Nasty kind of rain, not our normal dump and then the sun comes out. I did errands, snail mail, bank, grocery store, other things, then got to WMG offices around 5 p.m. Worked there until 6:30 on Smith’s Monthly, then home to cook dinner, then back to WMG to work on Smith’s Monthly and do some work on the new store. Then home to do workshop assignments and…