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The post Dictating Fiction: Tools and Workflow – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 224 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

PhD to Business part 1 by Bailey Lang

Guest Contributor — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:41 +0000

Let’s welcome back Bailey Lang as she shares with us “PhD to Business part 1.” Enjoy!

***

When I finished my PhD in rhetoric and writing studies in 2021, I knew I wasn’t going to stay in academia.

The pandemic had all but obliterated the job market (which hadn’t been in great shape before that), and I was deeply burned out.

I did not want to continue burning myself out for an unlikely shot at a tenure-track role — but neither did I want to go back to a corporate job.

Instead, I built my own business.

I’m now a book coach, the Literary Witch, and my work allows me to combine my academic writing studies expertise with everything I love about supporting writers.

Plus, I get to introduce my own weird, witchy flair in a way that brings real magic to my working life and what I offer to my clients.

As I built my business, I started meeting people who followed a similar path: They got a PhD and, at some point, they became entrepreneurs.

Some launched a company as soon as they graduated; others had positions as lecturers or professors and left those roles.

The PhD-to-business path was almost never discussed during my time as a graduate student.

Many of the people I interviewed shared that experience.

Despite the fact that there are not enough faculty jobs for everyone with a PhD, too few graduate students are presented with any advice beyond trying to stay in academia at all costs.

This gap leaves many graduate students in the dark about alternate career trajectories.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, as people I spoke with pointed out, but it is a rich, interesting path forward, and one that allows PhDs to use their skills to make a difference and build a career they love.

To start, we’ll learn about the business each scholar created and why they chose to leave academia.

Next time, we’ll talk about the lessons they’ve learned throughout the process.

Allow me to introduce you to some of my colleagues and share what I learned from them about building a business after finishing a PhD.

- Taylor Allbright, Allbright Coaching.

Taylor has a PhD in education policy.

Her dissertation was on the implementation of racial justice-intended initiatives at the school and district level.

Taylor is an ADHD coach.

- Kate Henry, Productivity Coach.

Kate has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies.

Her dissertation was on the woman who wrote the first lesbian magazine in the U.S. Kate is a productivity coach.

- Amelia Hruby, Off the Grid.

Amelia has a PhD in philosophy. Her dissertation was on feminist aesthetics.

Amelia is a podcast producer and the creator of Off The Grid.

- Jessica Kirk, Aspen Gold Consulting.

Jessica has a PhD in management and entrepreneurship.

Her dissertation and research focused on management, gender, sexual harassment, and diversity.

Jessica is a consultant.

- Jenn McClearen, Publish Not Perish.

Jenn has a PhD in media studies.

Her dissertation was about women in the UFC.

Jenn is an academic writing coach and developmental editor.

- Katy Peplin, Thrive PhD.

Katy has a PhD in film, television, and media studies.

Her dissertation was about the history of animals on screen.

Katy is a coach and community facilitator.

How would you describe your business?

Taylor Allbright

I am an ADHD coach, and I work with professionals who are having executive functioning challenges.

My typical client is someone who is very bright, very accomplished, who is in a PhD program or on the tenure track, or is a doctor or a senior software engineer, or they have these fancy titles.

They have these degrees, and then they hit a ceiling in how far they can go without figuring out how to support their overall executive functioning.

They’re dealing with procrastination, following through, stress management, and then perfectionism, burnout, all the things that go with executive function challenges.

It’ll be people who got by either with a lot of adrenaline and pulling all-nighters, or they happen to be very quick and catch on quickly and could slide by.

I bounced around with different business ideas.

I looked more for a while into general life coaching and stuff around burnout and self-care.

I thought about doing a dissertation coaching business, and then I ended up on ADHD coaching.

My husband has ADHD.

I do not, which is unusual in the ADHD coaching world, from my experience.

My husband, early in our relationship, asked for help finding support around ADHD.

I found out what ADHD coaching was, and I had the thought, “Wow, what a cool job! I wish I could do that.”

And then I put it away because I was like, “I can’t do that. Why would I do that?”

When I was playing around with different ideas for a business, I kept returning to that thought, and finally I was like, “Well, I could do that. Of course I could if I wanted to.”

I started a Substack about ADHD, did a lot of research about ADHD and learned a lot that way, and then enrolled in an ADHD coach credentialing program.

It was very clear that it was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to be working on.

Kate Henry

As soon as I graduated, I knew I wanted to start my business coaching academics, doing productivity coaching.

A couple of years before I finished the PhD, I was publishing online, I was writing blogs, and I was starting to practice coaching.

Over time, I have niched into productivity coaching and supporting project management for people who are in the final stages of finishing a writing project.

People who are like, “I’m out of time, and I have to finish.”

I love working with grad students on their dissertations, but the majority of my clients are professors who are a couple of years from getting tenure and trying to get everything done and not burn themselves out too much with that.

Amelia Hruby

I was a freelance audio editor for a decade (including through graduate school), and for the past five years, I’ve run a podcast production company called Softer Sounds.

I work for myself with a small team of editors and admin support.

This year my work has shifted toward my podcast Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media, where I help creatives make money online without relying on social media.

Jessica Kirk

It’s a consulting business, so I’m working with organizations.

I work with founders in small founder-led firms, and I’m trying to get more business within larger organizations on building capabilities and better ways of working.

A lot of that looks like leader development, learning development programs, or redesigning how people work together with a very strong people focus.

There’s some emphasis on AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) because of my engineering background.

But I have clients that are not in that industry.

I’m still pretty early on in my business, so it’s still evolving.

I taught entrepreneurship at Colorado, and I’m teaching entrepreneurship currently at the University of Missouri St. Louis as an adjunct.

It is a different experience doing it than teaching it.

Jenn McClearen

I do two major modes of work with people that are sometimes separate and sometimes in combination.

I am a coach for academics on writing specifically, and then navigating how you manage the whole job.

I also do developmental editing of the manuscripts themselves.

I always say coaching is working with and supporting a writer, and developmental editing is supporting the writing.

On the coaching side of things, we’re talking about time management or priority management, and working through mindsets that are helpful or hinder getting your writing done, or how you feel about the writing itself.

With developmental editing, I primarily work with book authors who are trying to manage a big, unwieldy project, sometimes for the first time, and they haven’t been trained on what the book genre should actually look like.

I work with scholars in the humanities and the qualitative social sciences, people who are in disparate fields.

I’m getting to dig into these projects or hear about their work in ways that I wasn’t able to as a faculty member, which has been a nice advantage.

Katy Peplin

I founded Thrive PhD in 2017 because I didn’t want all the work I had done to get myself through graduate school to be lost when I left academia.

I now facilitate workshops, teach courses, coach groups and individuals, and facilitate communities for anyone who wants to be a scholar without sacrificing their humanity.

I work primarily with graduate students and early career faculty, but I especially love working with people who are ‘non-traditional’ in some way or another.

I love helping people build a foothold in academia who don’t already have a clear path up that particular mountain.

What made you decide to start a business vs. staying in academia or getting a corporate job?

Taylor Allbright

I had a baby.

Plenty of people have babies and stay in academia.

But there was a little voice that was like, “I don’t know if I like this.”

I was going, “No, it’s great, I love it,” trying to convince myself that I liked it more than I did.

There was a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, that it wasn’t quite a good fit.

There was this confusion in discerning what I liked to do versus what I’m good at doing, and disentangling those.

When I was on maternity leave, I struggled a lot with postpartum depression.

I dreaded going back.

I didn’t want to go back to work — and it wasn’t because I wanted to spend time with my baby.

I had postpartum depression.

I did not want to spend time with my baby.

I started listening to a podcast called The Self-Compassionate Professor, and she was interviewing a lot of people who had left academia.

There was one person who made the decision to leave, also on maternity leave.

She described having this moment where she was like, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

I was like, “I also don’t want to do this anymore. I feel that way too.”

It started out with listening to the stories of people who had left and envying them.

I had a tenure-track job in a place that I wanted to live, and that’s the dream, right?

I did it.

I had all the things that are really hard to get in this terrible job market, in the way higher ED is set up, which is so unsustainable and manipulative to academics, and I did it.

I had the thing I wanted.

I had the benefits.

The pay was not bad for academia, for social sciences. So there was a lot of like, “I’m supposed to want this.”

And I didn’t.

I was in a privileged enough position, being married to a partner who was employed, that gave me the flexibility to take risks whereas if I had been single and dependent on that income for my survival, it would have looked quite different.

Kate Henry

I developed chronic pain and chronic illness in 2017, and didn’t know if I physically was capable of the pace and output that was required to be a professor.

Up until that point, my whole life, I wanted to be an English professor.

That’s when I started considering alternatives.

Throughout graduate school, I had been doing gigs anyway.

I was doing writing consultant work, or tutoring, or whatever.

I was used to having these nontraditional gigs.

I was actually very excited to do that, and I was very fortunate that my dissertation advisor was supportive as well.

She didn’t judge me; she was very supportive even though I was the only person in my graduating class who didn’t have a job.

Everyone from my program got jobs, and I was like, “No, I’m starting a business.”

I had a professor who was like, “Well, why did you even do the PhD if you weren’t going to go into academia?”

I was excited physically to be able to work from home, to set my own hours, to work with folks around the world in a timeline that worked for me.

I didn’t have the urgency of a publishing schedule or something like that.

That was really super appealing, and still is really appealing.

Amelia Hruby

In my last two years of graduate school, it became very clear to me that getting a job would be nearly impossible.

I watched my peers finish degrees, then work as adjuncts for 3-5 years before landing tenuous one-year lectureships and moving far away for those roles.

I wanted more financial independence and security than the academic humanities path offered, so I sought out part-time employment as I finished my PhD and developed my business alongside that.

I was full-time self-employed about a year after I conferred my degree.

Jessica Kirk

I took a tenure-track position at the University of Memphis and was there for five years.

It was a journey.

It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that this tenure-track academic path was not the right one for me.

I went through periods of, like, “I’m failing at this. I’m not getting publications I need to get or think I should be getting.”

I was losing motivation and wasn’t entirely sure why.

I have two kids that are donor-conceived, and when I was pregnant with my second, I was like, okay, if I’m going to have a second kid on my own, I need to be closer to family.

The isolation of research, even though you’ve got co-authors, was just not well-suited for me.

I’m more of an extrovert, and I like working with people.

With a lot of projects, I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.

I love research.

I love collecting the data and writing up a paper, but then I’m a year or two into rewriting to try to satisfy these reviewers.

I don’t even know what we’re studying anymore.

I did some work with the Hubble Space Telescope on redesigning the application process for time on their telescope.

It was a huge process because it’s like the telescope to get.

This was right before James Webb was launched.

I analyzed data and worked with them for a few years, and they actually paid for my last year at Colorado to help them redesign it to be more dual anonymous to try to reduce some of the bias in the process.

We got an award from NASA.

I got so much out of it, but nothing that came out of it helped at all for tenure.

Nothing.

No publication meant anything for tenure.

We published in an astronomical journal because people in that community were paying attention.

But it didn’t mean anything for tenure, and that felt misaligned for me. I’m doing work that has a real impact.

It’s very personally satisfying, and it doesn’t mean anything for what I’m trying to do.

