I’ve dropped nearly 500 posts on Storyfix.  About 425 remain in the archives, the others having migrated to various ebooks. 

Sometimes, when that little voice tells me it’s time to get something new up, I feel like I’ve circled the wagons and don’t have something fresh or worthy enough to add.

And sometimes that’s when the best stuff happens.  Fear is a great motivator.  Stretching is a terrific mantra.  Reaching… not so much.

Goes for our fiction, too.  Step into the fear, but try to avoid stepping on those steamy little piles of, well, you know, that await along the path.

I had another topic in mind for tonight, but as i sat down to write, this one took over.  It’ll keep.  Yeah, I’m pantsing my site sometimes. 

I get a lot of emails from readers.

Aside from the occasional and well-deserved wrist slap or correction – love those, too – the warmest and fuzziest of them are when readers tell me how the Storyfix take on craft is hitting them.  Changing them.  Awakening them to truths and points of leverage that they can apply to their own work.

Here are some recurring themes.

If you see yourself here, know that you are not alone.  And if you don’t, well, there’s value in revisiting the basics and principles that make a story live and breathe.  If someone else is getting this, maybe there’s a limiting belief system — a fatal gene in the writing DNA — blocking it for you.

Here’s what writers are saying about this stuff:

“I can’t watch a movie now without seeing the four-part structure in play.  Amazes me that it’s always been there and I haven’t noticed it before.  I can’t un-see it.”

“I’m amazed to see everything you say about screenwriting applying so directly to writing novels.  Vice versa, too.”

“Universal is univeral.  These principles apply to any kind of storytelling, period.”

“I keep looking for a published story without a first plot point.  Still searching.  I hate rules, I want so desperately for this to be your opinion, rather than a universal truth.  So far it seems to be the latter.”

“I used to be a panster.  Now I see the value in structure, guided by mission-driven narrative and its milestones.  It’s the missing link for me.  Now I can continue to pants, but it’s within a box that doesn’t let me drive over a cliff.”

“After reading some of the blow-back on today’s post, I’ve concluded that our school system has not done an adequate job of teaching children what the work “formulaic” even means.”

“It’s amazing how free and creative one can be when writing between the lines of structural expectation.  Those who claim that structure is restrictive are being boxed in by their own refusal to acknowledge the gravity that governs the storytelling world.”

“Don’t let the bastards get you down.  In every crowd there is always someone who wants to gun down the voice of reason and clarity. Killing the messenger is a subconscious human drive, and some writers would rather type than listen.”

“Because of you I now have to rewrite my NaNoWriMo novel from page one.  Because now I know how all-over-the-place it was.  Actually, I knew it beginning on about November 6th, but now I know why.  I can’t wait until next year.”

“Took me three years to write my last novel.  It sucked.  Took me three months to finish my new one, using the principles to which you ascribe. It doesn’t suck.  Coincidence?  I think not.”

“The principles you teach don’t make writing easier.  They make it possible.”

“It’s like the fog parting.” 

“Why do so many published authors stick to their position that they just sit down and write whatever comes to them in the moment?”  (Larry: because they don’t know, or want to admit, that their sensibilities are already recognizing and applying the principles of story architecture and dramatic theory.  So much more romantic to claim that you’re channeling some cloud-dwelling muse, which is a failed cover for a humble claim to genius. To say that “it just comes to them” is the antithesis of humility.  When an unsuccessful writer says this, it’s an explanation.  When a famous one says it, it’s hubris.)

“Keep the analogies coming.  Great teaching tool.  My favorite: writing a story without understanding the underlying principles is like thinking you can do surgery because you watch a lot of Grey’s Anatomy.  You can read all the John Grisham you want, but until you can dissect the layers and how he’s building his stories, your patient won’t make it off the table.”

