Holly Lisle's Writers' Boot CampsHolly Lisle's Writers' Boot Camps

Learn How to Promote Your Writing BEFORE You Publish

Holly — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:19:57 +0000

The long-awaited Self-Publishing Expansion Lesson 13: How To Promote Your Writing BEFORE You Publish, is now complete and available in your classroom.

This lesson shows you how to promote your work ethically, which benefits both you and your readers, (and will help you get consistently higher reviews) and teaches you how to create quality content related to your writing that will bring you the targeted traffic of readers who will actually like your work.

The lesson also teaches you how to set up your:

weblog/website,
mailing list,
Twitter account,
and integrity-based blog network,

and finally how to do acceptable cover art for your self-published work until you can afford to hire a pro.

Where do you like to write?

Pearannoyed — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:52:34 +0000

Do you curl up under a blanket with a laptop and a cup of tea? Do you head to a park or nature preserve where nobody but the birds will find you? Do you go to a coffee shop or busy mall and people watch while you write?

HTTS students, log in and check out this thread to share your favorite places to let your muse have their way.

What our writing says about us

Pearannoyed — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 03:54:49 +0000

The best writing can say more about the author than they ever intend, because the best writers put so much of themselves into their stories. Most often it’s intentional, with the author’s interests, passions, hopes and fears reflected in their plots, settings and characters. Sometimes, however, a writer only discovers common themes and ideas in their stories after the fact.

All members can log in and join this conversation about hidden themes and recurring plot devices that you’ve discovered in your writing.

New Forum Memberships

Holly — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:39:47 +0000

I’m currently putting together the means by which students of courses like the Plot, Language, Character, and Culture clinics, Professional Plot Outline course, and other courses will be able to join the writer’s community.

Margaret and I are working on programming and setup right now. I hope by the first week of next year to have at least a part of this operational. Watch here for links to the courses you’ve already taken, or want to take, to see how you can join the community.

The nuts and bolts of magic

Pearannoyed — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:11:40 +0000

A Sideways student ponders how other writers develop, build, and implement unique systems of magic for their books.

What fictional magic systems make sense to you and which ones seem contrived? How much do you pull from real world myths, religions and philosophies? How do you balance different magical elements in your own writing?

The Trick about TWIST

Holly — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:16:27 +0000

Getting the concept of TWIST when working your way through writing your first Story Sentences can be brutal. But conflict and TWIST are the two elements of of any novel, any screenplay, any story at all, that you must get right in order to write a compelling story.

So here’s the trick to twist. (How to Revise Your Novel forum link. You must be logged into your HTRYN student or grad account.)

Linking Creativity through Thinking Sideways AND NaNoWriMo

Holly — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:00:52 +0000

There IS a link between your creativity and how regularly you put it to work. HTTS student “grumbaut” had a breakthrough by putting the thinking tools of How To Think Sideways together with the steady production of NaNoWriMo. Take a … Continue reading →

Rebuttal to an Author’s Post Against NaNoWriMo

Holly — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:55:32 +0000

There’s an intense discussion going on in the Yes We NaNo board, following the posting of a link on the board by some woman who blames NaNo for making her write badly.

My response is here:

Bluntly, it’s a profoundly stupid letter. Here’s why. The author claims no responsibility for her own actions. The words “you make me” pour from her like water, but the words “I choose to” never appear.

You want to see what VICTIM looks like in action: This is the post, folks.

“You MAKE ME???”

Someone from NaNoWriMo went to her house, stuck a gun to her head, and screamed, “Write garbage, you unctuous brat!”

No?

Well, then.

I think NaNoWriMo is a bad idea if people who want to be professionals only write in November.

I think NaNoWriMo is a bad idea if people who want to be professionals write a new NaNo novel each year and never revise the old ones and get them out there.

I think NaNoWriMo is a bad idea if people who want to be professionals think that writing a novel ought to be some big groupfest shindig, and fail to realize that the real job of writing is you inside your head creating for hours at a time. Alone.

If you never intend to get published and you’re just writing a book, all bets are off. Have fun.

BUT EVEN IF you want to get paid for your writing, IF you’re using NaNoWriMo as a way to have some fun creating work you intend to revise, and you’re writing the rest of the year anyway, then I think NaNoWriMo is a fine idea. And that’s why I support it here.

There are some profoundly moving stories in this thread (Link in HTTS and HTRYN student area—you must be logged in) about writers who use NaNo as a way to break through the anguish of perfectionism, self-criticism, and fear of failing.

Do I NaNo? No. I’ve finally come to the realization that I’m not a “group activities” sort of person, I write all the damn time anyway, my general writing pace is faster than NaNo, and I’ve already sold a book I wrote in one month under the worst imaginable circumstances: Sympathy for the Devil. And it was longer than 50,000 words. So I already played once, long before NaNoWriMo existed, I won, and I’m done.

I don’t have the T-shirt? No. But I don’t wear T-shirts anyway.

Plotter? Pantser? Some previously unknown hybrid?

Texanne — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:03:36 +0000

Ah, the Muse! She can be fickle, finicky, flaky, and hard to pin down. Sometimes she won’t twitch an eyelid till the outline is complete. Sometimes she gives the outline a straightforward thumbs-down. Sometimes, in her least helpful mode, she pretends to engage with the outline–and then goes haring off into some uncharted, un-outlined territory.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? So many variables.

It won’t be long, now.

Texanne — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:00:02 +0000

Some people work all year to gear up for NaNoWriMo. Others don’t decide to go for it till November 1. Here at Holly’s place, NaNo is never forgotten, but as autumn approaches, folks are starting to pace and stretch out the kinks, top off water bottles, secure their numbers to their backs.

NaNoWriMo requires that you don’t begin to write the novel till their starter pistol fires, but you are allowed to prepare to write the novel. Lucky for HTTS students, Holly’s lessons, techniques and worksheets are perfect for this!

Drop by here to discuss your preparations for NaNo 2011. This topic will only get hotter as the trees of the Northern Hemisphere dress for fall.