Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 53

What Does A Writing Coach Do?

If you are struggling with your writing, a writing coach could be the answer. Those who are finding it difficult to find motivation, feeling frustrated because they’ve got to a particular obstacle that they can’t get over, being able to talk it through with a professional can give you new insight and inspiration to get right back on track. 

A writing coach won’t necessarily edit your work; they won’t write your book for you either. Instead, they guide you, encourage you, and make suggestions to help you continue your writing journey feeling more assured and confident and focused. 

However, if you do decide to hire a writing coach, it’s essential to pick one that’s best suited to you. Do your research, ask questions and look at for reviews from trusted sources so you know that you are hiring a professional who is reliable and proven to have helped other writers in the past. 

A good writing coach will seek to understand where you are in the writing process and precisely what problems you are facing that are holding you back from accomplishing your writing goals. They’ll help you with goal setting and planning, doing research, creating an outline, and even in the editorial process too.

They should help ensure that your plot is clear and compelling, that you have identified and worked themes into your novel. They’ll help you create an engaging narrative and that your tone is suitable for the intended audience.

A writing coach should be well informed in the industry, and have useful contacts. They should be able to help you sell your book and create a robust plan to sell as many copies as possible.

Hiring a professional writing coach can also help to hone in on your specific unique experiences and areas of expertise, and help to challenge you to bring out that knowledge, to be more creative, and to tailor your prose effectively. They’ll help you discover the real core of your story, and what your messages are, your purpose as well as define what you want to achieve.

If you are finding motivation is an issue, your writing coach helps you focus, simultaneously providing an objective perspective, that is constructive and encouraging. Think of your writing coach like a school tutor or your personal trainer. Your relationship should be massively beneficial to you and help ensure that you take significant strides towards completing your project just the way you want to.

A good writing coach will have numerous attributes, including:

A clear communication style

A mastery of proofreading strategies

An understanding of how to give constructive feedback

The ability to empower you to write your best

So if you are struggling and think a writing coach is for you, start your research today, it could be the beginning of a wonderful and productive relationship. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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Why Our First Drafts Are So Important

We’ve all heard that alleged quote from Earnest Hemingway that goes, “the first draft of anything is sh*t.” While it’s a kind of tongue-in-cheek, emphasizing that even the most celebrated writers won’t write their best work first time, it is essential to remember how vital first drafts are. 

Dismissing them as rubbish can be dangerous. Your first draft isn’t unless. It teaches you an incredible amount and is that basis from where truly inspiring, exciting works of writing can grow. It’s true that the more we tell ourselves something, the more we’ll believe it. So continuing to ingrain the “your first draft will suck” mentality into every impressionable young writer’s skull is arguably no longer the best way forward.

Writing a book is incredibly difficult, and the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into making one are substantial. By continuing to buy into the negativity surrounding first drafts, we could be doing ourselves and other writers a massive disservice. 

Think about it this way; if we keep telling ourselves something we are investing lots of time into and making lots of sacrifices for will inevitably turn out to be rubbish, we start to devalue it. Doing so will have a knock-on effect in terms of our motivation, our dedication, and even our effort. If there is nothing we can do to escape the inevitability of a useless first draft, why bother trying very hard in the first place? 

Yes, your first draft might not be perfect, but it doesn’t mean there are not parts of it that are good, great even, and that contains a critical building block from which you can move forward. Lots of writers throw their first drafts straight into the trash, and this could well be a mistake. Giving yourself distance and perspective, even if you think your first draft is awful, can mean you come back to it with a fresh set of eyes, and find those little glimmers of brilliance that are worth holding onto. 

Telling ourselves our first drafts are worthless over and over again becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we believe it, the less likely that first draft will be ay good, and even if it is, we might not be able to see it. Words such as useless, worthless, and yes, even “sh*t” hold very little helpful emotional value. In fact, when used repeatedly, it’s no wonder they knock our confidence and ability to believe in ourselves as writers. 

Think about it this way. Your first draft is the most important thing you’ll ever write.

A house can’t be built without foundation, and that’s exactly what a first draft is. It’s the structure, the bricks, and mortar. It might be just a shell - an outline that you can come back to and decorate the hell out of later, but without it, you’ve got nothing at all. 

