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You had the courage to dream about being a writer-- "You CAN Write A Book That
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MY NOVELS TalysMana and Dreaming the Dead The Silver Door YA Fantasy "  Tor, June 2008
Epic Fantasy The Ruby Key YA Fantasy Night Echoes Paranormal Suspense I See You Romantic Suspense I See You Ghostwritten Novel Talyn: A Novel of Korre Epic Fantasy Talyn: A Novel of Korre Last Girl Dancing
" Last Girl Dancing Midnight Rain
Gods Old and Dark Crossover Fantasy The Wreck of Heaven Crossover Fantasy Memory of Fire Crossover Fantasy Vincalis the Agitator Epic Fantasy Courage of Falcons Epic Fantasy
Courage of Falcons Courage of Falcons Courage of Falcons Vengeance of Dragons, Epic Fantasy Vengeance of Dragons Vengeance of Dragons Vengeance of Dragons Diplomacy of Wolves Epic Fantasy Diplomacy of Wolves Diplomacy of Wolves Diplomacy of Wolves In The Rift: Glenraven II (with Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Curse of the Black Heron Fantasy Tie-In  (with Ted Nolan)Baen Books, May 1997 Crossover Fantasy Wrath of the Princes, Fantasy Tie-In Hunting the Corrigan's Blood Science Fiction The Devil and Dan Cooley, Crossover Fantasy Glenraven Crossover Fantasy Thunder of the Captains Fantasy Tie-In " Sympathy for the Devil Crossover Fantasy Mall, Mayhem and Magic Crossover Fantasy Mind of the Magic Epic Fantasy The Rose Sea Epic Fantasy " Minerva Wakes Crossover Fantasy
Bones of the Past Epic Fantasy
When the Bough Breaks
Fire in the Mist Epic Fantasy
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I already know I want the course. |
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Orchard Books Scholastic, April 2009
" - Amazon.com
Orchard Books (Scholastic), May 2008 
Signet Eclipse (Penguin Putnam), April 2007
" - Amazon.com
Onyx (Penguin Putnam), July 2006
" - Amazon.com
French Edition
Tor, August 2005
Paperback version
Onyx (Penguin Putnam), July 2005
French Edition
Onyx (Penguin Putnam), Nov 2004
Eos (HarperCollins), Mar 2004
" - Amazon.com
Eos (Harper Collins), Apr 2003
Avon Eos (Harper Collins), May 2002
Warner Aspect (Time-Warner), March 2002
Warner Aspect (Time-Warner), October 2000
UK Edition
German Edition
Russian Edition
Warner Aspect (Time-Warner), October 1999
UK Edition
German Edition
Russian Edition
Warner Aspect (Time-Warner), November 1998
UK Edition
German Edition
Russian Edition
Baen Books, March 1998
(with Aaron Allston)
Baen Books, February 1997
(with Walter Spence) 
(with Marion Zimmer Bradley)
(with Aaron Allston)
Baen Books, January 1996
(with Chris Guin)
Baen Books, May 1995
(with S.M.Stirling)
Baen Books, January 1994
Baen Books, March 1993
(with Mercedes Lackey)
Baen Books, August 1992
Pamela Tatt, Writing Contest Winner Halfway Through The Course |
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As you requested, I am dropping you a line to let you know how I am enjoying the HTTS course. My downloads come in on Wednesdays - I call them "Holly-Days", and I can't wait to open the next lesson, print it out, and get stuck into it. Everything you say makes WONDERFUL sense to me. Nothing makes me stop and think 'Duh???'. But, I do think 'WOW! Of course. How brilliant. I REALLY needed to know that. I can't wait to put that particular juicy piece of advice into action.' Holly, you are amazing. I don't know how you get time to do all that you do. I love the Language you speak. I love the way you demonstrate each technique, making it so obvious, so easy to understand - not that I necessarily emulate your degree of ease, but I know that in time, it will all come together, and WOW, BAMM, BIFF, I'll be churning out some incredible prose. As I mentioned in an earlier email, I have begun entering short story competitions - something I had never done before discovering you. I am still waiting on the results of a few, but one of my stories was published on the Australian Literature Review site. The theme was Horror. I struggled a bit, and went for psychological horror. I have sent off eight stories so far, and each one I write is better than the last - I believe. If I have any success, you'll be the first to know. Short stories are not really my first love, but I find them an excellent exercise in discipline, and a way to apply some of your techniques, but I have Book 2 of my fantasy trilogy to finish, and I have come up with an idea for a contemporary novel as a result of HTTS, which I would like to devote some time to soon. As you keep telling us, we must be very careful of overload. With that in mind, I have set myself a daily timetable, which allows me sufficient time to address everything, including leisure, reading and housework (Yuk). Before I started HTTS I would never have been so organised, and so motivated. All I can say, Holly, is THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
And one week later
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Hi Holly,And...
Lacey Savage, Pro Novelist |
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I'm multi-published in the erotic romance genre by Ellora's Cave, Loose Id, Amber Quill and Changeling Press. I've had over 40 books of various length published. What were you hoping the Think Sideways course would do for you and your writing? Lately, I've found my motivation to write drying up. In the past eighteen months, what used to be fun suddenly wasn't. What used to be a release from a long day at work became yet one more chore. I wanted to recover my enthusiasm for writing, and I knew that if anyone could teach me how to do that, Holly could. What is the most exciting writing moment you've had because you took the course? I have no end of ideas now because of this course! I can read anything--from a paragraph in a magazine to an exotic word on a billboard--and come up with a story idea practically on the spot. My muse barely shuts up. What is the most important thing you've learned about writing (so far) from taking the Think Sideways course? That some books are utter disasters, and that's okay. I'm not the only one who writes absolute crap thinking it'll somehow come together in the end only to find out that sometimes, it doesn't. I always thought that was a problem unique to me -- that I had no real talent and probably couldn't write my way out of a paper bag and everything I'd done so far had been a fluke. It's such a relief to know this is a common issue for writers, no matter how experienced. How has the Think Sideways course met or exceeded your expectations? The course was so much more in-depth than I expected it to be. I've filled entire binders with Holly's course notes, and some lessons are already dog-eared. This is one six-month investment I'll be referring to for years to come.
Whatever you think you'll get out of the course, you'll end up getting a thousand times more. Invest in your career, it's worth every penny. Lacey Savagehttp://www.laceysavage.com |
What writing experience did you have prior to taking Think Sideways? And...