“So many people say there are no rules.  That’s semantics.  Call them what you will, the principles that divide the inbox into two groups — those that work, and those that don’t — don’t care what you call them.  Natural laws are just that, in science and in art.  Gravity still sucks, literally, even if you can’t describe how it works.”  

“Top ten lists… my ass.”

“I’m writing like a fiend now because of your direction– thank you so much.”

And then, to be fair here, there’s always a few like this, from an Amazon.com review on my book, Story Engineering.  It’s my all-time favorite critique, from a 17-year old girl, an unpublished writer who seeks to straighten the rest of us out:

“Going into writing a book, yes, you need a game plan, but you don’t need a roadmap, otherwise it’s not YOUR story being told. Artists don’t use the same sketches; builders don’t take each other’s blueprints. If the story if worth writing, then it will flow easily without too much coaxing.

Now, I hate to bring age into this, but I’m only 17. I am frantically working on a book that I hope to publish on Kindle late this summer. I have worked through many of the problems older writers have in just the past year or two. I have the story laid out pretty well, characters are mildly understood (isn’t it always that way, though? Can you ever really understand your ‘children’?) Some people may learn a lot from Mr. Brook’s book, but I found as I read it that most of what was said I had already learned for myself. Again, I’m not trying to say that somehow I have bypassed the system, or have discovered a secret ‘key’, but everyone has their own way of writing, and mine is not with someone else’s instruction.”

L: So there.

Feel free to add to the conversation.  What has been your experience with the princples of storytelling and the underlying physics and principles that make it work?

Signed up for my new monthly newsletter yet?  First edition of “Writers on the Brink” comes out next week.  It may just keep you from jumping.

What Writers Are Saying About… This Stuff is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Change is good.  Feels like a root canal sometimes, but in the end, when the swelling goes down and you look in the mirror, that tuned up smile has an extra twinkle in it.

If you’re on the site reading this, then you’ve probably noticed the changes.  A little more than subtle, yet not quite a complete identity overhaul on the scale of a witness protection program.  Cleaner is the key word.

If you’re reading this via email or a feed, please drop by, check us out.

There are changes behind the curtain, too. 

My Books page is now the real deal — it pretty much sucked before — with all my titles, with my novels (past and present, including the new Kindle editions) and my several writing craft books.  I’ve also tweaked up the pages linked to the upper menu, including the Peer Review page, which had gone comatose because, well, it was invisible.  I encourage you to participate in that program.

A completely new wrinkle…

… is the announcement of my new monthly newsletter program. 

I’m calling it “Writers on the Brink — A Storyfix Community,” and you’ve already been exposed to it with that little popup window asking you to sign up.  Why sign up?  Because I need to do this right, and the newsletter will be too full of specific value-added material and special fun deals to throw out there in general.  Those who come to the party will get the best appetizers.  And the hard stuff.

Please opt-in.  You won’t get spammed or over-sold, and you will get special treatment.  My goal is to over-deliver.

The posts themselves will take on a new energy going forward. 

There may be less of them, but what I put here will be written from a place of passion and relevance, and won’t be the predictable by-the-numbers stuff that has led us to this point, and that fill the pages on most writing websites.  All the 101-level posts are still here, in the Archives, for new arrivals and those who want a brush up.  Going forward… think of this as storytelling grad school, with a point of view for everyone.  Even the pros go through training camp before every season, and this site is nothing if not a place to prepare for the Big Leagues.

And finally, I’ve published a personal statement…

… sort of a rare thing on sites like this. 

Why?  Not because I’m opening the kimono for reasons better dealt with by my psychotherapist.  Rather, to postion this as a passionate, courageous and risk-friendly place.  Not everyone likes my style, but you can’t question my intentions.  I’m here to help.  And to grow.

Thanks for making Storyfix.com one of the leading fiction writing websites on the internet.  If you have a Story to tell, there’s always a cushy chair available for you here.

Love to hear from you.  Tell me what you’d like to see this year, and I’ll try to accommodate what fits.

