Beth Barany's Blog, page 16
September 16, 2024
Dealing with Perfectionism, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, part 3
“If you are having fun and you’re playing and you’re experimenting, it is all gonna feed into what you’re doing.” – Melissa Dinwiddie
In this How To Write the Future episode, “Dealing with Perfectionism, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, part 3” podcast host Beth Barany wraps up her interview with former professional artist and trained improviser, Melissa Dinwiddie, where they discuss the importance of setting “ridiculously achievable” goals to help you succeed in your creative practice and how to find a supportive writing environment.
Listen to parts 1 and 2 of the interview where Melissa shares her journey about how she became an artist and where together Beth and Melissa demonstrate a two-person game you can play to loosen up and get creative.
Platforms The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify | Podcast Addict | Amazon Music | Youtube
RESOURCESPart 1 – Bring Improv to Your Life, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, Part 1
Part 2 – Let’s Play A Game, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, Part 2
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/2024/09/09/lets-play-a-game-interview-with-melissa-dinwiddie-part-2/
Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/
Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/
Get support for your fiction writing from a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/
About Melissa Dinwiddie
A former professional artist and trained improviser and jazz singer, Melissa Dinwiddie helps senior tech leaders increase their influence and reduce conflict by helping their teams communicate and connect better so their work has impact across the organization, all through her F.U.N. Method
. She designs interactive, playful programs that attendees rave about because they acquire new skills and behaviors and build connections while having a blast. Her book, The Creative Sandbox Way, has been called “essential for the bookshelf,” “the owner’s guide for the caring and feeding of the creative spirit,” and “an adventure packaged as a book.”
https://creativesandbox.solutions/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_creative_life/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadinwiddie/
Ready to harness the power of improv to take your leaders and HiPo’s to the next level? Evaluate where your team stands with Melissa’s Leadership Assessment Tool [image error]https://bit.ly/LeadershipAssessmentTool
About the How To Write the Future podcastThe *How To Write The Future* podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.
This podcast is for you if you have questions like:
– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?
– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?
– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?
This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.
Transcript for episode 118 Dealing with Perfectionism, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, part 3I’m your host, Beth Barany. I am an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, writing teacher, creativity coach, and I run this podcast because I believe with science fiction and fantasy stories, we can reshape the world. And my focus is on positive, optimistic stories because what we vision, what we actually envision in our stories, we can help make so in the world.
BETH BARANY: Welcome back to my conversation with Melissa Dinwiddie. If you miss parts one and two, please go back and take a listen.
[00:00:33] Relate creativity to to how to write the futureBETH BARANY: So how can we relate some of these tools or what you’ve said and shared about being improvisational, about playing with groups, about doing experiments? How can we bring that to writers who want to play with writing positive, optimistic futures? Or explore with new ways of being human, essentially is what we’re trying to do?
And how do we orient our stories in a way that opens up new ways of thinking and new ways of being?
That’s what I’m exploring in my work, and I know others listening want that too.
So whether it’s Thrutopia or Solar Punk or Hope Punk or however, all the new names, where it’s not a dystopia; it’s not a utopia, but we’re writing stories that try to describe the changes of humanity or that maybe the changes already happened and we’re maybe including somehow it came to be, or dropping hints here and there.
Star Trek didn’t talk about how it became that kind of world, but they did drop little hints here and there, and then they related to each other a little differently than other societies.
BETH BARANY: Anyway, all that to say, I am curious what we can take from our discussion today and apply it to writers who are exploring basically the edges and bringing in more hope and bringing more optimism into the worlds they’re creating.
[00:01:43] The Space of CreativityMELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah. I love what you were just sharing about the practices that you have, Beth?
BETH BARANY: Yeah.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: To playing with your writing.
BETH BARANY: Yeah.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Playing with your husband, with words and Hello Kitty and playing with your writing.
And I think that the more playful that we can be. Oh my God, look at you.
I’m looking over at the poster I have on my wall of my Creative Sandbox guideposts. Number Six is Ask What If. And you know that’s my favorite place to be as. As just as a human, that’s the space of creativity.
“Gee, what would happen? What if, what if we did this? What if we did that? What if we turned right instead of turning left?”
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I actually use that in keynotes is: what if my character turned right instead of turning left? So anytime you get into a place in your writing where there’s an opportunity for a character to go through this sliding door instead of that sliding door or whatever. Play with that. And see what would happen.
You have opportunities to write innumerable crappy first drafts, right?
So just take a little wandering exploration and play with that and see what happens.
And write a little backstory or whatever. And it may never get used in the final draft, but it doesn’t matter because you’re playing, you’re experimenting. And nothing is wasted in the creative process.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: So if you are having fun and you’re playing and you’re experimenting, it is all gonna feed into what you’re doing.
[00:03:13] Nothing is WastedBETH BARANY: I love that you say nothing is wasted. One of my students asked me that today. They said, if I write something and I never show it with anyone, is that okay?
’cause he’s very oriented toward like production and be in the world with his work. And he is a young writer. He is in his mid twenties.
And so I’m like, yeah, it absolutely is not lost. You’re writing what you wanna say, you’re experimenting with your own voice. You’re saying it because you need to say it.
Nothing is wasted.
It feels like maybe it’s because of the social media world or something that people have this misconception that everything created has to perform a function out in the world.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah.
BETH BARANY: And it can get in the way of just learning how to put your true thoughts and feelings on the page, which is itself its own exercise, and it needs to be done in a very private space.
So I just said, this is your walled garden. This is your place for you, and that’s okay. And he was relieved, but he was also: oh, like what a new concept because he’s been so outward focused. The degree and finish school and you know what other people want and need because that is actually a bit easier, right? To answer the call from somebody else.
That actually could be where the edge is, where it’s the riskiest place where you’re actually showing up for yourself in a way that, I don’t know, society doesn’t really–. There’s no dialogue around that. People aren’t talking about that, but that’s so important– what happens in the privacy of your own heart.
[00:04:39] Important to have bothMELISSA DINWIDDIE: I have so many thoughts and feelings about that because I feel like it is so important to have that walled garden and it is also important for creatives, for creators to share our work. It’s important to have both.
We have to have that safety of being able to create something where we don’t have to worry about judgment from other people, because Lord knows we have enough judgment from those gremlins at our head. And we have to learn how to dance with that because it is just so important that we have the eye of the wise editor who can help us see with, like taking off the gremlin glasses and putting on the glasses that we can see with wisdom to, to understand.
We have to look with taste to be able to edit and refine and improve on our work. We have to be able to do that. We have to have that editorial voice or perspective.
Yeah.
And also, we have to be able to create freely so that the editor doesn’t shut us down from creating.
Now, when I was a working artist, when I was a professional artist, everything that I made was very planned and plotted and meticulously designed in advance, sketched out to the nth degree.
And then I would execute it separately from the original, designing it out very meticulously and carefully. There was very little room for improvisation. Very tiny little room for improvisation. And it was stifling.
And now the way that I work is almost as a, as an artist, the work that I make, artistically is purely for my own joy.
People can buy my work, but I don’t take art directed commissions. Let’s put it that way. You can commission me to do something, but no, I don’t take art direction and everything I do is almost a hundred percent, not entirely a hundred percent, but almost a hundred percent. I do some. I draw people and stuff like that, but most of the work that I do, like visual art, is abstract. And improvisational.
I write songs and some of the songs that I write are improvisational, but the songs, those are very crafted and puzzled out and everything.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: But the visual art is almost entirely improvisational, and that is intentional because I had to heal myself from being so burned out from the, like over perfectionism and everything.
[00:07:25] The power of sharing your workMELISSA DINWIDDIE: And and I know some people are so afraid of sharing their work that they go the other direction and never share anything.
I made a decision years ago to share everything that I was creating, like whatever I was creating in-process.
“I think this is a piece of crap, but I’m gonna share the in-process stuff. Just gonna snap a picture and put it on Instagram.”
Not with the intention of getting, this frozen need for validation, but because it’s a practice of:
“I’m putting my work out there and I’m letting it go.”
For me that was really a game changer because I was able to let it go, I then noticed that strangers were clicking the Like button. And it enabled me to take off my gremlin glasses and put on their neutral glasses and see my work through their eyes and see that if somebody else can value the work that I thought was a piece of crap, then there must be value in that work. And it enabled me to have a different perspective for it.
