Hey Folks,
Good morning! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. I’m looking forward to the new year, and I hope it will be a prosperous and healthy one for all of you.
Of course, the new year (or anytime, really) is a great time to learn new techniques.
I was listening this morning to part of Dean’s workshop on Secondary Plot Lines. I’ve written 36 novels. I’ve used secondary plot lines a lot. But there’s always something new to learn.
And the course was basically free. I bought one of the Writers Gift boxes ($50) from WMG Publishing, so I got a dozen or so books, a lecture, and a classic workshop.
I chose Secondary Plot Lines (normally $150 alone) mostly because the description read that it was an “expansive” workshop covering a ton of information. Dean ALWAYS provides more than he expects to provide.
So while I was listening to the first few videos, as he often does, Dean referred to various television shows and movies to watch first for pleasure, then for study.
And for some reason, I remembered you can also download television and movie scripts, often free, to read and study on your way to learning new techniques you can use in your fiction writing.
To find some sources of free scripts, key “Free Hollywood Scripts” into your search engine.
But I’ve listed a few sources of those scripts in “Of Interest” below. Just FYI, I use “scripts” and “screenplays” interchangeably.
And for goodness’ sake, don’t dismiss the thought of studying scripts just because you have no desire to write screenplays. That would be as silly as assuming Heinlien’s Rules won’t work for you just because you don’t write science fiction.
***
After a rough night, I rolled out at 3 this morning and spent the first hour on the stuff above. I’ll listen to more of the workshop during times when I’m not writing, like the afternoons after the writing day is finished. For now, to the novel.
For the next hour, I cycled back a bit, added about 500 new words, then headed up to the house for a break. Still not feeling all that well after last night, so it was a little difficult to focus on the characters.
Back and forth after that with writing and breaks.
Anyway, I had two goals for the last half of December: One, I wanted to complete an 11th novel for the year. Two, I wanted to practice hitting 4,000 words in a day.
I know the novel will end well before the end of the month, and I know I can hit 4,000 words without too much trouble when the novel is running. (grin) So that’s already a win-win.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
To see the description of the Secondary Plot Lines online workshop (and others) visit “Online Workshops” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/online-workshops/. You’ll have to scroll down.
See “10 Great Websites To Download Movie Scripts” at https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/10-great-websites-download-movie-scripts/.
See “50 Of The Best Famous Movie Screenplays To Read And Download In Every Genre” at https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/best-screenplays-to-read/.
If you ARE interested in writing screenplays, visit “Script Reader Pro” at https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/.
Via Linda Maye Adams, see “7 Things Professional Writers Know That Amateurs Don’t” at https://goinswriter.com/professional-writers/. All I can say is Truedat.
Fiction Words: 2013
Nonfiction Words: 520 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2533
Writing of Blackwell Ops (novel, tentative title)
Day 10… 2629 words. Total words to date…… 36453
Day 11… 1322 words. Total words to date…… 37775
Day 12… 2013 words. Total words to date…… 39788
Total fiction words for the month……… 64298
Total fiction words for the year………… 522981
Total nonfiction words for the month… 16410
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 188096
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 710827
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 10
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 36
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31