by Stephanie Dethlefs | Aug 31, 2021 | Book Coaching, Mindset, Planning your book, Revision, writing craft, writing life
The idea of the elevator pitch comes from the old Hollywood days. Back then, a writer might happen to find themselves on an elevator with a studio exec. The wisdom was, you should always have a pitch for a movie ready when that happened. You have the executive stuck...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Aug 10, 2021 | Mindset, Reading for Writers, Revision, writing craft, writing life
You’ve likely heard the nugget of wisdom that to be an effective writer, you should also be an avid reader. This is true for many reasons. You get sparks of ideas. You understand how a story is structured. You internalize what is effective and what isn’t. You grow...
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 25, 2021 | Accountability, Getting feedback, Planning your book, Revision, writing craft, Writing schedule
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. Listen to podcast episode #35: Anatomy...
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...