However, if I had put the work out there with the need for validation, then putting it out there would not have been helpful at all. So it’s a mindset thing.
BETH BARANY: Yeah, I love that. I love that. I’ve met writers who are stalled out on their work because they’ve never shared it with anyone. They haven’t heard other points of view, and they don’t know what’s working and what’s not working. And then they wonder why they’re not able to move forward.
And so there’s an art there in learning how to find a safe space to get feedback on their work. And then some people share their work and then wonder why they get negative feedback and don’t realize that they’re actually sharing it, like you said, for validation when that crowd over there is actually not very trustworthy to be giving you the kind of supportive feedback you want.
[00:09:20] How to find a supportive writing environmentBETH BARANY: So it’s an interesting dance. I know with writers, I encourage folks to write out what they really need in a supportive writing environment. And then just hold the line and ask for that and talk to people that you resonate with or get advice. ’cause there are a lot of resources out there on where to get feedback.
From editors that you pay, or a group mentorship program like mine, or peer groups that are free that involve exchange.
And when they’re young, I notice writers don’t realize that they might be walking into a hornet’s nest.
Yeah.
And that a lot of people seem to think it’s okay to be negative to writers and make it personal. And a lot of people dunno how to give appropriate feedback. I had to learn. We all had to learn. And a lot of us don’t grow up in households where feedback is done in a very nice way. And so we know how to do the very critical pointed owie kind of feedback. And children just pick it up.
I was very lucky in my first critique group where I learned later on, like they’re using, I think it was called the Amherst style or something. It would always be very supportive, like:
Oh, I really like this, and over here, you’re missing this part in your writing.
It was always the narrator or the protagonist. It was never you, the writer. It was never pointed at the writer. It was always pointed at the writing and it was always supportive. It was always like: “Oh, this is working and you’re missing this part.”
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah.
BETH BARANY: It was like: “Oh, I didn’t know I needed to have that part. Good to know. Something to learn.
[00:10:41] Creating a culture of safetyBETH BARANY: And so as we wrap up for today– when you go into running events in the corporate environment, how do you create a culture of safety, where it’s safe to play and it’s safe to explore and be in the unknown?
How do you set that up?
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah, it is such a big question. So the first thing that I do, I have to have buy-in from my point of contact, the manager, the director, whoever is setting the whole thing up. And we have to have a really clear communication around that.
And the communication that I have before I meet the team, the email correspondence that I have with them– I send communication with them via email. I send them a video. So they start to get to know me a little bit that way. I set up what the expectations are, if it’s gonna be like on Zoom or something.
Then I establish with the manager, the director, what the expectations are in terms of cameras on, that kind of thing. That really makes a big difference. And then I scaffold my sessions so that I’m not expecting people to suddenly get really vulnerable and disclose all sorts of personal things right off the bat.
I start off with connection activities that don’t require a lot of vulnerability, but invite connection and get people gradually connecting with each other in ways that invite them to open up slowly.
So that they feel safe in the amount that they’re invited to connect and open up with each other. So that by the time they’re invited to be a little bit more vulnerable. It doesn’t feel like it’s something that they’re having to dive into the deep end of a pool without learning how to swim. So it’s a very gradual stepping up and stepping up, that I put a lot of thought into as I design my sessions. Yeah.
[00:12:41] 5 MinutesBETH BARANY: I love that. And I think it’s a great takeaway for anybody, listening, watching is: you don’t need to sit down and write your novel today. All you need to do is set your timer for five minutes, and if you’ve never written before, just write for five minutes what’s in your heart, and just make it very contained, easy, safe, fun.
And then gradually the next day add in a few more minutes until you’re now writing maybe 20 minutes at a time. And I really encourage folks to be hungry for more. Leave the session saying: Oh, maybe tomorrow I could do a little bit more. Oh, that was really fun. Oh, tomorrow maybe we can build on that.
And I even do that. When I have had a break and I break a lot. Like just recently I was sick, so I just did the first writing session was 10 minutes. ’cause that felt doable. The next writing session was 20 minutes and after that I’m like, okay, got it. I’m back in the groove. I love 20 minutes. That’s my favorite.
So I love how you scaffold that. And it’s something people can take into their own creative work as well: is today is a small, and tomorrow we add a little bit more, and every day it’s doable, and every day it’s fun and it’s easy and it opens them up just a little bit.
We’re not running a marathon today. Today is just walk around the block.
[00:13:48] Ridiculously achievableMELISSA DINWIDDIE: I love that. Yeah.
When I think about my commitment to my creative practice or any kind of practice, whatever it is, I like to think in terms of ridiculously achievable. So because, and I know different people have different philosophies about this, but I feel like if it’s too much of a stretch, then I end up not achieving it, and I feel like a failure.
And I feel like it’s like a pole vaulting bar that I’m expecting myself to leap over without a running start and without a pole. But if I can make it ridiculously achievable that I can’t fail, like I can’t not succeed at it. It’s like taking that bar all the way down to the ground so I can just go B and I can just like hop right over it.
So you know whether that’s 20 minutes or 10 minutes or two minutes, whatever it is that makes it so easy that I want to do it, and it feels really like yummy and juicy and good and fun. That’s what we want.
BETH BARANY: Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. I love how you’re bringing this into the corporate environment that really I believe needs it.
[00:14:57] Thank you, MelissaBETH BARANY: And, I wanna just say thank you so much, Melissa, for being here today. I feel like we could go on and on. And do more exercises and that would be so much fun. So thank you. Thank you so much for being here. And if people wanna check you out, check out your work, where can they go?
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: My business website is Creative sandbox.solutions. You can find me there and you can find me on LinkedIn, Melissa Dinwiddie on LinkedIn, and I’m also at melissadinwiddie.com. And you can find me on Instagram. My handle there is at A underscore CreativeLife.
BETH BARANY: Great. Perfect. And we’ll definitely be linking to all of that in our show description, in the notes for everyone to follow you. So thank you so much again for being a guest at How to Write the Future podcast, and I look forward to the next conversation. I would love to have you back and do another conversation with you about all these wonderful ideas and talk more about creativity and the future and all that good stuff.
MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Thank you so much, Beth. I’d be happy to come back anytime. This was so fun.
BETH BARANY: Oh good. Thanks.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode with Melissa Dinwiddie and be sure to check out parts one and two. And be sure to follow Melissa and check out her links.
That’s it for this week for How To Write The Future podcast. Write long and prosper.
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.
ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:
Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog
CONNECTContact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bethbarany/
TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@bethbarany/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/bethbarany
X: https://twitter.com/BethBarany
CREDITS EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW CO-PRODUCTION + SHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDadeC 2024 BETH BARANY
For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.
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The post Dealing with Perfectionism, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, part 3 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
September 11, 2024
Beth Barany Interviewed on Kirsten McNeill’s Worthy Writer’s Podcast
Kirsten McNeill interviewed me for her podcast “Worthy Writer’s Podcast.” We talked using neurolinguistic programming for writing and more!
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I was interviewed by Kirsten McNeill for her podcast “Worthy Writer’s Podcast.”
We talk about our choices to be self-employed and how that affects our creative process, the creation of ideas.
And here we went in depth, using neurolinguistic programming for writing.
Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a topic that is dear to my heart and I was excited to talk about it with Kirsten!
Check it out! I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.Click on the player or the link below that.
https://worthywriters.ca/creativity-nlp-inner-writing-life-with-beth-barany/
About Kirsten McNeillKirsten is a confidence coach and book editor. She loves supporting writers as they empower themselves to create their writing lifestyle that fills them with passion and unrelenting confidence. She believes that you are worthy of your desired journey.
About Beth BaranyBeth Barany is an award-winning novelist, master neurolinguistic programming practitioner, and certified creativity coach for writers. She’s also an experienced international speaker and podcaster.
Beth specializes in helping writers experience clarity, so they can write, revise, and proudly publish their novels to the delight of their readers. Her courses are packed with useful hands-on information that you can implement right away. She runs a 12-month group coaching program to help science fiction and fantasy writers edit their manuscripts and get published. She also offers bespoke one-on-one coaching and consulting programs for science fiction and fantasy authors and other adventurous thinkers.
