Category Archives: Thinking Sideways

Writing the Novel: Math Hurts
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I’ve done the math on Dreaming the Dead, but it isn’t adding up to the kind of progress I want to see.

This year, I’ve had The Silver Door come out in hardcover, The Ruby Key come out in paperback, and Hawkspar come out in paperback. And I had the short story “Light Through Fog” appear in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance.

But last year, instead of another book, I wrote the How To Think Sideways course—about, I’d guess, 250,000 words long. I haven’t counted. I SERIOUSLY don’t want to know. But I know my writing speed, and I know I put 70 hours or more a week into that course for eight months, and while it wasn’t all writing, a whole lot of it was.

So I got the course instead of a new novel…but I did it so I could pay bills while I wrote the novels I wanted to write without having to have contracts for them, to write them to someone else’s specifications. This was not self-indulgence. This was a determination to write the books I know I’m capable of writing without having an editor tell me “there’s too much story” or that the audience for which she’d bought the books “isn’t that smart.”

I have a problem with this. I don’t want to have my writing crippled by someone else’s low expectations, or the demand that those low expectations be treated as a law of physics.

(This has nothing to do with the Moon & Sun series, by the way, or with the Korre novels. I’d love to continue those. In the future, if the opportunity presents itself, I will.)

So Think Sideways is buying me the time to write what I intend to be one hell of a novel, and to—when it is DONE—find an editor who wants to find the readers THAT novel will appeal to: someone who isn’t acquiring product for readers he or she doesn’t respect.

I’ve met a lot of my readers. I like them. More, I respect them. Smart, tough people overall. I want to be able to look them in the eye when I have a book coming out.

But because I chose Think Sideways and threw myself into that, next year I won’t have a book coming out. This was a trade-off. A gamble. My decision to believe in what I can do, and do it, and see if my unadulterated vision for my books can grab the passion of an editor, a publisher, and readers.

(My agent is … intrigued … by my career choice here. And supportive, for which I’m deeply grateful.)

Now, however, I’m six months into 2009, and 15,000 words (6%) into what I’m targeting as a 250,000-word first draft. Not good. I would very much like to have a shot at a book coming out in 2011—which means getting this one done this year.

Writing the novel becomes, therefore, first on my list. I get the words, THEN I do other things. On the days when the words don’t come easily, nothing else gets done. (If the possibility of switching off to site work exists, then the writing will get shoved to the side, because site work is easy, and writing sometimes isn’t.)

I have roughly 165 working days ahead of me. A few of them will go to family stuff. A few will be eaten by problems. The Christmas-through-New-Year block will require probably ten. Figure 140 days base.

I’ll need at least a month for revision. 20 days, leaving 120.

I have 235,000 words to go to hit the end of the first draft.

120 into 235,000 gives me 1958 words per day, minimum. Extra words on any given day can buy a breather on a future day. Breathers matter.

So round up to 2200 words per day before I do anything else. Night writing can buy me some time. Last night it bought me about 500 words into today’s total, if I choose to count them. I might not. The more time I can buy myself up front, the more time I can spend doing a revision that nails every issue. I want this book as tight as I can get it before my agent sees a word of it. I could just count night writing as a buffer.

Going to see what I can do in the next two hours. And though I made an exception today, because I needed the math, and figured I’d share the process and the reasoning behind it, writing updates, news, and other bloggables will hit the site AFTER I’ve gotten my words.

Wish me luck.

Think Sideways Is Up and Running
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I’m posting this a lot of places, because there’s one issue that I hadn’t counted on when shutting down the course so we could do upgrades.

The new version requires members to check a box to receive critical e-mail updates (which is good, and will make my site host much happier)—BUT NO ONE has clicked the box, because the default is OFF, and we just installed the software.

So every student, grad student, and prospective student who needed to know that the course was back up and running just got cut out of the loop.

Pass this on for me if you would, please.

