fall is here…even in Florida

I started a new blog with the idea that I’d be starting off with a clean plate, so to speak, and would update more often.  That hasn’t quite panned out the way I planned.  But I’m here anyway.

Summer’s over and I am looking forward to November and Nanowrimo.  October is supposed to be my planning month, but I have yet to get off my butt and do any of that yet.  No worries.  It’s on the calendar for tonight.  My problem is I read too much.  Unfortunately for me, there are tons of books out, or about-to-come-out that I want to read.  My local library-the Pablo Creek branch of the Jacksonville Library system is teh awesome. Right now, I have approximately 65 books out.  Will I read them all? Probably not, but I want to. J I justify it by calling it research, but we all know that that is just another word for procrastination.  If I want to get anywhere, I need to put the writing ahead of the reading.  And I’m working on that. Really.  Instead of checking books out of the library, I’ve begun compiling a list of books that I want to take out from the library-as a writing reward. How’s that for a dangling carrot?  In the meantime, I know that the majority of those 65 books will return to the library unread, as I get adjusted to following a Budget and a Schedule.  Yay me. I feel like a grownup now.

I celebrated a birthday last week. Pretty uneventful, as I was in bed by 8:00pm.  My 1^st born baby turned 18 yesterday.  Now that was a little traumatic for me.  But I am pretty damned proud of the boy young man. He writes too.  However, he says that he is not ready to share his work with anyone.  And no matter how much I pester him, that pretty much includes me too. When he was 11 or 12, we started a collaboration on a story, round-robin style.  I still have those sloppy handwritten pages, but they couldn’t mean more to me.

So, this is going to be a busy month.  I’m working on Lessons 3-4 on the How to Think Sideways course.  I think it is going well for me. I am opening up to new possibilities and getting to know my muse a bit better.  I am also working through 21 Days to a Novel in preparation for NaNoWriMo.  I guess I’m in a learning phase, and eager to put all these cool new tools to use.  I gave a half-assed attempt to Nano last year.  I really wasn’t into it.  That unwritten remains so, but the characters are still in my head. Perhaps I will find a new world for them to inhabit. There is a growing crowd in my head, and I am trying to distinguish the voices I’m hearing.  That is the hard part. Right now, it’s mostly white noise, and nothing is really STANDING OUT just yet.

ONE WEEK ONLY–HOW TO THINK SIDEWAYS

HOW TO THINK SIDEWAYS COURSE CIRRICULUM:

Would you like your writing to take off in directions that surprise even
you?

With this self-paced course, “How to Think Sideways”, full-time author Holly Lisle can help you whip your muse into shape with proven techniques that will open the floodgates of your creativity.

Every writer has read a book and wondered how the author came up with that plot twist, seemingly from left field. With this course, Holly is not only going to stimulate your idea generation, but will show you how to do it on a deadline. She will also show you how to effectively plan your projects as well as walk you through the beginning, middle, and ending sections of your novel.

Lee Masterson, an author from Australia, had this to say about the course:

“Holly, I’ve been writing professionally for a living for the past 9 years and your Lesson 1, Break the Thinking Barriers, made me think long and hard about what I’ve been doing all this time and what I’d rather be doing – and why I haven’t been doing it all this time. Thank you for the wake up call – and thanks also for the brutal honesty.”

This course, delivered in weekly lessons, includes:

- Monthly video that covers the month’s main topic

- Weekly lessons with assignments

- Weekly technique demonstrations

- Monthly checklist of all steps to take

- A monthly Q&A made up of questions taken from the course forums

- Private workgroups (optional)

- Class discussion forum to interact with other students

Writers spend hundreds of dollars taking courses to learn more about
their craft. At $47 a month, “How to Think Sideways” goes above and
beyond, showing you how to make the most of your imagination.

This course is only open until Monday, September 8th, so enroll now

Here is a closer look at what you will be learning.

Sideways Thinking: Ideas

Week 1: How to Break the Four “Thinking” Barriers to Your Success

Week 2: How to Discover Your Writing “Sweet Spot”

Week 3: How to Generate Ideas On a Deadline

Week 4: How to Recognize and Build On Good Ideas

Sideways Thinking: Project Planning

Week 5: How to Define Your Project’s Needs

Week 6: How to Discover (or Create) Your Project’s Market

Week 7: How to Develop Your Personal Project System

Week 8: How to Plan Your Project While NOT Killing Your Story

Sideways Thinking: First Chapters

Week 9: How to Write From Inside Your Story

Week 10: How to “Plan” Surprises that Surprise Even You

Week 11: How to Design Compelling Queries, Proposals, and Sample Chapters

Week 12: How to Create, Complicate, and Solve Problems

Sideways Thinking: Middles

Week 13: “Can’t I Just Kill Them All?” How to Fall In Love With Your Project A Second Time

Week 14: How to Find and Use Your “Planned” Surprises

Week 15: How to “Hire” Spies, and Why Your Project Needs Them

Week 16: How to Assess Your Progress and Make Mid-Course Corrections

Sideways Thinking: Endings

Week 17: How to Work With Editors, Agents, Marketing Departments, and Artists, and Not Wreck Your Project.

Week 18: How to Find the RIGHT Ending

Week 19: How to Bend Your Plan Without Breaking It

Week 20: How to Write the Ending That Sells the Next Book

Sideways Thinking: Wrap Up/Start Again

Week 21: How to Plan Your Revision

Week 22: How to NOT Fix What Ain’t Broken (While Still Fixing What Is)

Week 23v How to Deliver What You Promised and What They Want On Deadline

Week 24: How to NOT Be a One-Book Wonder—Learn to Produce Repeatable Results

As you can see, this course packs quite a punch and is only available for one week, so enroll now.

Thinking Sideways

So, I started the course, How to Think Sideways, facilitated by Ms. Holly Lisle.

Wow.

The first lesson knocked me sideways. The lesson addressed my writing life, and my life outside of writing, and how one affects the other. I knew that…or so I thought.  Toxic thinking that I’ve been guilty of have permeated my writing, or lack thereof.  It has made me confront the issues that keep me from writing.  I think this course is one of the better decisions I’ve made, and I’m very glad to be a part of it.

Because this is a paid-course, I have to be a little vague here.  I’d like to share my thoughts when I can.  If you’re curious as to what this course is about, please visit the link on my sidebar.

I’ve haven’t had a chance to do the exercises yet, but based on my classmates, I’m excited to see what my slips out from my subconscious.

Olympic Musings

I’ve been watching the Olympics.  More than I ever have before.  I was amazed by the athleticism of the athletes.  I was especially in awe of Dara Torres.  She is 41. Same age as me at the moment, and she rocks big time. She has an awesome bod…to which I aspire…but she is also doing something she loves. And that is what is lacking in my own life. She hasn’t let family obligations, kids, “real life” keep her from the goals she has put before herself.  I am trying to get to that level.  I’m not there yet, but I am not willing to give up. I’ve enrolled in the How To Think Sideways course offered by Holly Lisle.  I’ve taken courses before, but never really taken them seriously.  This one is different.  I truly respect and admire the facilitator.  I’ve known Holly virtually for quite a few years, and she has offered little old me nothing but encouragement along the way.  I know I can get a lot from this course, as long as I put the work in.  And that means to take myself, and my writing seriously.  It is not a passing fancy. It is not wishful thinking. It is a part of me.