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don't be shy -- there's a link at the bottom of this ! e-mail that will put you out of your misery. ! ! If you need to change your e-mail address, there's a ! different link at the bottom to help you do that. ! ! If you missed a back issue, remember that all previous ! issues are archived on my web site at: ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine ! ! ! What's in this issue: ! ! The successful novelist needs good organization, good ! craft, and good marketing. In this issue, we'll talk ! about each of these in turn. ! ! ! * Have you ever sat watching your computer while it ! seemed to be frozen in thought? Ever wondered what it ! was doing while the seconds ticked by? Find out, in my ! article, "Does Multitasking Make You Stupid?" ! ! * Characters are supposed to be like real people, but ! in one respect, they need to be unlike most people. Can ! you guess what that is? I reveal all in "The Path of ! Least Resistance." ! ! * Many writers believe that your best marketing tool is ! strong writing. If that's true, then your first chapter ! is absolutely critical to your marketing plan. This ! month, I'll analyze two brilliant first chapters by ! published novelists to see what makes them shine in "A ! Killer First Chapter." ! ! Are you reading my blog? Join the fun here: ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/blog ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 2) Organizing: Does Multitasking Make You Stupid? ! ! ! Computers are faster and smarter and more efficient ! than ever. They run at gigahertz speeds, using ! gigabytes of memory, giving you giga power to get ! things done. ! ! Even so, once in a while, most machines seem to freeze ! for several seconds, stuck in some mysterious inner ! world that you know nothing about. ! ! If they're so fast and so smart, why should they ever ! freeze like that? ! ! There are several reasons, but one common reason is ! that your computer is multitasking -- it's doing ! several things at once, and it's gotten its scheduling ! out of whack. It's forgotten to get back to you, at ! least for a while. ! ! Multitasking is usually a wonderful thing, especially ! on modern machines with multiple brains. A ! well-programmed computer with several CPUs can work ! dramatically faster than a computer with only one, all ! other things being equal. ! ! The problem is that it's tricky to take account of all ! possibilities. Once in a while, your computer gets ! itself tied in a knot and it zones out on you, even ! with multiple brains. Multitasking occasionally makes ! your computer stupid. ! ! It's dangerous to make a direct analogy between ! computers and human brains, because they really aren't ! the same thing. But it does appear that multitasking ! makes us stupid too. ! ! Let's be clear about one thing -- the human brain is a ! fantastic computing device, capable of doing enormously ! complex calculations, especially in image-processing ! and in intuitive situations where logic isn't enough. ! So when I use the word "stupid" here, I mean it in a ! relative sense. ! ! Multitasking makes us less sharp than we would be if we ! were focusing on only one thing. ! ! Most times, this doesn't matter. Most people most days ! can walk and chew gum at the same time, and talk on the ! phone and consume oxygen and watch the ducks build ! snowmen. ! ! But notice one thing -- of the five things I just ! listed, all but talking on the phone are pretty ! automatic and don't require conscious thought. You can ! walk without thinking about it. Ditto for chewing gum. ! Ditto oxygen. Ditto the ducks -- unless they really are ! building snowmen. If that's the case, as soon as your ! consciousness takes note of the snowmen, the phone ! discussion is going to shift direction radically. ! ! And that's the point. Once one of your tasks percolates ! up to the conscious level, you lose the ability to ! focus on any of the others. ! ! If you Google the phrase, "Does multitasking make you ! stupid," you'll find an amusing array of articles to ! choose from. (It's best to read these one at a time.) ! Here are some of the things you'll learn: ! ! * When you're trying to switch rapidly between several ! tasks that take conscious thought, you lose efficiency. ! A lot of efficiency -- as much as 30% to 50%. ! ! * Some studies show that when you're focusing on a task ! that takes a lot of concentration, an interruption that ! breaks your focus can cost you about 20 minutes of lost ! focus. This means that if you get interrupted more ! often than every 20 minutes, you might NEVER actually ! get into a deeply focused, productive state. ! ! * Multitasking can actually lower your performance on ! IQ tests -- by about 10 points. Smoking a joint only ! costs you 4 points. So if you have to choose between ! multitasking and marijuana, the choice should be clear, ! although your boss and your government probably see ! things differently. Bosses and governments love ! multitasking. ! ! When people say that "multitasking makes you stupid," ! all of the above is what they mean. ! ! So what's a busy writer to do? You can't shut off the ! world, can you? ! ! No, but you can shut off