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 →
I never recommend writing contest sites that charge an entry fee. No exceptions. I’ve never entered one, because I was out to make a living from my writing, and contests were an unnecessary diversion from my path. Your mileage may vary. But I received an interesting request from someone building a “perpetual writing contest site” and once I removed all … Continue reading →
Paper Testing ROUND 2 I’ll be gone next week for another tongue biopsy/surgery (not sure how much he’s going to need to do, but the recovery for both is the same). After that, I’ll set up the next paper tests. Parts of the site design look pretty close to ready. Parts of the site have proved to me that paper … Continue reading →
