The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Thursday, July 01, 2010

I need your help!

I Need Your Help!

It’s been almost twenty years since I created the original, bestselling Lifewriting course, and I’ve been working furiously on an update incorporating everything I’ve learned over the last decade. The new course will be called THE SEVEN SECRETS OF PROFESSIONAL WRITING.
But I need your help narrowing down the material, deciding what to include and exclude. If you would take five minutes and go to:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNMP677
and answer just ten multiple-choice questions, it will help me create the most valuable and dynamic course possible!

Thanks in advance!

Steve

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I received this email with my first name in the subject heading. At first I was surprised and excited to receive a personal email message from you, an author I've enjoyed and respected. Then I opened it and discovered it was a form letter, that used my first name in the subject as a cheap marketing ploy to get my attention. And then on here you can't even be bothered to remove the (FIRSTNAME)! from the blog post. I feel manipulated and embarrassed that I had been excited. :(

Marty S said...

I had my wife fill out this survey as she belongs to a woman's writing group and is working on her first novel. When she finished and clicked done a sign up form appeared. We clicked away from this form without filling in any info. I don't know whether you received her input or not. I think it would help if you clarified what a responder should expect and what they must do.

Anonymous said...

The signup form is only if you want to create your own surveys.

Steven Barnes said...

Anonymous:
is there something discourteous about arranging to address someone by their name? It is such a common practice that I find it odd you would react in such a way. Marketing? I wasn't trying to sell you anything. I was asking for assistance. Are you perhaps being a little overly sensitive?

Marty S said...

Steve: Nobody was accusing you of marketing. I was just saying that some people might be surprised and not know what to do about the form that comes up at the end so a comment like anonymous's might be helpful.

Reluctant Lawyer said...

I've got to laugh at this. I read the email, knew what I was in for, filled out the survey, and hoped that it would help you develop the course. Feeling "manipulated and embarrassed," I've got to laugh.

Off-topic post: I just started reading Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence. Amazing. Thanks for letting me know about this book. Should be required reading for anyone involved in martial arts.

Daniel Keys Moran said...

I answer to "Hey you", "baldie", "old man", "white boy", "yeah, YOU, motherfucker" ... nothing about "Firstname" struck me as disrespectful. But then, my low self-esteem has been a lifelong problem .... :-)

Some guy said...

Just another plug for Meditations on Violence. I read it a while back when you(or maybe it was Steve Perry?)recommended it and was also impressed. Seems like natural mental fodder for martial artists...

A. A. Scribe said...

Well, I filled out the survey. I hope it helps.

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