My Birthday Bash: Presents for You
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Yeah, my birthday is almost here, and I decided this year to celebrate by giving presents to other people. And not just on my actual birthday, either. I’m giving away presents every day next week, plus a couple of presents starting today.

So what are your presents?

Total value of my birthday presents?

Absolute lowest value—$1720.33
Absolute highest value—$1987.43

But it’s more than that, really.

  • Because today five people will win. ($79.95 minimum, $159.75 max in presents)
     
  • Friday four people will win. ($103.60 minimum, $167.80 max in presents)
     
  • Saturday three people will win. ($107.55 minimum, $179.85 max in presents)
     
  • Sunday, two people will win. ($91.60 minimum, $123.60 max in presents)
     
  • Monday, two people will win. ($211.40 minimum, $243.50 max in presents)
     
  • Tuesday, two people will win. ($303.28 in presents)
     

    AND…
     

  • Wednesday two people will win. ($564 minimum, $600 max in presents)
     

So the minimum total in presents I’m giving away for my birthday is…

$2518.87

And the maximum total in presents I’m giving away for my birthday is…

$2993.22

But that’s not all. EVERYONE who enters will receive one gift on Monday, October 13th.

The total value of my birthday bash giveaway including those gifts should be well over $5000. Could be a lot more. I’ll let you know once the confetti settles. :D

RULES

Who can enter?

Anyone but my immediate family.

And…

You could win twice, if you enter early. Here’s how:

Anyone who wins an e-book gift cannot win any further e-book presents, but will be re-entered for one of the full scholarships.

What if you win and you’re already a student in the Think Sideways course? Then I’ll refund the tuition you’ve paid to this point, and you are in free for the rest of the course.

Will I refund you for e-books you win but already own? No. Therein lies a madness of paperwork I will not even consider. HOWEVER… I’ll be very happy to send any prizes you win (INCLUDING a full scholarship if you want to be that generous) to someone you choose. If you win and this is an issue for you, contact me.

So…

How do you enter?

Follow me on Twitter. Here’s my page: http://twitter.com/hollylisle

It’s free, it’s easy, and I’m already discovering that Twitter is a lot of fun.

If you’re already following me, you’re already entered. If you’re already a Twitter member, go to my page and click Follow and you’re entered. If you’re not already a member, it’s free and it only takes a minute to join. Then return to my page click Follow. The Follow button is right under my picture on the top left corner.

I’ll print off the complete list of my Twitter followers every day, and do a random drawing from those pages, PLUS the pages from every day’s pages before. Yes, this means that if you start following me today, you’ll get one new entry in the drawing every single day. Yes, this will improve your chances of winning, at least a little. I have no way of figuring odds. I have no idea how many people will enter. Today, right this minute, you’re odds would be about 5:32. I expect they’ll get a bit steeper over the next few days.

I’ll announce the winners at around noon my time every day. On Twitter. :D (Except today, when I’ll announce at around two, because I am SO behind schedule.)

And I’ll do a final listing of everyone who won here after it’s all over. Probably on Tuesday the 14th. Finally, EVERYONE who’s following me on Twitter will get a link to one gift on that day.

So. Does that count as a cool way to celebrate a birthday?

Light Through Fog
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I worked all weekend, and have been working nights for a while, in addition to working on the course. See, around the same time that I was getting ready to take How To Think Sideways live, I got this request for a short story from an editor who was putting together an anthology. That’s basically the only way I do short stories, and the timing on this one was terrible, because I knew I’d be working on the course.

But. I loved the subject matter, I got an idea for the story very quickly, and even though the money and rights were not great, well, I loved my idea. So I decided I’d use the writing of the story, from pre-idea through final edits, as part of the course. Which I’ve been doing.

And over the weekend, I finished the story, titled Light Through Fog, did my revision, and at 6:30ish this morning sent it off to my editor. Have already heard from her that she’s received it. It was due today. :D I work very hard not to miss deadlines, but I do sometimes hit them right on the very, very edge.

