Dear Writer Friends,
New things are going on at Writers Welcome. A new book is in the works, titled, Top Ten Mistakes Fiction Writers Make: And How to Fix Them. I’ve noticed over the years that many writers I work with tend to run into the same problems. Many of my editor friends and fellow workshop leaders agree. The top ten problems make up the ten chapters of the book.
I’ll be posting some writing tips from that book and from my workshops in the next few weeks. I encourage you to post your comments and questions about the book and about writing in general. My goal is to set up a dialog that will help everyone become a better writer. For those of you joining us from the Pacific Northwest I suggest checking out our newest Writer’s Welcome workshop in Yachats, on the beautiful Oregon coast. The weekend workshop takes its title from the aforementioned book and deals with each of the ten “mistakes” in one-hour lecture and exercise sessions. It’s scheduled for January 17th and 18th, 2009. You can find details and a downloadable registration form at http://www.writerswelcome.com/.
As I begin this new venture I encourage all my Pirate workshop students from the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference to join in and post your questions, problems and successes. The Pirates (always with a capital “P”) are a talented bunch.
For those folks who haven’t heard about the conference, check out http://www.sbwriters.com/ or just Google “Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference.” I believe it is one of the best writing conferences in the United States. Hope to see everyone there next summer.
Writing is a lonely business so I hope you will visit your friends here often to talk writing. We can get better. We can get published. We can get famous. To quote our president-elect, “Yes, we can!”
I should add a cautionary note about getting famous: John Prine said, “Whisky and fame both taste the same during the time they go down.”
Now, Hit Those Keys. WRITE AT ABSOLUTE TOP SPEED.
John

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