I did apply for industry jobs for about a month.

I got my PMP.

I considered all the different paths I could take given my background and everything.

I was like, man, none of these jobs are like what I want to do.

I couldn’t find anything that leveraged the skills and experience that I had.

I always thought consulting would be a good fit for me, but so much of it’s like you have to travel, and I can’t.

I’ve got two young kids on my own, I can’t travel.

It came down to, I’m going to give myself the gift of seeing if this will work.

That is the way that I framed it.

Jenn McClearen

Right after I got my PhD, I moved to the University of Texas and was a lecturer for two years.

I was very much diehard: “I’m going to be in academia for a while.”

I ended up getting a position as an assistant professor, and at first, it was really, really good.

They literally wrote the job description for me.

I felt so blessed because that is not a story that you hear in academia.

It was like survivor’s guilt in a lot of ways.

Several things started happening politically with the pandemic, and the way Texas responded to that, sending us back into the classrooms way too early.

I was very angry about the way that the state government was intervening in our classrooms and our lives and our health.

A series of things just got worse and worse.

There was a greater incursion into how the university was being managed, in that they started attacking diversity and equity, and inclusion.

They outlawed centers around DEI and centers that were supporting marginalized students.

I decided I needed to find another pathway.

I developed my newsletter, Publish Not Perish, while I was still an assistant professor, and part of its goal was to make the system more transparent, to make people feel like they weren’t alone in writing struggles, or in the struggles of navigating academia in general.

I started thinking about ways that I might turn that into a job.

Not only was I dissatisfied with the politics in Texas, but my partner and I also didn’t enjoy living there.

We wanted more geographical freedom.

In academia, you have to go where the job is.

Going into business for myself meant I was able to live where we wanted to live.

We ended up moving to Europe.

I started my business here, which turned out to be a great decision, not just because of the way the politics in the U.S. have gone, but a really good personal decision for us.R

Katy Peplin

My husband took a new job out of state 6 months before I defended my PhD, and when I graduated, I decided to prioritize living in the same state (which was shocking and upsetting to much of my committee).

I actually worked a lot of different jobs after graduation (retail, managing a yoga studio, web design, scheduling in a doctor’s office, developmental editing) and built Thrive PhD along the way.

It’s been less of a conscious choice to be in or out of academia and more optimizing for what I want and need from my work at various points in my life.

Right now, flexibility is paramount (chronically ill parent life is not for the rigid schedule), so self-employment really suits me.

Final Thoughts

I loved learning from these entrepreneurs about how they formed their businesses and why they chose to strike out on their own, even after some of them secured a tenure-track job.

Our academic backgrounds and personal interests fueled the creation of our businesses in powerful and unique ways.

These conversations also reveal many of the structural inequalities that continue to plague higher ED and put people in a position where they have to make difficult choices about their future.

Some of those decisions might have been easier to make if more graduate programs held space to learn from PhD entrepreneurs.

In the next article, we’ll turn to the lessons these business owners have learned as they built their businesses — and what they love most about the careers they’ve created.

***

About the Author

Dr. Bailey Lang is the Literary Witch, a book coach who helps visionary authors reclaim their creative magic and finish their books.

Bailey has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies, and they love geeking out about writing, language, and magic.

You can sign up for Bailey’s free newsletter, Ink + Alchemy, for monthly missives that will help you build a writing practice you love.

Website

Newsletter

The post PhD to Business part 1 by Bailey Lang appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Rom-Com Vs Rom-Mystery? Turns Out They Use the Same Skills in Different Costumes by M. Jayne Ladow

Guest Contributor — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:06 +0000

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, M. Jayne Ladow who is stopping by to chat with us about “Rom-Com Vs Rom-Mystery? Turns Out They Use the Same Skills in Different Costumes.” Enjoy!

***

For many years, I thought of romantic comedies and mystery suspense romance as two separate muscles.

Write the funny one on Monday, write the tense one on Tuesday, and never let the two touch.

Recently, I mapped out both genres side by side in a Venn diagram — old teacher habits die hard — and realized the overlap wasn’t much larger than I’d imagined.

With this chart in hand, I stopped treating funny and suspenseful as opposite settings on a dial and started treating them as the same craft tool, aimed at two different questions: who did it and who do they love?

Withhold and Reveal

Both genres, mystery and romance, run on the same underlying mechanic: control what the reader knows, and when they find it out.

In the game of love, characters are not always honest with themselves or others.

Unspoken fears, insecurities, and personal beliefs feed the conflict. In mystery romance, a character might withhold a fact — a lie, an alibi, a character’s motives.

These characters all have a motive, and the fun becomes trying to untangle these details, motivations, and characters to own up to it.

Knowing the similarity helps me create a will-they-won’t-they arc into the plot.

They aren’t separate skills; you just need to point the same flashlight in a different direction.

Misdirection

Think about the charming suspect in a mystery — the one who’s a little too smooth or helpful, and you can’t tell if that’s suspicious or just his personality.

Now think about the rom-com love interest who seems too good to be true, and the heroine keeps waiting for the catch.

That’s the exact same reader-doubt mechanic.

One resolves with he’s innocent, the other with he’s not playing games, he’s just genuinely great.

Writers build the doubt with identical tools: charm, plus withheld information, plus a reader trained by genre to expect a twist.

This is also where the “red herring/ love interest” trope lives.

Mystery romance and rom-com both love the decoy — the rival suitor, the wrong suspect, the person the reader is led to believe matters more than they do.

It’s misdirection, and writers choose whether the reveal breaks a heart or solves a case.

Forced Proximity

Stakeouts.

Locked-downs.

Shared investigations.

Road trips.

Workplace romance.

Forced proximity is the most reliable trope in both genres because it generates chemistry and suspicion simultaneously.

Why does she keep turning up near the crime scene?

Why can’t he stop noticing her lips when she argues?

You don’t need two different scenes to build tension and romance.

One well-built proximity scene can carry both loads if you let the dialogue do double work: banter that’s also an interrogation, flirtation that’s also information-gathering.

Eccentric Side Characters

Every mystery has the witness who’s clearly holding something back.

Every rom-com has the best friend who is the voice of reason (just talk to him already, Karen).

Interesting side characters play both roles.

In a mystery, they know more than they’re telling.

In a Rom-Com, they sling the truth like shots at a party.

If you’re a mystery author stuck on how to reveal a plot fact naturally, borrow this trick: let it slip out (oops) through banter, deflection, or a joke that lands a little too close to the truth.

The Reveal

This is the trope I think is most underused on purpose: the big reveal in both genres asks the reader to mentally flip back through earlier chapters and see them differently.

The mystery reveal turns clues into evidence with a big a ha moment.

In rom-coms a grand gesture turns banter into “he’s loved her since chapter three.”

If you’re writing mystery romance, you get to do this twice — once for the case, once for the relationship — and the strongest books I’ve read stagger those reveals instead of stacking them on the same page, so neither one steals the other’s air.

The Takeaway

If you’re building a mystery romance or want to give your rom-com some real tension, don’t think of it as juggling two plots.

Map two timelines: a mystery clock and a romance clock — and ask, at every major beat, what’s being withheld on the romance side and suspense side, and who’s suspected of what on each side?

When you can answer both questions at every turning point, you’re not splitting your attention between two genres.

You’re using one skill, pointed in two directions at once.

That’s the whole trick.

Rom-com and mystery romance aren’t cousins who happen to get along.

They’re the same craft skills wearing two different outfits, and once you see the overlap, you’ll never plot either genre the same way again.

Two Mentor Texts for Your Venn Diagram

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne: Banter, comic timing, forced proximity, withhold and reveal, misdirection in an enemies-to-lovers rom-com.

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb: A police procedural running in parallel with a slow-burn romance. Forced proximity, withhold and reveal, misdirection, and eccentric side characters in a romantic mystery.

***

About the Author

M. Jayne Ladow writes rom-com and mystery romance where banter hides more heat than jokes.

Follow her on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook @mjayneladowauthor, read more on Substack at mjlong.substack.com, and visit mjladow.com for her full catalog and latest releases.

Freebie

Get a free copy of my first rom-com, One Night Stands and Lesson Plans.

Audrey Freemont, a professional middle school teacher, hasn’t had time or energy to find romance in five years.

When she sees Oz Taylor at a school happy hour, it’s one look, and they are sneaking out.

But after the one-night stand, reality catches up with them.

He’s the new algebra teacher at Marchfield Middle, and he wants more, but Audrey is caught between the world of expectations for teachers and her desire for more than a workaholic life.

The post Rom-Com Vs Rom-Mystery? Turns Out They Use the Same Skills in Different Costumes by M. Jayne Ladow appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Shamanic Writing: Traveling Between Fictional Worlds – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 223

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:10:20 +0000

Shamanic Writing: Traveling Between Fictional Worlds – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 223

“We are traveling all the time. We are traveling into our science fiction worlds, into our fantasy worlds, into worlds that we may not even have labels for at first.” – Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future episode titled ”Shamanic Writing: Traveling Between Fictional World” host Beth Barany, takes you on a journey and guides you through a thought-provoking episode on writer as shaman, sharing why writing is hard, and why you need to find your own path.

There’s also information on how to get support from Beth in the Edit lab (link below).

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 233 Shamanic Writing: Traveling Between Fictional Worlds

Writer as Shaman

BETH BARANY: Writer as shaman, especially science fiction and fantasy writers, we are traveling all the time.

We are traveling into our science fiction worlds, into our fantasy worlds, into worlds that we may not even have labels for at first. The word shaman I know has a very certain specific cultural background And there have been people and cultures around the world throughout human history who become specialists in being able to travel with their imagination into other realms.

And of course, there’s religions and movements: the New Age movement, personal development movement, trance work, channeling, healing work of all kinds. There are a lot of different ways that we as humans have, throughout our human evolution traveled with our imagination into other places and times and realms and dimensions.

It’s amazing, and I think the work of any artist, not just writers, is to travel and bring back what they discover into a form that others can feel and hear and smell and taste and imagine. So our work as science fiction and fantasy writers is this work, and this is also what makes it challenging.

[01:23] Why Writing Is Hard

There are a lot of emotional, psychological factors to being able to be a writer.

We need to be able to travel into another person’s experience and convey that through words. We need to be able to imagine things that we do not have in our daily lives and bring that back and explain it through words. So let’s not pretend this is easy. It is challenging. It is hard. But with the right kind of support and lots of nourishment for our bodies and our souls, and our imagination, we can do it.

[01:59] Find Your Own Path

And even though I grew up in a very creative family, I had to find my own way into being a fiction writer and because my passion has always been science fiction and fantasy, not the classics, not things that were assigned in school but things I read on my own, I had to find my own way into writing science fiction and fantasy. All that said, in today’s world there are so many resources out there on how to write science fiction and fantasy, how to edit it, market it, make money at it. It’s amazing.

So it’s still customized, though, to each of you. There is no one right way to go about it, although there are like rules of the road and ways that you can respect the way things have been done even while you innovate. I really encourage you to continue to innovate and don’t try to follow someone else’s path, but really listen to yourself, your own instincts, your own intuition, your own emotions, your own visions, ’cause that is where the magic is.

