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WRITING ARTICLES
QUIZZES
WRITING FAQs
WORKSHOPS & HOW-TOs
SMALL WRITING CLASSES
BIG WRITING CLASSES
Nothing is simple, though sometimes things do a wonderful impression of being simple. For example:
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Simple, right? At least until you go down to the cellular level, look at the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide, look inside the cells that carry the oxygen and the cells that receive it, follow the paths of the neurons that carry messages from your brain and your spinal cord to your lungs.
Then it’s not simple at all.
But in spite of life’s complexity, it’s possible to simplify the complex, to break massive tasks into doable steps, to tuck away endless complications behind a shield that lets you move from day to day, from word to word. To set aside awareness of the size of a task and embrace the beauty of ‘breathe in, breathe out.’
Life runs better when you know how it works… AND when you learn how to focus on the simple paths that allow you to do complex things.
Like write books.
Like build the life you want to live.
Like make the choice to experience joy in a world that focuses on everything but.
So the many essays and workshops in my Articles section and all of my classes focus on doing that: They show you how to explore the complex and create simple paths through it.
They show you how to read, write, and live with joy.
Holly Lisle
WRITING ARTICLES
After the Podcast: Fiction for Readers, Help for Writers
Do Writers Need College To Write?
Writing With Integrity: Why Everyone SHOULDN’T Like You
Life Changes Writing; Writing Changes Life
Money From Nothing: The Economic Value of Writing Original Fiction
Apples, Bananas — The Writer’s Need for Experience
That Our Reach Exceed Our Grasp
Could vs. Should and the Price of Your Dreams
Everyday Courage and the Writer
Deeper People: Putting Yourself into Your Characters
Writers’ Block: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Writers’ Block: Losing (and Regaining) Writer’s Hunger
In Search of Impossible Goodness
Dvorak Typing Part I: With Fingers Struck Dumb
Dvorak Typing Part II: Three Months Later
Common Ground: Holding Community Together
QUIZZES
QUIZ: Are You Right for Writing?
QUIZ: Want to Save the World Through Typing?
QUIZ: Your Unfinished Manuscript: Burn It, Bury It, or Let It Live?
Writing FAQs
My Three Most Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs About Going Pro (Legacy Publishing Version)
FAQS About Commercial Publishing (Publishing-House Publishing)
FAQS About Literary Agents (For Legacy-Publishing Writers)
FAQS About Money (Legacy-Publishing Writers)
FAQS About My Writing Articles
FAQs About Persistent Misconceptions
FAQS About the Business of Writing
Miscellaneous FAQs About Writing
WORKSHOPS & HOW-TOs
Free 9-Week Email Class: Beginning Writer’s Working Tour
How to Write Something GOOD from a Prompt
How to Get There from Here: The Magic of Goals
How To Write For YOUR Right Audience
Creating Conflict: or, The Joys of Boiling Oil
How To (Legally and Ethically) Steal Ideas
Ten Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice
How To Write Suckitudinous Fiction
How to Collaborate — and How Not To
How To Write Time and First Person
How Much of My World Do I Build?
Worldbuilding — Rollicking Rules of Ecosystems
How To Worldbuild Magic: Short Rules for Real Worlds
Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure
Honing Your Talent: A Workshop
Pacing Dialogue and Action Scenes — Your Story at Your Speed
How I Drew A Map and Sold Three Books And A World
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or How to Choose a Writers’ Group
How to Quit Your Day Job to Write Full Time
How to Tell Who WON’T Make It in Writing (and How Not to Be That Writer
How To Work With An Editor (Legacy Publishing Version)
Learn How To Create A Professional Plot Outline
Scam-Spotting: If It Looks Like A Scam, It Probably Is
The Character Workshop — Designing A Life
Maps Workshop — Developing the Fictional World through Mapping
Scene-Creation Workshop — Writing Scenes that Move Your Story Forward
Timed Writing Workshop — Freeing Up the Subconscious in Writing
Exercises in Timed Writing — Freeing Up the Subconscious in Writing
Workshop: Visualization for Writers
The Serendipity Workshop: Lost on the Border at Twilight
Novel Pre-Writing Workshop: Better Questions Make A Better Book
One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle
SMALL WRITING CLASSES
How to Write Page-Turning Scenes
Title. Cover. Copy. Fiction Marketing Workshop
How to Write Dialogue With Subtext
The Publishing While Broke Workshop
How to Find Your Writing Discipline
21 Ways to Get Yourself Writing (When Your Life Has Just Exploded)
24-Hour Intensive: Find Your Writing Voice
BIG WRITING CLASSES
How to Revise Your Novel: Get the Book You WANT from the Wreck You Wrote
How to Write a Series: Master the Art of Sequential Fiction