Sandy Jensen, Pro Writer & Writing Teacher |
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I published my first essay with Harper's when I was 19 and have published poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, as well as academic essays professionally for the forty years since then. I have an MFA in poetry, and I teach Creative Writing at a private, four-year liberal arts college ranked in the top ten in the U.S.. I have one published book of poetry; I have won multiple writing prizes; I annually renew my writing with retreats to such nationally recognized Western conferences as Fishtrap and Yellow Bay and have studied with such prize-winning authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Molly Gloss, William Kittredge, Annick Smith, Craig Lesley, and Kim Stafford, as well as Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Ray Bradbury. What were you hoping the Think Sideways course would do for you and your writing? When I enrolled in the Think Sideways course, I hoped to learn more about how to plot a novel, and I was intensely interested in deepening my understanding of Holly's approach to the creative process, what she calls The Muse, what I call The Wonderful One Within (WOW!), which I know is rarely articulated in a clear and pragmatic voice. I was also interested in learning from a pro how to organize and tackle a really long project like my novel. What is the most exciting writing moment you've had because you took the course? I was cruising through Lesson #12, reading Holly's essay on the tools of Sustained Narrative called "When It Rains, It Pours...and When It Pours, It Freezes...And When It Freezes, The Roads Ice Over and Your Hero Skids Down an Embankment," and decided to work on the exercise she proposed: I ran my hero over the snowy embankment and fell into a sustained narrative (short story and/or novel chapter) of 9000 words!; I felt my Muse was on task, feeding me the plot points in the right order and multiple class lessons braided together to produce an exciting and original piece of fiction in a created world; what could be more exciting?! What is the most important thing you've learned about writing (so far) from taking the Think Sideways course? The most important strategies I've learned from the Thinking Sideways course have to do with working with the Creative Process or Muse. From "Sweet Spot Maps," to "Toys on the Floor," to "Muse Bombs," Holly never loses the golden thread of this central and vital idea. Very few writing instruction authors (and I have read them ALL) approach this theme, and when they do, their tone is invariably "mysto-mephisto: the process is so mysterious we can never never know it," or "holy, holy, holy: the process is so sacred we can never know it." Holly's approach is humorous, pragmatic, dare I say clever, and I want to add insightful and innovative. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY has thought through the nature and attributes of the Muse like Holly Lisle has. You can go a lot of other places for instruction on plot and publication, but Holly is one-stop shopping for that deeply internal, absolutely indispensable self--knowledge about where art comes from. Am I raving? Then pay attention! How has the Think Sideways course met or exceeded your expectations? I took the course because through purchasing Holly Lisle's on-line writing instruction books, I knew she had the gift of making small, delicate points clear as spun crystal, as well as the ability to hammer bigger points home with useful exercises and explanations. I'm always looking for someone to learn from, and I felt Holly had something to teach me. It turned out she had dozens of things to teach me. The sheer intensity of the work has built up over time. Week after week, Holly has thought through some useful angle or detail of writing a long project and broken it down into components and exercises. I have enough material to inspire and instruct me for many months to come; actually, this is food for my work for the rest of my life. I know that. What would you say to someone considering taking the course, but not sure if it would be worth his or her time or money? This course requires you to be willing to change how you relate to your core creativity. It asks you to read, to understand, to do exercises that will stretch your brain like a warm gummy bear. During this course, you will fall into the deep well of your long project, and you will know you have a friend with a flashlight showing the way. Age is not a factor--if you are a dedicated, hard-working high-school student, or an octogenarian still ready to set sail on the boundless sea of your youthful imagination--you can change your life with this course. Sandy Jensenhttp://sandramardene.googlepages.com |
What writing experience did you have prior to taking Think Sideways? And finally...
Stephanie Siebert, Beginner |
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What writing experience did you have prior to taking Think Sideways? Before taking Think Sideways, I read the Create a Character, Language, Culture, and Plot clinics by Holly Lisle, and written several novel beginnings and shorter pieces, but I had never really attempted or finished a novel. What were you hoping the Think Sideways course would do for you and your writing? In Think Sideways, I was hoping to find a way to break down the task of writing a novel into smaller, actually doable parts.
I've had several exciting moments during the course. Working with the Sentence, and expanding it to create conflict, stirred up so much excitement for my project and the writing process. Mostly, working on this course, I FELT like a writer, felt confident, creative, and passionate. That confidence led me to submit my first short story ever, which sold - first try.
I've learned a lot from this course. I've learned about breaking down the larger tasks into more manageable ones. I've learned that every writer's process is different, and to find your own style, you need to play. Play with other ideas, other processes, things that feel weird, or uncomfortable, or scary. I've learned that writing is as much about expanding your own horizons as it is about anything else, and I've learned, perhaps most importantly, that I CAN do it. In one sentence, how has the Think Sideways course met or exceeded your expectations? Having read several of Holly's other works on writing, I was expecting a lot of good guidance and advice, delivered in a realistic but encouraging and humorous manner.(Those were the things that sold me on Holly's work in the first place.) What I was NOT expecting is the excitement and passion that the work in this course inspired in me. It's been a lot of hard work, but that passion and confidence will keep me going long after this course is done.
If you're serious about writing, and I don't mean serious about wanting to write, but serious about actually getting in there, doing the work, being willing to try, to fail, to stumble, and, ultimately, to learn, then this course is worth every penny. It will make you believe. Stephanie Siebert |
If you want to write fiction, you can.
If you want to write great fiction, you can.
You.
Can.
Do.
This.
I want to do this now.
It's not magic, it's not a mystery, it's not a gift of the gods. Writing good fiction is a learnable, repeatable skill, and if you read fiction, I can teach you to write it.
However...
What You Need
To Know To Succeed
Isn't In The Library.
I know, because I looked. I looked for seven years.
During those seven long years when I struggled to figure out how to write stories that would sell, I haunted the library and bookstores, and I read magazines and even took a basic short fiction course. I learned useful things from each source, but nothing that made what I was doing publishable.
I also wrote. A lot, And I learned a LOT by writing. On my own, I discovered more than 100 ways not to sell a story, and more than 100 ways to write unpublishable fiction.
More than 100 ways to do it wrong.
The first thing you'll get from this course is...
Your Seven-Year Shortcut
By having me teach you what I learned in those seven years, you will leapfrog over every writer who is gritting teeth and bull-headedly grinding on, oblivious to the painful, obvious, avoidable mistakes he or she is making. Get seven years of from-the-trenches training in what you must avoid if you hope to jump-start your writing.
But as much as you need to know what NOT to do, you also need to know the system I developed as I started understanding what worked---the system that has allowed me to sell 32 novels to date to major publishers in New York and around the world.
You need to have...
A Proven System
For Creating Your
Best Possible Work.
And that's what How To Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers offers. This 25-week course teaches you a unique, systematic, repeatable method for creating not just fiction, but really good, rich, deep, meaningful fiction. Fiction better than anything you ever imagined you could write.
In Section One: Sideways Thinking on Ideas, you'll learn to clear out the four thinking obstacles that have stood in the way of your success in the past, you'll learn how to discover your own "genre" that you can take with you wherever you go in the publishing world, you'll learn how to work with your Muse, and you'll create ideas on a time limit---but without pressure---and not just figure out which ideas are worth writing, but learn how to improve your keepers.
You need to know:
How To Break
The Four "Thinking" Barriers
To Your Success
In the first lesson of this course, you will:
- Discover the four very common thinking patterns that prevent most people who want to write from ever succeeding---and you will identify which patterns plague you, and why. Clear out the deadwood in your thinking and you'll be thrilled with the power of everything that deadwood has been choking and stifling.
- Learn and use the fix for each of the four problem thought patterns---and watch your writing take off.
- Discover one technique for connecting your conscious and subconscious minds and teaching them to work together to give you the best stories you've ever come up with---this is where you start building a career based on stories that matter to you.
- Learn how to find and identify the writing opportunities you've been tripping over and missing until now---you'll be floored by how fun this is, and blown away by how quickly you start getting results.
You must also find out:
How To Discover Your
Writing "Sweet Spot"
So in your second lesson, you will:
- Discover what you really want to write (it might not be what you think).
- Create a career map that will show you how to write stories you love and are passionate about every time---because your career cannot be a cheap imitation of anyone else's career...it is what makes you unique that will make your work sell.
- Learn how to train your subconscious mind work with your conscious mind in uncovering your passions and interests---because the sad truth about why so many writers who do succeed are miserable in their success is that they have NEVER learned to do this.
