Category: Create A Plot Clinic

  • So… TODAY was epic…

    So… TODAY was epic…

    Still working from my line-for-scene outline, today the scene i started yesterday just took off. I now have 9245 words done on the first draft. I got 1432 words today, AND discovered the thing I needed to see, and it was completely different than I’d been imagining… but I love it so much. Some days…

  • FINISHED BOOK FIVE OF THE OHIO SERIES!!!

    FINISHED BOOK FIVE OF THE OHIO SERIES!!!

    No, I didn’t plan this. I thought I had another three weeks of writing to hit the end. Yesterday, I was galloping along, and I’d planned to pick up today with the logical continuation of the scene I wrote yesterday, where my characters were in trouble… And when I loped back into the office this…

  • A Giggly Scene, A Wicked Secret… and I Love You, Tomorrow

    A Giggly Scene, A Wicked Secret… and I Love You, Tomorrow

    No big secret that these books are set in a decidedly sideways version of the Ohio town in which I live. I love this place, and I’m having a wonderful time building some seriously wacky shit into what is in reality a lovely old town with a great history, and some fine and friendly people.…

  • The HWC “What do we do with No FORUM?!” page

    The HWC “What do we do with No FORUM?!” page

    We’re getting ready to shut down the HollysWritingClasses.com site for its update (This will happen in 0-48 hours… don’t know yet). But while the site is down, HWC members can ask questions and talk to each other here. This is not a place to report problems. For that, go to the HWC Help Desk and…

  • “No plan survives first contact with the enemy…”

    “No plan survives first contact with the enemy…”

    Or second contact…  Or third… The quote may  come from Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, or Carl von Clausewitz, or Dwight D. Eisenhower… or just some dude who knew shit. But it’s true — and it isn’t just true about war. It’s true about any sort of creation that requires spontaneous adaptation to unknowable but…

  • The Ohio Series: Taking the measure of a novel

    The Ohio Series: Taking the measure of a novel

    Yesterday was Marketing Day, and I got the first half of the 4th edition of Create a Plot Clinic finished. Next week if all goes well I’ll finish and do a new cover, and take that class live and wide. Today, I worked for several hours, and got 1010 words of the 2000 I’d planned.…

  • Why I shut down my Patreon fundraiser

    Why I shut down my Patreon fundraiser

    I’d intended to send a Questions & Answers email to my How to Write a Novel launch list, but that’s going to have to wait.Instead, I did THIS. Closed my “Move out of Florida while writing fiction” fundraiser. Here’s why — it’s this clause in the Patreon Legal Agreement https://www.patreon.com/legal By posting content to Patreon you grant us a…

  • The writing shop on HollysWritingClasses.com is now live

    Even though my new Holly’s Writing Classes site is still in high beta, I’m delighted to finally have the writing shop open. We haven’t made the site pretty yet, and for the moment the shop is very plain and simple (no frills), but things work now. So I’ve brought back many of my previous classes,…

  • HowToThinkSideways.com Site Move: LAST Chance to Correct Your Account

    The move over at HowToThinkSideways.com is starting We’re starting to move member accounts onto the live new software, new domain, and new classrooms this week. In order to receive your new temporary password, you MUST have a working email address in your current account. Here are the steps to make sure you’ll be able to…

  • Things Don’t Look Good for My Future With Apple

    This is the follow-up post to Uncrippling the Lesson. As I said I would, I paid my book packager to create a separate version of How To Think Sideways, Lesson 6 that did not include links to Apple. I uploaded the corrected version. A couple days later, I got this message: Dear Holly Lisle, One…