Started New Novel
I didn’t get very far because, to be honest, just didn’t feel much like doing anything tonight. But got it started, so maybe tomorrow I will get going.
It will be the second novel in the Seeders Universe in a row. This one will be called Starburst.
Otherwise, a day of meetings and got my walking in and cooked dinner and watched far too much television. And I did a bunch of workshop stuff as well.
October Workshops
Click the workshop tab above for description and sign-up or go to www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com.
Questions about any of the workshops, feel free to write me. All have openings.
And wow, this is a great list of workshops this month. If you haven’t taken a workshop from us, start with Depth. But if you have and want a workshop that will change your writing and make your books easier to write, take the Teams workshop.
Class #31… Oct 4th … The Business of Writing
Class #32… Oct 4th … Character Voice/Setting
Class #33… Oct 4th … Writing Mysteries
Class #34… Oct 4th … Speed
Class #35… Oct 4th … Teams in Fiction
Class #36… Oct 5th … Depth in Writing
Class #37… Oct 5th … Plotting With Depth
Class #38… Oct 5th … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #39… Oct 5th … Writing and Selling Short Stories
Class #40… Oct 5th … Advanced Depth
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Speed Workshop
Just got myself laughing after recording some weeks of the new Speed workshop. It seems that trying to help people pick up speed with their writing (not production, that’s another workshop) tends to make me a little blunt.
Over the years I have listened to so many excuses from newer writers about speed, and listened to so many myths about speed, I guess now that I can actually try to help writers, the frustration of not saying anything for decades to beginning writers is coming up a little. (grin)
So blunt, more than normal for these workshops, will be the tone of the Speed workshop. And myth busting. Wonderful fun for me. Hope some of you taking it can handle me being blunt. But too late now, you are in for the ride. (grin)
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Bundle Update
I wanted to push this again for the third night since this is such a great bundle. The Epic Fantasy Bundle is going strong! Kris has a full novel in it called Heart Readers and it also has novels by Allen Drury, Brandon Sanderson and Tracy Hickman, among others.
And it has Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds in it. Kris and I edited this one and it’s a great one. You can get the bundle at http://storybundle.com/fantasy
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Kickstarter Update
The Second Fiction River subscription drive on Kickstarter is doing fantastic! We have already made two stretch goals now. Thank you, everyone!! And I will have a fun new movie-trailer-like video tomorrow that Kris did on the Writers of Fiction River.
Check out the stretch goals. The first one is that everyone who supports the Kickstarter will get an extra volume added on to your subscription.
And the second stretch goal we have hit means that everyone supporting the Kickstarter will get a free copy of a Fiction River Presents volume chosen by the readers of Fiction River.
So right now, already, support of this Fiction River subscription drive will get you two free books. And if we can hit the third stretch goal, it will get you three.
Fun, huh? Jump in and give Fiction River a try, or get a subscription for a friend. Some fantastic stories in each volume. And get some free volumes in the process.
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Totals For Year 4, Month 2, Day 7
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,084
Over 10,000 steps streak… Day 69
Running Miles This Month… 1.5 miles
— Daily Fiction: 00 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 00 words
— Nonfiction: 800 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 800 words
— Blog Posts: 200 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 2,500 words
— E-mail: 11 e-mails. Approx. 800 original words. E-mails month-to date: 116 e-mails. Approx. 7,800 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 0 Covers
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— Year of Short Fiction Goal: 120 stories (July 1st to June 30th). Stories finished to date: 8 stories.
— Yearly Novel Goal: 12 Novels. Novels finished to date: 2 novels.
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You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Extra stuff for different levels of support and I will be adding in more as time goes on. Thanks for your support.
Or you can just toss a tip into the tip jar with a single donation at PayPal. Either way, your support keeps me going at these crazy posts.
And thanks.
Honestly Dean, anyone not accustomed to you being blunt isn’t awake! 🙂
Ugh. In regards to speed, I failed totally, but I know it’s all bullshit. I had a massive mental block after finding some small success with my first 2 books. I released them back to back and had a 3rd about ready to go…then, the FREEZE. Sometimes success can freeze you, even a little.
I”m not sure if it was an excuse or not, but it was definitely a thing. Impostor. Perfectionism, rewriting a scene 80 freakin’ times. Gah!
I stumbled through, and am on track to release 4 books this year, even taking time to travel in December. If I was fit to do anything else though I might have quit beginning of summer.
When I put out my first two books by March I was like, “Anyone can do this. Easy peasy.”
Now, just finishing up my 3rd book so many months later, my take is, “Do not discount the mental game.”
Jo, most of the stuff you are talking about is productivity, the stuff that stops you from getting to the chair. Although the rewriting is a killer of speed, the biggest, actually.
Hang in there. The mental game never stops, but you get better at winning it.
Thanks Dean. I will. I am. And I am winning.
It’s astonishing how much the mental game influences the outcome, but one thing is to know this rationally and quite another from experience, like you now do. Many years ago, I was setting off to do a 40-mile hike and heard that the most important thing during the hike is your mind. Starting out, I just nodded, but by the time I finished, I KNEW it was about 80% of the success! Having done the hike eight times or so since, I can say, from my experience, that i) you must be healthy to be able to do it, ii) you need to eat properly before, during, and after the hike, iii) you need to watch out for any seemingly minor things (like a sock chafing at your toe) and deal with them immediately, while it’s still easy, or they’ll grow and might stop you, and iv) you must allow yourself to succeed. I suggest the same applies to writing. 🙂