*Learn more visit: bethbarany.com or follow Beth on Instagram!
*Access Beth’s free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers.
The post Beth Barany Interviewed on Kirsten McNeill’s Worthy Writer’s Podcast appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
January 6, 2023
Be Nice to Your Future Self – Write Today by Catharine Bramkamp
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “Be Nice to Your Future Self – Write Today.” Enjoy!
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You know who you are. You are the person standing before a sink full of dirty dishes because someone last night left them for you. How inconsiderate! Didn’t they know you’d have a hangover this Sunday morning?
How did this happen? Again?
There are many ways to care for your future self, and one way is to be the friend who does the dishes the night before so you don’t need to deal with them in the glare of the morning sun.
What we do today sets us up for success tomorrow, always. Simple, but surprisingly difficult to manifest.
Psychological research determined that when people feel connected to their future self, they are more likely to save for retirement, eat healthier, avoid speaking out of turn, avoid bad decisions with long term consequences.
In other words, every time you shop at Costco, you are being nice to your future self because no one says, I’ll just get toilet paper tomorrow.
The opposite of planning for the future, is of course, the classic human propensity to procrastinate.
Sometimes procrastination stems from a certainty that if you can’t manage a project right now, your stronger, healthier, more powerful future self will be able to complete the project with ease and delight. Like yesterday’s dishes, we leave the mess for our future super self to clean and call it a night.
Your future self may have superpowers, but I am unconvinced that my future self will be stronger, braver, and more competent to handle the challenges that are currently spread before me. In fact, my future self may very well need a nap.
How can writers be kind to their future selves?Start projects today. Your current self can start a project, write a draft, sketch an outline, anything — so your future self arrives at the desk with words on paper and some kind of idea to work with.
What kind of help? Jot Down Your Ideas!Novel ideas, blog ideas, drafts, research, that outline — all those pieces will be eventually assembled to create a fully finished novel or non-fiction book.
When you have a few minutes, research one of the subjects in your novel and save the link in your notebook. Or jot down a great comment from a client and save it for your non-fiction book.
Or if you finish up a blog today, your future self will wake the next morning delighted that the blog is finished and she can go to the beach.
Notes and ideas may not sound big and dramatic, and you’re right, they aren’t dramatic.
For writers, being nice to our future selves falls into the sunblock category: annoying but important.
For writers, being nice to our future selves falls into the sunblock category: annoying but important. But as you survey the resort on the second day of vacation and see dozens of bright red glowing guests, you will thank yesterday’s self for being so responsible.
Just like applying sunblock, it only takes about five minutes to check your lists and tabs and contribute one more idea, or one more sentence, or proof a draft.
In small increments, you can be that wonderful person who helped out future you.
I thank my past self every other hour for making today easier. And you will too.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.
The post Be Nice to Your Future Self – Write Today by Catharine Bramkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
January 2, 2023
National Science Fiction Day, plus Fiction Writing Tips: World Building Through Action
In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “National Science Fiction Day, plus Fiction Writing Tips: World Building Through Action,” Beth Barany shares how writers can bring their story world alive through the character’s action.
Platforms the podcast is available on include Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Buzzsprout | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict
ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:
Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog
RESOURCESNational Science Fiction Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Fiction_Day
Science Fiction culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Science_fiction_culture
Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/
SHOW NOTES“From the moment your character appears on page one and all the way to the end, they are your ambassador to your story, to your story world, and to everything that happens, also to what has happened, and what could happen.”
In this episode of How To Write The Future, “26. National Science Fiction Day, plus Fiction Writing Tips: World Building Through Action,” Beth Barany, creativity coach and science fiction and fantasy novelist, shares how writers can bring their story world alive through the character’s action and has a featured guest sharing 3 ways you can celebrate National Science Fiction Day.
ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCASTThe How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers.
Tips for fiction writers!
This podcast is for you if you have questions like:
How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?How do figure what’s not working if my story feels flat?How do I make my story more interesting and alive?This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.
Transcript for Episode 26 National Science Fiction Day, plus Fiction Writing Tips: World Building Through ActionAre you stuck with your story and don’t know how to get unstuck?
Are you a novelist who wishes to be more prolific?
Or maybe you’ve written that first draft and you just don’t know how to make it better.
Then sign up today for a No Obligation Discovery Call with me Beth Barany, Creativity Coach and award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist.
I look forward to seeing how I can help you.
So sign up today. The link is in the show notes. And now let’s get on with the show.
Welcome
Beth Barany
Hi writers, Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future podcast. I am a writing teacher of science fiction and fantasy writers here to support you in building positive, optimistic futures. Because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so. And we vision through our stories, and those stories go into the hearts and minds of our readers.
And then our readers can envision a better world. So how do you bring your story world alive?
From the moment your character appears on page one and all the way to the end, they are your ambassador to your story, to your story world, and to everything that happens, also to what has happened, and what could happen.
Featured Guest; Kerry-Ann to talk about National Science Fiction Day
Beth
Today I have a featured guest. I’d like to introduce you to Kerry-Ann, my production assistant. Kerry-Ann has been working with me for the last six months, supporting my coaching and author marketing by helping me produce my podcast.
Kerry-Ann
Hey everyone. My name’s Kerry-Ann. I’m a book blogger and I’m here to wish you a happy National Science Fiction Day. Today is for fans of science fiction to celebrate their favorite genre and was chosen as it’s the official birthdate of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Without science fiction, our imaginations about what is possible in the future may not be as intriguing, which is why I believe it’s such an important day for all to celebrate.
I have three ways to share with you on how you can celebrate National Science Fiction Day.
Number one: Watch your favorite sci-fi movie or TV show.
Number two: Read a sci-fi book. For instance, your podcast host Beth Barany has the Janey McCallister series, which is sci-fi mystery and features intrigue, space stations, and a futuristic vision of the Earth.
And number three: Dress up as your favorite sci-fi character. Thanks so much for listening.
Beth
Thanks Kerry-Ann. And now on with the show.
World Building is the Process of Creating Your Story WorldBeth Barany
World building is the process of creating your story world, and it’s something that all writers do, whether they’re writing science fiction, fantasy or historical or even contemporary. It uses the details of your world to reveal character, ratchet up the tension, and move the story forward. But first you need to know what your story world looks like from the perspective of your main characters.
It’s their story after all, and the reader wants to experience the story world through their heart, mind, and body.
Many authors think they need to do extensive world building in the form of encyclopedic entries as if writing from the point of view of a passionate professor or expert, but actually, you just need to know what your point of view character knows about their world.
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made and I’ve seen other authors make is that they write as if their character was born on page one.
They’re not, and well unless you’re writing a story like that when a character enters your story, they have a history. They have an understanding of their world. They have an attitude, they have a worldview of what makes the world operate.
So not only do you need to know what your character wants, what drives them, you also need to know what is important to them in their environment and what isn’t important but deeply understood.
So how do you do this?
Paint a Picture, Share Sensory DetailsYou bring your story world alive by sharing sensory details of their surroundings and painting a picture, sight and sound and smell, and also touch and taste.
I do notice that writers rely too much on the visual, so be sure to evoke setting and world through sound and smell.
Smell, in fact, is considered to be the most primal sense as it’s the one that scientists think evolved first. So from page one, your character is swimming through their environment like a fish, completely immersed full of thoughts and feelings about every little sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
So whether you’re writing a story set in a contemporary well-known world, or a science fiction or fantasy world, or even historical, your characters are taking in information and making sense of it all the time.
Readers Need To Know Three ThingsReaders need to know three things at the start of the story: who your character is, what they want and why so that we can care, and where they are.
So how do you bring setting in and keep the story action moving forward?
You need to show where the character is right away as they do their action.
Here’s an example from the first sentence in my book Into The Black in Book 1 of the Janey McCallister Mystery series about my space station investigator.
“From her elevated vantage point on the stairs, Janey McCallister lead investigator of L’Etoile’s Security team scanned the crowd of gamblers for the elusive pick pocket, the thief who’d been striking every night for the last few weeks.”
That’s my first sentence.
