Holly Lisle's Blog, page 74

Welcome to 2016. Do something small right now

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New Year resolutions tend to be enormous. Lose 100 lbs. Become a professional novelist. Make a million dollars.

By making resolutions this way, we make them impossible. The ONLY New Year resolution I completed successfully was this one. “Finish a novel before I turn 25.”

And I finished that one because I sat down and figured out how many pages I would would have to write per day to hit it. I fell behind on my self-imposed deadline a few times, but each time, I simply sat down and figured out how many pages I would have to write NOW. About two months before my birthday, I discovered that if I wrote twelve pages a day during the whole glorious week I was on vacation in our time-share at Myrtle Beach, I would finish the book a month early.

So that’s what I did.

You lose 100lbs one pound at a time. Write a novel one page at a time. Make a million dollars one dollar at a time.

I have a little video for you. Takes ONE minute to watch. Bear with me, because this isn’t about saving for retirement.

It’s just about doing something small. Today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZpjmBGIp44

This matters. It’s the secret to living YOUR life.

On the new site

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We thought we were going to be ready to go live with HollysWritingClasses.com December 1st. Get all the members in, have the first couple of classes done and in place with the rest in progress.

Holly’s Writing Classes
Write Your Own Sky

We’ve hit a completely unexpected problem—well, the Group B beta testers have hit it, actually—and while making our desired December 1st date for taking the site live may still be possible, right now we’re probably going to slow down and try for the middle of the month or early January.

Requesting 5 HTRYN Grad volunteers to test inside HollysWritingClasses.com

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Rough tests on the first section of HollysWritingClasses.com are done.

I’m now asking for 5 students with current accounts (you’ve been using your account within the past month or two) who are graduates of HTRYN and who would be willing to go in over the weekend and use the first part of the software we’ve built.

This is still pretty rough. Rough enough that you’ll receive a “Wave 1 Tester” pip for your heroic efforts in bughunting this part of the software.

First five volunteers will receive invitations either late tomorrow or Saturday. Make sure I have good contact info for you when you post here.

HowToThinkSideways.com Site Move: LAST Chance to Correct Your Account

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The move over at HowToThinkSideways.com is starting

We’re starting to move member accounts onto the live new software, new domain, and new classrooms this week.

In order to receive your new temporary password, you MUST have a working email address in your current account.

Here are the steps to make sure you’ll be able to get to your stuff (INCLUDING free class, worksheets, and forums).

Step One: Check your current account

Log into your current account here:

https://howtothinksideways.com/login/ (opens in new window)

If you cannot get into your account, create a Help Desk ticket for me here:

http://novelwritingschool.com/support/

Tell me everything you remember about your account:

Full name
User name
current email address, plus any possible older email address that might have been attached to the account

NOT your password. Never give anyone your password.

Step Two: Once you’re logged in, check your email address

Your email address is the first and most important piece of information where your NEW account is concerned.

It will be your sign-in name. It will be your contact address in case anything on your account breaks.

And it will be where your “This is your new account” email goes, which contains the validation link you MUST click in order to receive your new temporary password.

If that email address is wrong, you will not be able to get into your classroom, and following the move while the dust settles, I am expecting LONG lines in the Help Desk.

So check your email address in your account:

http://howtothinksideways.com/myaccount/

You cannot fix anything you see here. This is part of the software that is broken.

So if you have an email address linked to your account that no longer works,

create a Help Desk ticket for me here:

http://novelwritingschool.com/support/

* Tell me the email address that’s in your account

* Tell me what it I need to change it to

At this point, fixing missing classes will just slow us down

We’ll still have all the data and receipts we have right now, and will still have backups of your existing account and all previous purchases from my sites.

If you’re missing anything, gather your receipts, and once you can get into your classrooms on the new site, let me know which ones aren’t working for you there. (They’ll be the same ones.)

Right now, we have to deal with the part that will keep people out of their accounts completely.

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We’ll be moving people in groups

I’m the only one doing the help desk stuff (because I’m the only one with nearly years of receipts stored on my hard drive) and having 300 people in line in the help desk is incredibly stressful. (I know this, because I’ve had this happen before.)

Massive stress is not healthy for me right now.

So Dan and I will move a group, those folks will receive their confirmation and sign-in emails, if you’re in that group, you’ll sign in and promptly check for problems with your classes, I’ll fix your account, and we’ll move another group.

We have well over 10,000 people to move. This will take some time.

But you might be in the very first group, so today you need to make sure your email address will work.

Thank you for your help on this.

And I’ll see you inside.

Write with joy,

Holly Lisle

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Writing contest sites, and fiction versus the NBA

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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 the identifying details, I thought you might find it interesting to observe the conversation.

Here’s the link to the article (the first one I’ve added to “Writing Mind, Heart, and Soul in a while):

http://hollylisle.com/why-i-dont-recommend-writing-contest-sites-and-why-writing-fiction-isnt-like-the-nba/

From there you can come back here and add your comments on the article if you care to.

Thank you for the birthday posts, and for reading my work

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I’ve been trying very hard to stay positive and focused these past few months. I’ve done my best to keep working during the nearly simultaneous discovery back in June of dysplasia in my tongue and the final collapse of the HowToThinkSideways.com website (when the shop is unfixably dead, the site is dead, Jim).

It’s been tough.

