Let's Write Your Novel!
Let’s Write Your Novel! is a place where writers with a story on their hearts will find the clarity they need to finally write their novels. If you want to write a novel, or you’ve started writing and gotten stuck, let this podcast serve as your toolbox for crafting a solid story that will connect with readers. Each short episode will give you one skill or strategy to apply to planning, drafting and/or revising your novel. We’ll also take time to explore the other equally important things that come with this process, such as accountability, mindset, and time management. Your story matters. You deserve to write it and you have a reader out there who needs it. Stephanie Dethlefs is a writer, certified book coach, teacher, and lifelong avid reader. She is the author of the middle grade novel Unspoken and numerous published essays and articles. She lives in Pacific NW Washington with her family, two cats and a spunky pup.
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 8 minutes
- Episodes
- 65
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2023
Writing for Young Readers
"Writing for kids is easier than writing for adults." WRONG! Writing for young readers takes the same amount of consideration as writing for adults, plus we have to consider their developmental stage…
Improve your narrative voice with mentor texts
VOICE is one of those elements of writing a novel that is hard to explain...which makes it hard to learn! In today's episode, I'm teaching you how to study a mentor text to learn what makes the voice…
How to Use Craft Resources
There is a LOT of writing advice out there. So how do we navigate it in an intentional and useful way? In this episode I share my strategy for learning and improving my own writing while staying focu…
Describing Human Characters Well
Yep, 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, o…
Tie Your Scenes Together
We've all run into the problem of finding ourselves in plot territory that we weren't expecting and not knowing how to get out of it. In this episode, I give you a - dare I say? - magical phrase tha…
How to Revise
You've finished your first draft of your novel. Congratulations! Now what? In this episode, I give you a specific, concrete strategy for approaching revision. It doesn't make the work of revision eas…
Got Feedback...Now What?
You just received the feedback you requested on your pages. What now? In this episode, we take three steps toward using this feedback effieciently and effectively (without crawling under the covers).…
Building Tension: Not Just for Thrillers
Tension within a story is what keeps the reader turning the page, wanting to find out what happens next. But aside from arguments and full-blown battles, how does a writer build tension in a story? I…
The Elevator Pitch
#043 "What is your book about?" It's a daunting question, and many working writers aren't in the position to answer it. But having a concise summary of the what and why of your book is beneficial, n…
How Much of This Story is YOUR Story?
#042 Writers bring ourselves to our fiction in big and small ways, but we don't always recognize that we're doing it. In this week's episode. we'll explore some of the ways we put ourselves in our …
Minimum Viable Writing
#041 How much should I be writing? Am I writing enough? These are questions that plague writers, especially those of us who have busy lives outside of writing. And we usually answer ourselves with a…
3 Ways to Use Your Reading Life to Revise
#040 We all know the maxim that writers should be avid readers. But did you know that part of the reason is because your reading life can add to your revision strategies? In this episode, we look a…
Writing Buddies, Critique Groups and Coaches...Oh My!
#039 You want to join a "writing group," but do you know exactly what you're looking for? In this episode, we'll make the distinction between writing buddies and critique groups, as well as between …
Show vs. Tell: What Does This Even Mean?
#038 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 t…
Where is your narrator standing in time?
#037 Is your narrator telling the story from the future or from the present? This is a crucial question to ask as you set out to write your story. In this episode, we talk about why it matters and h…
Commitment to Writing a Novel
#036 What does your commitment to your writing look like? This is what we explore in this quick but essential episode. Without commitment, it won't get done. Let's explore what commitment means and…
Anatomy of a Writing Practice
#035 There is more to an effective writing practice than simply writing. In this episode, I break down the seven (plus one) things you want to do on a regular basis in order to grow as a writer an…
Revising Along the Way
#034 Don't save your revision until you've written an entire first draft...revise along the way! In this episode we discuss the value of intentionally revising a little bit each week, starting from…
What Kind of Feedback Do You Need?
#033 We might think that all we have to do is hand our pages to someone and say, "Let me know what you think!" But there are types of feedback that are useful (and not so useful) at each stage of th…
Keep Your Language Active
#032 The man was running down the street. The man ran down the street. One of these sentences contains active language, while the one is passive. How do we know, and why does it matter? This is wh…