Your vision is unlike anybody else’s vision, so keep at it.

[03:03] Get Support and Feedback

And if you would like guidance and feedback, this is the time to search out support from beta readers, critique partners, your fellow writers, an editor, a coach like me; actually, I serve as a coach and an editor, or join our edit lab.

[03:19] Inside the Edit Lab

I just want to take a minute to share with you our edit lab.

This is for science fiction and fantasy writers who have finished their first draft or near to it and want to get ready for the editing process and want to learn editing tools in the company of other like-minded writers. We meet every month when you join the edit lab. We meet every month on a Zoom call, and we look at people’s words.

We do 250 words per person. We usually have two or three writers, sometimes more, sometimes less. We do a little bit of free writing with a prompt that you’re welcome to follow to give you some focus, and we answer questions. You bring your questions to us, and we answer them.

And not only that, but there’s already a library of premium podcast episodes for you to listen to that are just for the members, where I’ve answered your questions and I’ve also done teaching.

I have a whole edit-your-novel curriculum that you can access through these premium episodes. And if there are questions that you have that I haven’t answered there, you bring them to the call, you write me. I can make a specific episode just for you. And there’s more goodies coming. I’m always coming up with new material to answer your specific needs.

[04:38] Stuck Ask Better Questions

Everyone working on a science fiction and fantasy novel knows that their imagination is doing this amazing work, and I know your imagination is doing amazing work. And so honor the hard work that you’re doing. Bring your joy and enthusiasm to it, as I know you do. And if you’re stuck, that’s just a signal that it’s time to reach out for help.

Formulate your question. We’re doing magic with fiction. We’re weaving a spell. Asking a good question is like weaving a spell as well. And you have the power to ask a good question, and then you will find the answer by putting that question in the amazing search tools that we have nowadays with all the LLMs that are hooked up, and ask it to real people, to live people because the machines can only give you so much.

All right. So that is my little spiel today on writer as shaman.

[05:39] Shamanic Journey Steps

And what are the process? What are the steps of going into a shamanic journey? There’s an entryway. There is setting up into trance-like state, and then there’s an entryway, and then there is sometimes a guide who shows up in a shaman-shamanic vision that will take us to the upper world or to the lower world or to some new dimension.

So as you write, think of how you get yourself ready. That’s like setting up the trance-like state.

What is the initiation or the passage that you go through, the doorway? For some people, that’s setting a timer or turning on music, and then you enter, and sometimes you know where you’re going, and sometimes you don’t.

And then when it’s time to leave, there’s usually an exit clearly marked, and then you can close the session and thank the powers that be that guided you and your own power that brought you through this session.

[06:43] Practice and Farewell

Now, I don’t pretend to be a shaman in any traditional sense, but I feel like being a writer is like being a shaman.

We are going into another realm, and then we come back home to the ordinary realm. And we do this again and again day after day, and we get really good at it because we practice it. It’s the only way we get good at it is we do it a lot. If you have any questions about what I just shared here today or any of my offerings, let me know. I look forward to seeing you in the Edit Lab if that is your next step. All right, everyone. Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***

Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

Email: Beth@BethBarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Shamanic Writing: Traveling Between Fictional Worlds – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 223 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Tips for Preparing Your Estate and Literary Estate by Kelley Way

Guest Contributor — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:00:48 +0000

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Kelley Way as she shares with us “Tips for Preparing Your Estate and Literary Estate.” Enjoy!

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Preparing Your Estate for the Person Who Comes After You

There is more to estate planning (literary or otherwise) than putting together a will and trust.

That is the most basic part of estate planning.

A more advanced part of estate planning is setting things up to make things easier for the person who comes after you.

The will and trust tells everyone who’s in charge and where everything goes, but they don’t tell the person what they’re in charge of or how to manage your estate until it’s time to distribute.

By answering these questions, you make things much easier for your future executor/trustee, which is the whole point of the estate planning process.

Creating an Inventory of Your Assets

The first step to preparing your estate is making a list or spreadsheet of everything in it.

You can use whatever format you’re comfortable with, but make sure all your bank accounts, investments, real estate property, and other assets are included.

One of the hardest parts of estate administration is finding everything the person owned, so this will be a huge help for your executor/trustee.

Providing Access and Important Information

The next step is to provide the information they will need to access these assets.

If you have advisors you work with, or specific contacts at a financial institution, make a list of these people and their contact information.

If your executor/trustee needs passwords to access something, make sure to provide them.

Documenting How Your Assets Are Managed

The third step is only for assets that need active management, such as rental properties.

If you have systems in place for how you manage these assets, write those systems down and keep them with the other two lists, so the person can hit the ground running and make a smooth transition into this management role.

Keeping Your Estate Documents Safe

The last step is to keep all these documents somewhere safe, where they’re unlikely to be lost, stolen, or destroyed.

Ideally, they will be kept with your will and trust, so everything is in the same place.

Then tell your future executor/trustee where to find them, so they can step in quickly when the time comes.

A Special Note for Authors and Literary Estates

A special note for authors: preparing your estate for your future executor/trustee is even more crucial, because your literary estate (i.e. your copyrights, contracts, royalties etc.) is one that will need active management to keep the income coming in.

Prepare your general estate as outlined above, but have a special list or spreadsheet for your copyrights, contracts, literary contacts etc., so your executor/trustee can start managing your literary estate right away.

I recently was a guest on the Novel Marketing podcast where we did a deep dive on this topic and discussed what happens to your copyright after you die; you can listen to or watch it on YouTube here.

Final Thoughts

If you have questions or want assistance with your estate plan, feel free to email me at kaway@kawaylaw.com.

***

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***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelley Way was born and raised in Walnut Creek, California. She graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in English, followed by a Juris Doctorate. Kelley is a member of the California Bar, and an aspiring writer of young adult fantasy novels. More information at kawaylaw.com.

The post Tips for Preparing Your Estate and Literary Estate by Kelley Way appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

The Top Book Description Mistakes SFF Authors Make by Morgan Lee Clasper

Guest Contributor — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:00:41 +0000

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, Morgan Lee Clasper who is stopping by to chat with us about “The Top Book Description Mistakes SFF Authors Make.” Enjoy!

***

Science fiction and fantasy authors face a unique problem when it comes to writing our book descriptions.

We often have stories that are rich in world-building, characters, factions, magic systems, technology, and lore.

But our book descriptions can’t showcase all of those things.

When authors try to fit everything into their blurb, they end up with a long, confusing synopsis that nobody wants to read.

I’m a fantasy author myself, so I know this struggle firsthand — and after working with hundreds of SFF authors as a copywriter, I’ve collected a list of the top mistakes authors often fall into.

As a quick note: I use the terms blurb and book description interchangeably, and I do so throughout this article.

Explaining your world instead of your story

SFF stories have big worlds.

Whether it’s a sweeping fantasy realm or a galaxy-spanning star system, authors are tempted to use their blurb as a place to flex and show off their elaborate world-building.

The issue is that this can quickly cause your blurb to snowball into a big, confusing mess.

If you spend 2-3 paragraphs setting up your world before introducing us to your main character, you risk turning readers away.

Don’t get me wrong — world-building is awesome.

But it’s often not enough on its own to get prospective readers invested.

A good blurb works when:

something interesting happens
to a character we care about.

For example, instead of explaining the rules of your magic system or technology, you might simply tell us that your protagonist is the only one capable of using it, or that doing so will cost them something they desperately want.

As a practical test, ask yourself:

“If I removed this piece of world-building from my blurb, would readers struggle to understand what my protagonist wants, what stands in their way, or why it matters?”

Many times, world-building is best saved for your book, and not the blurb.

Introducing your entire cast

SFF books are (in)famous for their big casts.

You may have multiple point-of-view characters, each with their own important subplot, painstakingly crafted to weave together before culminating in a big finale.

Naturally, authors want to include all of their book’s main players in their blurb.

The problem is that instead of making your blurb more tense and compelling, it actually diffuses tension because it pulls readers in multiple different directions.

As a general rule, name only the characters that are essential to your premise.

For many books, this means 2 or 3 protagonists and perhaps a major antagonist.

For the remaining characters, roles or titles can often do the job (i.e., mentor, king, wizard, sister).

This has two major benefits:

It introduces a character without requiring readers to familiarize themselves with a name.
A role or title gives your character an immediate identity. We might not know who Major Cromwell of the Ninth Division is, but we understand the concept of a spaceship pilot.

When deciding whether to name a character in your book description, ask yourself, “Does this person need a name, or can I find a title that suits them?”

Forcing readers to learn intricate terminology

Likewise, many SFF authors fill their blurb with complex in-universe terminology.

However, forcing readers to grapple with unfamiliar names rips them out of the blurb and keeps them from getting invested.

Consider the following example:

When Commander Davis of the Solis Division receives a distress call from the Procyon Alliance that the Craxuts are invading…

This may seem a little egregious, but it’s not too dissimilar to real book descriptions I’ve read before.

Every unfamiliar name or term adds resistance, forcing readers to do mental work.

What would happen if we replaced these in-universe terms with more general archetypes?

When elite intergalactic Commander Davis receives a distress call that a hostile alien race is attacking Earth’s closest allies…

This version conveys the same essential plot information, but it gives the reader specific mental imagery.

Archetypes like mage, warrior, assassin, dragon rider, alien race, or starship carry enormous amounts of information.

Instead of thinking that this will lose what makes your story unique, think of it like using handy shortcuts that make things easier to understand.

Authors, ask yourself, “Is this specific term essential to my blurb, or is there an ordinary word that can communicate the same idea?”

Explaining too much

The result of the above three mistakes is writing a blurb that feels like a summary.

Even if it’s packed chock-full of events, it still feels flat because it reads like “this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens…”

Rather than trying to cram your whole 100k word novel into your book description, authors should focus on one specific angle.

Think of your description as choosing a single lens through which readers will view the story.

Your protagonist may have several desires, and there may be plenty of problems and obstacles standing in their way.

Your job is to identify the combination that best represents what makes your book compelling.

Everything else can be left in the background.

You can use the following framework to help guide your book description:

Protagonist > Desire > Problem > Escalating Consequences > An Unanswered Question

This isn’t a rigid formula, but it does give you a simple path to follow.

This way, readers can understand the premise of your novel without requiring you to explain everything that happens.

Explaining too little

Bear with me, because I know this sounds paradoxical.

Authors learn that they’re supposed to simplify, simplify, simplify their plot, and they take it to heart.

Then they end up writing a blurb that effectively tells readers nothing.

Consider these examples:

A team of ragtag adventurers embarks on a quest to defeat a Dark Lord.
A young pilot must stop an alien invasion before Earth is destroyed.

Both of these are simplified, alright, but they could also describe a dozen other books on the market.

Likewise, authors often collapse their protagonist’s journey into vague language like “faces impossible odds” and “overcomes great challenges”.

These descriptors give readers nothing concrete to latch onto.

A good book description walks a fine line between over- and under-explaining.

While complex world-building and terminology count as “bad” specificity, you want to give the reader enough “good” specificity to make your premise memorable and distinct.

Compare these examples:

“An old warrior must pick up his sword again and fight an evil invading force in order to save his kingdom.”