Welcome to 2012.  May we all write our asses off and find bliss in the process.

Don’t forget the gift-with-purchase deal on my new ebook, Warm Hugs for Writers.  Read about it HERE.

Storyfix: A Facelift, a New Approach, a Second Founding is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Massive content.  Listen to one, watch the other. 

I recently did a 60-minute live “interview” with Cheryl Fusco Johnson at KRUU FM, 100.1 in Fairfield, Iowa.  What began as an interview about “Story Engineering” (the book) ended up being a 60-minute primer on the Six Core Competencies of successful storytelling (the ticket to getting published). 

We went deep, we went wide, and it’s worth listening if you need a 6CC booster shot.

Listen to it HERE.

Last spring I did a 30-minute Youtube interview with the wonderful Joanna Penn, out of Australia.  This, too, ended up being a little boot camp on all things structural and criteria-based relative to storytelling.  Also worth taking in, if you can stand looking at me through the unforgiving lens of a cheap old laptop.  Not my best hair day.

You can watch it HERE.

Enjoy.  Sometimes hearing it clarifies what you thought you read, here and in my book.

Need a warm hug?  Check out my new ebook, Warm Hugs for Writers, HERE. 

That’s the Kindle edition… if you’d prefer a PDF download, click HERE.   Just launched it this week, and already hundreds of you have been warmly hugged, with a laugh or two tossed in with the gentle kick-in-the-hard drive. 

There’s a big ol’ hug waiting for you, too.  Then… it’s back to the keyboard for all of us.

Two Mini-Workshops. Right here, right now. is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

A warm & fuzzy new ebook you can, and should, take to bed with you.

Because it’ll hug you back.

If this writing thing is so hard, which is what we hear all the time from writing teachers and tired old sages (me included on both counts) and around the cookie table at writing workshops, why are so many of us so utterly devoted to it?

Masochism?  Fantasy?  Delirous self-delusion?

Why does Jim Frey refer to writing fiction as bleeding from our foreheads?

Why are so many writers alcoholics — cause or effect? Inquiring relatives want to know… — or worse, suicidal?

How does The Writing Dream survive all this darkness?

Truth is, writing a story is fun.  Fulfilling.  Seductive.  Vicarious.  And impressive when it works. 

It’s all the stuff surrounding it that challenges us, and on so many levels.

Getting it right.  Making it great.  Finding someone who cares.  Knowing how to play the agent game.  Keeping your chin up against all those odds and those chilly one-line rejection letters that tell you that your manuscript “just doesn’t meet our needs at this time.” 

Yeah, I wanna kill ‘em, too.

What’s Inside

Warm hugs, that’s what. 

Over the course of 30 months and nearly 500 posts on this site, a handful have departed from my usual craft focus and sought to bring light to the occasional darkness that accompanies the nametag of Writer.

Over 30 of them have been buffed up and assembled in Warm Hugs for Writers. 

These have consistently been the most responded to and best appreciated of the content here on Storyfix, which is why I’m thinking having them all in one place is a good thing.  Sort of like a favorite pillow, or having a wise old bestselling author around, someone who’s been there, felt that.

In addition, a handful of guest posts from other writers who share their writing journey are included, with an absolutely killer Foreword (itself worthy 0f a stand-alone ebook) by writing workshop legend and bestselling craft author James N. Frey.

Yeah, that guy.

To get a copy either as a Kindle ebook (exclusive) or as a downloadable PDF, see the middle column under the book cover and click on either the Kindle link or the ADD TO CART (for the PDF) link.  Or do it right here.

A January Promotion to Kickstart This Thing

If you buy either version of Warm Hugs for Writers this month (January 2012), I’ll send you any of my three novels available on Kindle (“Darkness Bound“… “The Seminar” or “Bait and Switch“)… OR… a PDF copy of one of my bestselling craft ebooks (“Get Your Bad Self Published”… “Story Structure Demystified”… or “The Three Dimensions of Character”).

