Get-Fit Friday 3

Writing fit, that is. Every Friday I posting a writing exercise, just something to get the creative juices flowing. If you feel it, share your results in the comments below. Or just talk about what you got out of this exercise. Post your comments by midnight the following Thursday. I’ll be sharing mine and I’d love to see yours.

Today’s exercise:

Take one short story (of any length) and copy it out exactly, word for word. That’s it. It’s actually amazing what you can learn from this exercise.

For the GMs

Take a mini-module or published short adventure (publishing includes internet sites) and copy it out, word for word.

If anyone has other writing exercises they love, please email them to me at jade[at]rpggm[dot]com.

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Fantastic Writing Course Closing Registration Today

Course Cover © Holly Lisle

Course Cover © Holly Lisle

Heads up for anyone who wants a great writing course and doesn’t mind making a long-term commitment. Today is the last day to sign up for Holly Lisle’s breakthrough writing course How to Think Sideways. You have about 8 hours to sign up. The best thing about this course is that once you’ve bought it, it’s good for life. I’ve taken this course and made it to Lesson 19, but then life interfered and I got side-tracked. I’m going through it again this year. This is the first year that there’s actually a class going through it together, which I’m hoping will give me some accountability and help me make it all the way through. Because of that, though, Holly had now decided to open registration only once a year.

I apologize about the last-minute post. I was going to post about it, but I honestly thought registrations were closed already. I just received an email in my box telling me today was the last day to register, so anyone who’s interested still has some time to sign up. The course cost is $497, which you can break down into 7 monthly payments of $77/month. From my own experience, this course has been more than worth the money. I’m not an affiliate (I was once, but the affiliate program was jettisoned), just a very satisfied customer and I’m receiving no payment of any kind for this plug.

It’s a 29-week course, so yeah, it’s a time commitment. But if life interferes and you fall behind for any reason, you can still complete the course at your own pace. You just won’t be with the rest of the class. Many people who have graduated from this course have gone on to publish books of their own, both self- and traditionally-published. And the course doesn’t just cover writing. It covers the whole life of a novel, from generating the original idea to how to market your published book, including how to work with agents and editors. Or if self-publishing is your way to go, she covers how to do that, including how to publish within your budget and how to created a professional-looking cover.

Holly herself is working writer who’s published over thirty novels, both traditional publications and self-published ones, mostly in the SF/F genre, though she has a few paranormal romances I thought were surprisingly good. How to Think Sideways isn’t her only course. She also has long courses that cover how to revise your novel and how to write a series. And many shorter courses, including Create a Culture Clinic, How to Create a Plot, Create a Language Clinic, How to Write Page-Turning Scenes and more.

For more information, go to How To Think Sideways Ultra. And if you decide to join me, I’m jaderpggm on the forums

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Word War Wednesday 3

It’s that time again: Word War Wednesday. Today, set your timer for one hour and write as many words as you can during that time. Write your current project; write a new project; write a discarded project. Forget about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Don’t worry about if what you write makes sense. Just get down as many words as you can, then post that number in the “Comments” section below before midnight tonight. Winner is the person with the most words and gets a shout-out from me about whatever pet project (cause, etc.) they want. here as well as on the group’s Facebook page. Oh, yeah, and you get bragging rights.

You’re on your honor here. The Word Police aren’t going to come and take you away if you cheat. The idea is to write for one continuous hour on one project. It’s intended to get the creativity juices flowing and possibly help get over a writing block. No judgement here. You’re not obligated to join in and you don’t have to do it every week. But I suggest giving it a try at least once. That’s what I’m going to be doing, so y’all going to have to listen to me about what I get done anyway. My goal is to do every week.

My count today: 1535

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