The first draft is the very start of your journey, it’s unique and special, and the sooner you get into that state of mind, the more energy and focus you’ll have to write the best version of it you possibly can! So while no one can ever doubt that Hemingway was a genius writer himself, perhaps this quote from Michael Lee is one that we should consider with higher regard: “The first draft reveals the art, revision reveals the artist.”

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start writing that first draft, it’s the most important thing you can do.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How To Hone Your Writing Talent

Having raw writing talent is one thing, but how do you hone that talent? How do you refine it and shape it so that you continuously produce quality work?

For many writers, they started because someone recognized that they had raw writing talent. They wrote a short story or a few blog posts, perhaps, shared them with friends and family and received positive feedback. They found that tingle of excitement when they had a new idea and began to scribble it down. 

But when you come to write something longer perhaps, or when you submit your ideas to literary agents or to professional writing forums, all that bubbling enthusiasm comes quickly grinding to a halt. You may be told your thoughts are interesting but that your work needs, well, more work, and this can be a bit of a wakeup call to those who thought that raw talent alone could see them through.

It’s important for all writers to understand that no matter how talented they are if they aren’t prepared to put the work in, they will find it very hard to succeed. Just as an athlete or musician needs to practice to stay on top of their game, writers need to learn how to hone their talent and the ability to take criticism and learn from their mistakes. 

So what are some practical ways that writers can start to refine their talent?

Read 

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, writers who are serious about writing will read. It would help if you always had a book on the go, and a stack of books on your ‘to read’ pile, so you are never without another book to pick up. The more you read, the more you will understand what makes great stories great. It is, without a doubt, the best thing you can do for your writing career.

Write

The next best thing you can do is write. The more you write, the more you are practicing, and the better you will get. It’s simple but accurate. Even if you aren’t practicing a specific technique or experimenting with a new form of writing, you’ll still naturally learn and improve as you go. So stop talking about your dream of being a writer and actually go out and be one. 

Take feedback

Honest feedback can feel pretty brutal, but the sooner you learn how to take it and what to do with it, the better. Your ego will be bruised, and you’ll feel like someone is jamming salt into your wounds, but just go with it, get over it and listen to what other people have to say. If someone is tearing your work apart, don’t get offended, don’t cry, don’t swear you’ll never write another word again, just get your nose back to the grindstone and keep trying. The likelihood is that even if an editor or agent accepts your writing, be that an article, short story, or novel, you’ll be heavily edited and expected to draft and redraft and take their advice until it’s perfect. If you can grow a thick skin and learn to view this feedback as an opportunity to learn and grow and accept that you’ve always got more to learn, you’ll do well. 

By keeping the above in mind, you can take your raw writing talent and use it to create consistently brilliant work. There’s nothing that can stop you now!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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So You’ve Self-Published Your Novel – What’s Next?

Self-publishing your novel is an exciting time. However, you won't have long to celebrate as there is still so much work to do!

For many authors, the process after writing a book is actually more challenging than the writing process itself. Writing, after all, is your passion, and creating the book, though challenging, is something you will have loved to do. Promoting your novel, however, is where many authors feel uncomfortable and out of their depth. But if you don't do it, you can't expect much success.

So now that your novel is out there and available for the whole world to see, what do you need to do next? The self-publishing world is highly competitive, so having a plan is essential. Here are some useful tips.

Keep building your platform.

Hopefully, you have already started gathering fans and using your author website and social media platforms to build interest and a following. Once you have self-published your novel, you need to ramp this up a lot. All the energy and time that was once taken up with crafting, drafting, and editing your story now needs to pour into building your platform and making sure that you generate as much interest as possible in your novel. Use social media to promote your book and engage with readers, post blogs and updates on your author site. Guest post for more visibility, join relevant groups and conversations, and build your email list.

Gather book reviews and expose your novel to relevant audiences.

Getting people to find your book is so important. You need to network, check out genre websites, find your fans, and reach out to as many people as possible who you think might be interested in your book. Try to get press coverage, talk to local libraries, set up readings. Do whatever you can to boost your visibility. When it comes to reviews, you should try to get as many positive ones as possible. Why you want to gather these on Amazon and Goodreads is obvious -the more you have, the more likely it is that people who have found your book will decide to buy it. However, it's also worth contacting bloggers and relevant publications to gain a variety of reviews from different sources, all of which will build your reputation and increase the likelihood of people buying your book.

