Blog Archives

December 2015 Update: NaNo and Book 6

12/16/2015

Time for a look at where I've been and where I'm going. For NaNoWriMo in November, I wrote nearly 54,000 words of Heir of Tanaris (the book formerly knows as The Healing Tree; I love it when I finally think of a decent title!). It still isn't finished; I'm guessing the first draft is going to end up around 80,000 words, by far the longest novel I've written in a while. The characters and plot continue to grow and change on me; the synopsis I've posted is already obsolete. I like to plan and outline my books and develop my characters ahead of time, but once I'm immersed in the story and my subconscious takes over, things can go in very different directions. I'm plugging along with finished the draft at a thousand words a day (usually more; that's my minimum). I'm hoping to finish it by the end of December, but with Christmas bearing down quickly, that might not happen.

I'm also working on major revisions to For the Wildings, the 6th and final book of Daughter of the Wildings. It's much longer than the other books in the series and between work on Heir and Christmas stuff, the revision isn't going real fast, but I am making daily progress on it. Still no good idea of when it'll be released.

And those two things are taking pretty much all of my brain power these days. I'm still reading a lot with the little that's left, so I'll do another reading roundup soon.

The plan for 2016: continue writing 1000 words a day on novels, short stories, writing exercises that may or may not turn into stories, whatever. I went a long time without writing anything new, and got rusty on it. Also, after the release of For the Wildings in the first part of the year, the next books on the list for release will be The Source-Fixer (still looking for a decent title for that one) and Heir of Tanaris, and also the Tales from Azara collection. I'll probably post a few of those here for free. Beyond that, my very first novel ever and its sequel are waiting for evaluation and revision, and I'm working out ideas for a follow-up series to Daughter of the Wildings and also for a sequel to Urdaisunia.

That should keep me out of trouble for a while.

0 Comments

Last Chance for How To Revise Your Novel

12/15/2015

0 Comments

Registration for Holly Lisle's awesome How To Revise Your Novel class closes tonight, Tuesday Dec. 15, at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (or in about 10 hours from this posting). I took this class and can't say enough good things about it. You'll learn how to take your novel apart, identify what works and what doesn't and why, and turn it into the book you wanted to write. It's five months of brain- and gut-wrenching work, and the absolute best $285 you can spend on your writing, hands down.

Here's more from Ms. Lisle herself:

I'm personally taking students live through this How To Revise Your Novel class---(the live part is on the forum, which I'll be opening later today).

Class officially starts tomorrow, December 16.

To register, click here.

Registration closes at 11:59 PM EST tonight.

Once I close the doors, you'll be able to join a preregistration list for the next class. I'll open that in either six months or around the completion of the next NaNoWriMo, in Nov-Dec 2016.

If you need to learn to revise effectively, efficiently, beautifully... and now, I hope I'll see you in class.

Learn to revise with joy,

Holly Lisle

A couple of key points: Holly will be working live with this class through the forums, and once registration for this class closes, the next opportunity won't be for six months to a year. If you want to learn revision skills that I firmly believe will make any first draft better, no matter how wrecked it is, and that will also help your writing skills as well, don't miss out on this!

**links are my affiliate links, and I get a commission on signups. Only graduates of HTRYN are allowed to be affiliates, because they can genuinely recommend it. And I do genuinely recommend it.

0 Comments

Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel Course Now Open for Registration

12/9/2015

0 Comments

I've blogged before about my revision process, which came from Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course. Five months of gut- and brain-wrenching work that teaches you how to take your novel draft apart, identify what works and what doesn't and why, and how to fix what doesn't work and make your novel into the book you wanted to write. I took HTRYN using Urdaisunia as my project, and took what was a frightening frankendraft patchwork of old and new writing and turned it into a novel I was proud to release. Whether you want to self-publish or pursue traditional publishing, whether or not you plan to hire an editor, no matter how many creative writing classes you may (or may not) have taken, I believe it's the best $285 you can spend on your writing, hands down. The course was closed for a while, while the site was being rebuilt, but now registration is open again through Tuesday, December 16. Holly will only be opening registration once a year, or twice if there's enough interest, so if you want to take How To Revise Your Novel, now's the time to consider signing up.