Versus

“Edwin laid down his sword years ago. But when a monstrous army rises in the Outer Lands, he must become the hero — and the killer — he swore he’d left behind.”

In the second example, we have a distinct protagonist, a clear situation, a specific conflict, and an implied moral dilemma.

We did all of this while avoiding the earlier pitfalls.

The problem isn’t over-explaining per se.

It’s adding specificity that requires excessive explanation.

Ask yourself, “Can my blurb’s details be more specific without requiring me to spend an extra sentence or two explaining things?”

Forgetting to tell readers what kind of story they’re in for

A good SFF blurb doesn’t merely tell readers what happens in your story.

It also tells them what kind of story they’re getting.

For example, a genre like science fiction has an immense number of smaller niches:

Space opera
Military SF
First contact
Cyberpunk
Post-apocalyptic fiction
Alien invasion
Space exploration

Each of these subgenres brings a different reading experience and a slightly different audience.

Likewise, fantasy books aren’t a monolith.

Readers might be looking for:

Epic fantasy
Cozy fantasy
Romantasy
Progression fantasy
LITRPG
Urban fantasy
Dark fantasy

Your blurb should give readers enough signals to tell what kind of niche your book belongs in.

If your story contains a particular trope, such as found family or enemies-to-lovers, it’s good to mention because it draws in readers who enjoy those kinds of stories.

Your blurb’s goal isn’t to appeal to all SFF fans.

Instead, its job is to appeal to the right kind of SFF readers.

Your blurb should also match the tone of your book.

A cozy fantasy and a grimdark will use different word choices and “feel” different to read, and a satirical space opera shouldn’t sound like military SF.

Authors, read your current blurb and ask yourself, “Can I tell what subgenre my book belongs in?”

Conclusion

These are some of the biggest mistakes that I see cropping up again and again in sci-fi and fantasy blurbs.

If you can avoid these pitfalls, you’ll be one step closer to writing an engaging blurb that puts your book in the hands of the right readers.

As a quick closing summary, your blurb should:

Focus on your protagonist, their desire, and the main obstacle standing in their way
Use archetypal, reader-familiar terminology (unless there’s a good reason not to)
Only name 2 or 3 characters, with titles or roles for all others
Add specific stakes and conflicts to make your premise memorable and distinct
Communicate your story’s subgenre, tropes, and target audience

Happy blurb writing!

***

About the Author

Morgan Lee Clasper is a copywriter, book sales strategist, and author of The Blurb Puzzle.

With over seven years of experience in the publishing industry, he’s worked with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling authors, writing 4,000 blurbs and counting.

To download a free copy of The Blurb Puzzle, visit https://morganclasperauthor.com/the-blurb-puzzle

The post The Top Book Description Mistakes SFF Authors Make by Morgan Lee Clasper appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 222

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:18:14 +0000

Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 222

***

“Where do you want to take your writing? Where do you want to take your writing career? And let’s keep an eye on that, and we’re building towards that. So it’s fun, it’s rigorous, it’s deep, and this is my life’s work.” – Beth Barany

Do you want to know what it’s like to work with a book coach?

Then dive into the latest How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany” where Beth takes you behind the scenes and tells you what to expect from working with her one-on-one as a specialist in science fiction and fantasy.

With direct feedback in a communicated style that is best for you to nurturing support, Beth Barany shares how she can guide you through your the stages of your writing journey from first draft to published novel.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 222 Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany

What a Book Coach Does

BETH BARANY: What is it like to work with a book coach? As a specialist in science fiction and fantasy, I love nurturing writers to the finish line, whether that’s starting their novel, finishing their novel, or editing their novel, and of course, publishing it and marketing it too, because the best part is to hold your book in your hands and share it with others and sell it and see the smiles on your readers’ faces.

But how does that work in actuality? How do I actually work as a writing coach?

[00:37] Discovery Call and Fit

Well, first off, you got to decide if you want to work with me, and the way we do that is we have a discovery call where I ask you lots of nosy questions. Really questions about your big dreams, the book you’re working on, the things you’ve done in the past, where you’re stuck, and what you ultimately want.

And then if we decide we’re working together, then you can come on board as a one-on-one client or join my mastermind, or even the edit lab. Uh, for the edit lab, you don’t necessarily need to have a discovery call with me. You’ll know because you’ve listened to my stuff here that that’s right for you, and I’ll talk about how edit lab works at another time.

This is for people who want to work one-on-one with me or possibly join our premium edit mastermind. And I want to talk today specifically about the one-on-one work because that is the most mysterious. What goes on in a one-on-one session with a, with a writing coach like me?

Well, of course I can’t speak to how anybody else does it. I can only talk about how I do it.

[01:37] Submitting Pages Ahead

But once I get to know you, your big dreams, your challenges, where you’re coming from, where you’ve been, and what you want specifically for your book, then we start interacting with your pages. What does this mean?

Usually, for every session in advance, like a week in advance, you send me your pages,

Usually up to 20 manuscript pages you’re editing your novel; then it’s 20 pages.

If you’re just writing your book, then you might send me notes and pages, or brainstorms, or story outlines, or story plans, or story maps, or character material, or world-building material.

It’s really up to you.

[02:14] Written Feedback and Edits

And I take my time ahead of our call to review your work and offer you written feedback.

It’s important to have written feedback because I’m articulating in the written form what’s working and what I’d like to see more of, and of course, I can get really specific.

If you are ready for it, we do line edits, we do story edits, developmental edits. It really depends.

Developmental edits are about the story. Line edits are about sentence level, word choice, that kind of thing.

I’m always gonna give you feedback in a way that we’ve determined is what you can handle. I’m really not here to tear you down. I’m really here to build you up. But of course, I will give you critical feedback, and it can be a bit difficult to receive pages with lots of comments. So especially if you haven’t had any, an editor look at your work before, my job is both I wear an editor hat and a coaching hat.

As an editor, I’m gonna tell you what’s working and also what’s not working. And if you’re on, if you’re a beginning writer just starting out, I’m gonna really tailor that to your capacity. Maybe you just wanna know the high-level story feedback. Maybe you wanna know what’s missing on your pages, and so I’ll tell you what I think is missing.

But I also will tell you what’s working. Because we need to know what’s working so we can put our attention on that as well and continue to become even more capable at that.

[03:38] Inside the Coaching Call

And then when we get together in the coaching call, I ask you if you have any questions on the feedback that I gave you, and here is where you can do lots of different things.

You can ask me to explain a comment. You can… Some writers do this: they’ll send me back their pages with some changes, and we’ll go over the changes they made during the call so they can show me if they have understood my feedback and locked in the learning. It’s a really fun thing to do. Or sometimes we talk about world-building or character development or plot- what happens in the story.

It really depends on your needs, and sometimes we don’t know what’s gonna come out of the conversation, and I am keying into what you’re curious about and also asking you questions about what I’m curious about and helping you do some learning. So it’s also a learning session.

With some clients, we are talking about places to do more research, and I’m asking questions that maybe you haven’t thought about around your story world that spark new areas of research.

Or maybe I ask you questions about your character, and we talk about your character. Or maybe you share with me your thoughts for the next section, and through talking it out, you are also planning, so I am being your sounding board, and then I ask you questions based on my know-how of how to build characters and story to help you fill in the gaps.

[05:06] Action Plan and Momentum

So as you can see, a coaching session is highly tailored to your specific needs, and that’s why it can be kind of mysterious, and you’re like, “What does a coach even do?” So my goal is that by the time you leave each coaching session, you have a clear next step. We of course, know when we’re meeting next; that’s on the calendar, and you are excited to dig in and get to work. You have a clear action plan for yourself, and it’s entirely generated by you. I may make a suggestion if I see that you could use it, but really it works best when you are moving under your own steam, so to speak. So the motivation comes from you.

[05:47] Who I Love Working With

The support comes from me, and I work with writers who I am excited to work with.

We like each other. I really love their story. I believe in them, and I especially like working with writers who are doing new and quirky and fun, weird things that other people are like, “Wait, I don’t quite get it,” and but you’re trying to shape something new. I love that because that’s what makes it so fun and challenging.

Yes, I love a challenge, and I’m also a rigorous writer and writing teacher. So some people say it’s like getting master’s level work with me. I am not shy about setting the bar high, and I’m also very happy to work at the preliminary stages if that’s where you are. But always with an eye on where’s the big picture?

Where do you wanna take your writing? Where do you wanna take your writing career? And let’s keep an eye on that, and we’re building towards that. So it’s fun, it’s rigorous, it’s deep, and this is my life’s work.

[06:50] Experience and Teaching Roots

I’ve been helping writers for over 20 years. Gosh, I was actually helping writers when I was a college student.

I was a writing tutor. I was helping my fellow students with their papers, even informally. I started teaching writing before I even opened my business to high-level language learners, and we were doing short story writing together. That was actually where I developed some of the curriculum I still use today.

And I have been a working writer, working on fiction for nearly 30 years, and it’s a passion. I think it’s challenging and in a delicious way, deliciously so.

Writing fiction is magical. It’s amazing. It’s not easy, and you can learn.

[07:34] How to Reach Out

If you have an interest in being a writer and you wanna write fiction, and clearly my specialty is science fiction and fantasy, and if that’s your jam too, let’s talk.

I do a few discovery calls every week, and if you would like one of those time slots, just write me directly. My schedule is always changing, so instead of using a scheduling tool these days, just write me. It also shows initiative.

I work with folks who take initiative.

[08:00] Community and Closing

It requires a lot of initiative to be a writer, and we don’t do it by ourselves.

I have never, as a writer, been by myself. I’ve always been in community. So, that is important.

If writing is important to you- writing your science fiction and fantasy novel, something you wanna prioritize now in your life, I would be more than happy to talk with you. All right. That’s it for this week, everyone.

Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***

Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

Email: Beth@BethBarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY

The Ghost You Left Behind

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 222 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Receptive Creativity: The Importance of Filling Your Creative Cup By Nicole Plumridge

Guest Contributor — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:00:27 +0000

Let’s welcome back Nicole Plumridge as she shares with us “Receptive Creativity: The Importance of Filling Your Creative Cup.” Enjoy!

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Receptive Creativity: What is it?

Most of us relate to creativity in terms of production.

We look for output.

A finished painting is proof of the creative process.

A published article validates the hours spent tapping away behind the screen.

A shiny ceramic mug with intricate artwork lacing the handle is unequivocally creativity at its best.

But what about gazing out of a window for an hour?

What about getting lost in the whispering pages of a favorite book?

Or watching a film, or going to an art gallery or for a walk in nature?

Do these activities qualify as creative?

It is my belief that not only do they qualify as creative, they are necessary components of the creative process.

Receptive creativity involves putting yourself in creative environments and allowing yourself to marinate in the creative juices.

It is filling your cup to the brim and letting the foam froth and drizzle over the edges.

It is where you allow yourself to notice, experience, and receive creative input — the necessary fodder for the eventual output.

Why is the Balance Skewed?

Expressive creativity is tangible.

It is a finished product.

And in a capitalist society obsessed with production and the bottom line, it is little wonder why creative output would be favored over the more ephemeral input.