Then you need to discover:
How To Generate Ideas
On a Deadline
So in lesson three, you'll:
- Learn how to come up with powerful, exciting story ideas even when you're under a deadline---it's fun, it's a little crazy, and it will save your career.
- Discover how to identify the great ideas you've been getting and overlooking for years---you have a well of brilliance inside you that you have not yet learned to tap to its fullest potential, but once you learn the technique, it's easy to reach.
- Get those ideas on paper in a form you can use now...or later (no more cryptic scribbles that used to mean something once upon a time)---because that little note about "that guy who ate all the bananas" might have been a great story idea once, but it isn't going to help you once you've had a chance to forget the context.
Once you've mastered generating ideas, you'll follow up in lesson four with:
How To Recognize And
Build On Good Ideas
A good idea for me will NOT be a good idea for you, and in your fourth lesson, you will:
- Sharpen your ideas from lesson three into well-honed tools that will keep your story on track from start to finish---this technique will change the way you think about your fiction, and make it so easy to see where you've been going wrong.
- Learn to identify not only good ideas and great ideas, but also the bad ideas that have been wasting your time and energy and sending you off on wild goose chases---because, remarkably, a lot of ideas that you've been pursuing up to this point have been complete wastes of your time, even if they might have been awesome for some other writer.
- Identify and USE the four elements that make an idea carry a book to a tremendous conclusion... or fizzle and die if ignored---don't kill your story by ignoring these.
- Learn how to turn good ideas into great ideas time after time (it's not magic---it's a simple, repeatable skill).
In Section Two: Thinking Sideways on Project Planning, you will take the ideas you built in your first month and develop your system for planning projects that you need to write, and that you can be passionate about, and you'll use your system to plan your project. (When I talk about projects, I'm mostly talking about writing novels, but you can adapt the material in this course for screenplays, short stories, non-fiction, and any other form of creative writing.)
So you'll learn:
How To Define
Your Project's Needs
In lesson five, you will:
- Learn two simple concepts that will allow you to lock in on what really matters in your story---in the world of novel writing, more information is not necessarily better, and drilling down to the information you really need and want will rip the boring right out of your pages.
- Focus on the critical and the extraordinary when creating characters, situations, and more---because the only people who matter in fiction are the ones who can surprise, amaze, and delight the reader.
- Avoid the meandering, pointless sidetracking that leads to unfinished projects and failed careers---when you learn how to blast through your own uncertainty, you eliminate most kinds of writer's block, focus like a laser on what YOU want from your work, and make it happen.
- Discover one amazing way to create powerful conflicts that will drive your stories, and keep your readers hanging on your words---and best of all, you'll discover that this technique is simple, fast, and fun.
Once you have that down, you'll find out:
How To Discover
(Or Create)
Your Project's Market
In your sixth lesson, get ready to:
- Identify markets you never imagined (as well as the one you did) for the project you're creating---
- Learn how to write professionally in a new genre to rescue an ailing career, boost your numbers, broaden your readership...or just because you want to. (If more pro writers knew this technique, there would be a lot fewer dead careers).
- Learn how to create your own genre either professionally or for fun---because no, you don't have to want to make a fortune as a writer to want to be a better writer, and whether you want to take this course to go pro, or just to write kick-ass stories for your family and friends, you deserve the skills that will let you tell any story you want in a genre you hand-tailored to it.
- Discover one fast, simple, eye-opening way to do market research---in ten minutes, you can find not just genres related to your own work that you didn't know existed but publishers paying good money for books in those genreas
Next, you'll find out...
How to Develop Your Personal Project System
Lesson seven will teach you how to:
- Do pinpoint-accurate research without getting bogged down in tons of information you'll never use---let other writers spend months or years digging around for the details of their story before they put a word on paper: You'll be up and writing in days.
- Learn how to build just the parts of a world or background you need to start...and how to build the rest the right way as you go---worldbuilding is not building your world in such detail that you could live there. It's building it in the specific details that will make your reader believe she could.
- Use between four and eight steps to custom-create exactly the foundation you need to write your story---the eight story-development modules will focus you on the heart of your story and let you discover depths, conflict, and twists and turns you never suspected you had in you.
- Kill once and for all the dreaded Research Procrastination Syndrome---because, yes, worldbuilding and character creation are a blast, but if you're a writer, they're tools to get you to your book, not the quest themselves.
You'll be panting a bit after all of that, but there's a lot more. Next you'll learn:
How To Plan
Your Project While
NOT Killing Your Story
In lesson eight, you'll:
- Discover how writers outline---and it isn't the way teachers outline, the way professors outline, or the way editors outline.
- Create a quick, working outline for your project that will NOT suck all the fun and mystery out of writing the story---beginning writers and pros alike kill a lot of potentially wonderful books by getting this wrong. Or they think they can't write to an outline because they've had hideous luck with them before...and so spend months or years wandering in the bleak wastelands, searching for the heart of their story.
- Analyze, dissect, and correct problem scenes, troublesome characters, and story holes before you've written them, rather than after you've sunk endless hours and countless pages into struggling with them---I could have saved myself from throwing out over six hundred pages of finished novel...TWICE...had I invented this technique a bit earlier in my career.
In Section Three: Think Sideways on Beginnings, you'll begin writing your novel or story, you'll learn how to plan serendipity (yep, seriously---and it's one of students favorite parts of the course, too), you'll learn how to put together selling proposals, and you'll discover how to get from the first part of your story into the middle (a point where a LOT of writers' stories die) without running out of gas.
A quick aside: I can feel some of you thinking "three months before I even start writing?" and worrying if this course is going to slow your work down.
Let me put your mind at ease. It doesn't take me three months to get up and running on most of my books. Some, sure, but those are huge projects that require massive worldbuilding in advance. Most of the time I can be ready to write in a week or two. My delays come in waiting for the project to sell after I pitch it.
Remember, you're learning a system for producing consistent results as well as writing a project in this course, and it's learning the system and its techniques and tools that takes the time.
So first you'll learn:
How To Write
From Inside Your Story
In your ninth lesson, you will:
- Uncover how and where you'll start your story (most writers, including many published ones, get this wrong)
- Discover how to figure out which character will carry the point of view in each scene to help you create the most excitement, the best suspense, and the greatest conflict---and learn how to decide when a story should be written in first person or third, and when just one POV character will work better for your story...or when you need several to make your project work best.
- Uncover the roles your characters will play---and discover which characters you need to shoot before you even start writing (because there are some characters that will suck the soul right out of your story, and you can identify and eliminate most of these buggers before they wreck your book, if you know what to look for.)
- Learn what your characters can tell you about keeping your readers fascinated---and have a ball doing it.
Next, that much-loved lesson on:
How To "Plan" Surprises
That Surprise Even You
In your tenth lesson, you'll:
- Learn to use the Law of Unintended Consequences to amaze yourself...and everyone who thought they knew what was coming next in your story---if you haven't discovered what an amazing writer you can be before this lesson, you'll find out here.
- Learn how to allow your subconscious mind to plant great hooks for future conflict---and to let this happen with minimal effort from you. Odds are good that when you go back and everything you've ever written before taking this course, you'll smack yourself on the head when you see what your Muse was trying to show you all along.
- Learn how to set up story rules that will make every element of your story matter to your reader
Then you'll move on to:
How To Design
Compelling Queries,
Proposals, And
Sample Chapters
This may seem early in the process for this sort of 'marketing your work' lesson, but first, you'll discover critical elements in your work by doing this that you can't get in any other fashion, and second, once you're doing this as a pro, this is the point in the writing process where you actually put together this material and start sending it out. So, in lesson eleven, you will:
- Discover how to sell your book before you write it (because for most pros most of the time---unless you have deep pockets or an outside source of income---this is how you get paid in advance to write your novels, so you can afford to write for a living).
