Comments for Ryan M. Williams, Writer http://www.ryanmwilliams.com Rediscover the wonder! Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:03:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on Challenge Exposed by Alistair Ainscott http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4429 Alistair Ainscott Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:03:08 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4429 Thanks, Ryan. Wise words. You are officially my writing hero :-) Yeah, unfortunately the CV workshop overlaps with a scientific conference that I need to attend this year to present a paper. So I have to go to that instead. BTW, I just noticed that you left a nice review for Trinity of the Sands on the B & N site. Much appreciated. That story has been my best seller to date (just a handful of shorts up so far, but I plan to publish some more and a collection or two this month). If you have a piece you'd like a review on just let me know which one. Alistair Thanks, Ryan. Wise words. You are officially my writing hero :-)

Yeah, unfortunately the CV workshop overlaps with a scientific conference that I need to attend this year to present a paper. So I have to go to that instead.

BTW, I just noticed that you left a nice review for Trinity of the Sands on the B & N site. Much appreciated. That story has been my best seller to date (just a handful of shorts up so far, but I plan to publish some more and a collection or two this month).

If you have a piece you’d like a review on just let me know which one.

Alistair

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Ryan http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4421 Ryan Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:03:30 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4421 Too bad you can't make it out, but I understand how hard that could be. If you look at the challenge page you can see the real reason I hit my goal - I wrote every day. A few of those weren't very many words, but hitting day after day really makes it work. Give yourself fifteen minutes. Set a timer. Do a word sprint. Allow yourself at least that fifteen minutes each day. Chances are you'll find spare fifteen minutes here and there. I'll bet by the end of the month your count is higher if you hit each day. Make the challenge to keep your streak going. I'm 50 days into my current streak right now, with 83,965 words so I'm averaging 1,679 words (which is enough to hit 50,000 words per month). I rarely sit down and just write that much in one sitting. I try to write in the morning and then usually it's little fifteen minute pockets when I take a break from everything else. Too bad you can’t make it out, but I understand how hard that could be. If you look at the challenge page you can see the real reason I hit my goal – I wrote every day. A few of those weren’t very many words, but hitting day after day really makes it work. Give yourself fifteen minutes. Set a timer. Do a word sprint. Allow yourself at least that fifteen minutes each day. Chances are you’ll find spare fifteen minutes here and there. I’ll bet by the end of the month your count is higher if you hit each day. Make the challenge to keep your streak going. I’m 50 days into my current streak right now, with 83,965 words so I’m averaging 1,679 words (which is enough to hit 50,000 words per month). I rarely sit down and just write that much in one sitting. I try to write in the morning and then usually it’s little fifteen minute pockets when I take a break from everything else.

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Alistair Ainscott http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4420 Alistair Ainscott Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:59:01 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4420 Congratulations on meeting your challenge -- and impressive that you plan to just keep meeting it every month. I only managed 17,500 words last month, so I am humbly eating your dust here :-) Unfortunately December is not looking much better, right now I'm in the middle of a stretch of 5 consecutive weekends where I will either be travelling with the family or for work, so time for words will be hard to come by. But I'll keep chugging. I am investing the time wherever I can, I just need to flat-out write faster. Wish I could join you guys at the character voice workshop. I can't make that one work this year-- and I may have to wait till the next year to do another Kris 'n' Dean workshop at all... Congratulations on meeting your challenge — and impressive that you plan to just keep meeting it every month. I only managed 17,500 words last month, so I am humbly eating your dust here :-)

Unfortunately December is not looking much better, right now I’m in the middle of a stretch of 5 consecutive weekends where I will either be travelling with the family or for work, so time for words will be hard to come by. But I’ll keep chugging. I am investing the time wherever I can, I just need to flat-out write faster.

Wish I could join you guys at the character voice workshop. I can’t make that one work this year– and I may have to wait till the next year to do another Kris ‘n’ Dean workshop at all…

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Ryan http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4416 Ryan Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:30:27 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4416 It won't be the master class workload, but they'll make you work. When Dean describes the workshop as "A very intense week of writing. ", he's being factual. It won’t be the master class workload, but they’ll make you work. When Dean describes the workshop as “A very intense week of writing. “, he’s being factual.

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Jeff Ambrose http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4414 Jeff Ambrose Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:46:03 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4414 Thanks for the info. I think I might have to challenge myself on week to see just how much I can write, finding 15 and 20 minutes here and there, as well as the bigger chunks, without disrupting family life. I'm excited bou the character voice workshop, and thrilled to hear we'll be pushed. The workshop I went to last summer felt like a vacation. Thanks for the info. I think I might have to challenge myself on week to see just how much I can write, finding 15 and 20 minutes here and there, as well as the bigger chunks, without disrupting family life.

I’m excited bou the character voice workshop, and thrilled to hear we’ll be pushed. The workshop I went to last summer felt like a vacation.

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Ryan http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4413 Ryan Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:39:16 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4413 It's an intensive experience, but basically they give you an impossible amount of work to do and expect you to get it done. And you do, or at least the folks when I attended managed to do it. Between lectures, readings and other assignments you're basically pulling a long day anyway and then there's the writing assignments on top of it. So you're essentially already doing a full-time + job with huge writing assignments piled on top. Like I mentioned, I thought I did pretty good before but after I found it easier to get more words written than I would have thought before I went. So now I work full-time with long hours, especially adding commute time, have a family, everything else and still manage to get the work done. It was interesting going to the short story workshop because Kris pushed people pretty hard, but even though I wrote over 30,000 words that week I felt like I was on vacation. For the most part the master class grads attending were less stressed over the workload than those that hadn't gone through that experience. You'll get a taste of that at the character voice workshop. Expect to work hard! It’s an intensive experience, but basically they give you an impossible amount of work to do and expect you to get it done. And you do, or at least the folks when I attended managed to do it. Between lectures, readings and other assignments you’re basically pulling a long day anyway and then there’s the writing assignments on top of it. So you’re essentially already doing a full-time + job with huge writing assignments piled on top.

Like I mentioned, I thought I did pretty good before but after I found it easier to get more words written than I would have thought before I went. So now I work full-time with long hours, especially adding commute time, have a family, everything else and still manage to get the work done.

It was interesting going to the short story workshop because Kris pushed people pretty hard, but even though I wrote over 30,000 words that week I felt like I was on vacation. For the most part the master class grads attending were less stressed over the workload than those that hadn’t gone through that experience.

You’ll get a taste of that at the character voice workshop. Expect to work hard!

]]> Comment on Challenge Exposed by Jeff Ambrose http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/2011/12/02/challenge-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-4412 Jeff Ambrose Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:23:20 +0000 http://www.ryanmwilliams.com/?p=3570#comment-4412 I've heard others talk about Kris and Dean's Master Class in the same way. What do they do that shows you how to write more? Is it a secret you can reveal? I’ve heard others talk about Kris and Dean’s Master Class in the same way. What do they do that shows you how to write more? Is it a secret you can reveal?

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