Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Maya Angelou, persistence, quotes, short stories, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on September 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I’m working on a new project and looking forward to finishing it up and getting it out the door. It’s been a busy month so far, but there never seems to be quite enough time to get everything done. It’s still fun to try.
My mother had this wonderful Maya Angelou quote illuminated and framed. (And who is that amusing young girl in the photo?:) She knew a thing or two about adversity, and about persistence.
Hang on, I’ve got to go take care of a few more things. Something about life and lapels…
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #dontquit, #ThingsILike, Cat Rambo, creativity, education, Fiction, genre fiction, Motivation, persistence, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, writing workshops, yay on May 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Today’s Thing I Like is an online writing workshop from Cat Rambo. Now, I’m not affiliated with her in any way except for the fact that I’ve just gone and purchased this workshop for myself. Go me, investing in education:)
I discovered the workshop thanks to my favorite submissions tracking site, The Grinder.* Mizz Rambo is this month’s site sponsor.
Here’s the workshop:
Description and Delivering Information for Genre Writers: How to Deliver Information and Build a World Without Slowing Down Your Story
Check out that detailed curriculum. In fact, go ahead and take a gander at the Introduction and Description previews too. The course goes in depth on a wide range of topics and is seeded with useful exercises throughout. Rambo even provides additional exercises for overachievers.
The course is also a steal at $29, particularly when you consider the source. Who is this fabulously-named instructor, you may ask?
Cat Rambo is a prolific writer and editor of sci-fi and fantasy, with 200 short stories and more to her credit (including a cookbook, most excellent). She studied with Octavia Freaking Butler and other amazing writers at Clarion West. I’ll cite a bit of her blurb to fill in the picture:
She has been nominated for the Endeavour, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award and is the former editor of Fantasy Magazine. Her own work includes over 200 short stories, several novels, and most recently a cookbook, co-edited with Fran Wilde, Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook. She is the current president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
I’m not a writing workshop junkie but I have gone through several. Now that I’m halfway through the Rambo course, I can say that this is the most useful one I’ve taken to date.
Cat Rambo has four online workshops available at the moment, including the Description for Genre Writers cited above, as well as Literary Techniques for Genre Writers, Character Building for Genre Writers, and Reading to an Audience. She also gives live classes if you’re interested in a more personal touch.
Most days I’ll work through a chapter, then apply the exercises to my current work in progress. Very practical and the writing does double duty. If I do the overachiever exercise I get a cookie. Win win!
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* Yep, I’m putting in another plug for The Grinder guys as well (I’m a donor and sometime beta-tester but not otherwise affiliated), because it’s a great project and always free free free. Yet another one of the #ThingsILike!
J.R. Johnson 
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