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NEW ONLINE WORKSHOP: How to Edit Your Own Work
New Online Workshop Starting in May… Kris and I get the most questions, all good questions, about the process of editing your own work. And honestly, there is no easy or completely right answer for everyone. But there are hundreds of ways, one of which will be right for you. Between writing into the dark and following Heinlein’s Rules, how do you make sure your work is what you want, clean enough for readers to not notice any problems? How can you edit without the deadly rewriting that kills voice and all originality? Those are just a couple of the questions we get in one form or another, including how to…
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Story Eleven and Workshop Stuff Again
DAY ELEVEN… Pretty much did workshops all day including a couple of covers. I had to redo one cover, the “Blind Date” cover because the title vanished. Below is the new cover. I worked on the Strengths workshop and also Kris and I finalized a workshop we have talked about for a while but didn’t want to do. However, we get so many questions about the topic, we figured it was time. The full description of the new online workshop is above. It will be a good one. A ton of tricks, things long-term professionals do, and helpful hints. I got the writing around 2 a.m. and with two short…
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Story Ten and a Bunch of Workshop Stuff
DAY TEN… Pretty much did workshops all day except I also had the wonderful pleasure of helping a friend get back into his house after being in the hospital for a month. Sort of made my day, actually, that he is home. But otherwise, it was workshops, most assignments since March is finishing up and April is getting started. Plus answered more questions about The Great Bundle workshop which has people intrigued, to say the least. (grin) Also, for those thinking of either trying to come to the Master Business Class or the Anthology Workshop, both Coast workshops, both are almost full. I did manage a few minutes to get…
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Questions About The Great Bundle Workshop
…Got some great questions on The Great Bundle workshop next May. So figured I would share the answers here. — First off, there will be NO CRITIQUING in this workshop. None. Nothing like the Anthology workshop were professional editors go over your stories. In fact, only the curator for the bundle you turn the story in for will be reading it. — Can a story be rejected? No. But it can be moved to another bundle. We will have a pool of stories that are not committed as the week goes on. Basically, if a curator has too many stories or gets a story that flat doesn’t fit, they will…
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Story Number Nine and Other Stuff
DAY NINE… Pretty laid-back Sunday. Very few at the writer’s meeting at lunch. So I got a bunch of workshop work done on the next Strengths workshop to launch in a few days. Then came home to actually write. Ended up with the 6th novel start, but this one again actually worked as a short story. And is an origin story for a brand new character and series. And this one started differently than my normal title. I was looking at the blank title on my screen, sort of scanning through the half-title sheets when a first line sprung into my head. Love it when that happens. And I just…
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Story Number Eight…
DAY EIGHT… In case a few of you are wondering, I sort of started another short-story-per-day challenge on the first of the month. Didn’t say much about it since I was also working on THE GREAT BUNDLE coast workshop and Strengths workshops. But I have been having fun at this new challenge and today got a few covers of the first seven. So here is my day and such about the writing. Update on the last two day’s stories. Both of them plus the story tonight caused me some swearing and walking around the house muttering to myself. Not the stories, the evening and the writing. All three nights I started…
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Two More Stories in Two Days
Yesterday Was All The Great Bundle Workshop and May Online Workshops. But I still managed to finish a story yesterday and another tonight. Seven stories in seven days. Go figure. A good number of people jumped into The Great Bundle workshop in just the first day after we announced it. Wow, is that going to be a fun week. On Sunday or Monday and into next week I will have more chapters of the Magic Bakery book as well as write more short stories. I am getting a ton of novel ideas out of this month of short fiction. Started a number of things that were instantly novels over the last…
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THE GREAT BUNDLE Workshop. Brand New Coast Workshop
THE GREAT BUNDLE workshop May 5th – May 12th, 2018 Announcing a new and innovative and fun writing workshop on the Oregon Coast. The Great Bundle workshop. So what is The Great Bundle? — A major writing workshop — A series of short story bundles curated by writers. — A promotion web site — A branding of a series of books. First off to the Workshop Structure –Limit of 50 writers. (Same size as the anthology and master class workshops) — Writers attending who want to be curators turn in bundle ideas ahead of time. — For the six weeks ahead of time, five bundle ideas will be sent out per…
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Long But Good Day and Fifth Story
Spent All Day With a Friend in the Hospital… But still managed on almost no sleep to finish a short story. Go figure. ———- The Day… Last night I had planned on working all the way until 6 a.m. and then Kris would get up and we would head into the valley to sit with friends while another friend was in surgery. Writer J. Steven York, a friend of thirty years, was having open heart surgery. His wife, Chris York (mystery writer under other names) was going to need company. They were there for me when Kris ended up in emergency surgery five years back. It was the least we…
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Fourth Story Finished Sort of…
Well, that was fun… Worked on the fourth short story. It is as done as it will get at this point because as I was going along it suddenly became very clear to me that this story would be a novel. So I pretended to wrap it up and just call it done, but not showing it to anyone. A very future novel. See below ———- The Day… Got up to WMG by 2 p.m. and worked on a new project we will announce shortly. Totally nuts, but in a good way I hope. Also took a long walk to get steps. Then home to cook dinner and do the assignments…