Hi Folks,
Because many of you still haven’t made the switch to my Daily Journal, I decided to post this over here as well. This is for you, not me.
Workshop Report
I finally watched and listened to the Week 1 videos from Dean Wesley Smith’s Teams in Fiction workshop at about 6:30 last night. I expected them to be bland and boring in the first week. Nature of the beast.
In the first week, because a lot of beginning writers take these workshops too, DWS often talks down or very carefully explains things I already know. That’s fine. I understand, and for that reason, my expectations generally are low for the first week of videos.
The fun thing is, I took a TON of notes on Video 2 of Week 1. Much of it was realization rather than learning, and that’s fine. By “realization” I mean I realized (with a sense of relief) some things that I was already doing and learned why I was doing them. So that was good. I also learned a few things I had never thought about. So total win on Week 1.
These workshops really are invaluable if you want to improve your craft. As a disclaimer, I get nothing from referring writers to the workshops. I pass along this stuff only because Dean’s workshops really are islands of real value in an ocean of misinformation and scams.
I taken many of his workshops, classic workshops and lectures. If you have questions about any of them, please feel free to ask me (link at the bottom). I’ll answer honestly.
Of Interest
Dean’s topic today is Follow the Yellow Brick Road, a metaphor for indie publishing. Check it out.
Also of interest, he noted today that his Ideas to Story workshop has NOBODY in it (at the link above, scroll down just a bit to Online Workshops Starting). If you want one-on-one attention, this is the workshop to take. It’s also a GREAT workshop. I’m a seasoned writer, yet I took it a short while back. And it contained SO much more than I expected. Highly recommended.
If you want to take this workshop, email dean@deanwesleysmith.com and ask. Today is supposed to be the last day. Feel free to tell him I sent you. Not that I have any influence, but it might help convince him to let you sign up a little late.
That’s it for this time. As I wrote in a previous post, I’ll toss in something over here from time to time, but the really informative stuff is over at my Daily Journal. Just click the Subscribe link at the top of the page over there. Or email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to sign you up myself.
Adios,
Harvey
One of the things I find with Dean and Kris’s workshops is how valuable repeated or already known points are. It’s like a memory refresher and a reminder about approaches and techniques. Always worthwhile.
Thanks for commenting, Sean. Absolutely spot on. And I always find little tidbits that Dean doesn’t even realize he’s dropping. Just little gems. Of course, those are prevalent in his “normal” blog posts too. I try to do the same over on my Daily Journal.