- Learn the three kinds of changes that exist for writers of pre-sold books:
- Changes you can always make
- Changes you dare to make only with editor approval
- Changes that will cause your editor to reject your book when you turn it in (Most professional writers don't know these, and they should...but you will)
- Changes you can always make
- Learn to write a query letter that agents or editors will read---I'll give you a sample letter, but in the lesson you'll also learn the reason why, and come to understand what makes a query catch an editor's or agent's eye...and it isn't purple paper, a hundred-dollar bill, bragging about how awesome your book is, or a desperate "if you don't buy my book, my family is going to starve" plea. All of these are routinely tried, none of them work.
- Dissect and apply the methods that will let you write a synopsis that will get you requests for a proposal package---you can get your toe in the door of even the most prestigious "we don't take unsolicited submissions" publishers if you can learn to nail this step...and I'll show you how.
- Discover how to write a proposal package that will make editors and agents want more...and can sometimes result in a sale right there---I have sold roughly half of my novels by this process...while selling to your editor over lunch by scribbling a quickie proposal on the back of a napkin is more fun, this process can let you reach the editor or agent who is not yet yours.
- Learn to adapt the forms you know to unexpected editor and agent requests and still make the sale
Then on to one of the most essential skills in writing fiction that doesn't lag, fizzle, or just plain suck:
How to Create,
Complicate, And
Solve Problems
In lesson twelve, you'll:
- Learn the difference between cheating narrative and sustained narrative---and uncover the reasons why some stories that have annoyed you for years don't work...and what their writers should have done, could have done, but DIDN'T do, to fix them.
- Discover how NOT to cheat (cheating narrative is one of the biggest ways to cripple your book and kill its chances before you even finish it---yet most unpublished writers do this all the time).
- Master two new techniques that will lock readers to your story until you let them go---you have complete control over your reader's focus and fascination with your story...if you choose to exercise it.
- Learn how to resolve conflicts in ways that are satisfying, that don't cheat, that always matter...and that keep your story moving---because nothing will get a reader to throw a book across a room faster than being made to believe something huge was about to happen, only to find out you duped him with your "just a misunderstanding" follow-up.
In Section Four, Think Sideways on Middles, you'll be into the second big hurdle of projects---keeping things interesting in the middle. I'll show you how to bring in fresh ideas, how to discover where your Muse hid those surprises from Month Three, how to uncover ways to bring your stories to life that you've never even imagined, and how to tell when your project is going wrong before you've written the whole thing---and how to get it going right again.
So first you're going to learn do deal with that inevitable moment when you ask:
"Can't I Just Kill Them All?"
How To Fall In Love
With Your Project
A Second Time
In your thirteenth lesson, you will:
- Learn the four problems that cause writers to hate their characters and abandon their stories---and if you haven't landed there yet, you will. I spend a bit of time in this spot with just about every book I write.
- Master the four techniques that will let you solve each mid-story character problem...and each problem character (Yes. Ve have our vays of dealing with problem characters.)---You'll laugh at some of my more bizarre ways to get stories rolling again...until you discover how amazingly well they work.
- Discover how to keep writing and keep your story moving forward instead of falling into Revision Death---this is one of those critical pro-levels skills that is the make or break difference between whether you meet your deadline and get paid, or blow your deadline sky-high and owe your publisher the advance you already spent.
Next, on to:
How To Find And Use
Your "Planned" Surprises
In lesson fourteen, you will:
- Discover the surprises your subconscious mind hid earlier in your story---if you're read the student comments on the side, you've heard more them talk about Muse Bombs. You know that breathtaking moment when you're reading a great story and the author makes something happen that is both so cool and so perfect, all you can think is "Holy crap, I should have seen that coming!" Those are Muse Bombs, and this is where YOU learn to do that.
- Learn how to develop these surprises to make your story richer and deeper---because once you find the Muse Bomb, you have to blow up the Muse Bomb...and detonating your surprises on cue is a cool, precision skill (this baby has won me more than one editor, and gets frequent, specific mention when my fans write to me about my books).
- Create a system that will keep you surprising yourself (and your readers) in every scene and in every book you write---once you learn how to do it once, you'll discover that doing it again and again doesn't get old. It just makes what you're writing better, and a lot more fun for you and your readers.
Once you have your Muse Bombs exploding on cue, you need to know:
How To "Hire" Spies,
And Why Your Project
Needs Them
In lesson fifteen, you'll:
- Learn where to find and how to use free spies, paid spies, and live spies to keep you looking smart and knowlegable in front of your agent, editor, and readers---because the unnerving truth about writing fiction is you cannot ever hope to know everything you need to know in order to write your story...but you still have to LOOK like you know what you're talking about.
- Learn which of the five types of spies you'll need to pick in any situation---from covering basic research to creating a character based on nitty-gritty insider information to dishing the dirt on a profession as background, you can find RIGHT spies to will spill exactly the goods you need to make your story ring true.
- Discover how to "interrogate" your spies to get only the information you need, and avoid wasting your time, or theirs---because getting the wrong information doesn't help anyone, and it sure doesn't help your book.
And with your spies tucked away, you'll move on to:
How To Assess
Your Progress And Make
Mid-Course Corrections
In lesson sixteen, you'll:
- Learn how to figure out what's going wrong in the middle of the book, and why knowing this will save you a ton of time later---because, believe me, your heart breaks more than a little when you have to toss out 40,000 or 60,000 words because you screwed up your story.
Been there. Done that.
You do NOT want this T-shirt. - Learn how to correct problems without stopping to revise (This one skill has been responsible for the fact that I have come in either on time or early in 29 out of 32 novels, and has cumulatively saved me thousands of hours of pointless, wasted revision.)
- Discover how to prepare the manuscript as you write it so that when you do have to revise, you only revise what needs to be fixed, and you only do it once---let other writers brag or moan about the five or ten or twenty revisions they did on their novels. You will get it right the first time, and move on to write five or ten or twenty new books while they're still piddling around on their first one. (Yes, Virginia, repeated revision IS a form of procrastination.)
In Section Five: Thinking Sideways on Endings, you'll learn how use story gravity to propel your novel to the best possible ending, how to find the ending that fits your beginning, how to avoid trashing your career with a wrecked book, and how to write your ending so that you bring it in BIG. Because the beginning sells the book. The ending sells the NEXT book.
So first you're going to learn:
How To Use
Story Gravity To
Get To Your Ending
In lesson seventeen, you'll:
- Learn to find your story's gravity, and discover why gravity matters to editors, agents, readers...and you (Good gravity can sell a manuscript)
- Discover how parts of the story you didn't realize you'd created make some endings impossible, and others almost inevitable---this is a simple technique, but the results it yields will blow your readers' socks off.
- I'll introduce you to my Grav-O-MeterTM, a simple, fun-to-use tool I built that will let you identify your story's gravity, and learn how to change it, alter in, and increase it at will, to turn the story you want into the story you get.
Next, you'll discover:
How To Find
The RIGHT Ending
In your eighteenth lesson, you will:
- Discover that the One True Ending is a pernicious and cruel myth...and you will learn how to kill it before it kills your book.