Just send me your Kindle or e-Junkie receipt (to storyfixer@gmail.com), tell me which bonus novel or ebook you’d like, and I’ll fire it off to you within a day or so.  (This is manual on my part, so please be patient… I might be at the gym or my therapist’s office.)

So let there there be hugs. 

The warm and fuzzy and motivational kind.

We all need ‘em from time to time.

Warm Hugs for Writers is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

I’m not a huge fan of interviews with “bestselling” authors, for the same reasons that some parents don’t like their kids memorizing the lyrics to the Judas Priest catalog.  That said, when I take off my writing-guru-guy hat I have to admit it can be fun, and vicarious, to see what the A-list is saying about all things literary.  Or not.

Here are a few reading referrals and links for you.

The Sunday Arizona Republic did a great interview with Patricia Cornwell last Sunday, written by Randy Cordova (of all the places out there, right here is one place you’ll see the writer acknowledged right up there with the subject).  Cornwell is doing a signing at The Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale (where everybody comes for a signing; it’s like being invited to tea with the Queen, probably the most prestigious bookstore for author appearances outside of New York) this week.  She’s a no B.S. person and writer, with an interesting journey to share.  Enjoy it HERE.

Let’s just say, she feels your pain.

Back in the day, by the way, I did a signing at The Poisoned Pen, sharing the podium and a few cookies with Linda Fairstein.  I was funnier than her, and she was, and remains, orders of magnitude richer and more famous than me.

And so it goes.

Speaking of rich and famous… the January 2012 issue of Writers Digest offers up a profile of, and interview with, Diana Gabaldon (who only by coincidence lives in Scottsdale, and who will no doubt be signing for the umpteenth time at The Poisoned Pen before long, sharing the podium with absolutely nobody).

One thing of interest — and you may be wondering why I’d even mention this — is that her writing process is diametically-opposed, in smashing opposition to, what I advocate and teach about story planning and the writing process.  Yes, she’s a pantser… proudly proclaiming that she begins her books with a blank page one with absolutely no idea what the story will be, or how it will turn out once she gets something going.

First of all, I don’t believe her, not for a minute.

Second of all, what I think she’s going for is a description of an organic process that relies on her very steep and well-rewarded storytelling learning curve.  In other words, she’s very much like Stephen King — the flow, the structure, the sub-text and the underlying physics, are all second nature to them. 

If you think you’re in their league… have at it.  Haven’t met a writer yet who is, but I wish you well with that process.  May you live long enough to find success that way.

Moving on.  Backwards this time.

The September issue of Esquire Magazine had a killer interview with actor (and the shoulda-been People Magazine sexiest man of the year; Bradley Cooper agrees, by the way) Ryan Gosling.  You may not know who he is, or even like him if you do (in which case you’ll be in a dwindling minority), but if you’re a writer who wants to see characterization (yes, non-fiction profiles are absolutely all about characterization) in full glorious genius form, taken to a visible level of craft that will inspire you in your fiction, then check it out.  Here.

Dreaming of a book tour?  Or even a signing?

Oh boy.  It’s not what you think it is.  Believe me… my stories of book signing humiliations are the reason I’m funnier than Linda Fairstein. 

With thanks to the esteemed Betty Webb (who posted this link on Facebook), click here to read about the flip side – also known as the dark side – of sitting in a bookstore facing 48 empty chairs and 2 filled with your spouse and some guy named Lester who wandered in to get warm. 

The deadline for voting for your favorite writing website approacheth. 

It’s the 10th of December.  Click HERE to cast your vote… be patient, this site takes longer to load (because of the 2000-something votes that comprise the Comment thread, which is precisely where you cast your vote) than it does for most agents to get back to you.

Cool Stuff to Read is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Haven’t done this in a while… a little potpourri of stuff. 

New entry available on the Peer Review page.