some parts of the world. If ! you're doing something that takes concentration (such ! as writing fiction), you can take a few steps to make ! yourself more productive for a well-defined period of ! time while you focus: ! ! * Unplug the phone or disable it or feed it to the dog. ! Do what it takes. ! ! * Close your e-mail program or at least disable it from ! doing those useless automatic checks every five ! minutes. The world is not going to end if you don't get ! e-mails instantly. ! ! * Shut down all instant-messaging, texting, or anything ! else that can interrupt you. ! ! * Get a clock with a timer and set it for 50 minutes of ! uninterrupted writing. Then write. ! ! You can do a lot in 50 minutes of quality, productive, ! uninterrupted, non-multitasking time. An awful lot. ! ! Many writers find that they write more productively ! when they're listening to music. Some writers can't ! listen to vocal music but they thrive on instrumental ! music. I'm the opposite -- instrumental music bores me ! into a potato-like state, but I can write 1000 words ! per hour with the right kind of vocal music. ! ! Oddly enough, certain European heavy metal groups work ! best for me. I have no idea why, but it's a fact that ! just about any song by Nightwish or Hammerfall or ! Dragonforce makes me more productive. I discovered them ! on Pandora.com, a music streaming web site which is ! smart enough to learn what kind of music you like and ! bring you more of it. ! ! If music gets you rolling, then find out what works ! best and use that. Load up your favorite music on your ! computer, or log into Pandora.com, or just turn on the ! radio, and then pour out the words. ! ! Writers often ask me what my secret is for being so ! productive. If I have a secret, it's this: ! ! Singletasking makes you smart. ! ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 3) Creating: The Path of Least Resistance ! ! ! I've been reading a book on creativity lately, THE PATH ! OF LEAST RESISTANCE, by Robert Fritz. He's a musician ! who teaches people how to be creative and how to live ! life creatively. ! ! Like everybody else who ever wrote a book, Fritz is ! admired by some people (just read his many five-star ! Amazon reviews to see what I mean) and is not admired ! by others (he gets a couple of one-star reviews). ! ! The book is a self-help book and tends to have plenty ! of theory and anecdotal evidence, but it's not the sort ! of book that gets into empirical testing, so I don't ! know what psychologists and cognitive scientists would ! say about his ideas. ! ! Speaking as a novelist though, I rather like what he ! has to say about how people can live their life ! creatively, because it highlights what makes a good ! character good in fiction. ! ! Fritz says that most people most of the time do what is ! easiest for them. (Hence the title -- people usually ! follow the "path of least resistance" in getting ! through life.) ! ! Unfortunately, according to Fritz, most people are ! trapped by their circumstances. They wind up being ! either "responsive" or "reactive." ! ! In his terminology, "responsive" means that they follow ! the rules and let circumstances grind them down. ! "Reactive" means that they break the rules and let ! circumstances grind them down. Either way, people in ! "reactive-responsive mode" are letting circumstances ! run and ruin their life. ! ! Creative people, on the other hand, live above ! circumstances. Yes, of course circumstances still ! affect them, but according to Fritz, creative people ! don't get ground down because they follow a simple ! strategy. At the risk of being simple-minded, I'll boil ! it down to these steps: ! ! * Creative people make a decision about what they want ! to achieve ! * Creative people realistically assess where they are ! right now ! * Creative people strategically plan how to get there ! from here ! * Creative people take action to get what they want ! ! Fritz says that creative people, just like ! "reactive-responsive" people, follow the path of least ! resistance. But because creative people are guided ! primarily by their vision, rather than reacting or ! responding to circumstances, their path of least ! resistance leads them to achieve their vision. ! ! You may think that is just starry-eyed nonsense or you ! make think that is brilliant good thinking. No matter. ! The important thing, as a fiction writer, is to ! recognize that strong characters follow exactly those ! steps in a story. ! ! I have a theory that every good model of fiction ! writing has to pass the "Star Wars test." If the model ! works for the movie Star Wars, then it has a chance to ! be right. If it doesn't work for Star Wars, then it's ! almost certainly wrong. ! ! Let's apply the Star Wars test to see if good ! characters are like the creative people Fritz is ! describing. ! ! In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is trapped in ! circumstances that he doesn't much like but which he ! seems powerless to break out of. He wants to go off to ! military school and become a great pilot like his ! Daddy. But he can't, because his uncle needs him on the ! farm. Luke tries to follow the rules and do what uncle ! wants, but it frustrates