- Learn the difference between a good ending and the RIGHT ending...and why they aren't the same---every well-written novel has countless possible good endings (if it didn't, why would anyone waste time reading it?) but the right ending is the one that will have readers e-mailing you begging for you to hurry the hell up on your NEXT book. (You'll love those e-mails.)
- Create at least three good endings, and from them tease out the ending that truly fits, that truly matters, and that you will love to write---and not inconsequently, the ending your agent will gush over, your editor will adore, and your readers will thank you for.
Then you'll take a necessary, though grim, detour to learn your options in:
"What If The Book
Is Wrecked?"
You can be good, know techniques, have mad skills, and still if you write long enough, you're going to end up driving at least one of your novels into a wall at top speed. In lesson nineteen, you will:
- Learn how to identify a wrecked book (as opposed to one that is just healthily bruised and banged-up)---because if you don't know this, you can kill healthy books while trying to "save" them...and you can also spend months or years trying to recuscitate one that's circling the drain with no hope of survival.
- Find out---if the book truly is wrecked---how to salvage everything salvagable, because even in the worst of badly trashed novels, you will still have some amazing gems you can pull from the rubble.
- Save everything you can in a form you can use, and get writing on the good stuff, instead of moping, dithering, or endlessly revising the unfixable. It sucks to lose one. It would suck a whole lot more to let the one you lose be the end of your writing career. So learn how to move on, taking all the good, and everything you've learned from the bad, with you.
With that out of the way, next you'll explore:
How To Write
The Ending That Sells
The Next Book
In your twentieth lesson, you'll:
- Write the ending that has gravity, that has passion, that is RIGHT...and learn how to use that ending to sell this book to an editor, and that will sell the NEXT book to your readers.
- Learn to read like a writer: with this skill, you can "hire" Stephen King, Pat Conroy, Doris Lessing, or any other writer on the planet to be your mentor and to teach you what they know about writing...for the price of one of their novels.
- And you'll learn the four right times to write your ending (no, you don't always have to write it when you reach the end of your book, and sometimes trying to do so can be a massive mistake).
In Section Six: Sideways Thinking on Revision, you'll learn how to work with the folks who will be editing, designing, and marketing your book, how to plan your revision (no, you don't just print out a copy of your manuscript and start scribbling on page one), you'll learn how to keep the parts of the book that must be in there for it to be the book you wrote, you'll learn how to consistently hit deadlines, and you'll learn how to do the whole thing all over again. And again.
First, you'll explore:
How To Work With Editors,
Agents, Marketing Departments,
And Artists, And
NOT Wreck Your Project
In lesson twenty-one, you'll:
- Discover the simple, critical, but frequently-ignored rules that will either make the business part of your writing job a pleasure, or a nightmare
- Learn when to go along with the publishing process, and when to put your foot down...and why sometimes you might have to---in the end, it's your book and your name, and you will have to decide what sorts of changes you can live with, and what changes you have to fight with everything in you.
- Uncover the difference between what would be cool and what would be salable in things like cover copy, cover art, and book layout---and understand why getting out of the way is sometimes the best way NOT to sabotage your book's chance of success.
Next, you'll charge full-bore into:
How To Plan
Your Revision
In lesson twenty-two, you'll:
- Learn why the title is Revision, NOT Revisions, and why one revision almost always yields better results than three, or five, or a dozen...(or more)---not only is this great for your deadline, but it actually yields better fiction that fiddle-farting around with the book for five years while you make up your mind.
- Discover what's to love about revising, and uncover the technique that will let you do this sanely, in a focused and organized fashion...and that will actually add to the books richness, passion, and depth even while you're calm, cool, and collected.
- Organize your work to get the most done in the least time...while still getting the best results---the mark-ups, techniques, and walkthrough here will turn what can be a nightmare into an adventure.
After that, you'll move on to:
How To NOT Fix
What Ain't Broken
(While Still Fixing What Is)
It's easy to mistake what would be interesting (but pointless) to do for what you need to do, and in your twenty-third lesson, you'll:
- Learn how to limit changes to the necessary, and avoid fiddling with (and screwing up) everything you got right in the first draft---countless potentially great novels have hit the shoals when their writers have failed to understand the difference between can I and should I.
- Find even more bits of brilliance you never suspected you had in your story, bring them out, and make them shine---revision is the point where the story you have in your head and your heart either matches the story on the page---or fails miserably to meet your own expectations. I'll show you how to make it the book you dreamed it would be.
- Create a better story than what you set out to write---because once you learn how to make your book reach your expectations, you'll discover all the ways you can make it exceed them. (And these are the moments when you find yourself sitting there with your heart racing, with you fingers trembling, with tears welling in the corner of your eyes, wondering, "Did I just write that? And where did it come from?"
From there, you'll go to:
How To Deliver
What You Promised
And What They Want
On Deadline
In lesson twenty-four, you'll find out:
- How to know what your editors want, and how to make what they want work with what you want---because most of the time, you and your editor will get along beautifully, and will both be aiming for the same goal...but misunderstandings can still lead to more work and messy rewrites for you.
- How to know when and why to bow gracefully to requests for changes you might not want to make, but for which you can see a legitimate purpose.
- How to do the edits that will meet your editor's needs and your needs at the same time---because win-win beats the hell out of "I'm going to through a snit fit so awful you'll rue the day you ever bought my book...and think damned hard before you ever buy another one."
- And finally, you'll learn how to tell when requested edits are NOT benign or in your or your book's best interests, and you'll learn when to fight like a bloodied, cornered tiger to save your novel when you have legitimate right on your side. You need to know this. You don't ever want to have to use it, but if you don't want to end up despising writing, despising publishing, and hating life, you MUST know this. Just in case.
And in the grand finale, you'll get to the big, secret, "you've got to be kidding me" skill that has been the keystone, the bedrock, the foundation of my entire career...as well as every other success I've had in my life. You'll learn:
How To NOT Be
A One-Book Wonder:
Learn to Produce
Repeatable Results
In lesson twenty-five---your last official lesson---you'll learn the specific, precise, plug-and-play details of the system you will go on to use to:
- Write good book after good book without burning out, making every one different and every one better---because you and I have both read countless pro writers whose careers started with a bang and then fizzled into "every book like every other" sameness---and you don't need or want to be one of those writers.
- Build your readership through consistency---because once you know your exact steps for YOU to be a good writer (this is personal, individual, and unique---but you'll have it by the time you finish this lesson), you can deliver great stories to your readers time after time after time. Be worth their money. Give them something that matters to take away from what you've done. Earn your following with quality writing and consistently great stories.
- Take readers with you from genre to genre (within reason)---odds are pretty bad that you'll drag your male SF readership with you if you move over to romance, or carry your female romance readers with you if you start doing gritty guy westerns...but you have a lot more latitude for your career than you might imagine---and when you deliver the goods, a surprising number of your readers will brave new aisles of the bookstore to track down your latest work.
- In other words, you will learn how to build and maintain a career.
This is my thing. My bombshell. The very best of the very good stuff I have in this course. Throughout the rest of the course, you'll use tools and techniques that I've invented or modified and uncover a ton of information I learned from the painful School of Experience.
But I have never told anyone before writing this lesson of this course exactly how it is that I have managed to write the books I wanted to write, under my own name, and keep selling them all these years. This is the heart and soul and core of Thinking Sideways, this is my one BIG writing secret.
I seriously don't think there has ever been another writer who has come across this. When you own it, when you master it, you can make things happen for you that you have never been able to achieve before.
But only you can know if this course is right for you.
I'm sure. Let me sign up now.
