Holly Lisle's Blog, page 95

7-Day Crash Revision Workshop, and World Clinic #wabwm

Spent the weekend putting together a new version of 7-Day Crash Revision, which when it’s done I’ll be able to offer as a self-directed 1-week course most of the time, and as a genuine live workshop occasionally. Have the PDF, ePub and Kindle versions done.

It isn’t finished yet…still have to do the worksheets and get it set up on the shop (am considering offering an available print version upgrade, too.) That’ll be available soon.

Today, back to Create A World Clinic. Starting today with 3188 words. Hard to imagine that being 10% of the whole project, but being concise and making sure every word adds something necessary is a critical part of every one of the Clinics. (And I’ve added digressions in every single one of them, but the digression content is, I think, as essential as the purely on-topic content.)

So that’s me. How about you?

Finally got the images for Cadence Drake posted

A view of Bailey’s Irish Station, where The Wishbone Conspiracy will start.

A second angle.

The bonus station.

The spaceships from Bailey’s Irish.

A closer look at the ships.

If you have Minecraft, you can get all of the for free from the following download page:

http://howtothinksideways.com/cady-goodies/

Still not done with the WARPAINT songs.

New World Clinic outline is done :D #wabwm

So I’ve been awake since 2:30 AM.

Four and a half hours of sleep. I’m already wiped out.

BUT… I have finished the new outline for Create A World Clinic.

Got 350 words yesterday.

No words today—nor will there be, because, having outlined the book, I’m now going back to bed so I can meet Margaret online at noon and set up the first course in the new classroom software.

It’s done. Margaret and I have been working toward a new classroom with unified affiliate program and all classes in one place, and it’s FINALLY REAL.

I’m so happy.

Have fun. Write with joy.

Giddy exuberance, even.

Settling in on World Clinic #wabwm

So Monday, I got no words and the rough shock of finding out the words I’d already done were useless and had to go.

Tuesday, I got 1599 good words, and a cool way to start the course.

Wednesday, I got 1239 words, and a discussion on overbuilding and its effects.

And last night, after several weeks, I finally got some frikkin’ sleep.

Have been getting maybe three hours of sleep a night for a while, broken up into little bits and pieces—something that has not helped the migraines. Last night? Eight hours.

Today? I feel human again. It’s a nice change.

And today on As I Write World , outlining. So probably not going to have a big word-count day. But I have my feet under me with what I want to accomplish with World now.

Short.

Fun.

Fluff-free.

Instantly useful.

Effective.

Okay. So World Number 1 Is Done #wabwm

It took me a while to get past the crap on my desk to get to writing Create A World Clinic yesterday.

But when I did, I got the draft of world one done.

“WORLD #1: The Dot World

Building Your First Complete World In Five Minutes”

I decided rather than do an introduction in the book, I’d walk writers through this five-minute world (and their first story idea from the course), to show the first step in the worldbuilding process, and why worldbuilding is for EVERY writer, not just SF/Fantasy writers or folks who do historicals.

I think this will be cool. Writers will be able to preview the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and with just a pen and paper, be able to do the complete first exercise before they even buy the book.

1599 words yesterday.

And what’s even cooler is that, while demonstrating the technique, I got a short story idea I’m going to write. I’m tempted to do a collection of short stories using any keeper ideas I get from writing Create A World.

So that was yesterday.

Today, more World!

Bad news can be good news #wabwm

I discovered yesterday that my carefully put-together outline for Create A World Clinic was utter crap. It was boring, sluggish, loaded down with a whole bunch of lard before you ever got to the good stuff.

And the sections I’d finished were crap, too.

So I knew when I went to bed last night that everything I have on Create A World Clinic was going out the window. And I didn’t sleep at all. Finally managed to drop out of consciousness around 3:30-ish this morning, woke up after eight AM feeling like I’d been playing touch football with eighteen-wheelers.

BUT…

I know how the course starts right now. So today, I’m going to write a kick-ass first section to the course, and then I’m going to outline the rest.

No words yesterday. There will, by damn, be words today.

How did YOUR writing go?

Vacation OVER! New story, bigger maps, and starting Create A World Clinic today. #wabwm

I enjoyed my vacation, which is to say that I slept through the end of 2012, and woke up in 2013 feeling human again.

So over the last couple days, I put a novella I wrote years ago (REWIND, which is the precursor to C–The Secret Project) into Kindle and ePub format, and I’ll put that up on Amazon, B&N, and my site later today. I ENORMOUSLY expanded the Cadence Drake Minecraft map, and that’s already available for download. I made the Cadence Drake “Goodies Page” open to everyone without membership, and fixed the broken links and missing content. So you can get both the HTCB theme song and the Minecraft map there.