So we know where she is. She’s on the stairs. She’s amongst gamblers, so that hints at a casino setting. We know what she wants. She’s hunting for the elusive pick pocket, and we have a little sense of time that this has been going on for the last few weeks. We also know who she is, lead investigator of the security team.
So now we’ve situated her.
We know her goal, and we know also that there’s been some challenge in getting this pick pocket.
That is an example of using setting and action in the same sentence.
Now we don’t yet know anything much about the setting but ideally, the sentence leads the readers to the next sentence and the next, and so on. And by about word 50, I explain more of the setting. But we do know that the investigator is on the hunt and that she’s up in an elevated position on the stairs. Now, if you can get us into the genre of your story right away, that’s a plus.
You’re promising the reader a type of experience in your story.
So what have I told you?
I’ve told you that she’s an investigator on the hunt for a pick pocket. Right away we know we’re in a some kind of mystery, which is exactly what I want people to know.
Now, sometimes you can have the character explain the setting without a lot of action, but you just take a moment to explain the setting, and then the next sentence will probably have action.
So here’s an example. This is an explanatory moment called exposition from Janet Ray Stevens, her book Beryl Blue, Time Cop.
“And now here I was in 1977, running after an overdue time tourist on a steamy hot July afternoon.”
I really love the sentence. We know from the title that she is a time cop and we get a very tiny bit about where she is when she is and what she’s doing, which hints at her goal here. She’s in 1977. She’s running after an overdue time tourist. In fact, in the scene, she is literally running after this person. And we get a sense of the setting — a steamy hot July afternoon. And earlier in the scene, we know specifically where she is.
Here’s another few sentences from the same scene from the same author, Janet Ray Stevens book, Beryl Blue, Time Cop, Book One. And here’s how she weaves scene and action together.
I towed him away from the beach toward the bustling downtown, looking for an alley. He gazed wistfully at the boat-sized cars clogging the street, the people dressed in colors that would make Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat look subdued, and the stores advertising wares still made in the USA.”
So that’s two sentences from Janet Ray Stevens book.
I love this little combination.
Here we have an action: she’s towing him away from the beach toward a bustling downtown.
What is her goal in the moment? She’s looking for an alley.
We have the secondary character doing something that allows the point of view character to describe boat-sized cars, hogging, clogging, the street people dressed in colors, stores advertising wears still made in the USA, hinting that it’s different where she is from.
And I love this: “the people dressed in colors that would make Joseph’s Technical Dreamcoat look subdued.”
So we have a sense of like outlandish, outrageous colors. Remember, it’s 1977.
Not only do we have a description of the setting, we have a description filtered through our point of view character’s perspective.
She’s a time cop, which hints that she’s from the future, and she is. She jumps from 2130. So she has an entirely different perspective of life from that time, which is only hinted at here. So this setting could be described completely differently if it was written from another character’s point of view.
So we have action, we have description, and we have description filtered through the narrator’s, through the main character’s perspective.
See how you can do this in your story. How can you design descriptive information from the perspective of your character that relates to their goal and their past, and moves the story forward because you’re including action?
Write long and prosper.
Outro+Invite
Write long and prosper.
Science fiction and fantasy writers, sign up for your No Obligation Discovery Call and get clarity to your writing process and finish your book.
***
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061
or in your podcast home of choice.
CONNECTContact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#contact
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/
CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.
If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.
The post National Science Fiction Day, plus Fiction Writing Tips: World Building Through Action appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
December 26, 2022
Fiction Writing Tips: Overwhelmed with World Building? Start here.
In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, Beth Barany shares Fiction Writing Tips and her perspective on how she guides writers feeling overwhelmed with their world building.Platforms the podcast is available on include Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Buzzsprout | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict |
ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:
Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog
RESOURCESGet support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/
Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic here:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/
SHOW NOTES“For those of you who are more intuitive writers, I would say go with your gut, go with your intuition, and start by asking questions that are top of mind.”
In this episode of How To Write The Future, “Fiction Writing Tips: Overwhelmed with World Building? Start Here,” Beth Barany, creativity coach and science fiction and fantasy novelist, shares her perspective on how she guides writers who feel overwhelmed with their world building. She offers tips on how to start your world building with helpful writing exercises you can try.
This episode covers:
Research is FunStart Your World BuildingThe Strength of Being A Fiction WriterAbout Making Stuff UpTRANSCRIPT for Episode 25 Fiction Writing Tips: Overwhelmed with World Building? Start here.Hi writers, Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future podcast. I am a writing teacher of science fiction and fantasy writers here to support you in building positive, optimistic futures. Because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so, and we vision through our stories, and those stories go into the hearts and minds of our readers.
And then our readers can envision a better world.
So how do you bring your story world alive?
From the moment your character appears on page one and all the way to the end, they are your ambassador to your story, to your story world, and to everything that happens, also to what has happened and what could happen.
Are you overwhelmed with world building for your stories?
Well, let’s break it down.
In my years of experience writing science fiction and fantasy, I have found That the strongest entry point for me to, to understand the world of my characters and the world of my story is through my characters.
I interview my main characters, even secondary characters, and including antagonists or the villain of the story to learn about my fantasy and science fiction worlds.
I do this in the form of journaling and interviewing my characters.
Now I always start with my main character, and if she does not know what I need to know, then I move to secondary characters. And if they do not know what I need to know, I move to minor characters. I sometimes even invent a new character, like an offscreen character who might never be in the story to ask them questions about the story world.
And sometimes those off-screen characters become on-screen characters through the process of interviewing them.
I recommend that you start with some world building exercises as I’m describing them to you before you start writing. But if you find yourself needing to know more about your story at any part of the process, whether it’s first drafting or revisions, then of course use these tools at that point as well.
Not all pieces of your story world that you brainstorm or come up with will end up in your story and, that’s totally okay.
A starting point is your main character and allow that to flow through you. And granted, I’m talking to people who are more intuitive writers. If you’re a writer who likes to plan everything ahead of time, then I would say start at the top of the list that I’ll be sharing in this course and move your way down.
For those of you who are more intuitive writers, I would say go with your gut, go with your intuition, and start by asking questions that are top of mind.
Research is FunSomething I also notice is when I’m curious about a topic, really curious about it, I’ll be researching it on my off time and it will be fun for me.
So allow research to nurture the creative process and the writing process. If at any time you find that the research that you might be doing feels heavy and is bogging you down, then I recommend that you stop. Because this process, in my opinion, is meant to be fun.
So I wanna give you a little example about the research. In my young adult adventure fantasy, Henrietta the Dragon Slayer, I decided that she was trained as a blacksmith and a swordsmith. And why did I choose those things? Because I’m interested in those things. So I was able to do research in books and by visiting a local blacksmith, and that was so much fun.
So make sure the research is fun. Another example in my science fiction murder mystery series that takes place on space stations that I invent. I love watching space launches and learning about basic physics and learning about all the latest tools and technologies that we’re evolving to help us be a multi-planetary species.
So this is what I do for fun, and of course, it seeps into my storytelling.
So as I said, if research isn’t fun, then stop. Your enjoyment in the process is going to show on the page. So make sure it’s fun.
Start Your World BuildingIn this section, I’m going to talk to you about how to start your world building.
I do want to say that this process is a personal one, so each of you will discover, or has discovered, your own method of creating your story world.
Now, if you’re just starting out, I recommend that you use the process that I am explaining here, and as you move forward, you’ll discover how to make it your own.
You’ll tweak it, you’ll change it, and that’s great.
For those of you who have done a lot of world building, but want a refresher, then use what I’m offering here as a guide, and I trust that you’ll make it your own.
The Strength of Being A Fiction WriterNow when you are world building, as I said earlier, you want to come from the perspective of your character.
I think this is one of the things that makes what I offer unique because I really think that designing your world is not a historian’s exercise. We’re not historians, we’re not professors. We’re not journalists. We’re fiction writers.
So where’s the strength of being a fiction writer? It’s in our characters, and this is my perspective.
I know not every writer writes in this way, but I really guide writers to start with their characters.
You need to know their own history, their own backstory as it relates to your story. And you need to know what they want and what motivates them, and what are the conflicts that you’re exploring in your story. That really is foundational.
That’s where you begin.
Once you know that, then from there you can flesh out your story world. And of course, you’re gonna include other characters and their relationships with your main character.