him. ! ! Then along come a couple of droids in Luke's life. One ! of them goes wandering off and Luke has to break the ! rules to get it back -- he goes zooming off searching ! for the droid without telling his uncle. ! ! Bad things happen. Luke gets attacked. He meets a loony ! old man who claims to have known Luke's daddy. The old ! guy urges him to leave the planet and deliver the droid ! with its plans for the Death Star to Princess Leia's ! people. It's decision time, and Luke is still trapped ! in reactive-responsive mode and he can't decide. ! Instead, he dithers. He goes back to the farm. There he ! finds his uncle and aunt dead -- killed by Storm ! Troopers. ! ! At this point, Luke breaks free of reactive-responsive ! mode and does something that creative people do -- he ! makes a decision. Luke decides to leave the planet, ! find Princess Leia, and join the Rebellion. That's Step ! 1 in Robert Fritz's schema for being creative: Decide ! what it is that you want most in life. ! ! Notice that it's here that the movie becomes a story. ! Now Luke has a goal. Until this point, all he had was ! vague desires. But now he's made a decision to pursue ! those desires to some definite goal. ! ! Also notice that Luke doesn't really angst much about ! whether the goal is possible or not. Frankly, it seems ! pretty crazy to go zooming across the galaxy in hopes ! of taking down the Emperor. But creative people don't ! get all fussed about whether their goal is possible. ! They decide what they want and they make a definite ! decision to get it. ! ! In the next step (which is pretty short) Luke and old ! man Kenobi take a look at where they are. They're on ! the desert planet Tatooine with no money and no ! transportation. That's a long way from where they want ! to be. They don't deny that. People in denial are apt ! to make plans that won't work because they take no ! account of the circumstances. ! ! I think this is an extremely important point, whether ! you're trying to live your life or plan your novel. ! Your ultimate goal may be "impossible" and that's OK. ! But your immediate goal absolutely MUST be possible, ! and therefore it has to be well-grounded in reality. ! You can't get from here to there until you've figured ! out what "here" is and what "there" is. You just can't. ! ! So Luke and Kenobi have followed Step 2 on the road to ! living creatively. But they don't stop there. They move ! on to Step 3: making a plan. It's a long-shot plan, and ! they don't know for sure it'll work, but it's ! plausible. They decide to sell Luke's vehicle and buy ! passage to Princess Leia's home planet. They'll deliver ! the droid to Leia's people and then hook up with the ! Rebellion. Somehow. ! ! That's not a bad plan. It has a chance of working. It ! doesn't spell out the whole journey, but it moves them ! closer to their ultimate goal. It's probably the best ! plan they could make, given where they are right now. ! ! Now Luke and Kenobi do the one critical thing that all ! winners everywhere do. They take action. They're not ! guaranteed to win if they take action. There's a good ! chance that they'll wind up as roasted chunks of meat ! floating in deep space. ! ! But they have no chance of reaching their goal if they ! don't take action. If you're a logician, you'll note ! that taking action is "necessary but not sufficient." ! ! That's Step 4 on the road to being creative -- taking ! action. ! ! All of this happens in the first third of the story. ! The rest of the story can happen ONLY because this ! first third has all four of those crucial steps: Luke ! makes a decision to pursue a goal, he assesses his ! current position, he makes a plan, and then he takes ! action. If you remove ANY of those steps, the story ! collapses. ! ! Now the rest of the story unfolds as it must. Luke and ! Kenobi pursue their quest, always following the path of ! least resistance. Circumstances change and they ! opportunistically react or respond to those new ! circumstances in ways that lead them closer to their ! ultimate goal. ! ! That's the key point: Because they know what they want, ! circumstances don't block them. Instead, circumstance ! just reroute them as they follow the changing path of ! least resistance toward their goal. Because they know ! what they want, circumstances only bend them, not bind ! them. ! ! There are only two ways for the story to end. Either ! Luke reaches his goal, or he dies trying. That's what ! makes the story of Star Wars work. ! ! Whether you do or don't think THE PATH OF LEAST ! RESISTANCE is a good way to live your own life, I ! suggest that it's the only way for your characters to ! live theirs. ! ! Who knew a self-help book could be so . . . helpful? ! ! For more info on THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE, you can ! read all about it on Amazon: ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/blinks/fritz/path.php ! ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 4) Marketing: A Killer First Chapter ! ! ! Some of my author friends loathe and despise the word ! "marketing." It's common for them to say, "The best ! marketing is good writing." ! ! I agree with them, sort of. I'm not certain that good ! writing is the VERY BEST marketing a writer can do, but ! I'm confident that good writing is PRETTY GOOD ! marketing. ! ! In the weird world of marketing, "pretty good" can be ! good enough, because nobody knows what the heck they're ! doing in marketing anyway. Many of the "great" ! marketers seem to be people who were successful once on ! one project for reasons they don't understand, and keep ! doing that ever after on other projects. ! ! This month I'd like to talk about one aspect of good ! writing that certainly is good marketing -- writing a ! killer first chapter. ! ! Some readers will reject a book by its cover, and ! there's not a thing you can do about that. The cover is ! your publisher's job. If they create a bad cover, ! you're at a major disadvantage. ! ! But not all readers are like that. If they like the ! title, or if they hear good things about your book, ! many readers will ignore even a dreadful cover and take ! a look at the first chapter. ! ! That's YOUR responsibility. You can blame the publisher ! for the cover, but it's lame to blame them for your ! first chapter. ! ! A good first chapter does four things well: ! ! * It makes a contract with the reader ! * It sets a hook in the first sentence ! * It sets a second hook near the end of the first page ! * It sets a third hook at the end of the chapter ! ! Let's talk about each of those in turn, because they're ! all critical. ! ! First of all, what's a "contract with the reader?" ! ! That's simple. Your book is going to have a certain ! tone, pacing, style, and genre. Your first chapter ! should make clear to your reader what that tone, ! pacing, style, and genre is going to be. Your first ! chapter is a promise: The rest of the book will be like ! this one. ! ! Imagine you read the first chapter of a book that has ! one long, adrenaline-laced car chase that ends with the ! bad guys driving off a cliff, falling 300 feet, and ! exploding in flames while the good guy drives off in ! his Maserati with his arm around a beautiful woman. ! ! If you buy the book hoping for more fast cars and ! faster women, wouldn't you be outraged to find that the ! rest of the book is a slow small-town romance set in ! Milford? ! ! Yes, you would, because Milford and Maseratis don't ! mix. ! ! Your first chapter is a contract with your reader that ! says, "If you like this chapter, you'll like the rest ! of the book, because it's going to be similar." ! ! Once you write the contract and your reader signs it, ! don't violate it. ! ! Of course your first chapter should NOT telegraph the ! rest of the story. Your reader doesn't want you to give ! away the ending in chapter one. Your reader wants a ! promise of a certain tone, pacing, style, and genre. ! Period. ! ! On to the next thing. What's a hook, and why do you ! need three of them? ! ! A hook is something that makes your reader say, "What's ! going on? What happens next? I've got to read a bit ! more." That's all a hook has to do. ! ! The reason you need hooks is because your reader always ! has the option to close the book RIGHT NOW. Early in ! your book, your reader hasn't yet committed to your ! story. Early in your book, you need to make the reader ! commit -- at least to read a bit more. ! ! The reason you need three hooks is because readers have ! three increasing levels of commitment: ! ! * If your reader likes the first sentence, she'll ! commit to reading the first page. ! ! * If your reader likes the first page, she'll commit to ! reading the first chapter. ! ! * If your reader likes the first chapter, she'll commit ! to the rest of the book. If she's in a bookstore, ! that's the point at which she buys the book. If she's ! in the library, it's the point where she puts the book ! on her checkout list. If she's at a friend's house, ! it's the point where she asks to borrow the book (or ! steals it if the friend turns uncooperative). ! ! A hook is generally a sentence or two that DEMANDS the ! next level of commitment. ! ! Now let's look at two examples of books with strong ! first chapters and see how well they spell out the ! contract with the reader and set those three hooks. ! Note that hooks are tactical, while the contract with ! the reader is strategic, so I'll discuss the hooks ! first and then the contract. ! ! ! Example: THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins. ! ! THE HUNGER GAMES is a young-adult futuristic adventure ! novel with overtones of romance told in first-person ! point of view by a teen female protagonist. It's one of ! the best books I've read in a very long time and I'll ! definitely read it again. ! ! ! Hook #1: The first sentence reads like this: ! "When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold." ! ! Analysis: That's a good, solid hook. Obviously, our ! protagonist is sharing her bed with someone. But who? ! And why? ! ! The answers come fairly quickly on the first page. Our ! heroine shares a bed with her little sister Primrose, a ! fresh-faced innocent kid whom everybody loves. Prim ! owns the world's ugliest cat, Buttercup, which our ! heroine once tried to drown. ! ! ! Hook #2: At the end of the last paragraph on the first ! page, we find these two sentences: ! "Sometimes when I clean a