Why You Shouldn't
Buy The Course
How To Think Sideways: Career Survival Training For Writers isn't going to be a perfect fit for everyone, and I won't pretend that it is. If any of these describe you, you're going to be disappointed:
- Don't buy How To Think Sideways if you are looking for a magic bullet that will let you sell everything you write. I still get rejections. Every writer who does this for a living does.
- Don't buy if you're looking for a one-size-fits-all system that will plug you into a generic career stamping out cookie-cutter book after cookie-cutter book. This course is about teaching you to create your career writing books you love, not about teaching you how to become a faceless bottom-end 'product' producer for publishing's most poorly paid and least respected cash generators.
- If the only writers on your map are New York Times bestsellers, and the only career you'll be happy with is being the next Stephen King/ J.K.Rowling/ Stephanie Meyer, you are not gonna be happy with me.
- The book market is going through some rapid and strange changes, and the definitions of "writer" and "publisher" are changing. Yes, I've sold 32 novels so far to major New York publishers, yes I've been published in a lot of foreign countries and translated into a bunch of other languages. But I've also self-pubbed a line of writing books and writing courses. I'm equally proud of both my publishing tracks. If you think new markets aren't worth pursuing right along with old markets, you don't want this course.
- Finally, while there are wonderful opportunities all across the publishing spectrum, the writers who succeed long-term are the ones who work hard, learn their craft, constantly test themselves, and who above all else persist. If you're looking for instant or easy, you've picked the wrong career field, not just the wrong course.
This course is for the writer who wants to write, the writer whose idea of fun connects with time spent in front of the keyboard, coming up with cool ideas and bringing them to life, and then finding places to find the readers who will love your stories as much as you do.
If you decide this course IS for you, then here's the deal:
I will take all the risk.
If at any point you're not satisfied with what you're learning, you can quit. Right then, right there. If you quit before the second half of any month, email me through the Student Emergency e-mail on your student page and I'll send a full refund for that month. If you quit later in the month, you'll receive a pro-rata refund for any lessons not received. ANY month, not just the first month, not just the first six weeks.
The Course Is Only
Part Of What You'll Receive
Each week (or every other week, if you choose the 1-Year payment plan) you'll receive a lesson, and you'll receive a separate technique. Some weeks, because I found out I had a lot more to teach on a specific topic than I'd planned, you'll receive several techniques.
- But you'll also get a monthly movie to get you started with each month's topic.
- And you'll receive copies of some of my manuscripts in multiple drafts, so you can discover how a pro writes and revises. Along with some of these, you'll get commentary on why I did what I did. On the really wrecked ones, I'll walk you through the places where I went wrong in a big way---and what I did to fix my errors.
- You'll get full access to my private writing community, where your fellow students and course graduates work together to help each other find new approaches to tough lessons, and to reach their writing goals, and where you can network with other truly dedicated, focused writers at all levels of writing, from beginner through pro.
- You'll have access (if you choose to use it) to a private workgroup where you and a small group of classmates can securely post and discuss your problems and triumphs.
- If you prefer to work alone, you can do that, too. The course is self-directed and work-at-your-own-pace. Finish in six months, or take as long as you need. And if you don't want workgroups or discussion boards, you'll still get full value from the course.
- You'll have the Student Bookstore, where you get deep discounts on other courses.
- You'll get the Renegade Marketing Board, the private board where we explore creative ways of marketing yourself and your work, creating markets where no formal ones exist, and more.
- And I do answer questions posted on the questions board, read the other boards when I can, and participate in the community.
- The course is massive---printed out, just the course materials alone run about a thousand pages, and with the bonuses, the course goes over five thousand pages. I don't recommend that you print out everything. But I have, just to make sure I had a clear idea of what I'd created.., and you're getting a mammoth amount of information, examples, techniques, demonstrations of what to do and what not to do, with no fluff and no filler.
BRAND NEW 2011
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Finally, There's The Graduate Bonus
I decided while I was still writing the course that I wanted to do something special for my students when they graduated. My idea was an extra lesson---anything they wanted.
They gave me a handful of wonderful ideas, and when I finished writing the course, I started in on the graduate bonus--- How NOT To Write A Series...And Why You Don't Want To.
As with everything else in this course, it got bigger than I intended---but the results were worth the extra effort. From one lesson at the end of the course, How NOT To Write A Series expanded into a three-week video-plus-MP3-plus-transcripts mini-course of its own that turned out so well I considered offering it on its own as a $97 stand-alone course.
But I decided to keep this exclusive.
The ONLY way you can get this course---about which one of my graduates said, "I just (finally) finished listening to HNTWAS [How NOT To Write A Series]. I learned more about theme and character purpose from that course than I ever have before"---is to graduate from How To Think Sideways.
How NOT To Write A Series is my graduation gift to you---something really special I created to give you and your writing career an extra boost.
How NOT To Write A Series---And Why You Don't Want To includes:
Week One
Why Write A Stand-Alone
Instead Of A Series?
In Week One, you'll learn:
- The four mistakes beginning writers make that force novels to become unsalable series rather than highly-marketable stand-alones...mistakes that just about guarantee your work won't be published.
- The distastrous approach to story content that writers of ALL levels make, that leaves you running in circles with your story, unable to figure out an ending and pushing into series territory in the hopes that a good ending will eventually show up on its own.
- The four secrets to satisfying a reader that come ONLY with writing stand-alones, and cannot ever be achieved with series.
- The six factors in satisfying yourself as a writer that come from writing stand-alones, but not from series---and if you're writing for a living, your happiness while you write DOES matter.
- The one truth about writing series that all writers forget about at the beginning of a series, and dread the rest of the time they're writing it---I've been there, ever series novelist has been there, and if you care about your work and your readers, you lose sleep over this.
- And finally, the three enormous problems with marketing series that routinely kill writing careers---if you write stand-alones, you are exempt from these issues.
Next...
Week Two
That's Why...
What About HOW?
In Week Two, you'll discover:
That THE QUEST Is Not Your Quest...
- You'll find out the six critical reasons why HOW you get to the end of your novel is NOT the point...you'll learn how writing fiction is done in the opposite direction from living life, and discover how to use this neat fact to get your stories to go where you want them to.
- You'll learn the six foundational pillars beneath the fact that WHY you're writing IS the point... and how knowing WHY you write will keep you on track and focused on what you write. No wandering, no drifting endings, no accidental series.
- You find out why being "fierce with your meaning" in your story can keep you on track...and how it will make your story better and more salable at the same time.
- And your discover how to stop wandering and get to the point.
How To Deal With Characters, and Thinning The Herd
- You'll learn the eight secrets to demanding the answer to the question "Why Are You Here?" from every character...and why failure to take this step leads to characters not worth reading.
- You'll learn how to compress your survivors...really...
- You'll learn how to shoot all volunteers (except for the ones you NEED to keep)...and you'll learn how to tell the difference between the rare wonderful volunteer and the mind-numbing rest of them.
- You'll learn how to figure out which characters are critical to your story's success, and how many of them you should have.
- And you'll learn why you NEVER mistake "oh, cool!" for "necessary."
How To STOMP Plot Drift
- You'll learn the three keys to nailing a Sentence that will complete your story in ONE volume.
- You'll discover the four secrets behind nailing yourself TO your Sentence... a process that will prevent you from chasing after every new idea that flits across the transom of your Muse-mind.
- You'll learn to differentiate between competing ideas, which weaken your story and cause plot drift, and cooperative ideas, which ideas are WORTH keeping, and will make your story richer and deeper.