Margaret and I tested the software she’s been building for me that will allow me to offer HTTS as a complete sequential course again, while also allowing affiliates to offer it along with every other product in my shop from one link (something we’ve been working on for about two years now, so this is a BIG deal for me. ). She’ll install it into the live classroom for me in the next few days, and I’ll start rebuilding the course. This will take a while: How to Think Sideways is an enormous course with a LOT of pieces, and each piece has to be created as a separate product, tagged, and added to the appropriate page. It will be available as quickly as I can manage it, and when it is, HTTS LEGACY students will be able to upgrade for a small one-time price to get all their lessons in Kindle and Nook versions.

(This allows me to only have to build ONE version of the course, and moves Legacy students who want to be there into the new version, so they’ll be eligible for new-version upgrades. It also puts HTTS back into the queue as a live course to which I can add upgrades and expansions.)

But the big news today is this…

I’ve opened up the Create A World Clinic document in Scrivener, and I’m starting to write that now.

About time, too. :-/

So if you’re playing Write A Book With Me, this is my entry in the game.

I’ll post stats later. Right now, I want to get writing.

P.S. I have more news, but it’ll have to wait for another post.

I’m officially on Holiday Hours #wabwm

Getting the whole month of December off didn’t quite work out.

But I am taking off the rest of the month. I don’t remember ever having been this tired before, but I now have a chance to rest. Mostly. Sort of.

UNTIL MONDAY, JANUARY 7th, I’ll do Student Support on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It’s just me in there. Margaret is going on holiday, so it’ll mostly be me WITHOUT major techie backup, so big problems will be “as I can fix them” or “when Margaret gets back”.

On Monday, January 7th, I get back to work for real.

So what does next year’s work look like?

What Happens Next Year

First, I write CREATE A WORLD CLINIC. I have my outline in Scrivener, the first couple chapters are done already, and I’m FINALLY going to finish the thing. Starting in January.

Drip (the piece of software I needed to offer new BIG courses) is done and working. (Margaret built this, and it’s wonderful.) This is HUGE. It means I can do workshops with small class sizes and personal feedback, new bigger courses, and “textbook” classes for things like CREATE A CHARACTER CLINIC and the upcoming CREATE A WORLD CLINIC, where we’ll meet a few times in a single week, and I’ll crit your creations. Real assignments. Real deadlines. It’ll be fun.

Next year I’m bringing back the FULL, timed-lesson, everything-included version of How to Think Sideways. I have had a ton of requests to make the structured version with the walkthrough, all the downloadable stuff, the bonus course, and the community as a single purchase available again.

HTTS Direct will still be around, and still be a less expensive and unstructured alternative. HOWEVER, after the new year, HTTS Direct lessons will come of their extended introductory price. Individual lessons will be $5.99. The community + additional downloads option will remain available at the same price. When I have the Walkthrough finished, it will become available as a separate upgrade.

How to Write A Series will move to the new classrooms, and get the promised 6-lesson extension.

I’ll write THE EMERALD SUN.

How to Revise Your Novel will move to the new classrooms.

I’ll start WISHBONE.

I’ll begin doing some live (online) workshops.

I’m not putting dates on any of this. I’ll just work through the list, and get as much done on it as I can, take next December off (jumping up and down on this one), then pick up wherever I left off in January of 2014.

WARPAINT is now LIVE

Coupon, gift link, details, book links and general info are on my Cadence Drake site.

http://cadencedrake.hollylisle.com/2012/12/warpaint-is-live/

You can probably hear the screams from there… #wabwm

Revised the cover art last night. Revised the cover copy last night. Did more cleanup on the books last night. Finally got all the versions of the book acceptably formatted (I think) around midnight. And uploaded after that.

Back up early this morning, getting the MINECRAFTTM spaceship/spacestation maps ready for uploading. (Important note here: If you’re not writing a book and using Minecraft as your worldbuilding mapmaker, you have to call this playing. I get to call it work. )

Came on today to see if everything but the print version was live.

Not so much. Apple version is MIA, which I’m coming to think is going to be my forever experience with Apple. (You’re wondering why I haven’t put in the many, MANY hours of work to upload everything I’ve done to iTunes? This is why. Only about half of it shows up, with no reason given for why the other half didn’t make the cut. I loathe arbitrariness and unpredictability.)

Today, had errors in the cover art for the print version, and just this instant got verification that my fixes worked. So have resubmitted, and will proof as soon as I get clearance.

But if you’re on the Cady Reader list, you should get your COOL STUFF email from me over the weekend, or Monday at the latest.