Just finished up online workshop--new one, and that's always interesting. Take-aways from this workshop, which had a focus on storytelling....

Folks don't seem to know how to do writing exercises--or does no one teach that not all writing is meant for the final product? 

We had some issues of grasping what is an "exercise"--as in, you do need to practice your craft.  That means technical practices, the same way someone does scales before you play music.

This seems basic to me.  But, then, I've just hit a place in the new book where I need to write some "off camera" scenes.  I need them since I need the blocking and info hard in my head (not floaty and fuzzy).  Folks this class didn't seem to understand that sometimes you write to STRETCH--as in push a particular technique, then let it relax to normal.  I've often doen work just to try out a new technique.

This is something I learned from dance, and riding--you'd often have to exaggerate a technique to get it to stick in your muscles.  Once you overdid, then you could relax back and have it work to fix a technical problem you were having before.

Very common mistake for writers in their first couple of years of writing--most of 'em bite off more than they have skills to execute.

This makes me wonder if more folks need to go back to school and take some creative writing classes just so they can figure out where they are with their skills.

IMPORTANT: Just because you can put a sentence (or a paragraph together) does not mean that you know boo about telling a story.

VERY IMPORTANT:  There may not be much of a short story market around, but start off with short stories if you're just learning to write.  Write them as fan fiction, or just because, or publish them yourself on your blog with a Creative Commons license.  Writing short will teach you craft, help you avoid getting bogged down in complexities you may not be ready to handle, and keeps the basics manageable while you're still getting them down.

Of course, I may be prejudiced about this since I learned so damn much from writing short before I tackled the long stuff. And the long stuff still daunted me and tangled me up for way too long.

(And then there's always the other extreme of not going far enough with anything--playing it safe and doing too much of the 'me too' book.)

There's never such a thing as too much of the basics.

Just when I think that I'm repeating myself (way too much) I find out that, oh, whole bunch of newbies here.  And they need to hear this.  This is why I think writing books are as much a perennial as cook books--basics never go out of style, and we all need to get back to them every now and then.

The words matter.

How you put words on a page matters--that's your style, your voice, and what someone's going to buy (or not buy).  Never think you can get away with being a little sloppy about the words because 'it's a great idea'.  I do see folks get carried away sometimes with their style, or a style, and forget to think about things like, "does this work, is the emotion and scene clear, am I tripping up the reader here with fancy footwork that's much too much?"

And the one thing I still wonder about--can you teach someone to have a self-editor?  Is that just a matter of some folks can learn to have an objective eye to their work and can see ways to make it better, and some can't?  It's sort of like if you have someone who is tone-deaf--that person's never going to make for a great musician, but you could give them some level of technical proficiency.

So can you have someone who is word-deaf?  Or is that edit-blind?

The bright spot in the upcoming weekend is a one-day writers retreat -- did this last year with the local chapter, and loved it.  Trees, spring fed creek and waterfall, shade, lazying, chocolate and talk -- is there anything better than talking about writing?  (So much easier than doing the actual writing.)  I think I would like a week at a cabin with lazy mornings,  and nothing better to do than to write.  I also think I'm not going to get a week, so I'm aiming for maybe a long weekend in Sept.  That's doable.

The benefit of a change of scenery is that it does refresh the eyes -- a necessary thing once in a while.  It's one of the things I love about changing seasons -- I love it when autumn comes drifting in on cool nights and turning leaves (not that we get all that much of that in So. Cal).  But the change is good.  Gives time to shift thinking, to reconsider, to start new things.

And, yes, that means I've reached the stage in the book where the seductive call of a 'new idea' is echoing through my head.  This is why Homer wrote about those damn sirens -- first hand writer's experience (oh, I have this great idea for a sequel....).  However, I've learned to enjoy the call without actually answering.  It's actually bettter to play with the idea, let it get strong enough to move from beckoning to a demand.  And I want to get a lot more done on this book -- so want to get it shaped and drafted and to that stage where it's a rock rolling down a hill.

So, for now -- new idea gets to stay in the head where it can incubate a bit longer, and we'll see if it's like Athena and can bursting out, or maybe it's a shy, tender thing and will fade away.  And something else will take its place.

The Green Apple Core (bookish tidbits as noted in the blog subhead from the folks at Green Apple Bookstore) has a somewhat amusing vid on the buying and selling of used books as compared with digital books. As in, with a physical book, you have something with inherent resale value--I've got a few at home that are worth a bit. They've a point I hadn't thought about--mostly, I suspect because while I'll go hunting for some out of print books, I don't do a lot of used book selling or buying. But it got me thinking about is it better or worse for an author to have that second, after market sale?

Used bookstores can help an author reach readers who might come across those said out of print books--and hopefully the readers then go looking for newer, in print books. But there's also the school of thought that says used books eat into an author's income, as in, that's a sale stolen away. Either argument also applies to libraries who loan books.

Now, I'm not really sure that used book stores (or libraries) really hurt an author all that much. I'm a library user (not as much as I used to be, but still trained that way as a reader). And I'm a book store junkie. I do pass around authors I like--and I'll try out new authors from the library, and if I like, I go shopping for my own copy. I like having books around. It would be harder to keep these habits if/when books go digital (much harder to pass around a copy, and digital can make things very hard to find, and very easy to lose). Would the loss of a second/used market work to an author's advantage?

As in you have to buy a copy? And what about sharing your copy then? When I think of how often I do share, pass along a book (usually with a stern warning that it must be returned), then digital seems to have a big disadvantage -- unless you're talking open source and not DRM. And maybe that's the key.

Books need to be free to move around as they will. Words often need the same thing.

I'm due to give an online workshop with Colorado Romance Writers -- in past years this has been very well attended (it's the Show & Tell Workshop), but this year isn't looking too full. And might well be canceled.  They show other workshops they've held in the past couple of months as also canceled.  Which makes me think folks are really tightening belts and budgets, and this falls under extras.

I've cut back on a few things--less trips, fewer lattes out, and really thinking twice before I buy a book (but I'm still buying and have hit a new streak of great reading).

But I've also seen writer contests struggling, pushing back close dates, entries dropping. So now I'm wondering if it's a time crunch as well as cash--as in the second job take, or the extra work undertaken, or the stress of job shopping (can be hard on the muse, I know).

Maybe it's due to just too many contests, too many workshops online, too much info floating about.  There's certainly nothing wrong with putting your head down and writing--much more can be learned from the doing instead of the learning.  But I do wonder how this will shape the market, and future writers.