TL;DR: We’re moving to an archive site! There are many seasons for different things. We’ve had fun and learned lots here on the blog, thanks for joining as we’ve journeyed through writing strategies, time management, self care, social justice, and of course lots of bonus extras! And now it is time for the blog to […]
Best Wishes for 2025!
Hello my dear writers and readers! It’s been a quick minute since I’ve written last and I hope you’re all doing well! And I hope you’ll all join me in enjoying these beautiful liminal days between the Christmas chaos and the start of the New Year! <3 It’s so important and valuable to take time […]
Writing Life: Four Reminders I Needed To Hear
Sometimes I feel like I’m learning the same lessons over and over again. The cycles and seasons of life keep turning and there is always more to learn, do, discover, and re-learn all over again! It can be important and oh-so-valuable to lean into these truths and reminders of things we’ve learned before. Today we’re […]
Happy Holidays 2023
A very merry Holiday season to you all! The days are flying by, the Christmas songs are playing on the radio, and there are colored lights everywhere we look! In the spirit of giving thanks at this special time, I extend a very heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you for being here today as […]
Guest Post with The Novel Smithy: Non-Western Storytelling
In case you missed it, I recently had the privilege of guest posting over at The Novel Smithy. The Novel Smithy is a great community of writers with lot of helpful info, resources, and things happening! My guest post spends some time overviewing a few Non-Western Storytelling models, which was a super interesting topic to […]
Outlining an Epic Adventure With the Hero’s Journey
Today we have the great privilege of having Lewis Jorstad with us to share about how to use the Hero’s Journey to outline our stories. Lewis is an editor and book coach who also leads the thriving writing community over at The Novel Smithy. Without further ado- take it away, Lewis! Outlining an Epic Adventure […]
Bethany’s Best: Summer 2023
School buses are on the roads again and fall is on its way! Which means it’s time for our seasonal review of all the best things of summer 🙂 These are just a few of the books I’ve been reading and things that have caught my attention over the past few months. Feel free to […]
Finding Your Character’s Energy Motivators: Ether
Today we have the privilege of having Deborah-Zenha Adams as our guest to teach us a bit about how we can use the concept of chakras to add depth to our fiction characters. For further reading on creating characters you can check out the character development archives. Looking at chakras as a way to build […]
Why Do You Write? Because Motives Matter
Understanding our motives for writing is vital. Whether it’s a novel, a thesis, or a set of songs, many of us have creative endeavors we are pursuing. And that begs the question: Why? What is our motivation? Why do we write? Why do YOU write? This isn’t just curiosity asking. While I love to hear […]
Bethany’s Best: Spring 2023
Happy June and bring on the sunshine! We’re speeding toward summer so it’s time to bring you the latest quarterly installment of my favorite things along with what I’ve been reading and learning these days. Feel free to chime in with your own favorites below! I hope your spring is wrapping up well and that […]
Preparation + Opportunity = Luck
Writing a novel takes luck… but not how we might think. We may say, oh they were lucky they had time to write or that they were so talented. Or they were lucky to write in a popular genre and get a good publishing deal. While there is some truth here (many authors are quite […]
Writing Well: The First 10 Pages
Earlier in the month we took a look at the importance of crafting satisfying endings to our story. Today we’re backtracking a bit to look at the story’s start! The first page (and often the first sentence!) of our novel needs to hook our readers and introduce them to our story. It is critical that […]
Writing Well: Satisfying Story Endings
What are the qualities of a “good” book? Everyone has different aspects they enjoy when they’re reading, whether it’s humor, worldbuilding, or a tricksy plot. And no novel can (or should!) try to please everyone, that’s just a recipe for a mess! But there are core components of storytelling we should strive for that are […]
Fun For Writers And Book-Nerds
Today we’re not taking anything too seriously, we’re just having a bit of fun! Fun is important after all 🙂 Sometimes we think we’re too busy for fun, too busy to take a break, too busy to be happy. That can’t be healthy. In fact, sometimes taking breaks can actually lead to increased productivity by […]
Time Management for Writers
For writers (and probably everyone!) time management will always be crucial. Life gets busy so quickly and before you know it, the day (or week/month/year!) has flown right by. Even if the stars align and I have a bunch of time on my hands, somehow it still is difficult to get everything done. So what […]