My newsletter introducing the workshop I’m teaching for SavvyAuthors.com [LINK CORRECTED] started like this:
So.
In the midst of my current insane seventy-hour-a-week work schedule, I got this crazy question.
It was “How would you like to do a free writing workshop for our
site?”
Now, in most cases, the answer to the question “How would you like to add about 70 to 100 more hours to your workload and not get paid for it?” would be “Not very much!”
In this case, though, I found two reasons that made me say yes…
And on my writing diary while making the same announcement, I said:
Finally, a COMPENSATION DISCLAIMER:
I’m not an affiliate of SavvyAuthors.com. I’m not making a dime from the workshop, nor will I receive any payment for recommending the site.
I’m doing this because I think it will be fun, and interesting, and challenging, and because it will let me meet some new folks.
And then Sharon, my primary liaison for the workshop, sent me a happy e-mail about how many people had signed up (231 the last I heard), and she told me I’d be getting some money.
To which I said, “I honestly didn’t know I was supposed to get any sort of compensation. The long e-mail I sent out and my blog post both made it clear that I WASN’T being compensated.
“So as nice as the money would be, I’ll have to turn it down. Use it for something cool. :D”
Her idea of cool was, why don’t I give it to ten of you as paid memberships for one year to SavvyAuthors.com.
And I agreed that would be pretty cool.
So.
HOW TO WIN
If you’d like to win a year’s membership to SavvyAuthors.com, just post here. Let me know the MOST USEFUL THING you’ve learned from my website, this weblog, or any of my courses.
That’s it. If you do that, you’re eligible in the drawing.
I’ll do the drawings NEXT WEDNESDAY (FEBRUARY 24th), which will give folks a LITTLE time to reply, and winners enough time to attend some of the workshops this year.
I’ll announce the winners on this writing diary.
[A NOTE: I am reading these entries. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. If you attempt to use this contest to claim that I recommended a product I have never even heard of, I will delete your entry and block you from the site. I don't tolerate spam. I have deleted one entry so far.]
Time and work have devoured this week.
I’ve been writing HTRYN lessons, putting together some internet stuff with my father-in-law, working toward my New Year’s resolution, getting the Official Grand Opening of How To Revise Your Novel ready, and trying to relax. I gave up on that last pretty early on, really, and this has been another long week with no breaks, and no fiction.
But.
HTRYN opens on January 2nd at 12 noon EST, and you’ll be able to register for class up until January 9th at 12 noon. After that, it’s going to be quite a while before I offer the class again, because, as you’ll find out tomorrow, I’m going to be working on other things.
In the meantime, while the HTRYN scholarships have landed on the back burner, they’re not forgotten. You can vote for, comment on, or still create and enter an entry in the HTRYN Scholarship Contest here.
I hope the end of your old year is wonderful, and leads to a 2010 that is better than you could ever imagine.
I’ll see you again in 2010.
I didn’t mention all the holidays in my title… I’m too late for some, a bit early for others, and there are about a hundred of them.
I’ll be back for New Year, either the Eve or the Day, when I post my “By-The-Time-I’m-50″ Resolution.
But I’m taking ALL of next week off. I won’t be writing Lesson 8 for HTRYN, which means I lose one precious week of buffer. (But I’ll be gaining one precious week of rest, so I’m okay with that.)
I won’t be posting here. Write A Book With Me is taking the official week off.
I won’t be answering questions on the boards in HTTS or HTRYN or in my e-mail.
I WILL be doing customer service, but even that is going to be every other day, with Christmas Day off.
I’m going to rest and have a wonderful time with my family, and miss my Air Force Kid who’s currently doing un-fun work in unfriendly places of the world, twelve hours a day, six days a week, and won’t be having presents and wrapping paper and Christmas Trees and sappy music. (He wants us to save his presents until he gets home, because he’s sharing a tiny room with three other guys and has no place to store anything.)
I hope your holiday, however you may celebrate it, is full of joy and friendship, warmth and hope, love and happiness. I hope that you don’t count calories, that you do sleep late, and that you hug someone who matters to you and let that someone know you care.
Be well, be wonderful, and I’ll see you December 27th, when Write A Book With Me resumes.
The third of four videos for THE WRITING CRAFT: How To Motivate Yourself is now available in the student area for all Think Sideways students who have reached Lesson 5 or later, and for all Think Sideways Grads.
Handouts and other things that will be included will have to wait until next week, along with the fourth video, which I ran out of time on today.
No secret that I’ve been swamped, or that I’ve fallen behind on a lot of projects that I have going.
So I’m delighted to announce that Lazette Gifford is going to be the production editor for the 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make series. We have a couple of details to work out still, but some of the manuscripts I have on hand are going to her tonight, along with contact details for the authors.
I’ll still be doing acquisitions, but I’m not taking any more queries until we get the current books caught up.
If you have a book or several that have been caught in my bit of limbo here, e-mail me and I’ll get you caught up on the details.
I’ve noticed a problem with folks offering writing advice in the “Write A Book With Me” threads, and I figure I’d better point out the problem before it gets bigger.
There are some folks here besides me who do this professionally. There are some folks here who have written a lot but never sold anything (some, I suspect, because they haven’t yet tried)—and there are some folks here who have not yet written anything.
And I’ve noticed that the most aggressive “you should do this” advice is coming from that latter segment.
So here’s the deal on advice.
I CANNOT answer all the posts. I read every single one, I answer questions as I get to them, I cheer you on (whether I write a comment or not).
So I welcome you folks encouraging each other as a critical, wonderful part of this game we’re playing. And frankly, some of the folks here are as qualified to offer suggestions as I am.