kill, I feed Buttercup the ! entrails. He has stopped hissing at me." ! ! Analysis: Yikes, our heroine cleans kills? Why? It ! sounds like our protagonist is not nearly as sweet and ! lovable as Prim, but she definitely sounds interesting. ! What is she killing? ! ! Again, some answers come quickly as the chapter ! progresses. Our heroine lives in a poor coal-mining ! town in a poor district of what used to be the USA. Her ! father is dead, but he left her a bow and she's quite a ! skilled hunter. It's illegal to hunt outside the town, ! but she does anyway in order to feed her family. One of ! her few friends is a boy named Gale whom she often ! hunts with, splitting the proceeds. ! ! We eventually learn that our heroine has a name, ! Katniss Everdeen. We learn that Kat isn't romantically ! interested in Gale, but it's not hard to guess that ! this might change. Kat is 16 and Gale is 18 and they're ! friends. ! ! As the chapter progresses, Kat and Gale fish and hunt, ! then return home for the main event of the day -- the ! Reaping. One boy and one girl are to be drawn at random ! from the inhabitants of District 12 to play in the ! Hunger Games -- a battle to the death between 12 boys ! and 12 girls from across the nation. The Hunger Games ! end when only one survivor remains. ! ! Participation in the Reaping is mandatory. Kat shows ! up, along with Gale and all the other teens in their ! town. There's a ceremony before the drawing. Speeches. ! Stupid talk about "honor." Then the drawing . . . ! ! ! Hook #3: The final sentence of the chapter tells the ! name of the girl drawn to represent District 12 in the ! Hunger Games: ! "It's Primrose Everdeen." ! ! Analysis: We're prepared for Kat to be chosen. We even ! expect it. But she isn't. Her innocent, defenseless, ! weak little sister is chosen instead. ! ! That's the end of the chapter. That's a brilliant hook. ! If you've read that far and you can close the book, ! then you have no soul. It's that simple. You HAVE to ! read on to find out what happens next, even though you ! know from reading the back cover copy that Kat is ! somehow going to take her sister's place in a brutal ! set of modern gladiatorial games that will be televised ! to the nation. ! ! ! Contract with the reader: The first chapter is written ! in first person from the point of view of a fairly ! cynical but hopeful young woman who is clearly a ! fighter. Katniss is trapped in a bleak, unfair, ! dangerous world, but she'll do everything she possibly ! can to survive and to make sure her family survives. ! The pacing is quick and every sentence is well-crafted. ! The genre is clearly young-adult adventure. ! ! If you are the sort of person who wants either a very ! slow pace or an adrenaline rocket, then this book isn't ! for you. If you want all romance and no violence, then ! skip this book. If you want all fluff and no grit, then ! you'll be disappointed. The first chapter sets the ! stage for what's to follow, and if you like the first ! chapter, you'll love the book. ! ! All of which reminds me that I really want to read this ! book again. ! ! ! Example: THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini. ! ! THE KITE RUNNER is a literary novel set in the years ! between 1975 and the present, told in first-person by a ! young man who was born in Afghanistan and later came to ! the US. ! ! ! Hook #1: The first sentence reads like this, in a ! chapter datelined December 2001: ! "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a ! frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975." ! ! Analysis: This is clearly going to be a retrospective ! novel, working through some coming-of-age issues. The ! immediate questions any reader would ask are these: ! What are you today? What happened in 1975? Why don't ! you sound happy about it? ! ! It's a good solid hook. As the page progresses, we ! quickly learn that the answers aren't going to come ! quickly. There's a mystery to be unraveled here. But we ! also learn that the protagonist is going to face his ! past, because it's coming back at him now, 26 years ! later. ! ! In the final paragraph of the first page, the ! protagonist gets a phone call from Rahim Khan, an old ! friend in Pakistan, asking him to come visit. Our hero ! doesn't say yes and he doesn't say no. He goes for a ! walk in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. There he ! sees some kites, and that reminds him of an old, jagged ! memory: ! ! ! Hook #2: The paragraph ends with the rather cryptic ! sentences: ! "And suddenly Hassan's voice whispered in my head: For ! you, a thousand times over. Hassan the harelipped kite ! runner." ! ! Analysis: This raises a LOT of questions. Who's Hassan? ! What would he do a thousand times over? What's a kite ! runner? And what's this got to do with 1975? ! ! The rest of the chapter is just one more paragraph. We ! get another snippet of the phone conversation earlier, ! Rahim Khan's final comment before he hung up: There is ! a way to be good again. ! ! That's intriguing. The chapter is short and it ends ! with the final hook: ! ! ! Hook #3: The chapter ends with two sentences that set ! the stage for the rest of the book: ! "I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of ! 