Invest in promotion

Taking the time to rollout a well thought out promo plan is well worth it. Not only should you spend time creating a smart strategy, you should also be willing to have a budget for marketing your book. You don't need thousands of pounds, but the more you have, the easier it will be to run slick promotional campaigns and target the kind of people who might be interested in what you are offering.

By following the above, you can give your self-published novel the best chance of reaching interested, engaged readers, and motivating them to buy your book. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

The post So You’ve Self-Published Your Novel – What’s Next? appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

The Best Advice For Younger Writers

Lots of young people have amazing ideas for stories and aspire to be writers when they are older. In fact, many famous authors started their books when they were younger and, over time, developed their plot and reworked initial drafts to make them the successful works they are today.

However, it's important for young writers, however full of energy and enthusiasm they may be, to understand what it takes to finish a novel and that it is only through hard work and dedication that they'll succeed.

So if you are a young writer, the following tips may help you:

Read as much as possible

Reading is vital for any writer, and when you are younger you should try to devour as many books as possible. Read widely, read everything you can lay your hands on. Read classic literature, contemporary masterpieces, genre-based fiction, even books you think you might not like!

Be inspired by everything!

There are so many ways to find inspiration as a writer, and the more you open your eyes and ears to what's going on around you, the more inspired you'll feel. Observing the world around you is a skill, and the more you train yourself to be alert, the more likely you'll notice those interesting little details about people, places, and things that will make your stories stand out.

Be open to criticism

The ability to accept criticism and feedback can make all the difference to your writing, so the sooner you open yourself up to this, the better. If you can learn how to get feedback now, you'll find it so much easier later in life, which will serve you well too.

Use your education wisely

Your education is invaluable, and paying attention in class can help give you a solid base to go on to write great things. All subjects have their value, but English and history can be particularly helpful for writers, so make sure you absorb as much as you can.

Write as much as possible

The more you write, the better you'll get at it, and if you can get into a great writing routine now, you'll find it so much easier when you have to juggle all the pressures and responsibilities of adult life at the same time!

Live your life

Travel, go out with your friends, get in trouble, learn from your mistakes, be adventurous, get hobbies, try new things. The more adventures you have now, the more material you'll have later!

The above tips can help young writers set out on the right path, learn about discipline, and have lots of interesting and exciting experiences that will help them be

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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A Big Idea: What Every Children’s Book Needs

When it comes to creating a great story, writers know that the whole plot needs one big idea that all the action revolves around. Never has this been truer when trying to write a children's book.

Children have shorter attention spans and wilder imaginations than your usual grownup reader. This means that if you want to engage them and keep them interested, your book idea needs to be significant.

A book is meant to last forever, to be timeless, and something that can be passed through the generations and still enjoyed. The best children's stories have stood the test of time and are retold time and time again. While there may be new stories that come and go, the classics are being shared, reworked, made into animations, and so on. Think about how many children's novels have been tweaked for a contemporary audience? The Jungle Book? Alice in Wonderland? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Rapunzel?

These stories are successful because they have big ideas, ones that are carefully woven together to tell tales of adventure, packed with emotion with big life lessons to learn.

So how can you ensure that your idea will work? Ask yourself the following questions:

Does your idea have lasting qualities?

Does your idea contain big emotions?

Does your idea tell essential life lessons and have moral elements?

Is your idea packed with action and adventure?

Is your protagonist someone that children will adore?

The characters in a children's book all need to be relatable but also have certain qualities that make them exciting. The should be magical, brave, and have to overcome obstacles to achieve their goals.

If you ask yourself the above questions and you feel that your story doesn't quite hit the mark, you can use them as guidance to try to adapt your idea to make it bigger. Perhaps you need to figure out how to include life lessons or vital teachings that children need to learn; perhaps you need to inject some drama and make the story more emotional. If there isn't enough action to keep little readers engaged, rework your plot so there is more at stake, and the journey the protagonist must go on is full of twists and turns and lots of energy.

Writing a successful children's story can be tough. But by focusing on first perfecting your big idea, you'll know that you are starting with something worth exploring. Good luck!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How To Ensure Your Plot Is Intriguing

If you want to ensure that your book is a success, you need to understand what it is that keeps readers turning those pages. If you can get into the mindset of your reader and understand what will make your plot exciting and intriguing to them, you could be onto a winner.

A plot has many different elements. It's all about how your story unfolds, its twists and turns, its significant events and dramatic scenes, its hints at what's to come, its reflection on what has been. 