We cannot equate visiting an art gallery or performing a poem at an open mic event with dollars — thus, according to the capitalist mechanics at work, these activities are useless.

Without the identification of a direct transaction with monetary value, the worth of an activity is questionable at best.

Creatives are already operating outside of the box, pushing against old systems that would have us quashed or molded to be another cog in the wheel.

But to be a creative who has spent several days dilly-dallying around historic houses and rose gardens with no sketch, word count, or poem to validate the experience — well, that’s simply blasphemous.

The Indulgence of Leading a Harmonious Life

We are trained early on that arts and crafts are for kids, hobbies are cute things to do on weekends, and playtime only comes after the homework has been completed.

To do things simply for enjoyment and pleasure is deemed lazy — wrong.

Evidence is necessary to prove that you haven’t wasted an afternoon.

However, this goes against the very nature of the creative life.

The creative life needs space.

It needs room to breathe.

There needs to be input before there can be wondrous output that we see in the galleries, museums, concert halls, and libraries.

Creative burnout, writer’s block, and simple day-to-day exhaustion are killers of creative projects.

The roots of these ailments may lie in the desperate attempts to pour from an aridly dry, cracked, and empty cup.

We need replenishment, inspiration, magic, and awe in order to channel our best work.

We need to be able to do things which energize our soul without exacting something in return.

Permission to Play

All roads lead to childhood and what we liked as children.

As children, before the world became so serious, we played.

We allowed curiosity to lead us to the next best game.

It is that same curiosity which needs to be remembered as an adult in order to live a creative life, and it is during quiet moments, time spent daydreaming to music or meditating, that the remembrance arrives with more ease.

We need to give ourselves permission to rest.

To be.

To play.

We need to be allowed to experiment without having an end goal.

Following our curiosities, exploring ideas, and feeling wonder open up the creative mind and set the imagination free.

These things which were so natural to us as children seem to have been forgotten along the way to adulthood.

Natural Rhythms and Cycles

Embarking on the creative life is a journey of self-discovery.

Through creativity, we get to know who we are at our core.

We learn our likes and dislikes, what gives us energy and what drains it, how we work best and who we work best with, spaces and places that draw us in and those that repel us.

We also learn our own energetic patterns.

Some of us may have a writing routine which includes writing daily and then going on a two-hour solo date on the weekend, à la Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and this is their perfect balance.

Others may lock in for 4 weeks straight with their writing, coming up for air at the end of the month and taking a week off.

Some may alternate their schedule, writing for an hour after work one day and reading for an hour the next.

Everyone’s rhythm is going to be unique to their own energetic signatures.

It is the work of the creative to find what routine best supports them and their creative process.

Concluding Thoughts

We have been conditioned to believe that in order to lead a creative life, we must be constantly showing up, presenting our finished pieces, selling said creations by the dozen, with a massive social media following to boot.

However, that is not a sustainable life or practice.

A relaxed mind and regulated nervous system are what can make a creative routine sustainable.

One way to welcome in this sense of ease, grace, and softness is to give yourself permission to fill your creative cup up without the pressure of turning the experience into a creation itself.

Let receptivity and feeling good be the end goal.

It is not selfish to receive.

It is not an indulgence.

It is not a luxury.

It is the staple of a creative life.

***

About The Author

Nicole Plumridge is the author of three books, including an Amazon bestselling debut novel.

Her work has appeared in The Poetryhood and Half-Light Magazine.

She is also a creativity and book coach who supports creatives in building creative practices and reconnecting with their inner magic.

Connect with Nicole and book a discovery call if your creativity is calling you.

Website: https://nicoleplumridgecoaching.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authornicoleplumridge

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-plumridge-39512368

Novels by Nicole:

Healing House

Erosabel

The post Receptive Creativity: The Importance of Filling Your Creative Cup By Nicole Plumridge appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

It’s Never Too Late to Create | Interview with Monica Hay (No Mess, No Magic)

Beth Barany — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:47:21 +0000

In this episode, I’m joined by author, writing coach, and filmmaker Beth Barany for a conversation about something I hear from writers all the time:

“Is it too late for me?”

Beth didn’t begin filmmaking until her fifties.

Today she’s producing a fantasy film, building a creative team, and pursuing a dream she’d put on the shelf for years.

We talk about what it actually feels like to become a beginner again, why so many artists convince themselves they’ve missed their chance, and how creativity often deepens with age.

We also dive into:

Why “too late” is usually a story we tell ourselves
Becoming a beginner without letting your ego get in the way
Finding creative confidence after years (or decades) away
How to keep creating while running a business and managing everyday life
The grounding practices that help us come back to ourselves as artists

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’ve missed your opportunity to write the book, make the film, start the business, or pursue the creative life you really want, this episode is for you.

About Beth Barany

I’m an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, run a successful business as a coach and consultant for authors, have taught hundreds of students through my online school and in person for organizations and conferences.

I host the podcast “ How To Write The Future,” tips and tools for fiction writers and forward-thinking organizations.

I use my creativity to serve others and bring joy into my life and into the lives of others.

I collaborate one-on-one with writers as well as in groups.

You can find Beth here: https://bethbarany.com/newsletter/.

No Mess, No Magic with Monica Hay Podcast

The post It’s Never Too Late to Create | Interview with Monica Hay (No Mess, No Magic) appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Back To School Vibes for Writers | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 221

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:00:51 +0000

Back To School Vibes for Writers – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 220

***

“I was a very good student, and I loved learning, and I love going back to school. And now that I’m not in school, I’m just learning all the time, and I’m following my nose. I’m following what’s interesting to me. So I hope you will do the same.” – Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Back To School Vibes for Writers” host Beth Barany shares some back to school tips for your writing.

From where you can get started and learn from today, to recognizing you’re learning in everything you do. Beth also encourages you to pick a fall focus and explains how our understanding of history is not fixed.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 221 – Back To School Vibes for Writers

Back to School Vibes

BETH BARANY: Back to school energy. That’s what I’m feeling. Hi, everyone. Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future podcast. I’m a science fiction and fantasy writer who’s passionate about helping other science fiction and fantasy writers, and I run this podcast because I really do believe we can write the future.

Let me give you some tips on that for studying, for back to school study.

[00:24] Writers Keep Learning

So there are two things, maybe more than two, that are top of mind for me as I think of back to school.

One, I think of creating, writing, producing.

And two, I think of study. What can I study? What can I learn?

Now, as a writer, I highly encourage you to be always learning.

I usually probably don’t need to even encourage you. You’re listening to this podcast, so you love learning.

[00:49] Where to Learn Today

Where do you go for your learning?

These days, it’s limitless, right? We’ve got the AI tools, the LLMs, we’ve got the social media, and we’ve got YouTube.

I love, love, love watching science videos on YouTube, but not just science; history, geography, geology is one of the sciences. Uh, I’m very interested in archeology.

And yes, I, I can see current events are happening, but I’m mostly going to YouTube for the learning. I like to understand economics. I wanna understand the history of different parts of the world. I’m very inspired by those things.

[01:28] Where do you go to get your learning?

Where do you go to get your learning?

I also read books. I’m looking around me at, at the books I have. I read nonfiction books. I also read tons and tons of articles online, people’s newsletters. Substack, I’m getting deeply into Substack. A lot of people I know have newsletters on Substack.

Hint, hint, if you’re a novelist, you can start your newsletter on Substack.

[01:52] Pick a Fall Focus

What is one thing that you would like to learn this fall? It’s the fall up here in the Northern Hemisphere and, and in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s what? Spring.

What do you wanna learn from September to December?

I was a very good student, and I loved learning, and I love going back to school.

And now that I’m not in school, I’m just learning all the time, and I’m following my nose. I’m following what’s interesting to me. So I hope you will do the same.

[02:23] Love Learning from Others

I love learning from other people. So, I would love to know what are you learning this, this semester? The, from September to December this fall. I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m gonna say this fall. What would you like to be learning, and what are you a little bit scared to learn, but maybe you could spend five minutes on it?

Wouldn’t that be cool?

[02:44] Curiosity and Resistance

Curiosity is an amazing thing.

I didn’t realize that some parts of me weren’t curious, and now I notice when sometimes I feel walled off or closed off to learning something new; I notice it and I make a conscious decision. Maybe it’s not always like that, or maybe it wasn’t always like that.

What could it have been before now? I was almost an anthropology major in school. I ended up doing an interdisciplinary degree at UC Berkeley with a foundation of sociology, and then I took anthropology and history and a whole bunch of different things.

[03:21] History Is Not Fixed

All that to say, even though we think that we know how things are right now, actually, they were very different previously.

And there isn’t a monolithic culture. There are many, many different kinds of cultures, and those cultures have changed over time. So if you find yourself saying, “Well, this is the way things are,” I would challenge you and say, “Well, actually, probably not.” What were they like five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago?

Can you read some biographies? Can you watch documentaries? Can you even read novels and watch movies that give you an actual window into that other time period?

So I highly encourage you to notice where you might be closed off and where you might wanna open up and go, “Well, maybe it isn’t like this or hasn’t always been like this.”

[04:08] Matriarchy and Patriarchy

I’m gonna pull out one example, ’cause this has been on my mind since I was a child, and that’s the matriarchy and the patriarchy.

Yes, we’re going there. I write strong women heroines. I was brought up in a family that talked about feminism. I have feminists and activists in the family, feminist activists: my great-grandmother, her mother, my grandmother, but not in our household.

My parents focused on raising us. They did not go out onto the picket lines. But other family members of mine did, lots of protesters, and socialists and communists, and yes, that, that is my heritage. I’ve always wondered, well, how come women aren’t equal to men? Why were there, is there, and has there been these restrictions on all kinds of things?

And I barely even understood what they were when I was a kid, but I could feel them, and they were talked about. Come to find out after lots of research that it’s not monolithic. It’s not the patriarchy everywhere, and no matriarchy. There are still matriarchies that exist. It is not that in the Western world there has forever been a patriarchal society of one flavor or another, and it’s not ever been that women didn’t have a role to play and didn’t play important roles in society.

And there’s a lot more ways in which women were active in society than we know of; Then, those stories aren’t in the zeitgeist. So it’s actually one of my missions to start bringing out those stories, and I have in the pipeline a project that I will talk about when it’s ready to be revealed.

For now, I explore these things in fiction, and I do a lot of research, and you should see my, my stack of books.

Whoop, very high. All right. So that’s just one example of how I thought it was like black and white, but it’s actually all kinda shades of gray. All kinds of matriarchal and patriarchal systems have been existing over time for thousands and thousands of years, and thousands and thousands and thousands of years.

[06:04] Archeology Rewrites Humanity

And if you wanna know one field that is doing some amazing things and learning some amazing things and also changing our own understanding of who we are and what does it means to be human, check out archeology.

Oh my goodness. With genetics and being able to do genomic typing on bones and all kinds of things.

Oh my goodness, the field of archeology is just totally rewriting what we thought it meant to be human and where we come from.

Fascinating field in deep amount of transformation right now. All right.

[06:35] Wrap Up and Community Invite

I’m gonna stop here today. I wanna go off and learn something new. Go off and learn something new, and please tell me about it. I wanna know what you are obsessed about right now. What are you doing deep dives in? What are you curious about?