For some writers, I do this often, as I will have a spine of a plot, and I know the main elements of my plot according to the genre I’m writing.
And then from there, I ask myself: What are the things I need to know about my story world to make this come alive, to make it feel unique?
In the revision process, I use my critique partners’ questions and beta reader questions to continue to flesh out my story world.
One thing I do not do is use the list I’m providing in this course as something that I go through from the top all the way to the bottom.
I really go through just what I consider as important as I develop the story, write the story, and revise the story.
So use what is right for you.
If you’re a very intuitive writer, a pantser, you’re probably going to just pick and choose what’s right for you.
If you need a guide, then I do suggest to use the list. So really make it your own.
About Making Stuff UpIn this section, I want to talk about fantasy versus science fiction and making stuff up.
Though we can blur the lines between fantasy and science fiction, I like to make a distinction on how we make up stuff for each of these two genres.
Now, if you’re writing fantasy, you can make it all up and create a world that holds together, but it can be completely invented.
It doesn’t have to be based on anything that we know today, although it needs to be recognizable. And it needs to be logical and meaningful to your characters. If your world feels random and that’s not your intent, then you do need to figure out the why and the how of things in your fantasy world. And if you want to make up words, that’s great. Just make sure that your reader is not confused.
Now, if you’re writing science fiction, that in today’s writing, that usually implies that your world is based on some kind of scientific possibility. It doesn’t have to be based on logically today’s science. It could be based on science we think could exist.
Even though we don’t travel to the stars yet, we one day could. So make it plausible within the science of tomorrow.
There’s a lot of interesting science just in the laboratories now that their implications hint at a totally different reality than today.
Even though time travel is not something that we can do according to physics, it is something that is possible. So if you are making a science fiction time travel story, the science needs to feel sound. It doesn’t have to be based in today’s science in my opinion. It has to be based in science that could exist. I understand that a lot of science fiction works with today’s plausible science and a lot of science fiction in the past did that as well, but you can push the boundaries.
Write long and prosper.
Science fiction and fantasy writers, sign up for your No-Obligation Discovery Call and get clarity to your writing process and finish your book.
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061
or in your podcast home of choice.
CONNECTContact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#contact
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/
CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDadeFor more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.
If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here
The post Fiction Writing Tips: Overwhelmed with World Building? Start here. appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
December 23, 2022
5 Tips I’ve Learned from Writing My Romance Novel by Laurel Osterkamp
Let’s welcome back Laurel Osterkamp as she shares with us “5 Tips I’ve Learned from Writing My Romance Novel.” Enjoy!
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I feel like there’s a stigma attached to writing romance novels, and I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s because most romance novels follow a fairly specific formula and use a limited variety of tropes. Maybe it’s because many romance novels are “steamy” with what can be graphic sex scenes. Or, it could be because most romance novelists are female, as are their readers.
Perhaps it’s a combination of all those things?
Personally, I usually prefer both writing and reading stories that focus primarily on self-discovery, with romance as a secondary theme. That puts me squarely in the category of “women’s fiction” (which also occasionally has a stigma attached to it). But I’ve heard it’s easier to attract readers if you can classify your novel as a romance. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m intrigued.
So, my current WIP is a romance novel. I’m writing it by the seat of my pants and am having a great time! Maybe readers will love it and maybe they won’t, but I’m learning a few things as I go, and I thought I’d share them with you today:
1. Complex characterization is more important than ever when writing a romance novel.No one is going to care about a love story between two flat or cliched characters.
My first step before writing was to understand the motivations of both my romantic leads.
– What do they want that they can’t have?
– What flaws and/or obstacles are they trying to overcome?
– What personal hang ups do they have that might get in the way of them being in a loving relationship?
Of course, I’m getting to know my two protagonists and making discoveries as I go, which means I’ll have some interesting revisions to make once I’m done with my first draft. (I’m about 60,000 words in, and aiming for another 30K.)
2. Listen to your favorite love songs as you write, and internalize the lyrics.My goal is to make my readers feel the way I feel when listening to my favorite love songs.
My goal is to make my readers feel the way I feel when listening to my favorite love songs.
So, I made a playlist specifically for this current novel.
They’re songs of tortured love, like Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason,” or of yearning, like Matt Nathanson’s “I Saw,” or of desperation, like Lady Gaga’s “Is That Alright?”
These songs tell a complete, layered story of a relationship in a three-minute song.
When I get stuck, I examine the lyrics, paying special attention to the details described, ones that show vs. tell what it’s like to be in love.
My favorites are from Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums.
I think she is a master at storytelling through imagery and sensory detail.
Anytime I don’t know what to write next, I tell myself to use details like Taylor does, and soon enough, my fingers are flying across my keyboard.
3. Read (or re-read) classic love stories.Stigma or not, some of the best novels ever written are about love.
While most of them wouldn’t be classified as romance novels by modern standards, they might offer inspiration if you’re aiming to create not just a love story, but commentary on the nature of love.
Currently, I’m reading Anna Karenina (and I’m blogging about it; check out my posts HERE), and around a year ago I read Wuthering Heights.
No, I’m not planning to have my characters throw themselves in front of a train or to die of heartbreak. And yet, love is timeless, even if some conventions are not.
The words in these classic novels can offer valuable lessons for modern day love stories.
4. Let you characters experience devastation and heartbreak.This one is my achilles heel.
I always come to care about my characters, so it’s difficult to put them through something painful. But it has to be done.
I’ve heard that in the last fourth of your novel there should be a death–maybe a literal one, or maybe an emotional death instead.
So I ask myself: What could happen, that would give my main characters an emotional death?
Then, I let it happen.
(Or, at least I try. Like I said, this one is tough for me.)
But, since romances require a happy ending, I make sure to leave room for an emotional resurrection. That leads me to…
5. Embrace the genre.I did some research and found some hard and fast rules that romance authors live by.
One is that at the end, your characters should live happily ever after, or at least be happy for now.
Another is that the love story needs to be the primary plot, and any self-discovery, adventure, or mystery should be secondary.
If your book was a movie, the majority of the screen time should be on interactions between your romantic leads.
And finally, your romantic leads should be equals who challenge each other, but who also are able to make themselves vulnerable to each other.
All the other stuff, like making your heroine fall in love with an enigmatic, misunderstood billionaire, or having your characters be in a pretend relationship only to fall in love, or making your heroine choose between two brothers who are both military men who love kittens and horses…well, that’s all optional.
So are sex scenes. There are plenty of “sweet” romances that readers love.
That means that except for the non-negotiables (like a happy ending), you can pick and choose.
But whatever conventions you use, don’t apologize.
Instead, have fun and take pride in your work!
It’s totally doable to write an original, quality novel that’s also a romance.
That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.
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About the Author
Laurel Osterkamp is from Minneapolis, where she teaches and writes like it’s going out of style. Her short fiction has been featured in Tangled Locks Literary Journal, Bright Flash Literary Journal, and Metawoker Lit, among other places. Her latest novel Favorite Daughters was recently released by Black Rose Writing. (Click here to see the novel on Amazon.)
Social Media:Website – https://laurellit.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/authorlaurelosterkamp
BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/laurel-osterkamp
The post 5 Tips I’ve Learned from Writing My Romance Novel by Laurel Osterkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
December 19, 2022
Turn Your Writing Hobby into a Side Business by Linnea Gradin
Let’s welcome back Linnea Gradin as she shares with us “Turn Your Writing Hobby into a Side Business.” Enjoy!
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As an aspiring novelist, it sometimes seems impossible to find time to write, let alone make a living on it.
But if you’re serious about turning your love and talent for stringing words together into more than just a hobby, freelance writing can be a way to practice your craft and keep the lights on while you polish your own manuscripts.
Whether you’re looking for some extra pocket money to finance your publishing dreams or to develop a career in freelance writing, I’ve outlined some crucial steps below to get you started.
Know your optionsFreelance writing is everywhere; even industries that you wouldn’t immediately think of rely on capable creatives who can draft compelling marketing texts, website copy, or polished reports.