- And you'll learn my technique for dealing with new, unrelated ideas that pop up in the middle of the project you're currently writing.
How To Make Brutal Demands of Conflict
- There are FIVE secrets to keeping your story's conflict in bounds and on target for stand-alone novels. You'll learn all five here.
And finally...
Week Three
The Ending Before THE END
The success or failure of the stand-alone novel finally comes down to how well you land the ending. In week three, you learn how to:
- Begin with an ending in mind.
- Discover how the ending can change... and why that's wonderful and enthralling thing for the writer writing it.
- Justify your ending... avoid the cheating, sloppiness, and lack of thought that doom most writers to remaining unpublished and many many published writers to remaining unread.
- Keep the core of your Sentence intact all the way through to the end... four steps that will make writing the ending easier, and make your ending better.
- Write the ending that prevents the series... the SEVEN critical steps that make your story marketable, make it memorable, and make it MATTER.
This complete three-hour-plus audio-visual lecture series is yours FREE on graduation from the course... BUT no one else will be able to get it at any price.
But does it end there?
When you wrap up the course in six months (or twelve months), are you unceremoniously kicked to the curb?
- What if you haven't finished your book yet?
- What if you've met colleagues in the Think Sideways community that you're working with, and you don't want to pack up everything and move on?
- What if you changed your mind about the book you were writing in the middle of the course, and you've started back at the beginning with a new project?
- What if life intruded and you got all the lessons but haven't had time to go through them all yet?
What happens if something happens,
and plans don't go as you planned?
Relax.
I've got you covered.
When you complete payment for your course, you automatically become a permanent member of the How To Think Sideways writing community.
From then on, you can use all your student boards, download all the newest in-version upgrades to the How to Think Sideways course as they become available, attend (or download) the free lectures, continue to get the student bookstore discount on my other courses offered there, join new Think Sideways groups as they open up, work in your private workgroup, finish the book, write another book, write ANOTHER book...
For free.
Permanently.
Seriously. This is free as in "free beer!," not free as in "free with strings." Everything you could do as a student, you can keep right on doing once you graduate, with no access limitations, no questions, and no penalties if you take off for Tahiti for three months (or a year) and want to join in again when you come back. As a Think Sideways graduate, you're one of us, and you're always welcome. You don't have to do anything to stay. Just ... stay. Everything will keep right on working as it always has.
Consider...
College students pay thousands of dollars to take writing courses---and tens of thousands of dollars to get degrees in writing---that do NOT translate into careers as novelists. Writing workshops with pro instructors cost thousands of dollars and last only a few short weeks---or hundreds of dollars for a single weekend.
And NONE Of Those Courses
Will Teach You What
This Course Will.
This is my life's work, my methods, and my creative process laid bare, and you cannot get this anywhere else for any price.
This course costs either $67.95 per month for six months, or $37.95 per month for 12 months, and is also available in a single payment of $397.
How much does that work out to?Between $14 and $16 bucks per lesson, depending on how quickly you pay off the course. That's a pizza and drinks where I live (with the difference being how many toppings you want.) $14-$16 for:
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- If you get the single-payment or the six-month course, your lessons will appear weekly on your private student page for 28 weeks.
- If you get the twelve-month course, your lessons will appear on your private student page every other week for 56 weeks.
That is THE ONLY DIFFERENCE between the two courses.
And when you finish paying for your course and graduate, you will have permanent access to:
- All your lessons and other course materials
- All in-version course upgrades
- All course revisions
- All new material added
- The Think Sideways writing community---focused, dedicated writers like you
Remember This Date
I remember the day I decided I was going to write a novel. That day changed my life. It took me a long time to go from beginner to pro, but what I learned will help you cut years off the process.
I love writing---it is part of the excitement and the joy and the adventure in every day of my life. What's more, I love my work now more than I did the day I started.
If writing is already your love, your passion, and your aching need, you will be stunned by how much richer and deeper and more compelling it can get. You will be floored by the brilliant ideas you have inside you, waiting for you to find the keys that will bring them to light.
I created this course because I love writing, and because part of my purpose in life is to help other writers like me---writers who are willing to work for their dreams---reach them.
If you're that writer---the writer who is willing to work to reach your dreams---then I wrote this course for you.
So remember today's date. Write it down. You can make today YOUR day... the day where your action changes what you always dreamed about doing into what you actually do.
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Yes, Holly! I want to learn How To Think Sideways in Career Survival School for Writers today. I have read and agree to the legal disclaimers below. You have three payment options:
You'll choose the option you want after you click the Subscribe button below. Click here for quick instructions on using a Credit Card through PayPal You will receive your first lesson instantly, even if it's 2:00 AM. Every effort has been made to accurately represent this product and its potential. Please remember that each individual's success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation. As with any publishing endeavor, there is no guarantee that you will achieve publication. Disclaimer | Terms of Service | Anti-Spam Policy | Privacy Policy |
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Everyone says "Get A Mentor" ... but Did Anyone Tell You Where?
Just about every successful writer will tell you the quickest way to writing success is to find a mentor---someone who does what you want to do for a living and who is willing to show you the ropes.
But people who actually write full-time for a living AND who are willing to share what they know aren't exactly falling off trees. Yet that's what I'm offering with How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers.
Click here to get the help you've been looking for.
Holly Lisle
P.S. The course sells as a six-month subscription for $67.95/mon., or as a twelve-month subscription for $37.95/mon, or for a single payment of $397, and I guarantee your satisfaction. You'll be able to quit at any time. If you quit before the second half of any month, you'll receive a full refund for that month. If you quit later in the month, you'll receive a pro-rata refund for any lessons not received.
For single payment purchasers, the guarantee is a full refund during the first two weeks, and pro-rata refund after the third lesson is received.
Make today your day. Your dreams matter. Make them real.
Holly Lisle, Writer
"Never give up on your dreams"
WHAT MY STUDENTS SAY...
Got The Best Agent In Germany
"My newest novel (revised with some of the methods I learned in this course) got contracted by the very best Fantasy-agent in Germany."
