by Stephanie Dethlefs | Sep 7, 2021 | First Draft, Planning your book, Revision, writing craft
When I think of tension in a story, my first thought is of suspense. We are waiting for something to jump out of a dark corner or for the final confrontation between hero and villain. Our bodies are tense, preparing for what my 13-year-old son calls “the jump-scare.”...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Aug 24, 2021 | Book Coaching, First Draft, Inner critic, Mindset, writing craft, writing life
I once heard the author Elizabeth Gilbert say, and I’m paraphrasing here, that a reader would likely find more of herself in her works of fiction than her works of memoir. The truth is that all writers bring themselves to their stories, no matter if the story is...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Aug 2, 2021 | Book Coaching, First Draft, Getting feedback, writing life
We’ve talked here about having people read your work in progress and give you feedback. We’ve talked about when to do it, how to ask for it, and who to ask. (Check out this post and this post.) But what I realized we haven’t really done is explore the different labels...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Jul 6, 2021 | First Draft, Revision, writing craft
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 really overused and...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Jun 15, 2021 | First Draft, Planning your book, Revision, writing craft
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 present with it. We...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | May 18, 2021 | First Draft, Getting feedback, Revision, writing craft, Writing schedule
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 process, despite...