In short, a compelling plot is essential. So what can you do to ensure that yours is captivating? Read on to discover some useful tips.

Elaborate on your central ideas

To understand the difference between story and plot can be challenging. The story is like the bones of a person, and the plot is the flesh, blood, nerves veins. The story has lots of interconnecting parts that influence others; some play a more minor, and some a more major role. To help ensure your plot is intriguing, make sure that you make it as complicated and detailed and smart as the human body. Don't just write out the bare bones of your story, elaborate, make it come to life. 

Focus on suspense

A plot without any suspense or dramatic tension will be predictable and boring. Your readers need to feel suspenseful when reading your book; this will make them want to know what happens, enable them to react emotionally, and ensure that they aren't able to anticipate how the plot unfolds. If a reader second-guesses everything that happens, they won't enjoy your book as much as if you can surprise and delight them. Consider the different ways you can inject suspense into your novel - through secrets, unexpected arrivals, forbidden romances as so on. Your book doesn't have to be a suspense novel to use this device, and every good story will ensure that readers are full of anticipation and build up the suspense as they go. 

Double back to go forwards

If you want to engage your readers, it is a good idea to ensure that they understand the earlier events that have caused the protagonist and other characters to be where they are now. Backstory can help add depth to the story and characters, and you can do this by showing the origins of a character's earlier life or revealing past events that help the reader understand that things are not all that they seem.

Hint at what's to come

To make your plot more intriguing, you need to include various hints that forecast what will happen later. These little teasers will build anticipation, which is so important. You can do this by raising the stakes and hinting at what will happen if the protagonist fails, leaving a trail of clues that lead to a shock twist, or playing with the reader's emotions, by giving characters subtle traits that leave your readers feeling that they are not quite as they seem.

These are just some of the ways you can add interest to your plot. There are so many ways to connect your plot lines, to shake it up, and to add more energy and excitement to your story, and by following the above, you can ensure that your plot remains intriguing and carries the reader right to the very last page. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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How To Write With More Purpose

When it comes to writing purposefully, many writers struggle. Writing without purpose can mean writers aren’t as effective or productive as they’d like, and this can quickly feel tiresome and frustrating. They fall behind their writing schedule, their motivation flags, and they may even consider giving up altogether.

Writing with purpose means you write with determination, energy, and a clear goal in mind. So how can you write with more purpose and be as efficient as possible when you sit down to write?

Be organized with plotting and research.

You will find it much easier to use your writing time wisely if you have bothered to research and organize your thoughts and craft a plot before you begin. So take the time to get these frameworks in place first, and you’ll find it much easier to be purposeful when your writing sessions start.

Keep your outline flexible.

It’s also essential to ensure your plot and outlines aren’t so rigid that there is no room for change. A novel should be something fluid, that evolves. By keeping flexible, you naturally keep an open mind and allow your book to grow in a more authentic and exciting way.

Write down the purpose of each scene.

To ensure that your writing always has a purpose and that you’ve made every word count, write down a sentence or two describing the goal of every single scene in your novel before you begin writing it. This way, you can clearly see what the point is, and won’t include any action that doesn’t move your story forward.

Identify themes in your novel and ensure these remain consistent.

Your novel should have an overarching theme or themes, and these should be carried through the story from beginning to end if you want it to be most effective. Write down your ideas and be clear on what they are. As you write and revise your novel, make sure that you keep these themes in mind and that they are interwoven in your book in an intelligent way. 

Use tone and mood to be more purposeful.

Tone and mood make it easier for the reader to understand what kind of story they are reading. If you are writing a comic novel, use the tone and mood to demonstrate this from the outset, so the novel’s purpose (to make the reader laugh) is evident. If you are writing something scary or sinister, again, tone and mood can be used to effectively convey the purpose, which in this case would be to make the reader feel scared or tense. 

By using the above tips, you can make sure that when you sit down to work on your story, you do so with clarity and purpose, and this will translate onto the page and make your writing more effective as a result.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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Interesting Ways To Spark Your Imagination

One thing that's very important to all writers is the ability to be creative. However, sometimes when we are trying to think of new ideas for our stories, or just want to think imaginatively about where our novel might go next, we get stuck.

It's difficult to be imaginative 24/7, but if we want to stick to our writing schedules, we do have to be able to switch this on when we sit down to write. It can feel very frustrating when our creativity seems to dry up, and we find it hard to imagine what our characters are going to say and do next.

