The last 2YN book -- and rant

The last of the Two Year Novel Course is now published! I had originally intended to have nine sections, but I did it in eight instead. The original eighth section felt too short to release on it's own. So eight and nine became a single book: Final Editing, Submissions and Publishing. The Submissions and Publishing sections had a huge reworking to include new material on the world of Indie Publishing.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/314012

With this series done, I'm free again to work on my fiction. I hadn't noticed how much this was dragging at my attention until I realized I could have it all done in a couple weeks. I actually thought it would take longer, but I put everything else aside and focused on it alone.

All eight books (two years of classes, one a week -- 104 total) are for sale at $0.99 each, so you can have the entire Two Year Novel Course for less than $8.00. And yes, it does work for some people. We just had another announcement on Forward Motion that someone sold a book from one of the previous classes on the site. Yay!

You can find them at Smashwords (spread through the list of my other works!): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/zetteG

Smashwords offers copies in Kindle, Nook, Sony, PDF and more.

And now for a bit of a rant:

I've mentioned this in passing before, but I'm going to go into more detail this time.

If you have never written a novel, don't tell people how to do so.

You may have guidance on some aspects of writing like grammar. You may even know a little bit about plotting, though if you don't even write short stories, maybe you need a bit of practice at it before you tell someone else how to plot. I have been seeing some horrible advice on what novelists need to do and not do, most of which is personal preference, and often from people who don't even know if it works for them, let alone for anyone else. If someone gives you advice and it doesn't feel right, check to find out if they have anything on their site or in their published works that makes you think they have a clue about writing fiction. In fact, it doesn't hurt to check everyone before you leap into taking advice. Don't turn aside everything without thinking it through, but don't believe that someone who hasn't written fiction can tell you how to do the work. Be wise in what you choose to help you. Make certain it is help and not merely making you do something in a way that ruins your work.

Honestly? Write your first draft however you can. Do it fast and let the story flow like a movie, if that works for you. Write slow and pick out each word carefully if that works for you. Both types of writer are going to have to edit, and you may be surprised at how little editing the fast writer needs, especially if they've been writing for a while. You do get better if you are willing to learn.

You will not get better if you listen to some pretentious person who pretends to know everything but has never written more than some bits of nonfiction telling you how to do your work.

Writing is personal. What works for me is not going to work for everyone else. Even the 2YN classes are filled with various ideas and places where I urge people to try different things and find what works for them. Experiment. Step out into new areas and try something different because you don't know what will work for you until you try. Read everything you can -- but if someone tells you never do X, be certain that person has a clue.

End of rant for the moment.

I am working on the second Devlin novel. It's gone through one edit. I'm going to do another, but this one shouldn't take as long. I have a clear vision of the cover art as well, which shouldn't be too difficult to create.

I have been spending a lot of quality time with my new camera and drooling over additional items to buy for it. Most of them are way out of my price range, so I just go visit the Amazon pages now and then. But even so, I'm not doing badly with what I have. I've found the limitations of the longer zoom lens I have, which doesn't do well at great distances. I still take my Sony DSC HX 200V with me everywhere for far distant and very close items -- especially the last since it has an excellent macro ability.

And yes, the weather has been nicer, too. We had rain! After last summer where everything died in the drought, this is really very nice. Although needing to turn the heat on each evening when it's nearly the middle of May is still not quite right.

I am looking forward to getting some new writing done soon. I'm working on two outlines -- an urban fantasy and a science fiction novel that does not take place in my usual science fiction universe.That one is fun so far.

I think a few nice calm months of writing would be good. I seriously doubt it will come my way. But I will be writing anyway.