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
3 Steps to Define the Genre of Your Book
#031 The genre of your book is one of the first things you need to decide for a number of reasons, not the least of which is getting it on the shelves for readers to find. In this episode, we're ta…
Mental Health and Your Writing Life
#029 Creativity can both impact and support our mental health. But when our mental health is already challenged, how do we find the focus to write? In today's episode, I get personal about my own e…
How to Ask For (and Receive) Feedback
#028 Getting feedback on your writing is a critical part of the process. But when, and how? In this episode, we talk about practical steps to asking someone for specific feedback AND address those …
How to Read Like a Writer
We all know that writers should also be avid readers. But do you know what it looks like to actually study a book to see what makes it work? In this episode, we're exploring what it means to read li…
Build Your Support System
#025 Who supports you in your writing goals? Who is giving you regular feedback? Who is your writing community? In this episode, we are busting the myth that writers need to work in isolation, and …
Hook Your Reader Right From the Start
#024 If you can grab your reader by the collar in your first page, first paragraph, or even the first sentence, you are more likely to keep them engaged through the rest of the book. In today's epi…
Goal-Setting Part 2: Getting Specific
#021 So you've clarified your big idea - you know what you will write next and why. (No? Go back and listen to episode #20!) Now it's time to get into the nitty-gritty of when and what you will writ…
Goal-Setting Part 1: The Big Picture
#020 What do you want to write in 2021? In this final episode of 2020 (and the first in a two-part series) we talk about effective goal setting for your next project. Part 1 is to clarify the big p…
Two Things to Know Before Starting Your Story
#019 There are a million things that you could know before you start writing. Or perhaps you prefer to know nothing, to see where the blank page takes you. In this short but essential episode, I of…
What Are You Telling Yourself?
#018 What do you tell yourself about your writing? That it's fabulous, or that it's not so great? That you have all the time in the world, or that you never can find enough? That you are the only p…
3 Reasons to Plan Your Story
#016 Are you a plotter or a pantser? Not sure? A plotter plans out her story in advance, while a pantser flies by the seat of...well, you get it. Today, a life-long pantser tells you why she's beco…
New Ideas (and What To Do With Them)
While having lots of ideas for writing projects seems like a good problem to have, those "shiny objects" can quickly become a distraction from your work-in-progress. In today's episode, we're talking…
Discover Your Best Time to Write
#014 We're back! This year has been difficult, and many of us are finding it challenging to do creative work. In this episode, we're talking about how to find the best time of day to write given our…
What Is It Really About?
#012 Have you ever read or heard a story that left you uninterested or unengaged or just plain bored? A trap that novelists can easily fall into is that of not knowing (or not sharing) what the stor…
What Are You Waiting For?
#011 We all have something we wish could be different, that we think will somehow make our circumstances better for our writing. Maybe it's more time, a better space, brilliant ideas... If we wait …
The 60-Day Plan for Writing Practice
#010 (Part 3 of 3) This is the final episode of the three-part series about The 60-Day Plan, and it's where we get into the nuts and bolts! How do you schedule and plan for writing sessions that wil…
The 60-Day Plan: Goals and Craft Development
#009 (Part 2 of 3) The 60-Day Plan is more than just writing. It also includes setting a goal that produces a specific result, as well as zeroing in on a specific craft skill we'd like to further r…
The 60-Day Plan Mindset
#008 (Part 1 of 3) The 60-Day Plan is a tool that has changed my writing practice and upleveled my productivity. This is the first of three episodes where we dive into the 60-Day Plan and implement …
How do you practice?
#007: What does it even mean to "practice" writing? What else is there to do besides, well, write? This is the question we explore in today's short episode. We look at some examples of practice acti…
The ONE Thing to Stop Doing Right Now
#006 To compare ourselves to others is a completely normal and human instinct. But, when it comes to writing and writers, comparison can mean a quick death to our motivation. In this short episode …