What do you wish you could be spending some time in? Please reach out to me.

When you sign up for our World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers, you’ll also be invited to come join the Fellowship of the Pen, our online community, a Facebook group where you can come and share your passions, ask questions, learn more about our offers, and all that good stuff.

All right, everyone, that’s it for this week. Happy studying, happy writing. Write long and prosper. Yay.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***

Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Back To School Vibes for Writers | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 221 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Finding the Flow by Catharine Bramkamp

Guest Contributor — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 08:00:59 +0000

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “Finding the Flow.” Enjoy!

***

What is it like to be in flow?

You probably know.

But while we are here, let’s unpack flow in the context of art.

The Autotelic Experience

Flow is an autotelic experience — autos (self) and telos (end or goal) which identifies an activity as one of doing, not producing.

What is the best part of writing?

Writing.

What is the most annoying feature of authorship?

Publishing.

Back to doing.

Video game play is one of the best examples of flow.

Video games are built to exploit the autotelic experience.

The games are “addictive” because the space is so satisfying — transforming the player into another time and space.

You can experience flow by playing video games, but a better use of your time is to pursue flow through art.

Finding the Balance Between Challenge and Skill

A satisfying writing project balances challenge and skill.

If a project or a job is too difficult for us, we experience frustration.

If it’s too easy, we become bored.

In flow there is a match, like the perfect Pickleball five-minute volley — flow.

In flow, our actions and awareness are merged.

Our minds are not off on the usual guilt trip; they are right here with our body.

We are engrossed in a new fingering technique, getting the paint color exactly right, carefully wiring the gingerbread house for lights.

We are not worried, and we are not overthinking.

It’s heaven.

Flow Keeps Us in the Present

Along with merging action and awareness, the flow state forces focus.

Our minds can’t wander when we are cutting fabric, or learning a dance step, or listening for our cue.

This kind of concentration keeps us in the present, and out of our worries and regrets.

Flow means there is no failure; it’s all about process.

When we are involved, we are all in the present, the doing.

Afterwards we say, — wow that was fun!

We also say that went so fast!

I love how flow disappears my ego.

I am so involved in making sure I’m following the dance and listening to the music cues that I even forget to suck in my stomach.

When you are in flow, you lose complete track of time.

Time flies by, or it slows; it doesn’t matter; our art stretches and contracts time like taffy.

What Happens When We’re in Flow

When we are in flow, we:

Stop thinking about ourselves.
Forget our negative thoughts.
Repeat activities that reward our efforts.
Have fun.
Features of a good flow activity include:
Clear goals and recognizable steps.
Rules and rewards (video games).
Anticipation. (Knowing the next note to play, or the next line to say.)

Find the Flow

Be autotelic; do things for their own reason.

Find the flow, swim in the current, and see where it takes you.

What if you aren’t artistic?

Try Take Up Space — Art is Your Second Act, your how-to for a more artistic and satisfying second act.

***

Want to read more articles like this one Writer’s Fun Zone? Subscribe here.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.

The post Finding the Flow by Catharine Bramkamp appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Constructive Critique Basics | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 220

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:25:12 +0000

Constructive Critique Basics – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 220

***

“It is so, so important on how to give constructive feedback to other writers, and also how to receive that feedback from other writers, and how to create a safe space.” – Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Constructive Critique Basics” host Beth Barany shares an episode from her premium “Edit Lab” channel where she shares how you can give and receive critique while remaining respectful.

Beth explains the communication basics to managing your own expectations when it comes to receiving constructive critique on your writing.

This episode shares great insight into what is offered to you in the exclusive Edit Lab group.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 220 The Mechanics of Constructive Critique

BETH BARANY: Hi everyone, Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future podcast. This week’s episode is pulled from, my premium channel that I offer to Edit Lab. Every month, we meet in person online, and we do critique, and we teach, and we write. And every week, they get a advanced piece of content, because they’re in the premium program in Edit Lab.

So I thought I would bring this out to you because it is so, so important on how to give constructive feedback to other writers, and also how to receive that feedback from other writers, and how to create a safe space. So you could take these tips and bring them to your critique group. I highly invite you to do them.

And if you would like to come and join us at Edit Lab, please do. If you join before the first Wednesday of the month, you get to come into that call and have your work looked at, if you’d like. We do 250 words so that as many people who want can get looked at in that hour. And we do some fun, free writing.

So take a listen to this for constructive critique basics, and these are really core principles that you can take with you into your critique group. All right. Happy writing and happy editing.

[01:22] Constructive Critique Basics

Hi, everyone. In this episode, I am going to talk about how to give good critique that is constructive and helpful to the other person. So here is what I recommend in being a good critique partner. So there’s two things I wanna talk about. How do you handle it when you’re the one being critiqued, and how do you offer critique that is constructive and not destructive?

[01:47] Respect and Hold Space

So number one, in our group, we ask people to tell us what is it they would like feedback on. So pay attention to what that is and be deliberate in giving them the feedback that they asked for. Be respectful, and it’s the golden rule, right? Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you’re not sure, ask questions, ask clarifying questions.

Hold space, meaning we all understand how tender it is to have our work critiqued, especially when we offer up critique thinking it’s just wonderful, and we get feedback that critiques, that tears apart our writing. So hold space for that and have compassion.

[02:28] No Blame or Explaining

Also, take responsibility for your method of communication, and if you make a mistake in the way you offer critique, own that.

In offering critique, there’s no blaming anyone, there’s no complaining, and there’s no explaining. Unless people ask for an explanation. By blame, I’m like, don’t make it be someone’s fault- your own fault or someone else’s fault. We’re all doing the best we can here. In terms of complain, if there is a complaint that relates to anything in the way the critique group is run, do bring it up to the organizer as an aside, unless you can state it in a constructive way.

Also, don’t explain. By explain, I mean if someone gives you feedback, you wanna say thank you.

[03:10] What Worked and More Of

There’s two main principles in giving feedback, which is to start off with what I liked. “What I liked was…” and you tell them what you liked. Everyone wants to know what is working in their pages so they can do more of that.

So we want to know what you liked, and also what you thought was working. That’s another way of saying it. “What I see is working is X, Y, and Z.”

And then the second piece of feedback that people do want to know, that’s why we’re offering our work for feedback- is: What isn’t working, or what is lacking? What is missing?

Another way to state that is: What I would like more of is…” And that puts it completely in the positive. We’re still saying what’s lacking, but we’re saying it in with positive language, and by positive language that the listener may be able to receive better. If you tell them, “Well, this isn’t working,” that can put them on the defensive.

But if you say, “What I would like to see more of is…” because I didn’t see it, and now we’re not saying that it isn’t working, we’re just saying, “I expected to see something in your pages, and I didn’t see it.”

[04:16] Ask for the Feedback You Need

Now, how do you ask for feedback when you are the one in the hot seat, or in the critique group, or even with a, just a one-on-one critique?

You wanna be up front. When you give someone your pages, you wanna say specifically what kind of feedback you would like. You get to control this. It is your book. It is your creative process. You get to control it.

There’s been times when I have been in an early draft, and I will give it to my critique partners, and I will say, “Please don’t give me dibby dabby line edits. Please don’t critique the story yet. Please, just speak to the characters. Are they interesting? Do they grab you? Do you want to know more?” So, ask specific questions. You get to.

[05:01] Set Critique Style and Genre

It’s your book. Also, you can tell the room or your partner how you wanna be critiqued. You could say, ” Throw it all at me. Anything goes.”

Or you could say, “Please use the sandwich method.” Something positive, something constructive, and something positive again. Something like that. Or you could say, ” Please just tell me what is working and what you’d like to see more of.” You get to guide the critique, and you can always ask if it’s an organizer or teacher like myself; you could say, “What do you suggest?” Or if you’re not sure.

[05:33] Genre Expectations

Also, it is important to understand the group expectations or the partner expectations around genre.

Are you putting your work in front of people who know your genre really well, like you’re doing in my group in the Edit Lab? Or is it in front of a mixed group of writers who come from all different backgrounds, some are experienced, some aren’t, some write in fiction, some write in nonfiction, some don’t even, and maybe nobody in, else in the group writes in your particular genre.

It’s really helpful to know this because we are writing for readers who are expecting something from our kind of book. And if you’re in front of readers, writers who do not understand those expectations, they are going to poke at your book expecting it to be something else.

And that’s okay, too. It’s great sometimes to get feedback from people who do not know your genre, and people who are good at that will say things like, “Well, I don’t read your genre, but what I noticed is working is this, and what I’d like more of is that.”

A good critique partner can critique your work even though they may not read, be an avid reader in your genre because they understand good writing craft, ’cause that’s what you’re looking for as well.

Is my material understandable even to someone outside my genre? That is a good test.

[06:47] Receive Feedback Gracefully

Also, when you are receiving feedback, it’s really good practice to say thank you after the feedback and leave it at that. You don’t need to explain, but you could ask clarifying questions. Your job is to receive the feedback and then next use what’s useful.

Throw away the rest. You are the one who decides. Inside of you is some kind of North Star that is pointing you in the direction of the book you want to write. That’s what you listen to. You could receive 10 pieces of feedback, and only one piece actually resonates strongly. Do listen to all the feedback and then make a considered decision and discard it if it doesn’t work.

But you might learn something even in the consideration of that. You’re like, “Oh, that’s really interesting. I hadn’t thought of that, but that doesn’t work for my story.” You don’t need to say all of that, though in a critique group. In a critique group, you’re just receiving critique, and it’s great to just say thank you.

[07:42] Supportive Culture and Wrap Up

Lastly, we wanna have a critique environment here at Edit Lab, and wherever you go that feels supportive; that is a win-win. No one needs to lose here. This isn’t a contest. This is about how to make your writing better and helping other people make their writing better. So those are some tips on giving and receiving feedback.

I hope you enjoyed that episode on how to give and receive constructive critique.

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me. You can find me on all the socials, and there is a contact page on my How to Write the Future landing page… Be sure to check out the Edit Your Novel checklist if you are getting ready to edit or you’ve started editing your novel and you’re like, “Oh my God, where do I begin?”

Start with this checklist. It will give you a 30,000-foot view of your own work and help you reinforce what you’re already doing well and help you analyze where you need support. And remember, I offer that kind of support in Edit Lab, a monthly membership for science fiction and fantasy writers. So I hope to see you there.

Happy writing, everyone. Write long and prosper. Ciao, ciao.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***

Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Constructive Critique Basics | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 220 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF COMMUNICATING WITH ARTISTS FOR YOUR BOOK — From an Artist Herself by Anna Leitensdorfer

Guest Contributor — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:00:11 +0000

Today we welcome back Anna Leitensdorfer to Writer’s Fun Zone. She is stopping by to chat with us about “THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF COMMUNICATING WITH ARTISTS FOR YOUR BOOK.” Enjoy!

***

Reaching out to an artist can be both exciting and intimidating.

After all, they can turn your written words into book covers, interior art, scene illustrations, and so much more!

So, what are some things to do — and what to steer clear of — when looking for an artist?

DO’S:

1. Research your artist(s).

Make sure their style/their portfolio has elements that you want to see in your finished artwork.