Here's more about it from Holly Lisle:

For the next seven days, UNTIL 11:59 PM EST on TUESDAY, Dec. 15, you can register for the class that has been teaching writers how turn rough, lumpy, awkward, and sometimes just outright BROKEN first drafts into professional-quality fiction since Nov. 23, 2009.

The class started out back in 2009 having two registrations a year. I changed that at some point, but when I did, the vibrancy of the community of writers that developed in the classroom (a sort of war-buddies-who'd-shared-hardships-and-SEEN-things camaraderie) disappeared.

Limited-time registration is back.

Once again, How To Revise Your Novel is only going to be available either one or two times a year.

I promise the course will be available to a new class once a year.

I'll only make How To Revise Your Novel available a second time in any given year if I have enough students waiting to register to fill a second class.

However...

Once you own How To Revise Your Novel, you can use the classroom and (soon to be added) forum year-round, retake any lessons, go through the initial process and then the streamlined process with every book (or story, screenplay, biography or any other fiction or personal nonfiction you write).

I've even had students tell me it helped them with their nonfiction. The class is NOT focused on that, though.
If you do a NaNoWriMo novel a year, then next year you'll already have the class. And the year after that. And the year after that.
If you write a book every two months, you'll have everything in the classroom waiting to help you make every one of those books better.
If you write a story a day, what you'll learn in this class will show you how to make those short stories better, too.
And if you just want to write one or two novels, but you want to make them great?
How To Revise Your Novel will be there for you for them, too.

Being a working writer who creates great stories that readers love isn't some magical gift of the gods. It is a learned skill. It takes a lot of words, and a lot of work.

But YOU CAN DO IT.

Any writer willing to put in the work can learn the necessary skills, and if you're willing to apply those skills to every word you write, YOU CAN get good.

To join the class, go here

To log in if you're a current How-To-Think-Sideways-class student or HTTS-class grad
Then use the green How To Think Sideways button in the Classroom Hub to reach your registration page

WARNING!

How To Revise Your Novel is not an easy class.

You cannot learn how to revise your work by READING lessons.

THERE IS NO THEORY in How To Revise Your Novel.

Every bit of it is practical, step-by-step instructions.

You have to actually print out your manuscript, print out the worksheets, and DO the work.

And with your first professional-process revision, there is a LOT of work.

Here's the good news.

The first REAL revision you do will be the MOST PAINFUL, MOST DIFFICULT, MOST AGONIZING and occasionally, the MOST HORRIFYING revision you will ever do.

How is that GOOD news, you're asking?

:) (If somebody told me I was walking into pain, you better believe I'D ask.)

So here's why it's good news.

Discovering during your first revision everything you do wrong over and over in your writing teaches you not to make those mistakes anymore. Your writing becomes better when you revise, and your NEXT first-draft manuscript will be better from the beginning.

So your next novel's revision will be EASIER to do. Usually, it will be a LOT easier.
Trust me, with each new manuscript, you'll invent brand-new mistakes that you'll only discover in your next revision.

Ask me how I know...

But learning to do a real, s olid, step-by-step one-time-through revision will make you a better writer, and every book you revise from then on...

...will also make you a better writer.

So, if this sounds like what you're looking for, go now, and join me and the next class of writers getting ready to get GOOD.

To join the class, go here

To log in if you're a current How-To-Think-Sideways-class student or HTTS-class grad
Then use the green How To Think Sideways button in the Classroom Hub to reach your registration page

I'll see you on the inside, where you will learn how to...

Revise with joy,
Holly

P.S. Registration will be open for 7 days, until 11:59 PM EST, Tuesday, December 15, 2015.

If you miss the registration, you will need to wait for the next class, which will open in either six months or a year.

To join the class, go here

To log in if you're a current How-To-Think-Sideways-class student or HTTS-class grad
Then use the green How To Think Sideways button in the Classroom Hub to reach your registration page

The links are my affiliate links, and I get a commission on sign ups, but that isn't why I recommend HTRYN. I recommend it because it did amazing things for my books and my writing and revision skills, and if you put in the work, you'll get a lot out of it too, skills that you can apply to all your writing now and in the future. So go check it out :)

0 Comments