• Challenge,  On Writing

    Memory and Perspective

    The Beach Boys… Tonight I watched the first half of the Grammy salute to the Beach Boys. Some of the major artists were up to playing Beach Boy songs, some were not, but the history of the music and the writing so far has been fascinating. And seeing all five remaining original Beach Boys sitting in the same box in the theater was so cool. Especially after all they have been through. 60 Years Ago… Yes, I said sixty… I went out on a first date with a woman I now know longer even remember her name, to a Beach Boys concert being held in the Boise High School auditorium.…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

    Challenges Are Battles Against Yourself…

    Nothing Else Matters… Just You… Challenges have this nasty habit of quickly uncovering issues in your motivation and your consistency in writing and other life issues you are dealing with. This challenge for me uncovered that my vision stamina is not strong yet. If I spend a lot of time during the day, as I did a few days this last week, at my business computer, by the time I get to the writing computer, I am very limited in the amount of time I have. I love writing at night, and my eyes are better at night. I expected to be slow, didn’t expect that sight issue would be…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Slow Starts Are Perfectly Fine

    No Reason At All To Worry… A number of you have decided to take the writing challenge with me for the next nine months, until the end of the year. But I have gotten a number of letters worried about starting slow. And I am starting slow, as I said I would. This worry can really invite in critical voice, repeating over and over that you are failing. Not sure why anyone buys that a few days into a nine month challenge, but if you buy into it, and let critical voice take over, it sort of becomes a self-fulfilling thing. Yikes! The key is to focus on the writing…

  • Challenge,  Misc,  On Writing

    Got Up Very Early…

    Halfway Through My Night, Actually… To go with Kris as she ran, biked, and swam in a Reverse Triathlon. She started off with a 5K run, then did 10K on a bike, and then 300 yards of swimming. I was her support staff, to hold her stuff, get her water and such and help her through the transitions. She completed it and did fantastic! She is flat amazing. Read her post on Facebook about how life conspired against her on the training and she still showed up and finished. I often get questions about what it takes to become a long-term, full-time fiction writer. My answer is never quit, and…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  Writing in Public

    A Fun Challenge…

    This Is Only An Idea… Many of you know I got basically an eye infection in my only good eye back in late October that pretty much made me blind for a time and vision challenged for months now. Docs said it would take six months to get better and it has been getting better. Still not back yet, but I am getting back reading. I will be catching up on workshop stories I have let go (thanks for understanding) and even more fun I will be reading Kris’s new Diving novel that has been sitting on my table for three weeks. Damn that is exciting. But even more exciting…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Forgot One Thing… Writing

    That’s Right, But Not Really Forgot… Just left it out of that massive list of things starting the first part of the year. Writing is the most important thing, and for the first time in going on 50 years, I did not have an open lane to write as much or as little as I want starting the first of the year. Back in late October, I injured my one good eye and was basically blind for a couple of days which was damned scary. Turns out is is something that happens, has no cause (unless you are coming down with MS), and has no treatment. Basically the eyesight in…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Amazing Power

    Why Streaks and Challenges? I get asked that question a lot. Why do I pay so much attention to streaks and challenges?? I once again proved to myself tonight with this blog why. Let me lightly paint the picture. 3 am. The air outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of our bedroom was a cold-for-Vegas 43 degrees. Lights and computers were off in my office and I had watched all of thirty minutes of television downstairs before nodding off. I was shivering and just about to climb into bed to pull up the two blankets and two quilts to my chin when Kris rolled over and muttered the question she asks…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing

    Why Do We Do Kickstarters?

    I Got That Question Today… The question sort of caught me by surprise, to be honest. First off, surface reasons. 1… It gets new books to readers ahead of the publication date and at a discount. Fans of a series or a writer enjoy that. I know I do, which is one of the reasons why I back so many campaigns. 2… It gets our work out to readers we might never find and they might then buy more of our work. This is called discoverability. 3… It is amazing promotion and advertising and you don’t have to pay for it. In fact, if you do it right, you get…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Got Closer to Buffet Challenge

    Took My New iPad to a Buffet… Sort of a test run. Didn’t plan on doing any writing, just mostly setting up a bunch of programs on my iPad, including Microsoft Word and Outlook. Got interesting, to say the least, but 90% there. Only killed the only email I have left twice, but managed to save it both times. Yikes… Even set up a word doc that I can use sort of for a template. And wrote the start of a story. The first line of the story is… “The 1950s called and they want their food back.” Yup, the buffet I was in was that bad. And I like…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    September Workshops Now Available

    Including new Applied Depth Workshop Yes, Applied Depth as been added to the Lifetime Workshop Subscription. And yes, just sign up for any of them on Teachable. Depth in Writing workshop is required to take the Applied Depth, plus it is suggested to take the Advanced Depth workshop before as well. Applied Depth Workshop takes the concepts of Basic Depth and then applies those concepts to all the major genres. Openings of stories and novels are different from genre to genre. And yes, basic depth tends to work, but there are techniques for each genre, reader expectations of opening for each genre, that will help you get readers of a…