Unleash the Flying Monkeys! » How To Think Sideways

Cast Your Vote in the HTRYN Contest

Leah — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:15:25 +0000

I’m a big fan of Holly Lisle’s eCourses for writers, so I was ecstatic when she announced her newest course, How To Revise Your Novel (HTRYN). However, since the only novels I wish to revise are still in progress, I couldn’t sign up for the course’s first session. Though I do plan to enroll if Holly offers another session at the end of the year.

One of the reasons I like Holly is that she’s always finding ways to help others as she helps herself. Yes, her eCourses bring in revenue, but she created the HTRYN Scholarship Contest to give deserving writers a chance to win their way into the course.

Contestants submitted video demonstrations of the “101 Worst Things That Go Wrong In First Draft,” then Holly selected the weekly finalists. Now we get to vote for the six scholarship winners.

Voting is open from January 25 through February 1, 2010 and you can vote for up to three videos. The prizes to be awarded, how voting works, and a list of the finalists are available on Holly’s blog. The finalists’ videos run from one to four minutes long, so it won’t take you more than 30 minutes to view them all and cast your vote.

Please help these writers win a spot in HTRYN and cast your vote today!

What are you still doin’ here? Go vote or else I’ll send my minions.

"Holly Lisle and the Case of the Exploding Cat"

Leah — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:31:06 +0000

Holly’s done it again. She’s created yet another goodie to help writers succeed. She calls it “Writer Crash Test” and if you’re open to learning something new about your own writing, check out the video on YouTube. I don’t think I can embed a video on Word Press so I’m pasting the link below. Simply click below and enjoy!

Video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPCn6hzQxaQ

Holly’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HollyLisle

WriterCrashTest.com: Sign up for free updates every time a video is added.

Protected: Looking for a spy?

Leah — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Protected: Graduate Novel Brainstorm

Leah — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:38:00 +0000

Protected: My biscuits are burning!

Leah — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Happy Monday!

Leah — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Wow, what a fabulous weekend! I had another FUN date, finished reading two books, watched Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising AND stopped to appreciate all of the beautiful colors starting to emerge around my property. On top of that, I decided that Elysia is going to be traditionally homeschooled from now on instead of doing charter school, OHVA, which is public school from home. I’m tired of having “the man” breathing down my neck where my daughter is concerned.

I also had a serious talk with myself (don’t worry, it wasn’t a verbal conversation, don’t want the family to think I’ve finally lost it) and made some great progress in my Think Sideways learning. I’m nearly finished with Week 5 and peeked ahead to Week 6 and 7, which look intense but fascinating. Holly Lisle really is a great teacher and she puts so much into these lessons; I’m definitely going to try out some of her more specified clinics when this course is over.

Anywho, I lost track, oh yeah, my Muse let Me know she’s been trying to get messages through but either the screams have been falling on deaf ears or the ideas weren’t all that do-able. However, I had a SUPER cool idea hit Me on Sunday that I couldn’t stop thinking about. All of the questions I asked my Muse received positive and firm responses, which lets Me know I’m on to something with this one. I’m trying not to get too sidetracked with my non-fiction writing so that I forget how many great fiction stories I have in the works. One character in particular is quite intriguing and he won’t let Me be so I’m writing him today.

I picked up two new books this weekend, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is being made into a movie, and What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire. Both of which look awesome so I can’t wait to finish White Night and Eyes of the Dragon, the current week’s reading material, to start the two new ones. I figure I’ll have all four finished by Sunday.

Well, it’s lunch time and I do have actual work that needs to be finished today. *sigh* If only I didn’t need money :-) I can’t wait until this weekend and it’s only Monday.

Protected: Week Four – My Sentence(s)

Leah — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:25:00 +0000

Protected: Week Three – Lightning? More like fireworks.

Leah — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Week Two – My Sweet Spot Assignment

Leah — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:54:00 +0000

Okay, I have to admit I was a little intimidated by week two’s lesson and assignment, mostly because it dealt exclusively with clustering / mind mapping and I had only ever used that during my time at university. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find all of the exercises VERY fun. My computer decided to (repeatedly) crash on me today, which made working nearly impossible. But it made time for some freewriting and clustering, which was awesome. I clustered for nearly 90 minutes on the topics Holly listed, and felt incredibly invigorated and alive! I had words, themes, characters, plot and other leads popping up left and right. I couldn’t get one idea written and enclosed faster than the next one was pushing its way out. What a terrific feeling!

Now, as soon as I can figure out how to use some dang mapping software then I’ll re-create my clustering results and post a copy of them on here. But no such luck today. My computer actually started crashing when I was trying to download the Cayra software all my classmates are raving about so I gave up on that for right this minute. I did see another student posted a link to a program you can use online but it looked a little clunky. I deal with enough clunky, learning curve required programs 9-5 for work. I’d like something a little more intuitive and user-friendly for my writing pursuits. Any suggestions?

What was one recurring item on my Sweet Spot map? No surprise here: snakes and chocolate. Yep, I hate and fear snakes, and I need, love, hate and am drawn to chocolate. I was a little shocked that dolls didn’t show up anywhere because they’re friggin’ scary as hell. If you don’t agree, watch an episode of The X-Files called “Chinga.” *shivers* There’s plenty more stories of terrifying dolls but I don’t want to think about them right now, it’ll be dark pretty soon.

Toodles!

Week One – Victim and Feel

Leah — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Yes, I skipped both of these assignments. Why? Because I don’t wrestle with either of these. I’m a Gemini so I’m pretty evenly balanced between the THINK and FEEL of who I am, what I see and what I do. I rarely, if ever, begin my sentences with “I feel…” because I’m usually thinking, not feeling. Perhaps, I need to shut the thinker down more often and give the feeler more free reign? Hmm, something to think about, I suppose.

As for being a VICTIM, nope, that’s not me. I was raised to look at the learning opportunity in every bad situation. I was taught the only way to get what you want out of life is to do something about it–don’t throw a tantrum at life’s feet when you don’t like the job you’re stuck at, find a better job. Unhappy with that loser of a boyfriend? Dump him. Tired of being lonely and single? Guess what, go out into the real world and meet people.

It’s better to be making choices than allowing your choices to make you. Hey, that’s not a bad line. I’ll have to copyright that. No one’s ever accused me of whining or complaining about stuff. Generally, I get complimented on my ability to take my mistakes and failures with a grain of salt and go after my goal again. I always try again, no matter how bad the previous defeat or heartbreak was. The only way I’ll ever reach my rainbow is if I keep patching the holes and pumping hot air back in that big ol’ hot air balloon, right? Right.

So, here I am, at the end of Week One’s lesson: I’ve memorized the lines of Holly’s Four Thinking Barriers and have already started to break down the ones standing between Me, my Muse and our pot of published gold :-) Next, I’m off to conquer the clustering technique, which I’ve only ever used in academic situations. Let’s see how it works with my creative writing.

Which of the four thinking barriers is your biggest obstacle?

In case you don’t know what they are, here you go:

SAFE, PERFECT, VICTIM and FEEL.

WEB RESOURCES

Holly wrote a terrific article on the subject you can read here.