Please gift Steve Theme (is that a great writer’s name, or what?) with feedback on his YA-slanted memoir (two chapters), Asphalt Sanctuary.  Read it HERE.

If you’d like some feedback on your story, including some of your NaNoWriMo WIP, click here to see how the Peer Review page thing works.  There are plenty of other WIPs there, too, so if you’re in for some reading, your feedback is welcomed.  In fact, it’s the whole point.

“On to the next.”

I used this reference in a recent post on fielding criticism, referring to the teflon mindset of the successful writer.  Some of you asked where it came from (no, I didn’t make it up)… it’s from the novel “Brothers” by the iconic screenwriter, William Goldman.

Vote for Your Favorite Writing Website

The annual reader’s poll to determine the top ten writing sites on the internet is now open and accepting votes.  If you have a favorite writing website, click HERE to cast your vote (scroll to the end of a very long COMMENT thread to add your vote/comment), naming the site and the reasons for your vote.

If Storyfix is your choice, then I really appeciate the support.  Last year worked out pretty well (changed my life, actually), when Storyfix landed in the #1 position on the Top 10 list.  Lots of sites campaign hard for this, and both the volume and enthusiasm of the voting plays a big part in an otherwise “judged” competition.

Votes count until December 10, 2011.

Click HERE to see last year’s winners.

Giblets and “What’s Your Favorite Writing Website?” Gravy is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

What have you written lately?

Volume is important.  Pace counts.

I’m not talking about volume and pacing within your stories.  I’m talking about your output.  The frequency with which you write The End on the final page of a manuscript.

I spend a lot of time talking about craft.  But craft is like love… not worth all that much if you don’t put it to work in your life.  In fact, it can be downright depressing when it exists as a means with no place to play.

Storytelling craft is a lot like love, in fact, but that’s another blog post.

If you expect to sell your first novel — as in, the first novel you’ve ever written – then you’ve just annointed yourself special.  It hardly ever happens.

No, a career as a fiction writer is a long-haul proposition.  Getting published isn’t the benchmark… staying at it is.  “On to the next” is the mantra of the successful in this business.

Is your muse driving the bus, or waiting on a bench?

I had dinner tonight with my beautiful step-daughter.  She was an English Lit major, she’s a passionate consumer of novels, and someone in close touch with energies and enlightenments that would send many of us into hiding, or to a shrink’s office. 

She has “the gift.”

I’ve talked to her for the last fifteen years about writing a novel.  Her life situation has led her to a point where, one could argue, the time has arrived. 

Tonight I asked her a question with interesting implications for all of us.

I asked her what she was waiting for.  If she was expecting, and therefore waiting on, a muse to suddenly agree that it’s time, and thus bestow a story idea upon her.  If she’s waiting for a cosmic shoulder tap that whispers the arrival of a Big Idea.

Before she could answer, I suggested that this may indeed be the case.  And then I also suggested that she flip this whole proposition on its naive ear to see what might happen.

What if, I postulated, the muse was waiting on her?  Waiting for her to click into story-search mode, eager to climb on board if only she’d declare the intention and set out a net.

She said that was an interesting idea.  That she’d think about it.

I’m hoping you’ll do the same.

What have you written lately?  If the answer is “not much,” then what are you waiting for?

The craft is already here.  Yours for the taking.

So is the Muse, and so is the Big Idea. 

The latter, however, is still out there.  Possibly hiding in plain site.  Possibly closer than you can imagine.

What if?  Marry those two words with something that fascinates you, frightens you, challenges you, calls to you…

… and they can summon the Muse out of hiding. 

She won’t say them for you… but she’s listening closely. 

Tick tock.

The Rarely Spoken Variable is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Check out the new Peer Review submission from Lake Lopez, the first 5000 words of his novel, “Sinister.”  Who could resist that title?  Please check it out and gift him with your feedback.