BUT…
First, if you’ve never written a book, don’t tell other people how they should do it. This seems like an obvious thing to me, but apparently…not so much.
I’ve written more than 30 novels, a bunch of non-fiction, a bunch of short stories, and I STILL don’t tell people how they should do it.
I don’t know how you SHOULD write a book, and neither does anyone else.
I do know how I’ve written and sold a bunch of them, so when I offer advice, I offer what has worked for me, in the hope that it may also work for you.
If you’re offering advice, phrase it as: “I had a similar problem, I took the following steps to fix it, you might find this useful.”
I also ask questions, because in my experience, one good question is worth several pages of “here’s how you can fix that.” It allows the writer facing the problem to find his own ways to solutions. If something someone has written stirs up a huge question in your mind, ASK IT.
If someone asks you a story question here, you don’t have to answer it here. But do think about how that question relates to the story you’re writing. It’ll frequently point out a hole you need to address.
Finally, from this point forward, any post offering any sort of suggestions or advice that includes ANY sort of “I’m sure Holly would say…” phrase is going to be deleted. No questions, no apologies. I’ve let a couple of these slide, but the last batch were full of such atrocious advice that from this point forward, I don’t care if you’ve written the Golden Mean of Writing—if you stick my name on it, it’s gone. I’m the only one who gets to say “what Holly would say.”
You get to say what you would say—and that is a thing of beauty all on its own.
Finally, links to questions I’ve answered elsewhere.
These are just a few of the articles and workshops on the site. If you haven’t gone over the site, you may find the answer to something that’s been causing you problems already answered.
I’ve had several folk apologize for showing up late, and more ask me if there was some way I could keep this going after I wrapped The Book That I’m STILL Calling Dreaming The Dead (GOT to come up with a real title for that).
I thought maybe giving you a look at my planned schedule would let you stop worrying.
I’m planning the book for 300,000 words. I have about 250,000 words plotted (estimated), and I ALWAYS write longer than my plot, because I add things. Currently, I’m adding scenes to my outline at a rate of about one new plot card for every two existing plot cards (which, if this continues, would bring the book in at around 333,000 words.
But first draft, let’s say I actually keep it to the already wildly insane length of 300,000 words.
I’m writing five days a week at 250-500 words most days. Let’s say I lean more toward 500 than 250, and so have two 500-word days for every day that I fall asleep at 250. 500 + 500 + 250 = 1250 ÷ 3 = 417 (roughly).
So, on average, I’m plugging through this thing at 417 words per day, five days a week. That’s 2085 words per week, which comes pretty close to what I wrote this week.
There are 52 weeks in a year, but I’m probably not going to be writing Christmas week. Or doing much of anything else. Gotta have a vacation sometime.
So figure 51 working weeks, and assume that I never get sick and never miss a planned writing night (which, considering the small number of words I’m doing, is a possibility) and realize that in one year, I’ll have done 106,335 words of the first draft. In two years, I will have done 212,670 words of the first draft. I already have 24,000 words done, so in Year Three, I’ll still have 63,330 words to go. Divide by 417, my average number of words per day, and you’ll get 152 work days remaining. Remember that those days will be worked out at five, not seven, days per week, and discover that I have about eight months of writing to do in Year Three to finish the first draft.
After the first draft will come revision. Not sure how I’ll run that.
But…
Nearly three years. That’s what I’ve set aside to write the first draft of this book the way I want it. Barring unforeseen circumstances and desperate situations, I’m going to be chugging along on this for a good long time.
So if you aren’t ready to start yet, not a problem. If you have a friend who wants to do this, but wants to rebuild the engine on his ‘79 Camaro first… odds are pretty good he’ll have time.
Will I keep doing this after I finish DTD? I don’t know. That’s several years off, and things change. Let’s see where we all are then.
In the meantime, however, I’m done for the week. Around 10 tonight, I’ll post the Friday Night Write With Me post, and around 10 PM Saturday night, I’ll put up the Saturday post. And I’ll be back to work Sunday night.
Have a great weekend. See you Sunday.
Over the last three or so years, since I brought out Create A Character Clinic, I’ve had requests to add another way to pay besides PayPal.
I’m finally able to do so, and am looking at three alternative methods. (PayPal will remain my preferred method, but I want to be able to meet the needs of folks who can’t or won’t use them).
My three possibles (these are possible because the upgraded How To Think Sideways software supports them) are:
- 2CO
- Authorize.net
- Clickbank
I’d like to know if you have recommendations, either as a customer or as a merchant, and either pro or con, for any of the three payment processors above.
The new payment processor will be for Think Sideways, not for the shop. There are still issues with adding another processor there, unfortunately, though I haven’t given up.
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.
The much-awaited and frequently delayed upgrade of the How To Think Sideways classroom and forum software starts on Wednesday.
No one will be able to access ANYTHING on Think Sideways between Wednesday June 10 and (most likely) Friday June 12. No one will be able to sign up for the course during that time, either.
This is a big upgrade that is going to require a block of time when NOTHING is being done to any of the databases, except by us. That’s the reason for the complete shut-down. And while it would be cooler to have this thing done by a team of ten ninjas at three-a.m. on a Sunday, who could all just work until it was done, … well, both Margaret and I have families and sleep addictions, and a Red Bull fueled 24-hour marathon just ain’t gonna happen.
So. If you have a recent lesson you’re going to want, get it now.
If you have a lesson that’ll be delivered during those three days… it’ll be there when we open the doors again.
Expect some rubble.