Here are some common freelance writing jobs:
Technical writers turn complex procedures and descriptions into simple text that anyone can follow– from how to assemble flat-pack furniture to how to boil lentils.Business writers play a central role in the internal and external communication of companies– putting together reports, press releases, speeches, proposals and sometimes even marketing materials.Content writers help businesses build their online presence through blog articles and other, creative and/or informative web content, based on SEO marketing practices.Blog/social media writing includes writing engaging blog posts, captions, tweets, and using appropriate hashtags to drum up engagement and create a strong following.Journalism is increasingly done on a freelance basis. This entails submitting articles, investigative pieces, op-eds, etc., to relevant outlets.Ghostwriting involves writing in someone else’s name. Ghostwriting jobs can include virtually any type of written content, even full-length memoirs and novels.In addition to these, there are many other creative writing jobs that freelance writers can take up, including submitting shorter pieces or anthologies to boutique publications or online magazines. You can also submit your pieces to writing contests for a chance to win grand prizes. But first, you need a portfolio.
Prepare your portfolioShow-don’t-tell is a golden rule that should apply to your career too!
A well-curated portfolio not only showcases your writing chops, but also displays your style and gives insight on what you will deliver to potential clients.
Few employers are willing to pay for a pig in a poke.
If you don’t have any freelance writing experience, write up a few sample pieces.
You may not be getting paid— yet, but it’ll go a long way to provide evidence of your skills.
As your career progresses, you should keep updating your portfolio to represent your strongest and most current work. With more projects under your belt, you can narrow your portfolio down to a certain niche, as clients tend to prefer experts over generalists.
Master administrationFreelance writing offers a lot of freedom and flexibility but it also means that you’re responsible for all administration. In order to avoid unpleasant back-taxes or getting hoodwinked by dishonest clients, it might be useful to brush up on some basics — copyright, how to do taxes, contracts, invoices, etc.
Put yourself out thereWith everything else set up, all that’s left to do is to get word out about your writing skills.
You can do this by applying for jobs through job boards or cold emailing tailor-made proposals to companies you’re interested in working with.
While you may get some rejections, don’t let that discourage you; next time you submit a piece they might just give you a shot!
Networking can also go a long way for freelance writers, so make sure to join different forums and writing groups to connect with peers. Not only will this give you an inside scoop on upcoming job opportunities, but your new network might also keep you in mind and recommend you for future gigs.
You should also network with people outside the freelance writing community as you never know who your next client will be. Keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground, and you’ll soon notice that there are (paid) writing opportunities almost everywhere.
Freelance writing is a great way for writers to make some extra money or even build a career on their wordsmithing. Whether it’s creative blog pieces or polished business reports, any opportunity to work with the written word is a chance to sharpen your quill. And who knows, your newfound, detailed knowledge of how to assemble flat-pack furniture may just come in handy for your next novel!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linnea Gradin writes about writing and publishing over at Reedsy — a website that connects authors with publishing professionals and gives tips on topics such as how to self publish a book or how to translate a book.
Also by Linnea Gradin
The post Turn Your Writing Hobby into a Side Business by Linnea Gradin appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
3 Common Problems in World Building for Novelists
In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, Beth Barany shares 3 Common Problems in World Building for Novelists and one piece of advice for writers to get started on creating vivid worlds for their stories.
Platforms the podcast is available on include Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Buzzsprout | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict |
ABOUT BETH BARANYBeth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:
Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog
RESOURCES
Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/
Share your What-if scenario here:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#contact
Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic here:
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/
Your Writing Process session ($99 for 60-minutes) (Jan. 2023 only, limited to the first 10 spots)
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/your-writing-process-assessment/
SHOW NOTES“Our job as fiction writers is to evoke emotion in the reader.”
In this episode of How To Write the Future, titled “3 Common Problems in World Building for Novelists,” Beth Barany, creativity coach and science fiction and fantasy novelist, shares 3 common problems for novelists in world-building, answers some recurring questions that she often gets asked, and reveals one piece of advice for you to get started on creating vivid worlds for your stories.
ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCASTThe How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers.
Tips for fiction writers!
This podcast is for you if you have questions like:
How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?How do figure what’s not working if my story feels flat?How do I make my story more interesting and alive?This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.
Transcript for Episode 24 3 Common Problems in World Building for NovelistsAre you stuck with your story and don’t know how to get unstuck?
Are you a novelist who wishes to be more prolific?
Or maybe you’ve written that first draft and you just don’t know how to make it better.
Then sign up today for a No Obligation Discovery Call with me Beth Barany, Creativity Coach and award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist.
I look forward to seeing how I can help you.
So sign up today. The link is in the show notes. And now let’s get on with the show.
WelcomeHi everyone. I’m Beth Barany.
I am your host for How to Write the Future Podcast, a podcast for science fiction and fantasy writers and anybody who cares about the future and cares about creating positive, optimistic futures.
I’m a creativity coach and writing teacher for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write, edit, publish and market their novels. I’m bringing to you today this world-building class so that you can enrich the worlds that your character is in and make your stories come alive.
Common Questions and Problems about World Building in Fiction
Here are some common questions I get about world-building.
Only Applies to Science Fiction and Fantasy, right? 01:24Number one, people say world-building only applies to science fiction and fantasy, right?
And I say, actually no, you need to take your time to think about your world, even if you are writing stories set in a contemporary time and place, and here’s why.
There’s a few different reasons why.
Firstly, your readers may not know your setting. They may not be from the region that you are writing about.
Write the setting in a way that allows your reader to fully explore it as it is relevant to the characters in your story.
The other reason why you want to design your setting, even a contemporary setting, in a way that’s rich, is so that the readers get an immersive experience.
And lastly, your setting is going to reveal things about character and about plot, conflict, what’s important to your characters. So you need to show it.
So no matter if you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, or setting your story in a contemporary time, or writing historical, world-building is important.
Is World Building Just Setting? 02:53Another concern that writers, ask me about: Is world-building just setting?
And it’s not just setting.
Part of that is the environment that your character is in, but world-building is also customs, culture, how people greet each other, how people go about their day, what’s expected of them, both in roles in society, gender roles, socioeconomic roles.
What are some rituals?
What are rituals? That’s religion.
Who holds power? That’s politics.
So actually world building is much, much broader than just setting.
Problem: Too much detail or too little detail 03:33Another common problem I spot in manuscripts of my clients is they will either write too much detail and just bombard us with lots of details and we don’t know what’s important. And it’s also hard to keep track of everything, or there’s hardly any detail about the world and it feels like we’re walking around in a setting that’s mostly blank.
Because of those two problems, you absolutely need to put some time into creating your story world.
Another problem that I see in world-building for writers is that they will go into great detail, and I feel like I’m reading an encyclopedic entry or a Wikipedia entry or maybe something a journalist wrote. It lacks emotion that’s written in a very precise way, which would be perfectly appropriate to those other mediums.
But for fiction, it does not evoke any emotion.
And our job as fiction writers is to evoke emotion in the reader.
In that instance, what I coach my writers to do is to really get into the character’s point of view and ask, even like in a journal entry: what does the character think and feel about their environment?
Also, what does your character know?
If there is one piece of advice I have for you to get started on creating vivid worlds that feel lived in and rich and multi-layered and have history is get into your character’s know-how.
Find out how they see their world.
What is their attitude of the world?
Another way of saying that is what’s their worldview? What’s their filter?
And then get into what it is that they know about their world.
Just think of yourself. You’re born into this world. It comes with all this history that you did not design, and you grow up learning what the world that you’re in is, is about, and how it was formed, and what the stories are that we say about how it was formed.
And I’m not just talking about like the evolution of the planet. I’m talking about the evolution of a city, the evolution of a town, the evolution of a nation, the evolution of a regional area. Every location has its stories.
So your character is going know or not know, they’re going know a little bit about that. Same goes for politics. Same goes for gender roles and expectations. Same goal goes for what does it mean to be, a human being?
We all are given this information and it’s in the soup, in the sea that we swim in. Your character is gonna have the same kind of know-how that’s right for them.
So dig into that. Use some journaling time to write out what does your character know?
What does your character think about the world they’re in?
And as it is relevant to your story and to the challenges your character is facing.
So I’m gonna leave you with that today.
outro invite 07:01Write long and prosper.
Science fiction and fantasy writers, sign up for your No-Obligation Discovery Call and get clarity to your writing process and finish your book.