2. Look at an artist’s Terms of Service to see what all is allowed/not allowed.

For example, some artists will not draw heavy machinery or gore or only specialize in one style and one style only.

3. Be polite and courteous.

The artist is most likely just as excited as you are!

In many cases, they are your biggest cheerleaders!

4. Communicate clearly.

When expectations are laid out plainly, the chances of miscommunication or misunderstandings diminish rapidly.

In addition, if an artist sends a revision, the sooner you reply with feedback or “It will take me a few days to figure out what I would like to change”, then the artist knows what is going on/can make those changes.

This also applies if you are out of town/will not be able to communicate for a certain amount of time, so just let your artist know (and give an end date/when you will be back).

5. Keep in touch frequently.

Yes, life happens, but touching base at least once every two weeks or even once a week with the artist while your commission is active is a great way to stay on track and keep misunderstandings at a minimum.

Sometimes artists are so absorbed in their work that they forget to reply and might just need a little reminder.

This also goes for the artist, too.

6. Ask the artist about their workflow.

How do they tackle revisions?

How long does a book cover in their style take on average?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions about how they work!

7. Request a contract if the artist does not provide one.

Contracts are a surefire way to protect you, as the client, and the artist.

Remember to read over any contract you receive carefully before signing and don’t be afraid to ask to make changes to the contract if there are errors.

8. Be clear and concise.

If you get a progress picture and the colors are not what you want, be upfront and let the artist know as soon as possible.

Do not be afraid to request revisions if they are available/part of your commission.

9. Stand up for yourself.

In the event you hire an artist that just isn’t quite working out (such as they are trying to turn the piece into what they want rather than what you want, or they are just not communicating with you), then look at parting ways with them.

Review the contract you signed with them and see if it outlines any policies regarding discontinuation of work.

Sometimes things don’t work out, and that’s okay. It’s just business.

DON’TS:

1. Ask an artist to mimic or copy another artist or another company’s art style.

Many artists have their own unique style, which is what separates them from others.

It’s like asking a film student to directly copy James Cameron’s filming style just because you want James Cameron cinema but can’t get James Cameron.

2. Request a discount on an artwork.

Many artists already undercharge, and some artists are willing to work within your budget.

Come to them with a budget you have set for yourself, and they may be able to work with you.

If they cannot, then resume your search for a new artist, ‌keeping them in mind for the future when you do have the funds.

3. Accuse an artist of tracing or AI-usage without proper evidence.

Baseless accusations can severely hurt an artist’s reputation, even if they are innocent.

If you are suspicious of AI, message a fellow artist friend privately to get their opinion.

4. Tell an artist that they “have the skills to do [this art piece]” that is severely out of the artist’s skill set.

For example, if an artist solely works on organic landscape paintings with not a single spaceship in their portfolio, it is most likely they do not specialize in machinery.

An artist knows their strengths and weaknesses, and while it is okay to try something new, please be respectful and understand that it might be something they have not developed enough skills for yet.

5. Ghost the artist after sending an initial inquiry.

If they are out of your budget, just reply with a “Thank you so much for your time, but this is just out of my budget for right now.”

Artists will follow up with any open leads, so this will let them know not to contact you.

This also applies to artists, as ghosting potential clients can come off as rude as well.

Conclusion

Basically, all that it comes down to when looking — and hiring — an artist is communication.

Be open with what you want and your expectations!

After all, the artists want to make sure they are creating art as close to your vision as possible.

Many of these do’s and don’ts can also apply to other professions, not just art, so they’re nice to keep in mind.

Did any of these do’s or don’ts surprise you?

***

About the Author

Anna Leitensdorfer is an illustrator, animator, and author who began offering creative services to fellow writers in 2024.

She provides illustration for children’s books, storyboarding, cover design, character art, interior art, maps, and promotional artwork for marketing.

A 2018 graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design with a degree in Animation, Anna continues to pursue her passion for storytelling through visual media.

She is currently developing her original animated feature film, Art of Auld Lang Syne, while also expanding her work in book design and print formatting.

In addition to supporting other authors, Anna writes her own fiction and recently completed a supernatural horror manuscript.

When she’s not behind her drawing tablet, she can usually be found playing video games or taking her two “little monsters,” Shelby and Percy, bowling.

She is open to commissions in animation, game design, and illustration.

The post THE DO’S AND DON’TS OF COMMUNICATING WITH ARTISTS FOR YOUR BOOK — From an Artist Herself by Anna Leitensdorfer appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Do You Have to Write Every Day? by Bailey Lang

Guest Contributor — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 08:00:22 +0000

Let’s welcome back Bailey Lang as she shares with us “Do You Have to Write Every Day?” Enjoy!

***

“How can I get myself to write consistently?”

This is one of the most common questions writers ask me in my book coaching work as the Literary Witch.

They’re often authors who find themselves writing in a desperate rush to meet a deadline and then crashing, wondering all the while what’s wrong with them.

“Why can’t I make myself write every day?” they ask.

The first question I always ask in response is, “Why do you think you need to?”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a daily writing practice if that’s what works for you.

There’s also nothing wrong with wanting a writing practice that feels spacious and magical rather than rushed and stressful!

But consistency does not have to mean writing every single day.

In fact, I think conflating “being a consistent writer” with “writing every day” is kind of a trap, and it’s one that can set you up for failure.

Why We’re Told to Write Every Day

The suggestion to write every day is so common it’s practically a truism.

We see it in canonical creativity texts like The Artist’s Way, on social media, and hanging around in the ether like a scary ghost you can’t get rid of.

It’s easy advice to give and understand: If you want to make progress on your book, sit down and write a little bit every day.

Boom!

Done!

Conversation over.

It’s also quantifiable and trackable, which is great for our optimization-obsessed culture.

Did the number go up?

You’re succeeding! (Did you break your streak? Uh-oh!)

We’re told to write every day in part because it offers a simple way to track success or failure.

If you’re writing daily, you’re consistent.

If you aren’t writing daily, you’re not consistent.

Right?

Well, not so fast.

When the Advice Doesn’t Work

One of the problems with “write every day” as a metric of success is that it only measures one small component of your writing practice while ignoring everything else that makes creative expression worthwhile.

Adding new words to your draft is a single piece of your writing practice — an important piece, to be sure!

However, simply putting more words in the draft doesn’t reflect the totality of your creative experience.

“Write every day” doesn’t account for:

The things you do to fill your creative cup
Revising and editing your draft
The workshops and lessons you take to improve your craft
Conversations you have with other writers that spark a new idea or help you unravel a tricky plot knot
The reality of the creative cycle, which requires rest (we’ll come back to this!)

Expecting yourself to write every day creates a binary success/failure condition that ignores how complex creativity and life are, and feeling like you’re constantly failing is a surefire way to sap your creative energy.

Many of us have lives that simply don’t allow for rigid daily habits.

Take me, for example.

I’m Autistic and chronically ill.

My energy fluctuates day to day and across the seasons.

I can’t show up the same way all the time, and expecting myself to is a recipe for frustration or burnout.

Everyday life conditions like school, work, childcare, disability, neurodivergence, and even a desire for variety can make writing every day difficult, if not impossible.

Acute situations like health or climate emergencies cause disruptions that “write every day” doesn’t leave room for.

Fortunately, there is a way out of this success/failure binary — and it’s one that will actually help you write more consistently.

How to Write Consistently

If expecting yourself to write every day is a path to frustration and failure, what’s the alternative?

Can you still write consistently even if you’re not writing every single day?

You can, and there are a whole bunch of ways to make it happen.

The first thing to understand is that creativity is not a linear experience.

The writing process is recursive: it doubles back on itself, it loops, and it leaps around; it has cycles.

Honoring those cycles — and your own — is a faster, better, and more sustainable path to writing consistently.

We can think of a creative cycle as having seasons, like the year, or phases, like the moon.

Let’s stick with the seasonal metaphor for a moment.

First there’s a planting season, like spring: a time to gather ideas, brainstorm, create an outline, seek inspiration, make writing plans, and set the stage for what comes next.

Next comes a growing season, like summer: a time of active creative energy and productivity.

This is when all the seeds planted earlier produce fruit.

You’re in the flow state; the words are hitting the page.

It’s glorious.

Then, there’s a harvest season, like autumn: a time to gather everything you’ve created.

This is when you revise and invite others into the process, such as sharing the draft with a writing group or submitting it to publishers.

Finally, there’s a fallow season, like winter: a time to rest and resource yourself before beginning again.

The winter season is ideal for reflecting on what went well and what you want to adjust in the future.

These seasons don’t have to be identical in length, but they’re all important.

Neglecting creative rest will eventually mean your creative engine is running on empty.

Expecting yourself to write every day when you have no creative juice is going to feel bad!

Instead, welcoming fallow periods as normal and nourishing will allow you to prepare for another season of growth.

The seasonal method isn’t the only way to aim for consistency, either.

Here are a few other approaches that enable both flexibility and consistency:

Aiming to write more days than not (3 days out of 5, or 5 days out of 7, for example)
Setting experimental daily writing goals for a limited duration and then assessing the results (i.e., writing for 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days and then resting)
Assigning each day as a green/yellow/red light day based on your energy and circumstances (green light days are high-energy, high-capacity days; yellow light days are lower energy and capacity days; red light days are days for rest or doing the bare minimum)
Adjusting your writing practice based on your energy levels across different seasons of the year or in response to changing life circumstances

Writing consistently doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing expectation, and you don’t have to write every day to write consistently and make real progress on your book.

Wanting to write consistently is a valid desire.

Consistency and progress do go hand in hand.

The thing we often lose when conflating consistency with daily writing is that you can be consistent without having rigid, unforgiving expectations.

In the end, the only successful writing practice is the practice that works for you — and you get to decide what that looks like.

That’s pretty magical!

Resources and Reading Recommendations

Workshop: “The earth has seasons, why shouldn’t you: Cyclical planning for writers”

A Year in Practice, Jacqeline Suskin (affiliate link)

Magic Maker, Pam Grossman (affiliate link)

Word Witch, Kate Belew (affiliate link)

***

About the Author

Dr. Bailey Lang is the Literary Witch, a book coach who helps visionary authors reclaim their creative magic and finish their books.

Bailey has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies and they love geeking out about writing, language, and magic.

You can sign up for Bailey’s free newsletter, Ink + Alchemy, for monthly missives that will help you build a writing practice you love.

Website

Newsletter

The post Do You Have to Write Every Day? by Bailey Lang appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Read, Write, Restart: Writing Tips for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 219

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 15:00:53 +0000

Read, Write, Restart: Writing Tips for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 219

***

“Everybody’s starting line is different. Everybody’s starting ingredients are different. We can still do what we want to do.” – Beth Barany

In this inspirational How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Read, Write, Restart: Writing Tips for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers,” host Beth Barany shares why it’s never too late to pursue your writing dreams. Beth shares a heartfelt message about how she often felt behind with her peers and shares what she says to herself to get motivated into action.

With advice on how to feed yourself creatively, there’s also an invitation to sign up to the newsletter and be invited to Fellowship of the Pen, a Facebook group where you can share your writing wins or struggles in a safe and nurturing creative community.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/ and you’ll be invited to join Fellowship of the Pen FB group.

