by Stephanie Dethlefs | Nov 30, 2021 | First Draft, Reading for Writers, writing craft, writing life
VOICE. It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot among writers. With good reason: it’s one of the most important skills you can master, because it’s what brings a narrator and/or a character to life. But it’s also one of the hardest to explain, to grab...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Nov 2, 2021 | Reading for Writers, writing craft, writing life
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of writing advice that’s out there? I do. It is exhausting. I have a huge pile of writing books I have yet to get to, a bunch of writing podcasts I barely have time to listen to, and writer upon writer that I follow on...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Oct 26, 2021 | First Draft, Revision, writing craft, writing life
Let’s talk about describing human characters well. That’s right, humans. Not fantastical flying creatures or beings from other worlds. Plain old, everyday humans. Which means that we don’t have the luxury of quite as much space on the page to describe them, or...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Oct 12, 2021 | First Draft, Planning your book, Revision, Uncategorized, writing craft
It’s a really common problem that a writer will be writing along, discovering what comes next as they write, and before they know it they have taken a path they weren’t expecting and wound up in some plot territory that they don’t really want to be in. Today...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Oct 5, 2021 | Getting feedback, Revision, writing craft
How do we revise a novel? It’s a big job, that’s for certain. When faced with the task, writers often fall into the trap of making small fixes, such as grammar, sentence structure and word choice that would be much better held off until after the big fixes...
by Stephanie Dethlefs | Sep 28, 2021 | Accountability, Book Coaching, Getting feedback, Inner critic, Revision, writing craft, writing life
What happens after you’ve received some feedback, whether it was from a loved one, a beta reader, or an editor? We all know that getting feedback on your writing is an important part of the process, but where do you start when you’ve got pages and pages of notes?...