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061
or in your podcast home of choice.
***
CONNECTContact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#contact
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/
CREDITSEDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade***
For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.
If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.
The post 3 Common Problems in World Building for Novelists appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
December 16, 2022
Blogging for Fiction Authors by Jason Hamilton
Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, Jason Hamilton who is stopping by to chat with us about “Blogging for Fiction Authors.” Enjoy!
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Blogging can be a powerful resource for any author who wants to enhance their content marketing potential.
As a quick definition, content marketing is the act of creating content (whether written, video, or audio) that attracts your ideal audience. For authors, this means it should attract the type of people who read your books.
Blogging isn’t necessarily for everyone, but it is one way to gain attention for your books.
In this article, I will uncover some of the basic misconceptions about blogging and give some advice that authors can use to their advantage.
Misconception #1: Blogging Is an Online JournalWhile blogging did start out as a “web-log” or “blog” for short, it has since evolved beyond that. In fact, I don’t even like the term “blogging,” because it is so suggestive of an online journal mentality.
Instead, blogging should be creating articles that attract your ideal customers on search engines. That means that when someone enters in a search query such as “the best middle-grade fantasy books,” and you sell those types of books, you want to create an article that will rank for that search query.
Not only does this bring in potential customers, but it also builds trust with those customers, because you are directly answering their questions.
Misconception #2: Blogging Is DeadA lot of people will say that blogging is no longer a profitable form of marketing. That might be true if you use a blog like an online journal.
But if you can pick a specific niche, then create many articles related to that niche, you can easily rank on Google for the right search queries.
People have been doing this in nonfiction niches for years, and fiction authors have an opportunity because many of the appropriate niches for a fiction author have less competition.
For example, my personal website is built around mythology to promote my mythology-driven books.
The first step to succeed here is to pick your niche.I would do this by brainstorming a lot of potential niches related to your books, then seeing if anyone else has a niche website around those topics. If I find that there are, and that some of them are just regular people writing successful articles, that is a good sign I’m in a good niche.
Misconception #3: It Is Too Hard to Rank on GoogleSearch engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting an article to rank on Google. This used to be incredibly difficult, requiring not just great content, but you had to build a lot of links on other websites.
This is still the case, but links are far less important than they used to be.
Instead, I find the best way to rank on Google is to write the best content possible.
I do this by comprehensively covering the topic, making it understandable, doing original research, and establishing topical authority by creating multiple articles around a similar subject.
If you can do this, you are well on your way to creating amazing content that can rank on Google.
For authors, this is great news, because we are already experts at writing.
If you can learn to write well for an online space, you already have an edge over the competition.
This is our philosophy over at Kindlepreneur. For example, you can see this article on how to format a book. We pulled out all the stops to create an amazing resource, and I’m quite proud of the results.
Final ThoughtsWebsites are important for authors, and blogging can be a great way to take your marketing to the next level.
If you do it right, it will not only be another way to market your books, but it will become another basket to put your eggs in. You can run ads on the website, promote someone else’s product for affiliate commissions, promote a Patreon, and more.
In other words, it not only promotes your books, but becomes an additional source of revenue.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason is the Content Manager for Kindlepreneur and a mythic fantasy author. He loves mythology, history, and geek culture. When he’s not writing, his favorite hobbies include hiking, chilling with his wife, spouting nonsense words at his baby daughter, and developing his website: MythBank.com.
The post Blogging for Fiction Authors by Jason Hamilton appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
December 12, 2022
8 Steps to Unlock Your Writing Process
In this How To Write the Future episode, Beth Barany shares 8 Steps to Unlock Your Writing Process and shares information on her one-to-one Writing Assessment Session – on sale now, which will help help you get back to your writing.
The podcast is also available here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Buzzsprout | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict |
ABOUT BETH BARANY
Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:
Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog
RESOURCESYour Writing Process session ($99 for 60-minutes) (Jan. 2023 only, limited to the first 10 spots)
https://writersfunzone.com/blog/your-writing-process-assessment/
Mythulu deck
https://mythulu.com/product/half-core-decks-a-pack/
SHOW NOTES“I gently challenge you to be daring, to be bold, to be yourself, and put yourself into your work.”
In this episode of How To Write the Future, titled 8 Steps to Unlock Your Creative Process, creativity coach and science fiction and fantasy novelist Beth Barany, shares the 8 stages of her writing process with you, plus information on her one-to-one Writing Assessment Session, which is on sale now — a customized coaching session that will help you get back into the flow of writing your book.
ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCASTThe How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers.
Tips for fiction writers!
This podcast is for you if you have questions like:
How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?How do figure what’s not working if my story feels flat?How do I make my story more interesting and alive?This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.
Transcript for Episode 23 8 Steps to Unlock Your Creative ProcessDo you wonder if there’s something wrong with you because you stall out, forget about your book, and then wonder what happened?
Well, maybe it’s time to do a Writing Process Assessment, with me creativity coach, award-winning novelist, and writing teacher.
Sign up for your Writing Assessment session, and get back on track with your book.
WELCOME
Hi everyone, Beth Barany here of the How To Write The Future podcast.
Award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, fiction writing teacher, and writing coach.
I’m here to bring you fiction writing tips for science fiction and fantasy authors who want to create positive, optimistic stories. Because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so.
Today’s episode is all about writing process. And oh my God, do I know about all the problems with writing process.
I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped my writing project because, you know, life real stuff. And then it’s almost as if I woke up from a dream three months later with my heartbreaking, because I remembered, all of a sudden, oh yeah, my book. I love my novel.
I experienced this very painfully with the first novel that I was truly, truly in love with, and the first novel I published. My young adult fantasy adventure, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer.
And there were so many times where it was like, I would be jolted. I don’t know something would remind me that my book was waiting for me. I still needed to work on it. And I would feel so heartbroken. So I feel like I have become the master of how to restart after stopping.
And it all comes down to my own creative process.
So I’m here today to offer you some tips and tools so that you can know how to pick up the pieces and get back into your project when you have been interrupted by, you know, important things, maybe an illness of your own or a family member, maybe even just a fun thing, like a vacation or a trip or a wonderful opportunity. Or, it could just be, you know, daily life and the grind and the, and the day job and, um, and oh yeah, the interruptions from the cats and the animals and the dogs. And all of that.
So, learning how to get into the creative flow of your book and get back to work with your book, whether you’re writing or editing or whatever you’re doing, marketing, doing the publishing bits. Whatever. All the different parts.
This creative process, your creative process, is going to help you at every, every step, how to restart.
So I especially use it when I need to restart my project, but I also use it on a daily basis, even when I’m when I’m in the flow and I am working every day. I use my tools of getting into flow, uh, even then. Because your creative process is first and foremost tailored to you.
Number one, this is highly, highly tailored to you. And I do want to say that when you have, what are the benefits? When you have a consistent creative process, this can make all the difference you can go from not being very productive to being productive. If that’s what what’s important to you.
Having a good pre-creative process means you know that when you’ve stopped for whatever reason, you’ll be able to get started again. And I would say this is where it’s helped me the most.
I no longer slip into despair when I’ve had a break. I I’ll tell you what I do in just a moment.
So what are the starting steps?
1st step: CompassionThe first step is compassion. And so that is my first step. I have compassion for whatever interrupted my flow.
Or if you’re just starting out, have compassion for all the things that have been a priority up to now.
Also huge caveat. I want to say that because I’m a coach and I work uh, with authors, helping them tailor the writing process to them specifically, it is very hard to give a step-by-step process that’s going to fit everyone. That’s just impossible.
But over the years of working with hundreds of writers and dozens and dozens of writers very intimately, and taught workshops and classes have done tons and tons of presentations and fielded lots of questions. I have noticed these main parts, main steps, that I think can help just about everybody.
So have compassion, number one.
2nd step: Listen to YourselfNumber two, get still, and really listen to yourself. Pay attention to your dreams and your hopes and whatever is moving through you, moving through your emotions, moving through your physical body, moving through the spiritual body. Really, really listen to yourself and slow down. We have a tendency in our culture to be so much in a hurry.
And be so focused on productivity, what’s efficient, what’s effective that actually, we miss out on what our heart and body, and soul is really telling us.