-- Katharina Gerlach,
Germany
http://www.tapio-de.org/
Hearing The Muse "Learning to talk to my muse - I always knew he was there, but didn't know how to harness what he was telling me - that was my Eureka moment." -- Maggie Carlson Sometimes You Have To Jump "... there is such a thing as being too prepared. Safe never starts, and perfect never finishes...those are words I'll carry forever." -- T.E. Keller Silencing the Internal Editor "I've been a professional journalist for 20 years... I was hoping to silence the editor. (And) I realized I'd written 5,000 words without going back to check spelling, etc." -- Max Howard Don't Get Overwhelmed -- Blyss Srode-Garringer Real Step-By-Step Help "...there really was a step by step, learnable process for writing a book. I realized that I was slowly moving from hobbiest to serious writer. And actually moving farther than ever before toward finishing! Excitement doesnt really cover it, I am having a blast!" -- oldedi (Pen Name) I Wanted To Learn To Surprise The Reader Without Cheating "Take the course. There's nothing else like it or even close to it on the market. This will make your stories more unpredictable and more believeable at the same time." -- Steve Lewis Finding The Fixable, Recognizing The Lost "I discovered that one of my "hopeless" manuscripts is actually a good story with basic problems that I can see how to fix, while the other really is hopeless, and I can tell the difference." -- Nicky Penttila Finding The Story's Own Life "I've been a journalist for 25 years, and I've written fiction (short stories) off and on since childhood. Some even have been published! ;-)" Taking the course, "...I learned to let a story take on its own life and stop trying to force it to become what I originally imagined it might be. That's incredibly liberating." -- Kathleen Rice Adams From No Idea To Complete Plot "The most exciting moment came during the Law of Unintended Consequences exercise, whereby I was able to plot out a really strong, "I'm dying to write it" novel, on the fly, using this exercise! HTTS has completely exceeded my expectation, providing me with pivotal insight in solving some of my most fundamentlal writing problems in a fun, engaging and no-nonsense fashion - it's nothing short of brilliant!" -- Nan Sampson Using Insomnia To Work Out Something New "Last night, I couldn't sleep and instead of getting irritable, I was able to work out a story from Lightning Strike to The Sentence - and I even knew why it would all work." -- Colleen Palmer Finding Writing As A Genuine Career "...one book published and finishing the rewrites on a second. I learned that writing is a viable "career" that doesn't rely only on the whimsy of THE MUSE." -- Susan Kaye Getting Ideas From Nowhere "My "Eureka" moment came when I (skeptically) followed the "Calling Lightning on Command" instructions step-by-step. . .and IT WORKED. It was an amazing realization, but also a humbling one. It showed me how I had been too controlling, restrictive and demanding of what my muse offered... Think Sideways is far and away the finest course on or about writing I have ever taken. Anyone can cobble together a bunch of material and, chances are, there will be a lesson or three of information new to the student. What sets Think Sideways apart is that it gives the student tools to transform the process of writing from something mechanical into a true expression of heart and mind." -- Jane Kennedy Accessible Instructions "The course exceeded my expectations; I didn't think learning how to do this "for real" could be laid out in such an accessible way. I would say, 'If you want to learn the craft, learn some neat tricks to get you out of tough spots and also be entertained as well as enlightened, then you couldn't get a better deal anywhere else.'" -- kimbari (Pen Name) Idea-Driven Storytelling Most exciting moment... "Getting an idea so compelling that it basically forced me to write in a genre I'd never dared to try before... I expected [the course] to teach me something valuable about writing, but it exceeded that because it taught me something even more valuable about me, the writer." -- Elenna Kraft Huge Course "I was surprised at the sheer volume of content! I thought for sure I would be able to keep up with the weekly lessons, but I have found that I have to download them and take my time because so much great information is packed into each lesson." -- ready2write (Pen Name) Complete, Start-To-Finish Process "No one out there is breaking the process from beginning (firing up your muse) to end (query letters and the NEXT book). You can't afford to NOT take this course and waste time and energy spinning your wheels." -- Lisa Fiori Relocating The Fun In Writing "I am having a blast! Each week I look forward to the next assignment, I am behind a couple of weeks by my own choosing as I am trying to work each assignment so that I understand what she has challenged us to do. This has really awakened a new sense of fun in me that I was sure I had lost." -- MC Morley More Than Just A Writing Course "I can't express how deeply this course has moved me and how it seeps into your everyday non-writing life as well; all I can say is that I am no longer a VICTIM of circumstances and the perfectionism and fear that were once holding me back are long gone." -- Rebecca Ryder-Galardo Lots Of Tools You Can Use "I never realized there were so many ways to think through a story and find internal clues to fill out and find twists to keep a reader interested." -- Joan Symons All The Ideas You'll Ever Need "Because I have taken this course, I have come up with more ideas than I know what to do with. I used to NEVER be able to come up with ideas and now... now they just show up - ALL THE TIME :)" -- Kari Wolfe Complete Writing System "It is by far more detailed than I could have ever hoped. It's not just a collection of tips and tricks; it's a complex, complete system for getting that damn book done and done right. It's changed my whole approach to writing but in a way that feels natural, like, 'why didn't I think of doing it this way before?'" -- K.T. Appleby Surprises Don't 'Just Happen' In Fiction "Learning how to use and plant toys was the biggest discovery for me - I've seen them in novels all the time, but now I understand how they got there, and how to play with them myself!" -- Kate Lansky Unexpected Discoveries Included -- Watson Davis Seeing Existing Projects In A New Light "How to Think Sideways exceeded my expectations by not only giving me ways to generate new project ideas but also giving me ways to see an existing project in new ways. -- Cathy Hinson Learning To Read Like A Writer "I think the most important thing is how to read like a writer and in doing so recognising where I have gone wrong and how to fix it to bring the story back on track." -- DJ Mills Getting The Story Right The FIRST Time Most important thing learned so far -- "The Sentence AND the Lite Sentences for Scenes. What marvelous resources! Immediately this technique highlights any weaknesses or problems and prevents later rewrites just for correcting problems (as opposed to rewriting for the joy of crafting language)." -- Laura Baxter Need A Kick To Get Started? "I was hoping for a kick up the arse and got one; I was hoping for something different and got it... Absolutely worth the money and you can't afford *not* to take the time." -- Bev Godfrey Finding the 'Unexpected Inevitable' "I was looking for ways to pop my writing to the next notch, so that unexpected but inevitable things would happen to my characters and keep readers turning pages... I've learned that I have solutions tucked away in my mind and that it is possible to access them." -- Valerie Comer Change Your Life "The Think Sideways course has far exceeded my expectations. It has not only revolutionised the way I approach my writing, but it has reached out and changed the approach of writers in my writing group - and it has influenced how I approach my life." -- Amy Laurens Ideas On Cue "The most exciting thing that came out of the Think Sideways course was that I got ideas for stories on cue and I made at least one of those ideas into the best plotted story I've ever written. According to a writing friend of mine, my writing has improved 'in kangaroo jumps,' and I credit that improvement to the things I've learned in the Think Sideways course--especially the method taught to generate stories and grow their plots...and the characters...and the world...and..." -- anschau (Pen Name)
"If you would like to improve your writing and be able to look at a project without becoming overwhelmed or getting lost in details that never bear fruit this is the course for you."
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"I have tried to write novels but never completed a draft, written & published songs, written a few magazine articles... This course has helped me identify problems I didn't realize I had and given me tools to fix things I didn't realize were broken."
This is the best money I've ever spent on my writing."
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Seaching For Writing 'Soul' "I had a degree in communication, which included courses in screenwriting, news, and documentary; I earned money freelancing as a writer of advertising, tech manuals, and PR; I was a reader/analyst/consultant in Hollywood; stuff like that. ... I was an accomplished hack. I wanted a little sparkle. I was hoping to get my soul back into my writing. Somehow, I missed the syllabus, so my expectations were vague, but there is no way I could have anticipated the zap! I've gotten from this course, or the joy, the knowledge that if I run my career according to these revelations, I can have a career." -- Texanne (Pen Name) Practical Tools For Your Writing "The single most exciting moment was getting shocking and twisty ideas from the dot-and-line exercises. I wasn't sure how that would work, but I gave it my best shot, and I got vivid, incredible ideas pouring out of the dark spaces at the back of my mind. -- Nicole Henderson Affordable And Fun "If you want to know how to generate ideas, the steps to turn them into a story and how to write great, for a living or just for yourself, you gotta take this course! HtTS is the best and it's affordable. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this course and Holly, too! :-)" -- Angela McGill Apple On The Head Moment "...at the last minute I decided to apply the Think Sideways work to my first official NaNoWriMo attempt this November, and I had the outline, characters, but no real good ending coming up to the end of November - then Holly's course came through and produced an apple-on-the-head moment for me." -- Michelle Thompson
My Thinking Sideways novel is almost all scenes I can't wait to write, one after the other. This is the most practical, down-to-earth writing training I've ever encountered."