On opportunities for learning

(Or, why it would be a good idea to take advantage of WGM’s Teachable sale.)

Dean Wesley Smith, Kris Rusch and WGM are doing another half-price sale on writing-related courses, both craft and business. It’s their fourth this year and their fourth ever, and every time they say they hope it’ll be the last, because the sale is on offer primarily in response to the plague. So it’s worth not ignoring. Dean even has a loose recommended curriculum here, if you want to learn but aren’t sure where to start.

Dean and Kris have been professional writers 30 years now, going from traditional to indie, with additional editing backgrounds (a description which does neither of them justice, so go have a google if you’re interested in specs). That means they are possibly the best sources of learning for any writer who wants to make a living from their writing.

I cannot recommend them enough if you can afford them, even if you think you know what you’re doing (maybe especially if you know what you’re doing). I’ve taken Genre Structure (series of lectures with self-assignments) and Covers 101 (series of lectures with instructor feedback). I’d like to do Fiction Sales Copy, but I’m not in a position where I have the capacity for the emotional intensity required for a course beginning very soon.

I say emotional, because most of the learning here involves unlearning things I already thought I knew. That’s why I think these courses are the best possible value for your dollars, no matter the currency, compared to whatever university degree you’ve done in creative writing (which I did). Dean and Kris know not just what’s needed, but what isn’t, and what has to be unlearned. The standards they expect out of writers in terms of boldness, gumption and curiosity can feel unfair and scary to the writer who isn’t prepared to be humble or for an emotional wringer, but if you are, it’s well worth it.

If you can’t afford their courses even at a reduced price, both have loads of resources on their websites. They often write up business-related books as blog-posts first, and leave the blogs posted so you can find them for free. (I’m taking advantage of that for learning sales copy in lieu of doing a course, for now. Turns out this is one of those things writers think they don’t need when they really, really do.)

It’s the kind of week where I’m having trouble thinking of a pithy one-sentence blog-ender, so consider this the end. With my emphatic encouragement to keep learning.