How To Think Sideways

- a writing career development course by Holly Lisle

My insights and progress on Think Sideways:

Genreflecting

Buffet in the Dark

Think Sideways Week 1

Go to:

Free Think Sideways Course Sample

Resources

Holly Lisle Profile

33 Mistakes Series

How To Think Sideways is an intensive course combining mentorship with coursework to build and develop your writing career into a sustainable, long-term vocation. You get to learn from Holly's mistakes (see some of the proposals that sold and the ones that didn't) and successes over her career, and take the steps you need towards publication.

I'm in the process of doing this course myself, so if you have any questions, please feel free to .

Download a sample of Think Sideways.

Sideways Thinking curriculum

Section 1: Ideas

Lesson 1
How to Break the Four "Thinking" Barriers that have stood in the way of your success in the past

Lesson 2
Discover your own "genre" that you can use wherever you choose to go in the publishing world

Lesson 3
How to Generate Ideas On a Deadline

Lesson 4
How to Recognize and Build On Good Ideas - figure out which ideas are worth writing, and learn how to improve your keepers.

Section 2: Project Planning

Lesson 5
How to Define Your Project's Needs

Lesson 6
How to Discover (or Create) Your Project's Market

Lesson 7
How to Develop Your Personal Project System

Lesson 8
How to Plan Your Project While NOT Killing Your Story

Section 3: First Chapters

Lesson 9
How to Write From Inside Your Story

Lesson 10
How to "Plan" Surprises that Surprise Even You

Lesson 11
How to Design Compelling Queries, Proposals, and Sample Chapters

Lesson 12 How to Create, Complicate, and Solve Problems

Section 4: Middles

Lesson 13
Maintaining your enthusiasm for your manuscript

Lesson 14
How to Find and Use Your "Planned" Surprises

Lesson 15
How to "Hire" Spies, and Why Your Project Needs Them

Lesson 16
How to Assess Your Progress and Make any Corrections before you go off track

Section 5: Endings

Lesson 17
How to Work With Editors, Agents, Marketing Departments, and Artists, and Not Wreck Your Project.

Lesson 18
How to Find the RIGHT Ending

Lesson 19
How to Bend Your Plan Without Breaking It

Lesson 20
How to Write the Ending That Sells the Next Book

Section 6: Wrap Up/Start Again

Lesson 21
How to Plan Your Revision

Lesson 22
How to keep the parts of the book that must be in there for it to be the book you wrote (and identify what needs to be fixed)

Lesson 23
How to Deliver What You Promised and What They Want On Deadline

Lesson 24
How to NOT Be a One-Book Wonder---Learn to Produce Repeatable Results

Lessons are delivered to your private student page once per week/fortnight (depending on the course duration you've chosen). You work at your own pace, there is no pressure to finish each lesson before the next arrives. They will always be available when you are ready.

In addition, you get:

A monthly video introducing you to the month's big concept

Weekly technique demos

A monthly checklist of all the steps you take to work your way through that portion of the system

A monthly Q&A where Holly answers the questions you've asked about the course on the board

Private workgroups of no more than 20 students, where you can (IF you choose---the workgroups are entirely optional) brainstorm with colleagues

And a private class discussion board where you can network and research

Also included:

A selection of Holly's proposals - both successful and unsuccessful, so that you can see what worked and what didn't. Learn directly from Holly's mistakes instead of repeating them yourself.

A selection of critiques Holly has received from either an editor or agent.

First drafts and final drafts of some of Holly's published books, including a brutal line-per-scene from one book.

A selection of Holly's worldbuilding and development notes, sketches, and maps, to give you a feel for the way things change as project development goes along.

Copies of some brainstorming sessions from Holly's notebooks.

Holly says, "...before I learned how to do this right and then spent 17 years doing that, I spent seven years learning an amazing number of ways to do the job wrong. I'll steer you around my many, many mistakes while getting you to the system, techniques, and processes that work."

I've been floundering myself for 13 years, so this statement hit home for me.

Skip the waiting list

Registration through the "front door" is limited to 200 students during the window of registration.

This is a special offer for HearWriteNow readers, enabling you to sign up for the course at any time, whether or not 200 students have signed up ahead of you.

Instructions for skipping the waiting list