I have not vanished, just been in a whirlwind of workshops over the last week.
Here at the coast we had two really fun workshops with about thirty professional writers in each workshop. That’s intense, fun, and a wonderful learning experience for me. John Helfers and Kerrie Hughes were the two visiting editors for the second workshop and they are also editing volumes of the new Fiction River Anthology Magazine. (It’s getting close to being announced.)
And now this week, the March online workshops are starting up. In a week all this workshop stuff will calm down here, but at the moment it’s been exciting for me.
So everyone who is signed up for the March Online Workshops, you will be getting letters from me with the location and passwords tomorrow and early Tuesday morning. If you have not gotten a letter from me by Tuesday evening and you think you are signed up for a March Online Workshop, please e-mail me.
And yes, there are still spots open in all five March online workshops. How to Plot Your Novel and World Building are the two new ones. Also a Covers Workshop and Book Interior workshop. Allyson Longuiera and I both teach the covers and interior workshops. Information and how to sign up is under the Online Workshop tab above.
And then after Tuesday and all this workshop stuff settles, I have three short stories to write for editors who are waiting for them in a week or so. And the ghost novel is still hanging fire. I’ll blog about it if it actually launches into the writing stage.
I know, I know, tough life. Hanging around with a bunch of professional writers and then having editors waiting for my stories and novel. But someone has to do it. (grin)
Really getting pulled into this blog of yours. Will be looking at something from the Lecture series this month.
A quick question if you,please…
This a fixed writing process I am considering: ONE- Novel drafted from start to finish.
TWO- A single fast edit for story (and
small amounts of research if
applicable).
THREE-Line editing for typos only.
Publish and Repeat.
Would this still count as following Heinlein’s Rules, or is this still too much?
froderic, that fits perfectly under Heinlein’s Rules. Write from the subconscious, fix the typos and small mistakes a first reader finds and fire. Repeat. That fits Heinlein’s Rule #3. And is also great fun, since you as a writer, are always moving forward and writing new stuff, which is the fun of this business.
“I have three short stories to write for editors who are waiting for them in a week or so. And the ghost novel is still hanging fire. ”
If you get around to it, I’d appreciate your perspective on novel LENGTH. Recent top selling e-books on Amazon have estimated page lengths of anywhere from 434 pages to 530 (Fifty Shades of Grey). That comes out to over 132,000 words for that last novel. My stuff tends to come out at 70,000 to 80,000. Is that too short? My instincts tell me the story should be as long as the story requires, and no longer, but will readers who are accustomed to 130,000 word stories feel cheated? Have you encountered this problem? Have you heard from others about it? Or is this a holdover from print publishing that shouldn’t even matter in e-books? Of course, I do POD as well, so it’s an issue for me, but I’d really like to hear from you about length as a sales factor. Thanks.