If you’d like to post your own work on the Storyfix Peer Review Page, and then stand naked in the harsh light of evaluation from your peers (who feel your pain and your excitement), click HERE.

If you’d like to read and critique other submissions, click HERE.  Please do.  These writers have put it out there, let’s give them a return on their time, money and anxiety.  Because we are them.

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This morning I received an email from a Storyfix reader requesting information about my “storyfixing” services.  This is my response, offered here because I’ve made some shifts in emphasis and pricing.  And… I’m available.

I “analyze” stories in all their iterative forms.  Meaning, I read and coach story ideas, summaries, treatments, elevator pitches and outlines… and I also analyze complete manuscripts (drafts).  My fee depends on the length of your submission.  Frankly, the deliverable output from this — my “coaching document” — can be as lengthy for a submitted 20-page treatment as it is for an entire draft of a novel or screenplay, since I’m analyzing and coaching the very same elements within them.  That’s why the fee isn’t mathmatically linear, but rather, the sum of several variables in the process.
 
In my view, the earlier in the story development this coaching/storyfixing interaction takes place, the better.  It’s more efficient for the writer to find and fix a weakness at the development stage (as in, within a treatment or even at the idea phase) than after it’s all been executed.  Makes sense, right? 

Then again, most people approach me with “finished work.”  That’s a tough one, sometimes, because if they’re “finished” they usually, naturally, think it’s really good, which can mean they’re really looking for affirmation, rather than constructive feedback.  The latter can sting a bit (I try to be gentle, but clear), but it’s what they’re paying for, and it’s what I deliver. 

I also affirm, and joyously so, when I see something well crafted on the page.  I’ve sent several writers directly to the world of agents and publishers because their work was spectacularly ready.
 
Another thing you should know… I don’t just criticize.  I try to add value. 

I offer up solutions to problems and pitch you on creative alternatives that I believe will make a story better.  Sometimes there’ s a middle ground between the identification of a weakness and simply a better idea (IMO) for that moment or element in the story, and those boundaries tend to blur in the process. 

The whole interaction is like I’ve read the book and we’re sitting over a mocha at Starbucks for an hour so so, kicking ideas and feedback around interactively.
 
I apply and juxtapose my story development model — “The Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing” (also the title of my book) as the standard and benchmark for everything I comment on.  I actually scan for all six core competencies and their component parts to ensure that the story is fully robust.  When one is missing, misused, misplaced or misunderstood, that’s what I call out in my coaching document.  And that’s why the document can get lengthy sometimes. 

I also offer feedback in a less structured way, as well… sometimes all six core competencies can be in place and the story is still flat, so I try to help fix that with fresh and/or evolved creative thinking.  My most rewarding experiences have been when I offer up an idea and it hits home.  Like, “have you considering telling this in first person rather than omnicient third?” and then support the idea with strategic rationale, and have the writer say, “whoa, dude, never thought of that, I see it now… genius!” 

No, not genius, just a process of “optimization.”

That’s the target.  Every story is nothing other than a bucket full of ideas.  Too often they are short-changed, incomplete or not as compelling as they could be. 

The goal is “optimization” as much as it is triage.
 
I do any type of “storyfixing” in terms of genre, though I will say I’m less enthusiastic about fantasy, science fiction and hard literature (stories that aspire to a Nobel prize, rather than a huge commercial impact).  My favorite projects are thrillers, mysteries, adult contemporary, historical, romance and everything in between. 
 
I can send you sample “coaching documents” if you’d like.
 
As for fees… I’m changing my pricing structure.  Frankly, in my effort to make this service accessible in this economy, I’ve been doing it on the cheap, and it’s breaking the bank on this end.  My new pricing is still cheap, compartively, and for the same reason.  For a full manuscript my base fee is $1500 (more if the book exceeds 450 pages).  For treatments I charge by the length, with a base fee of $300, more if the document is longer.  I’m hoping to focus on (attract) the developmental documents (high level concepts, treatments, outlines, etc.), but let me be clear, I’m still in the business of doing whole manuscripts.

