No secret that I haven’t been getting a lot of fiction written lately. Between building and getting the HollysWritingClasses.com website ready to come out of beta, and editing a collection of short fiction by students, and writing a brand-new Version 2 of How to Write a Series, I’ve been working long hours and weekends and I didn’t see where I … Continue reading →
After a gruelling two years in which I’ve written very little fiction but have: Built a stellar team of folks to help me run my writing site: Dan Allen – Developer Kirsten Bolda – Site Designer Cat Gerlach & Amy Padgett, Forum Head Moderators Carol Englehaupt – moderator Karen Lynn – moderator Chris Makowski – moderator Tom Vetter – … Continue reading →
I woke up this morning from one of those dreams that seem to go on forever, where there were international spies and murders and I was a writer working on getting a lesson done on deadline, and for some reason, my lesson was interfering with the international spies, who’d sent someone to make me stop writing it. The lessons I’m … Continue reading →
Here’s what I’ve already covered or am covering now. Building deeper characters Plotting Writing scenes Worldbuilding Building cultures Building languages Building a writing career Novel revision Writing short stories Self-motivation Buiding self-discipline Beating writer’s block Indie book promotion and I’m building How to Write a Series now… None of these classes came from me sitting down and thinking, “Gee, … Continue reading →
Today was going to be my Get The Minerva Wakes Hardcover Done day. But I work exclusively on a Mac. And in indie publishing, POD publishers give no love to the Mac. I did a gorgeous job of formatting the book. All chapters on right-hand pages. No headers or page numbers on chapter pages. Nothing on blank left-hand pages opposite … Continue reading →
Last Friday, I printed out my manuscript and my revision worksheets, located my pens, and set everything aside. Saturday was to be my first day of revision. And Saturday with the the big table cleared for writing, I started into revising my badly wrecked fantasy novel TalysMana, written back in 2010. I was planning on doing the way I always … Continue reading →
The objective of writing science fiction, fantasy, (and fiction in general) is to explore the world of what could be, what should be, what should never be — to challenge your own assumptions, to discover, uncover, or invent new ways of thinking about life and new ways of seeing the world, humanity, and life, to expand beyond what is. Standing … Continue reading →
I started off this morning not liking the antagonist in my story very much. Which you sort of expect from most antagonists. One chance comment in reply to my other character changed my understanding of their relationship, though, and gave me this gorgeous twist that is going to completely alter the ending I’d had planned. I just LOVE the way … Continue reading →
This is such a delicate thing I’m almost afraid to mention it. But stories started sneaking back into my consciousness after the parathyroid surgery, and lately I’ve been starting each weekday morning writing a few hundred words. It’s what I can make time for before I start into the still-enormous daily workload of getting the HollysWritingClasses.com site up and running … Continue reading →
On Saturday, something happened as a result of the parathyroidectomy that was totally unexpected. My spontaneous story ideas came back. I hadn’t even noticed they were gone. I’ve been working hard for the past couple of years trying to get the site fixed, I’ve been under a lot of strain both physically and financially, and my processes for creating fiction … Continue reading →