Anyway, the story is done, and I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

And writing fiction again was wonderful, and made me hungry to do more.

I’m working on Lesson 12 now, which means this week marks the halfway point on the official course. I’m seriously considering doing a couple of student-requested lessons at the end as a nice bonus, but I’m going to work hard not to extend beyond that.

The next Moon & Sun book is calling me, and so is “C.”

Breakthrough!
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I had the most amazing breakthrough today. Still writing the Think Sideways course, and was sitting in the little snack area in our local Target brainstorming the whole world-building/pre-planning process for novels (Lesson 7). My two guys were off looking for video games, and I had my carry-along notebook out and was drawing flow-charts, trying to figure out how to make the whole process of what you need, and what you don’t need, and why, and WHEN, clear.

Scribbled the word “Why?” on the left page, opposite the flow chart. “Why” is the best question on the planet, and my “why” here was simple. “Why worldbuild?”

The answer isn’t obvious, but it is beautiful, and elegant, and when I had it staring me in the face, I experienced my own Eureka moment. Not just for how to explain it to students, but for myself, as well.

That was a question I’d never asked myself, because I always thought I knew the answer. And now that I know the answer, what to build, and when, and how, becomes simple.

I love writing. These moments are part of why. You never know everything, and the more and deeper you explore, and the more mysteries that you unfold, the more you realize how much is left to find. It’s wonderful.

Not Dead. Definitely Swamped
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I hadn’t planned on the week following registration for How To Think Sideways being a week of troubleshooting all the many things that broke on the system software; thought we’d tested everything, but you only think that until a course goes live and real students start taking it.

Anyway, this week I’m playing catch-up writing lessons. Didn’t get a newsletter out yesterday, didn’t get a handful of other things up and running, either. And am 600+ emails behind again. That’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.

The lessons are wonderful to write, though, so my work process for the next few months is all stuff I love. And thanks to copious notes, I’m making steady progress.

C has started nagging at me though—I have to write that book. Soon. It’s gotten so good inside my head I have to tell it.

Bombarded by Writing
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C Breathes

So I was sitting in the cafe in Books-A-Million waiting for my guys to finish doing Manly Things at Best Buy. I’d forgotten to bring knitting. I’d forgotten to bring my Think Sideways planning notebook. I’d forgotten to bring my “C” planning notebook.

So I picked up a cheap-o notebook, and a pen that didn’t squidge all over the paper (discovered that my carry-along pen had started leaking), and sat staring at the blank page.

I didn’t stare for long.

“There is no perfect day for a funeral,” my character said in my ear, and I wrote that down. “There is no moment where the box can slide into the earth bearing the battered remains of the man who saved your life and made you whole and restored your faith in humankind and the world, and you can say, “This is good. This is right.”

So began “C.” I sat there scribbling as fast as I could put words on the page, and before the guys finished doing the Manly Things, I had the first chapter in rough first draft.

The first two lines don’t win me over. They aren’t right yet. None of it is a good as it can be, but it’s alive. It’s breathing, and I know what happens next.

But Smudge was born…

I woke up in the middle of the night a week or so ago with the vague idea that I wanted to write some sort of supernatural series with a hero who had a unique problem. No idea what sort of supernatural, no idea what sort of problem, just this nebulous concept that this was something I wanted to write.

Over the next few days, little ideas popped into my head, and I’d mull them over, then let them go. Nothing stuck. I liked some of the bits and pieces, but there was no connection between them. They all felt random. I let them float, not writing anything down, trusting that they would turn into something when they were good and ready. I was in no hurry. I have Think Sideways next on the table, and then the proposal for Moon & Sun III, and then C. I have no shortage of exciting, cool work.

