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.… Continue reading Think Sideways Students: Course Software Upgrade Downtime
Category: Big Courses
New Writing Course Goes Live
I’m delighted to announce that I finally got my act together and put up Episode One of THE WRITING CRAFT: Dialogue, which is Dialogue and Subtext. Have tested everything, it all works, and you can check it out now. This is the first time I’ve done a pure video course (though naturally it includes… Continue reading New Writing Course Goes Live
I’m writing, and I don’t want to stop!
I’ve done about a thousand words this morning. My heroine is getting herself in trouble with the police; the hero has cheerfully set her up to be in that trouble while absconding with all her research documentation from a dig; and three bodies, the mess attendant to their butchering, and a second anachronistic Roman-style sword… Continue reading I’m writing, and I don’t want to stop!
Two-Hour Fiction (with a nonfiction chaser)
Got a net gain of 1209 new words, in spite of pulling out a couple chunks of previous work. DTD now sits at 9102 words, and I have my hero stuck in the heroine’s hall closet while she and a couple of her grad students are trying to figure out the relationship between the missing… Continue reading Two-Hour Fiction (with a nonfiction chaser)
Quick Note for Think Sideways Students and Grads
The Writing Craft: Dialogue Episode 1 — Dialogue and Subtext is now completed and available for download. Onsite student theater (1 hr) will remain available Four downloadable segments of the same episode, each around 25 MB Transcript Worksheet There’s also a long post with a survey here: What Do You Want from The Writing Craft?… Continue reading Quick Note for Think Sideways Students and Grads
My Birthday Bash: Presents for You
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? Day One (that’s today): Any two of my… Continue reading My Birthday Bash: Presents for You
Light Through Fog
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… Continue reading Light Through Fog
Dumped on by Fay
We’ve been dealing with Fay all day. Internet on and off, power on and off. Mostly on, and the big issue is rain, of which we’re getting a lot. But we’ve got the tornado watch too until this evening. Lots of fun. Writing-wise, I’m STILL writing lesson seven, (and saving frequently) which is all about… Continue reading Dumped on by Fay
Breakthrough!
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… Continue reading Breakthrough!
Not Dead. Definitely Swamped
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… Continue reading Not Dead. Definitely Swamped