Hope this answers your questions.  Let me know if you need further info.

Have a project you want critiqued from a Six Core Competencies point of view?  Let’s talk. 

Are you in a workshop state of mind?

I’m presenting a two-part, one day workshop for the Southern Oregon Willamette Writers on Saturday, October 1, in Medford, Oregon.  Contact Phil Messina for more information at p38messina@msn.com.

I’m also doing a massive, slightly disturbing two-day workshop for the Oregon Writers Colony — going deep into the Six Core Competencies story development model — on Oct. 29 and 30.  Click HERE for more info on this one.  There are folks coming in from all over the country for this career-juicing experience, hope you can join us.  Space is limited, so take action soon.

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Click HERE to see the online version (with the printer’s pitch… sorry) of my new business card.  Has a new logo design, too, which will soon make its way into the banner for this website.

What it doesn’t show is the back of the card, which is just the logo and my new tagline, which represents my writing, my teaching, my relationships.. and my life:

Mission-driven.  Passion-infused.

Storyfixing… Explained is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

The title says it all. 

I don’t have a date or a timeframe planned.

I don’t have a specific agenda or thematic landscape for the workshop.  Yet.

What I DO have is a passion for this idea, and the belief that Storyfix readers would really jump on this.  Especially if you have a hand in crafting the content and activities.

This is an opportunity to create an online workshop like no other.  To break new ground, to reach for new heights of storytelling skill and enlightenment.

To get you going.  Maybe going again. 

So, I’d love to hear from you.  What would the “perfect” online writing workshop be for you?

Number of sessions?

Reasonable cost (this wouldn’t be just a series of posts, but an opt-in, fee-based thing that nails your current needs)?

Specific topics, issues or outcomes?

A real-time, lets-write-novel-together guided process, with specific assignments, milestones, tutorials and examples?

Process driven?  Theory-driven?  Genre-driven?

Tell me what you think.  I’m all ears.

Larry

Check out my guest post over at Ollin Morales’ Courage 2 Create.

Also, if you’re a workshop sort of mood and are within driving or flying distance of Medford, Oregon on October 1st, email Phil Messina at soww77@gmail.com to reserve your seat.  It’s only 40 bucks, so even if you toss in a tank or two of gas, that’s a deal.

Input Please… Help create the First Storyfix Online Workshop is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Writer, editor and friend Victoria Mixon runs a great (Top 10!) website for writers, www.victoriamixon.com.  Up now is an interview with another Top-10 writing blogger… someone you might know… talking about stuff you might want to read about.

Think of it as some combination of comisseration, confession, encouragement and warning.

Consider it today’s Storyfix content.

This interview goes a little deeper than the average author back-and-forth.

It allows you to get an unflinching look at being published, getting let go by your publisher after writing a best seller and a critical home run, followed by a descent to the depths of writing dispair…

… launching a blog after writing your best novel (from the aforementioned pit) and then watching it go largely unnoticed (other than a nice big fat national award, which also went unnoticed)…

… then writing a bestselling writing book, followed by some resultant hate mail mixed in with an abundance of appreciative feedback…

… and then, immersed in confusion between strategy and desperation, republishing those earlier novels as ebooks to join the madly tweeting Kindle crowd…

… yeah, that’s the interview.  Which offers up some war-weary, unflinching, this-may-or-may-not-be-what-you-want-to-hear-about-self-publishing truths thinly disguised as opinions.

You can read it HERE.

Meanwhile…

… thanks to the many generous readers who have gifted the posted authors with honest, clear and astoundingly useful feedback on their work here on the Storyfix Peer Review page.

Click HERE to learn more about how you can join the fun.

SPEAKING OF…

… just posted a cool new short story by Simone Bellenoit, click HERE to check it out!

Want to Publish, or Self-Publish? Read This Interview is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com