1975 came along and changed everything. And made me ! what I am today." ! ! Analysis: This raises again the questions that were ! first raised in the first hook. What is our hero today? ! What changed in 1975? Why isn't he happy? Will he find ! a way to be good again? ! ! ! Contract with the reader: The first chapter is ! extremely short, just three long paragraphs told in ! narrative summary. Clearly this is a literary novel ! about redemption (or lack of it). The pace is going to ! be measured, the language will be thought-provoking, ! and the style elegant. ! ! You learn several things in the first chapter: If your ! idea of a good book is measured in body count, ! decibels, or steamy scenes, then the first chapter ! tells you to look elsewhere, because this is not the ! droid you're looking for. If you insist on getting a ! happy ending, you know in advance that none is ! guaranteed here, although one is possible. If you want ! authentic Afghanistan, then you can tell right away ! that you'll get it here. ! ! ! Now what about the first chapter of your novel? What's ! the hook in the first sentence? What's the hook at the ! bottom of the first page? What's the hook at the end of ! the first chapter? What contract do you offer to your ! reader? ! ! Can you improve your hooks? Can you clarify your ! contract? ! ! Don't get hung up on perfection here. The question is ! whether you can improve what you've got right now. If ! you can, then do so. ! ! If you can't, set these questions aside for another ! day. You'll be a better writer next month and next ! year. Like Scarlett O'Hara, you can think about it ! later. ! ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 5) What's New At AdvancedFictionWriting.com ! ! ! My new book, WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES, began ! shipping in late November and is now in bookstores just ! about everywhere. The book had a terrific launch and ! spent several days in the top 1000 on Amazon. You can ! find out all about WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES here: ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/info/wffd ! ! ! I recently released my latest software product, ! "Snowflake Pro," which makes it fast, easy, and fun to ! work through the steps of my well-known Snowflake ! method for designing a novel. You can find out more ! about Snowflake Pro at: ! http://www.SnowflakeProSoftware.com ! ! ! I teach at roughly 4 to 6 writing conferences per year, ! depending on my schedule. My schedule for this year is ! already beginning to fill in. ! ! In March, I will be doing a small group mentoring ! workshop at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers ! Conference. More info: ! http://mounthermon.org/adult/professionals/writers-conference ! ! In late July, I'll be doing another small group ! mentoring workshop in Oregon. More details when they're ! available online. ! ! In October, I'll be teaching an all-day series of ! lectures in Houston. More details soon. ! ! If you'd like me to teach at your conference, email me ! to find out how outrageously expensive I am. ! ! If you'd just like to hear me teach, I have a number of ! recordings and e-books that are outrageously cheap. ! Details here: ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/info ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 6) Steal This E-zine! ! ! ! This E-zine is free, and I personally guarantee it's ! worth at least 9271 times the price. I invite you to ! "steal" it, but only if you do it nicely . . . ! ! Distasteful legal babble: This E-zine is copyright ! Randall Ingermanson, 2010. ! ! Extremely tasteful postscript: I encourage you to email ! this E-zine to any writer friends of yours who might ! benefit from it. I only ask that you email the whole ! thing, not bits and pieces. Otherwise, you'll be ! getting desperate calls at midnight from your friends ! asking where they can get their own free subscription. ! ! At the moment, there is one place to subscribe: My ! fiction site: http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com ! ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! 7) Reprint Rights ! ! ! Permission is granted to use any of the articles in ! this e-zine in your own e-zine or web site, as long as ! you include the following 2-paragraph blurb with it: ! ! Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the ! Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing ! E-zine, with more than 19,000 readers, every month. If ! you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, ! AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND ! have FUN doing it, visit ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com. ! ! Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing ! and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel. ! ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ ! ! ! Randy Ingermanson ! Publisher, Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine ! http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine ! ! _______________________________________________________ ! _______________________________________________________ !

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