• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Got Two New Workshops Live

    Well, Not New… New Form… On Teachable, you can find the two new webinar workshops. We moved over two from the Pop-Up workshops into the Insider’s Guide structure. And the reason is that the four webinars for each would be fantastic discussions. They are Insider’s Guide to the Indie Game and The Insider’s Guide to Fighting Fear in Your Writing. Both are June workshops, starting June 3rd when the first week of videos will appear. Webinar for the Indie Game will be Sunday June 10th at 11 a.m. West Coast USA time. Webinar for the Fear workshop will be at 1 p.m. West Coast USA Time. These are the exact…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Got Lost In Time

    Blog Time Got Lost Tonight… Between doing assignments, watching the Voice finals, and packing boxes of books, time just got away from me and now I need to go get some sleep. So here I am again doing a filler post because of the blog streak of doing a blog every day. I think I am over 2,000 straight days now without a miss. I would have to figure it out. And that shows the power of a streak. ——————– So Here, Once Again, Is Workshop Information… Easy to cut and paste. (grin) But two offers have ended as of yesterday. Vegas Workshop Special ended and the Webinars closed off.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Time of Great Forgetting Special Offer

    Yes, We Are Smack In The Middle Of The Time Of Great Forgetting… This time of the year, writers sort of forget about their writing with all the distractions of life, summer, vacations, graduations, and so on. All the wonderful writing goals set early in the year are just sort of pushed aside. This Forgetting time period lasts from late April until late July. Then writers sort of wake up, try to get restarted, and wonder what happened to all the goals of the year. Very disheartening and it happens to many year-after-year. And it is very, very hard to restart at that point. Since we have a bunch of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Some Observations and an Idea

    Product Focused Might Be Truly Evil… (grin) Not really kidding that much. The more I think about how being product focused causes so many writing issues, the more I see how it has invaded just about everything in fiction writing the last few years. And I was no exception to that at times in how I phrased my challenges and such. It’s just so darned easy to keep score with numbers of books done, numbers of short stories finished, and so on. But I have trained myself to stay out of the critical voice issues that kind of focus brings up for almost all writers. So coming up as I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Some Reminders on This Friday

    Updates and New Stuff… Just wanted to mention some new workshop stuff and remind people that some things are ending. I know it is smack in the middle of the time of great forgetting, but sometimes workshops or planning for workshops can help keep a little focus on the writing during these months. So first off, we have a nifty new web site for the Vegas workshops. WMGWorkshops.com. Pretty clear and simple address and a really nifty site that just launched describing the Vegas workshops. And speaking of the Vegas workshops, we are about to end the special deal we were offering. A couple more days is all. Write me…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Product Focused vs Process Focused.

    A Nasty Problem of Early Writers… I hear this all the time. Writers, especially indie writers the last few years, have focused on the finished product. And I must admit, that is how we keep score in this new world. Numbers of books and stories equals more readers and more money and so on. But in most of our workshops, except a few of the business ones, we focus on the process of writing. To long-term professionals, the process of writing is where the focus is, or at least in a balance on both sides. We would all have not made it for 40 or more years of writing without…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    The Reader Perception

    Never Tell Anyone That You Write One Draft Clean… But Dean, why do you say that because you teach it here and talk about it all the time?? The reason? This is a writer-focused site at the moment. And writer’s seldom buy my books (except to see how bad it really is because I wrote it in five days while traveling.) So I am safe. And it is safe here for you to all talk about this stuff in the comments that we have been talking about this last few days. (Comments are still going in the comments sections of the two posts and the comments are wonderful.) Here, on…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Online Workshops Update

    All Kinds of Stuff Going On… First off, since no one was signed up in June for the Weekender Pop-up Workshops, we have cancelled those. However, the entire group of them, plus two more will return in the fall, after the time of great forgetting. The Indie Game workshop turned out to be a stunner and great fun. I sure had a blast looking at a ton of writer pen name careers over ten years, seeing all sorts of patterns. Of course, the Pop-Up Workshops will remain available to all of the Lifetime Workshop subscribers. You folks can take them at any time you want. ————— Insider’s Guide Webinar workshops.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Interesting Comments and Other Business

    Comments Were Great on the Last Two Posts… Had some great experience stories and only a couple writers trying to rationalize their way of doing things. Some good discussion and ideas, so might be worth checking out the comments. And thank you, everyone, who did comment in public or wrote me a letter. Very much appreciated and fun. —————– Amazing Writing Bundle About to End!!! This is a bundle that I would get something out of every book. And I have already recommended a few of them here before. And don’t miss Kris’s brand new book Creating Your Author Brand. Plus you get Heinlein’s Rules lecture, worth $75.00. Plus Steven…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Dangers of Not Trusting The Creative Voice

    Things Stop When You Lose Faith In The Creative Voice… I watch this loss all the time and hear about it from hundreds of writers over every year. Not trusting your creative voice is deadly. This came up a couple days ago when I talked about writing clean first draft work by cycling. And how that keeps the creative voice in control and eliminates the need for a critical-voice second or third draft. Got some great excuses. Fun to read. I just sort of felt sad, actually, because that’s like knowing when a person will die. I can see, over forty years, exactly how long it will take some of…