Hello Writer’s Podcast + Blog
Show vs. Tell: What Does This Even Mean?
Have you heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”? Have you ever had a reader suggest that you “show” as scene rather than just explain it? And have you wondered what the heck they mean or how in the world to do it? The concept of showing vs. telling is...
Where is your narrator standing in time?
There are three simple ways that we consider time: present, past, and future. Let’s think for a moment about how these impact the way we tell a story. If we tell a story about something that just happened moments ago, we are really still in the...
Commitment
We are going to tackle a kind of sticky topic today: commitment. It’s sticky because to digging into this topic means really looking at what you are currently doing and what goals you have set for yourself, and noticing whether or not they are in...
Anatomy of a Writing Practice
Writers write, right? Isn't that all there is to it? If we really look at what will provide growth and improvement in both writing and confidence, there are a few other activities that should be a part of all of our lives. [button...
Revising Along the Way
There is high value in revising along the way. What I mean by this is revising even while you are still writing your first draft. In the last post, where we talked about getting feedback at every stage, I made the point that writing is not a linear...
Find Ways to Love the Work.
Writing is hard, and it isn't always fun. In order to get through the hard parts, we have to learn to love the work. Inspiration is easy to love. So are excitement, enthusiasm, and motivation. But sometimes those things are lacking. And we are left...
What Kind of Feedback Do You Need?
I’ve talked before about how important it is to get feedback on your writing at all stages of the writing process. But what does that feedback look like? There are many different types of feedback you can ask for, and many different ways it can be...
Keep Your Language Active
Some might argue that what I’m going to talk about today, which is using active rather than passive language, is something that can be fixed later, in revisions and edits, and that’s definitely true. But let's look at it as more of a mindset more...
3 Steps to Define the Genre of Your Book
This post originally appeared on Medium in April 2021. Highlights are from readers. There are three steps we should all take to clarify and confirm the genre of the books we are writing. Let’s talk first about why it’s important to know, I...
Use a Mentor Text to Up Your Writing Game
This post originally appeared on Medium in March 2021. Highlights are from readers. We all know that it’s important for writers to also be avid readers. But today I want to talk about what it means to study a book for certain structural elements or...