So yesterday, riding into town with the guys, staring at the road, just being happy that I got SILVER DOOR done and in on time, all those unrelated pieces from the previous days collided into one huge, winning, ready gestalt and exploded into my awareness—character, problem, purpose, series arc, main character arc, stories, villain, and underlying theme about life and death and life after death. It was like slamming my head into a cabinet corner. One instant, everything was creamy; the next, I was overwhelmed by full-body sensory overload. (Only without the pain, which was a very good thing.)

I rode along, full of doubt, testing for holes, asking questions, and every time finding the answers already there, waiting, and beautiful. The guy who woke up with the structure of DNA in his head could not have been any more amazed than I was by the structure of this whole story/ character/ concept/ world. Smudge is a working title, the character’s nickname, and probably disposable three or ten times before I come to something I actually like.

But this one has to cook. I clustered all the elements yesterday in the OTHER Moleskine notebook I bought that day, and then set it aside. Because….

Think Sideways is keeping me awake nights

I’ve been writing and rewriting lessons and essays in my head and figuring out how to put the building blocks together in the most logical and usable structure, and visualizing the demos—how to SHOW the subconscious and how to SHOW turning bad ideas into good ideas and how to SHOW you how to train yourself to do the stuff I did to get Smudge, and that I’m doing with “C,” and that I did with the best stuff I’ve written.

Having finished this post, I’m starting lesson one of Think Sideways now.

(Actually, I wrote this about 9 AM today, and got a bunch done on Think Sideways already. Our internet has been out all day. Freakin’ internet.)

Finished SILVER DOOR Write-In
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Tomorrow I’ll start on the type-in, but for today, I’m done, done, done!

The write-in revision went well. The beta tester comments helped—folks found a lot of the same issues my editor found, as well as a few things that didn’t bother her, but bothered me. I managed to cover both bits of ground. No doubt I’ll make some changes during type-in. I always do, after all. But they’ll be small changes.

And when this is done, I get to start writing and building How To Think Sideways. I’m excited.

How Thinking Sideways is Different Than A Whack On The Side of The Head
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I’m doing this as a separate post because I figured it was going to be invisible in comments. (Where I originally answered the question.)

Here’s the question I got:

KalevTait Says:
April 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

I don’t know how related it is, but you might want to look at ‘A whack on the side of the head’ for comparison. It’s much more about how to learn creativity than it is about thinking in a twisty way (which I suspect your course is about).

I own the Whack Pack (and book), actually. After reading the book and taking the pack out of the box and messing around with it once, I put them back and never bothered with them again. It’s not a bad course at all—but it’s designed for business users, not writers, first off, and it’s … thin. Impersonal. I liked the concept enough to buy the thing, but it didn’t fit me.

The Think Sideways course is something else entirely. It is very much about learning twisty thinking, developing a deep connection to creating unexpected events in fiction (and creating a fertile ground for serendipity in your life). It’s not random cards, but a series of specific techniques presented in an order that will allow you to build on what you’ve previously learned—everything works together

Each lesson will be in PDF format, (so you can work at your own speed), and will include:

  • one sideways-thinking technique that I use,
     
  • an example of how I’ve successfully used it,
     
  • recommendations on the sorts of creativity you’ll find it useful for,
     
  • and two exercises for putting it into practice—one for writing, one for life in general.
     
  • Finally, I’m pretty sure I’m going to include one “Synthesis” lesson a month, in which you’ll start putting together some project (probably writing, but not necessarily), and you’ll use the three techniques from that month in conjunction to develop it.
     

Beyond that, some lessons will come with bonuses that will give you a “live” (MP3 or Quicktime video) demonstration of putting a technique into action (not all of them, because some techniques simply don’t lend themselves to this).

The objective of the course will be to make sure, by the end of each lesson, that you have acquired a new skill, or have at least found new ways to put to use skills you already have.

You can get all the sneak peeks as I develop the course (and an hour’s head start on getting one of the limited seats for the first class) by signing up below for the priority notification list.