The fact that you came here last week, said hello, and wished me well helped more than you can imagine.

I tripped over The View From Fifty-Four this morning, and cringed at how much of a beating my life and objectives have taken in just one year.

Nothing has changed except my sense of the time I have in which to accomplish everything, but that has not changed for the better.

But having you come in and say, “I’m still here, I’m still with you…”

That helped. It helped a lot. Thank you for being here, for reading my books, my courses, my newsletters.

Thank you.

And now I’m fifty-five. Life, health, and…yes, Destiny

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I’m back from two weeks of enforced R&R, recovering from another surgery on my tongue, and then waiting for biopsy results.

I’ll tell you exactly what my doc told me. There was bad news, and there was really good news.

The bad news was there was a large area of severe dysplasia at the back of my tongue.

The good news is, he was aggressive with the removals, and he got it all. Both pieces of the biopsy came back with clear margins.

“You’re not out of the woods,” he told me. “A single missed cell could bring this back.”

But for right now, I’m good. And I had a very good 55th birthday (in spite of having to wait until the day after for the biopsy results).

My guys got me an Xbox One and gave it to me early, when we discovered that the biopsy was delayed, and I was going have to wait until Friday (instead of Tuesday) to get the results.

They also got me the full version of Destiny with all the expansions—which I’d already been playing on the PS4, and which I’d started on my old 360 when it first came out, only to abandon it very early because everyone I knew was either on the PS4 or the One.

Yep. I play Destiny.

My hunter, titan, and warlock on the PS4 are all three at level 40 with light of 290+. I’m on a fire team of three, so I haven’t yet done the Vault of Glass or any other six-person raids. But I’ve done all the other PvE, and I occasionally head into the Crucible, where I’m getting better, though I’m still a liability to anyone whose team I’m on. My K/D is generally in the .5 area right now, up from a breathtakingly awful .05 when I started a couple months ago.

(I was really, really late to the Crucible, and wouldn’t even have tried it if I hadn’t seen some Iron Banner armor on another player, and decided I wanted to earn that. I still don’t have it.

Trying Again: Sign-up for the Website Paper Test Version 1.1

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I only managed to get 1 person through the original paper test. It proved useful, however, because she conveyed a palpable sense of being underwhelmed by what was there.

So I rebuilt the entire front end of the paper test.

I’m now ready for volunteers for the new paper-test sessions.
Before you volunteer, please go to the ZOOM site to make sure the software will work for you.

You can use either the web login or login via free software the company provides. I’ve used both, and it’s very good.

But if it doesn’t work for you, don’t sign up. This is the only option I’m going to have for paper testing in the first round.

If it does work for you, go to the sign-up sheet:
Instructions are on the sign-up sheet,

but I’m going to add a couple of important additional points here.

Pick any of the times and days that will work for you. Plan on coming to the meeting right on time. I’ve built in some padding to let us get your screen set up and make sure your sound is working.

By the way, you’ll need a decent mic, whether built-in or stand-alone.

You do NOT need a webcam. You can use one, and I’ll be glad to see you when I talk to you, but if you don’t want to do this, that’s fin.

When you sign up, PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL from CONTACT link show in the image below:

I’ll need to send you the meeting link for the software we’ll be using so you can join the meeting.

And thank you very much for volunteering. I have a much more professional system in place this time. If it works smoothly, this is going to be our new live chat system.

Round 1 Testing for New Holly Lisle Writing School Website: 39 Volunteers Requested Now

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CANCELLED
WebinarJam has crashed every time but one on this, with people unable to reach rooms I’m in. I’ve checked my links, I’ve checked their links, and at this point, the only thing I can do to stop wasting people’s time is give up.

I’m going to see if there’s some way to do this same process with Skype. I’ll set the testing back up again if there is.

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CANCELLED

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Today (Wednesday, September 9th) and tomorrow (Thursday, September 10th), I’m going to be doing what’s called “Paper Testing” to find usability problems with the interface the new writing school site (HollyLisleOnlineWritingSchool.com, or HLOWS.com for short).

I need a maximum of 39 volunteers (already have one) for one-on-one testing with me in a video chat room.

Paper Testing is fun, and it will take each volunteer about fifteen minutes WORST case.

Here’s how it works. I have five scripts prepared. They start with things like, “You’re a first-time visitor to the site. Find something that interests you, and tell me why.”

Or, “You’re already a member. Log in.”

Here are the instructions for doing a usability test:

Paper Test #1 for HLOWS.com

How To Do Your Usability Test

At the scheduled time, log into the web chat link I’ll send you.

Make sure I’m already in chat with you. (Have your microphone on, and say “Hi.”

Cancelling the September 15th How To Think Sideways Live Chat

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I’m Sorry

I’ve had something come up that makes doing the final live chat next Tuesday impossible. I am cancelling it rather than rescheduling it for two reasons.

One, if I reschedule the chat rather than cancelling it and setting up a new chat, the bugs in the current 5-chat set-up will remain, and things like surveys, polls, and links will keep not working correctly.

I’m pretty tired of that. If you’ve been attending them, I imagine you are, too. Cancelling and setting up a brand-new chat means we start with a clean, un-buggy slate.
 
Two, I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get the issues standing in the way of the chat cleared.
 

I’ve very sorry I have to do this, and I’ll set up the final HTTS Live Chat as quickly as I can.