My online workshop

I am taking--finally--a workshop. It's online so it's not quite the same as live but a whole lot better than nothing.


These are put on by Dean Wesley Smith, here's a link to his online workshop page. If you check it out remember a lot of them are filled already, check to make sure which one's might still be open.


It's a six week workshop with videos that he recorded and an assignment to do each week. The first week had four teaching videos, each on a different subject dealing with the Essentials of writing.

I can't list a link to any of the videos but a lot of what he said he has dealt with on his blog over the years. Heinlein's Rules of writing, using all five human senses every two pages, that we need to write.

For those who haven't heard of them Heinlein's Rules go thus:

My paraphrase of them.
Write
Finish what you start
Only rewrite if an editor asks you to.
Send out the story
Keep sending it out until it sells.

That third one is the hard one. Dean says that for many the first two are hard and I can see why but have those two down.


I even have the fourth one down, the fifth one is a bit hard right now on some older stories and most new ones because I keep forgetting to set aside time to send them out.

The Five senses thing I've been working on for over a year. I doubt I get each one every two pages but I do put them in a lot.

And I do write.

I finished the assignment.  Actually, I made the mistake of feeling proud of it. I didn't want to or set out to but I think it's good. But usually when I feel that way the story or in this case opening gets torn to pieces and it's not half as good as I feel. Thus the mistake part of that sentence.

I don't know if I will be able to post it here when he gets done with it, I will have to see if he wants us to do anything else with it.

More later