So, whatever that practice is for you, however, you get still, whether it’s meditation. My favorite is going for a walk actually. For some, it’s listening to music. For others. It’s dance. For my husband, I noticed he plays piano and sings. So, whatever that is for you, take some time to really listen to yourself.
3rd step: Write It DownAnd then, write that down. So this would be step number three.
If you want to be a writer. Write. Even in the privacy of a journal that you will never share with anyone. Write it all down. Say what you really, really want. Say whatever comes to mind, even if it’s silly, even if it’s a story idea, even if it’s bits of dialogue. Even if it is talking to the different parts of yourself.
It’s when you operate that hand-heart brain loop that you really get the writing engine going.
And if you have a different craft, and art and craft that you love, whatever it is, just get into it and just start playing with it.
And I really give myself lots of journaling time. I have a little process that I call “Journal To Write” and I have little entries. I just put the date. And I sometimes start my writing sessions with the Journal To Write. And here’s where I dump in my concerns and my worries and my fears and my what-ifs and, and I start bringing myself to my story and start asking myself questions about my story. And then from there, I often find the answer about what’s next in the story. Or sometimes I discover like, oh, I actually really want to be working on marketing right now, or, oh, I’m really jazzed up to do some research.
So it’s a great way to dialogue with yourself and really also write it down. Get into the habit of writing and get into the habit of telling yourself the truth. About everything. And this is private.
4th step: Work on Your StoryNow the fourth step, this is where you actually create. Work on your story, and work on the project. Sit down and do the work.
And I hear some of my writers say, “But Beth, it’s so hard to get started.”
And this is where we’re going to open the step up a little bit more and talk about what is the process of getting started.
5th step – Getting Started RitualsFor one of my clients, we developed a whole ritual where he got ready to sit down to write. You know, and, and I’ve noticed a lot of writers need to do this.
They’ll have their drink. And they’ll have their notifications off and they’ll queue up their writing music and they will tell themselves, “I have 10 minutes right now, or I have 30 minutes.”
And they put a big, do not disturb through the electronics. Maybe there’s a sign on the door. Maybe the door shuts.
There is that moment where you decide to write that you need to actually make sure your environment is exactly the way you want it. And that you are primed. This helps the actual writing process because it is hard.
Sometimes, I’ll sit down and I get a little petrified with, oh my, my sentence is going to be crappy. And I’m writing first draft material right now. So of course it’s going to be a crappy. So if you’re in the first draft stage, you have my permission to write crap.
If you are in the editing stage, remind yourself that you can always change it.
If you’re in the finalizing stage of a project– this is where I really build in a lot of other people’s eyeballs on my work, a lot of support because I can’t see typos. So I have someone who works with me on that. I, I just need someone to reassure me. It’s all going to be okay. I have someone for that.
I have another person reminding me, like almost doing a checklist with them. So I create a lot of support around the final finishing phase because personally for me, that’s the hardest.
So now we did. The writing. Now what?
In the writing process, I’m going to open this up, even more, I really encourage you and I dare you and challenge you to write really what’s in your heart. Especially in the early drafts of your work. Don’t worry about what the marketplace wants or what’s fashionable or trendy. Write what is true for you.
Because guess what? That’s what we want. That’s what readers want. That’s what I want when I watch a TV show, I don’t want to watch some rehash thing. I don’t want to read a novel. That’s like other novels. I want to really feel that the author put their heart and soul into the novel.
So I gently challenge you to be daring, to be bold, to be yourself, and put yourself into your work.
I heard this somewhere… I can’t even remember, honestly where I heard it, but it was this idea sticks with me.
When I’m, when I’m on the edge and I’m feeling hesitant about writing something, I say to myself, “Leave it on the page. Leave nothing out. Leave nothing for later.”
What that means is whatever is brewing in me that feels a little bit daring, a little bit edgy for me, it’s, it’s really what I need to put on the page, even if it scares me a little bit. It kind of makes my body hum with emotion. That will translate to the reader. That is a truth.
And as I was sharing this list with some, some of my trusted thought partners, one of them said, “Remind people that they might stall out here in the writing.”
So while you’re working on a first draft, today’s writing right in the middle of it, you might stall out. You’re like, oh, I have 30 minutes, but halfway. And you’re like, I don’t know what else to say. Or you might get kind of jolted.
By the realization that you need to go research something. Uh, and you don’t have all the information you need and that’s okay.
Have patience with yourself and allow yourself to stop and do the thing you need to do. And then come back.
Maybe you need to do more research. Maybe you need to talk it out with someone. Maybe you just need to sleep on it. And that’s okay.
So part of the writing process is letting our other than-conscious parts do a lot of work for us while we’re sleeping, while we’re walking, while we’re doing the dishes while we’re having a conversation with a friend. And then things will bubble up. Maybe you’ve read something that gives you that Aha. Maybe you’ve pulled a card.
I’m going to recommend the Mythulu deck and I’ll put the link to that in the chat,
Which makes you come up with a new idea. That’s great. Then come back to the writing.
This process requires patience and compassion. Remember the first step was compassion. And also some grace for yourself.
Being an artist is about feeling it’s about emotion and sometimes those emotions can be difficult and sometimes very powerful. So our job as an artist I feel is to take the emotion we’re feeling and translate that, put that into our art.
So that means we too we’ll be going through those emotions.
6th Step: Getting FeedbackI’m going to talk about step number six, which I mentioned earlier, but I’m going to mention. I’m going to pause here and talk about editing, revising, and asking for feedback from trusted people.
For many of us, writing our novels occurs alone. But the editing, the revising, and the rewriting does not. And for some more than others.
I admit I bring a lot of people into the process pretty early on. Not everybody does that, but I really thrive on it. Even so, even if you’ve written your first draft all by yourself, you’ve revised it 20 times by yourself, at some point you will need to show it to an editor or critique partners, or developmental editor like myself or writing coach who can help you figure out what’s you know, what’s missing. Or Beta readers. I use beta readers as well.
We need to know if our message came across. So at some point, if you want to be published author, it is your job to figure out if the message you intended in your story is being received. And you could only do that if you ask for feedback from trusted people.
7th step: PublishStep number seven. Publish. Ship. Release. Get your work out into the world. Writing is communication.
From a very young age have felt like writing. these novels I would read the stories, it was like, it was like the author was talking to me and then I actually wrote fan mail starting around age 12, 13. And I just felt like they were talking to me and I wanted to talk back as a reader.
Even though I’m reading a book in my cozy bed. I feel like the author is talking to me. And I feel like I could just reach back and say, thanks, or tell them how much I love their work. And I still do that. And I’m here to tell you, I love hearing how readers love my work.
And I know other writers, especially independent authors love hearing that too. We love to hear how it’s landed. We love to hear what you loved.
So get your work out there.
It also changes you as a creative because it’s going to give you confidence. It’s going to give you spark about what to create next. Now you’ve left that book has left you and now you have room to create something new.
Also, your story itself will become something new because people will see things in it. You never saw and it’s just amazing. I love the feedback people have given me about my work, because it, it’s, it’s almost as if, you know, I did my part and then they actually make it more when they bring their interpretation and their insight and tell me what they loved about it.
8th step: Write the next storyAnd then the last step in the process is actually to write the next story. So that was step number eight.
If you need help tailoring the creative process to yourself…
So the creative process is going to be tailored to you. And if you need help tailoring the creative process to yourself, well then, sign up for my Writing Assessment Session.
I’m actually running a sale. It’s $99. If you grab one of the first 10 spots, I’m actually taking appointments in January 2023.
Because I’m finishing a book right now.
So if you feel like you yearn for a creative process tailored just for you so you can get writing. And you’ve tried a lot of other people’s tools and techniques, but nothing’s working.
And you also know that success, getting writing, is first an inner experience that then gets manifested outward, but something’s not working. Something feels out of alignment and you don’t know what it is.
Then check out my one-on-one Writing Assessment Session. It may be a great fit for you.
All right, everyone, write long and prosper.
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061
or in your podcast home of choice.
***
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth BaranySHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade***
CONNECT
Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#contact
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/
CREDITS
EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465
***
For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.
If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.
The post 8 Steps to Unlock Your Writing Process appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.