So what are some prompts that can help us spark our creativity and make it easier for us to write whenever and wherever we are? Here are some helpful tips:

Ask, what's happening right now? If you can ask the simple question 'what's going on?', you naturally start to pay better attention to your surroundings. Opening your eyes and ears to everything that's happening around you allows you to absorb more, but also to see the little details that make life so exciting and interesting. Writers need to be curious, and the more you ask yourself this question, the more interested you will become, and the more you will notice as a result. 

Think what if…

It can be challenging to widen our empathy and understanding outside of our own experience. However, truly great writers are able to really understand what it would feel like to be in any given situation. Unless you only draw precisely from your own perspective, you need to be able to think 'what if…' What if it were you who lost your job/ found magic beans/ left someone at the altar/ discovered a portal to another world at the back of your closet? By being able to step into other people's shoes and view the world as they see it, you will be able to imagine more easily what kinds of thoughts and feelings they'll be having. This will ensure your writing becomes more authentic and relatable as a result. 

Play out conversations

Another useful way to spark your imagination is to have conversations in your head. If you are able to imagine how any particular discussion might go, and how the other person might react to what you say, you'll find it easier to write compelling and meaningful dialogue that sounds natural. 

Write to someone who influences you

Do you have a muse? Someone who has influenced and inspired much of your work? When you are finding it hard to use your imagination, why not write them a letter? Having a specific person in your mind's eye when you start writing can help you address them directly and give you clarity of thought. You'll adopt a particular tone and try to convey your thoughts and ideas in a way that the recipient would appreciate. This is what you need to do for your readers, so practicing can help you find a more natural way to do so when you need to progress your story. 

Don't reject ideas because you aren't sure where to go with them

Sometimes ideas take a little while to develop, so just because you can't expand on them right now, you shouldn't reject them entirely. Set ideas aside and revisit them often. You might find it just takes a little time and headspace before that idea you were struggling with becomes easy to work on, and suddenly you have something inspiring to develop!

By using the above, you can help to spark your imagination when you are struggling. What do you do to stay creative? Let us know in the comments below!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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5 Tips To Help Write Your First Draft

Writing the first draft of your novel is exciting, but it can also feel pretty daunting. The unfortunate truth is that most people who attempt to write a novel never manage to get it finished. However, you can give yourself a much better chance of success if you prepare yourself properly.

If you need some help writing your first draft, here are some useful tips to follow:

Find your comfort zone

In order to write well, you need to find the best methods to suit your style. Some writers are incredibly specific about the way they write and follow processes methodically and carefully to ensure that they continue to produce consistent work. Other writers prefer to be more carefree. It is, however, a good idea to try to experiment with different writing methods and processes to better understand yourself as a writer, and what makes you feel most at ease - this will help you in the long run. You might wish to consider where you like to write when you like to write, whether you enjoy editing as you go and so on. 

Be creative when it comes to idea generation

Don’t hold back on your creativity or imagination at this early stage, and don’t block yourself or allow your self-concern to get in the way of your creative expression. You should adopt a mentality of ‘no idea is a bad idea’ and 

Be realistic with your expectations

Writing a book is tough, and you will suffer setbacks and there will be days where you really, truly can’t be bothered to write. You have to be realistic with yourself, expect and make room for changes and delays and days where you hat your writing, but have the perseverance and determination to keep going regardless. 

Draft with purpose

Have a focus to your first draft to help make the process easier. You aren’t going to get everything right in your first draft, far from it. However, what you can hope for if you focus on particular aspects of your book is to come out with something of value at the end. Anything from getting one particular character's story arc pinpointed to feeling confident about your setting can mean your work hasn’t all been in vain.

Allow mistakes

Your first draft will not be your best work, so don’t painstakingly try to make it do. Remember, getting it written is better than getting it right, so focus on getting the story out and on paper, and you can refine and amend and delete later.

Get feedback as soon as you’re able

Useful, constructive feedback from people whose opinion you respect and admire can be absolutely invaluable to the novel-writing process. Writing genius Stephen King recommends you do this sooner rather than later. So when you can bear to face it, make sure you seek someone else’s opinion, you’re sure to be glad that you did.

By following these tips you can feel confident and assured that you will get that first draft of your novel finished - and this is no mean feat. Use the above to guide you and you’ll get that initial draft completed in no time and once you’ve done that, you are so much more likely to end up with a finished novel that you’re proud of!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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