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 219 Read, Write, Restart: Writing Tips for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers

Feeling Behind

BETH BARANY: I’ve always been behind. I was a preemie, two and a half months early. I walked late. My mom didn’t even know I could talk till I was, like, two and a half, although I was talking. And in my own career as a writer, I’ve often felt behind my peers. Or even before I decided to be my own boss, I was watching people go off and do things and make their careers.

So in my 20s, I wasn’t making my career happen. I was meandering around, living in Europe, dabbling in journalism, getting started in being a professional writer. But it wasn’t until I was 38 years old, when I started my own business, that I still felt behind. I’m like, “Oh, finally, I know what I’m doing.” But you know what? Look what all I’ve done.

Books written, published, classes made, presentations given, lots of students helped, lots of clients, lots of stories written. I’m on my 17th, 18th novel. I’ve lost track.

[00:58] Your Starting Line

All that to say, everybody’s starting line is different. Everybody’s starting ingredients are different. We can still do what we wanna do.

And if you wanna be a writer, if you wanna be a science fiction and fantasy writer, you totally can do it, even if today is day one, or day five, or day ten, or day thirty, or year one.

[01:18] Read and Write Daily

What do you need? All you need is a passion for it. You need to read, read, and read. And oh my God, read. Read, read, read, read, read.

If you’re not reading, it’s really hard to be a writer. And then you need to write. Play, doodle. Okay, doodling is drawing, but play with ideas. If all you can do is write down ideas, or world build, or have story seedlings, write it down. So reading and writing, key ingredients to being a writer.

Start today. Maybe you started last week. Maybe you started last year. That’s all good.

Dive into it. Do it because you love it. Read the things you love to read, watch the things you love to watch, research the things you love to research. All of that will be the foundation for your books.

[02:05] Build Writing Community

Third piece of being a writer: get thee into a writing community.

I know I’ve mentioned this many times. It is the core of my work because that’s how I developed as a writer. I, when I was in journalism, I learned from my editors. When I wanted to be a fiction writer, I joined a group, a critique group, an in-person group, and then later on that group became online, a different group.

Anyway, online is great. If all you have is online, there’s a lot of writing communities online. I have a writing community online. There are lots and lots and lots of communities.

[02:39] Fellowship of the Pen community

I have Fellowship of the Pen. If you sign up for my newsletter by getting the World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers, you are invited to join Fellowship of the Pen. It’s a Facebook group.

Come in, chat, share your progress. Share your support for others. Share your progress. Share your questions. Share your excitements. What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? We learn from each other. Community, it’s so interesting.

[03:05] Solo and Community

Writers, we tend to be solo, right? We tend to be kind of at the edge of the village, of leave me alone, I’m by myself. Maybe we meander into the groups from time to time.

Lots of writers are like this. We go away, we come back, we go away, we come back. You need your community. Go to writing sessions. Go to writing groups in your community. Go to book talks. Go listen to other authors read their stuff. Go to writing conferences. Go to salons. Go to your local cafe and chat with someone who is reading a book. Find out what they’re reading. Talk to people.

[03:44] Reconnect After Isolation

A very interesting thing has happened in the modern era, in the most recent modern era with the pandemic and the lockdowns and the isolation. It may have provoked some isolation, habits that got worse for those of us who like being alone. I liked all the time I had alone, but I also know I need people, and if I’m not around people, I get kinda depressed, frankly.

If I’m not doing my creative work, I get depressed, but if I’m not around people, I also get depressed. I have a husband, I have cats, I have my plants. It’s not enough. I have to go out into the world, meet new people, be around new people.

[04:21] Feed Creative Fire

And here’s the fourth component.

I talked about reading, I talked about writing, and I talked about community.

Feed your creative well. Feed your creative fire. Do new things.

How do we feed our creative fire? We do new things. New food, new, new clothes. Could just be different clothes that you haven’t worn in a long time. Try a recipe you haven’t tried in a long time. Go see some art. Go listen to some music.

Go walk in a neighborhood you haven’t walked in, safely. Walk into a store that you’ve always walked by, and you’ve never walked in. Walk in. Check it out. Do new things. When we do new things, we get new ideas. New patterns are created in our minds.

[04:59] Start Where You Are

So I am not behind. I am right where I am. And here’s the big tip I have learned how to do over the years.

I say to myself, “Start from where you are.”

And with the advent of computer games and computers and restarts and often I think of hitting the restart button. I’m just hitting restart. It’s okay. We’re clearing the slate. I think of like a, clearing the table, clearing the slate, clearing it, restarting.

It’s okay. We can restart every minute, every five minutes, every hour, every day. Now, I recognize that not everyone’s gonna need this advice. So please take what’s useful. Leave the rest.

[05:37] Final Encouragement

You are not behind. You are right where you are, and you can start from where you are. I did, and I know you can. All right, everyone, that’s it for this week.

Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

***

Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

***

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY

https://writersfunzone.com/blog/2022/01/19/getting-feedback-on-your-novel-by-beth-barany/

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.

Like the work we do? Tip us! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

The post Read, Write, Restart: Writing Tips for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 219 appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Can I Copyright AI-Generated Content? by Kelley Way

Guest Contributor — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:27 +0000

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Kelley Way as she shares with us “Can I Copyright AI-Generated Content?” Enjoy!

***

I recently asked my social media followers what AI-related topic they were most interested in hearing about, and the question “Can I copyright AI-generated content?” was by far the most requested.

So let’s talk about whether AI-generated content can be copyrighted.

Why Copyright Requires Human Authorship

First, let’s remember why we have copyright law in the first place.

Copyright law exists to encourage creativity and allow creators to profit from their creations.

Since these are the goals, it has long been held that only humans can create a copyrightable work.

While non-humans may create artistic works, they do not need incentives to do so; therefore, they do not need copyright protection.

This means that AI-generated works are not copyrightable.

AI programs are not humans and do not need an incentive to create.

So if you ask an AI program to write a book for you, you will not be able to get copyright protection for the resulting work.

The courts and the Copyright Office have both held firm on this point.

When Human and AI-Generated Content Are Combined

But what about when a book is a mix of AI-generated and human content?

Or what if your first draft is AI-generated, and you then put a lot of effort into editing it?

The official stance is that the portion of the book that is human-generated can still get copyright protection.

There was a case a few years ago where someone used MidJourney to create artwork, which they then put together to create a graphic novel.

They did not disclose that part of it was AI-generated, and when they received a copyright, they proceeded to brag on social media about it.

Not surprisingly, the Copyright Office found out, and they canceled the copyright, then issued a new copyright for the text and the selection and arrangement of the artwork, i.e., the parts of the work that were human-authored.

When the author objected, recounting how hard they worked to get the images they wanted from MidJourney, the Copyright Office explained their reasoning (and then they explained it some more in their Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, which you can read here.

Who Is Making the Creative Decisions?

The essence of their reasoning is that if you don’t know what the end result is going to look like, then you can’t be considered the creator.

In the case of AI prompts, no matter how carefully you word your prompt, you still have no idea what the AI program is going to give you.

Since you’re not making the creative decisions, the result will not be considered human-authored.

Let me reuse an example I gave before.

If you take a photo, upload it into an AI program, and ask the program to make the photo three shades darker, you know what the new photo is going to look like.

This new photo is still eligible for copyright.

However, if you ask the AI program to add a cat dragging a bathrobe into the photo, the AI program is doing a lot of the creative heavy lifting.

It’s deciding the color and size of the cat, the color and type of bathrobe, where the cat and bathrobe appear in the image, what direction the cat is facing, etc.

All of these creative decisions, and if the human is not the one making them, then these new elements will not get copyright protection (but the underlying photo is still protected, since you took that picture).

So to think about it another way, if you are using an AI program as a tool to get to an intended result, and the creative decisions are all made by you, then you’re fine.

If you’re asking the AI program to create something for you, and you’re letting the AI program make those creative decisions, then anything contributed by the AI program will not get copyright protection.

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve answered “Can I copyright AI-generated content,” feel free to read other blog articles I’ve written on this increasingly important topic, including ways that you can safely use AI, in my previous blog post “What Can a Writer Do With AI?”.

For all other questions, feel free to email me at kaway@kawaylaw.com.

***

Want to read more articles like this one Writer’s Fun Zone? Subscribe here.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The post Can I Copyright AI-Generated Content? by Kelley Way appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Protecting the Creative Life: Why Writers Burnout Before Finishing by Iman Llompart

Guest Contributor — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:00:38 +0000

Let’s welcome back Iman Llompart as she shares with us “Protecting the Creative Life: Why Writers Burnout Before Finishing.” Enjoy!

***

I Still Want to Write. So Why Can’t I?

I’ve been in a writing slump for the better part of 2026.

I constantly think about writing, and it hurts more than it should because, for the longest time, I was writing.

I’m only three chapters away from finishing my rough draft, and this is when my motivation and discipline decide to take a nosedive.

It doesn’t help that I’ve had a few added stressors.

I lost my job.

I live in a country that isn’t my own, so figuring out visas and who to get them through has added another layer of uncertainty I need to navigate.

On top of that, I’m starting a freelance business and learning everything that comes with it.

Client outreach has become especially important because of my job situation, and every new responsibility seems to take me further and further away from my craft.

Creating is important.

For many of us who choose to live in the creative space, it’s the air we breathe.

But when life throws rocks at you that you can’t simply bury, sometimes the thing that gives you joy gets tucked into a corner and left to collect dust.

We still think about our projects.

The characters.

The setting.

The plot.

The story.

But the longer we go without putting meat on those bones, the more that little seedling of guilt starts to grow.

Our untouched work gathers more dust, doubt grows heavier, and eventually our confidence and some of the joy we once found in creating — disappears.

So we make assumptions.

I’m not motivated enough.

Maybe what I’m writing is shit.

Maybe I’m not disciplined enough.

Or, worst of all:

Maybe I’m not meant to finish it.

But what if we’re wrong?

What if the problem isn’t the writing itself?

Burnout Rarely Arrives All at Once

When life gets in the way, or when creative entrepreneurs start businesses and discover just how much happens behind the scenes to keep them running, the actual craft can easily become the last thing on their minds.

Burnout can come from work, family, admin, marketing, querying, networking, client responsibilities, deadlines, constant decision-making, maintaining visibility, and the never-ending pressure to keep producing.

No single responsibility looks catastrophic on its own.

That’s the problem.

It’s the accumulation of all of them that wears us down.

Eventually, there isn’t enough time or energy to do the things that feed our souls.

Instead, we’re barely keeping ourselves afloat, and that can slowly suffocate the ember that made us want to create in the first place.

The Writing Becomes the Thing We Blame

With everything I already have to think about and all the decisions I have to make throughout the day, when I finally have some free time and a glimmer of energy left, the last thing I want to do is write.

Create.

Because when I open my manuscript, I feel exhausted.

I know more decisions are waiting for me there.

What does this character do next?

Does this scene work?

How am I going to connect everything?

Is this actually the ending I want?

And sometimes, making even one more decision is the last thing I want to do.

But the manuscript isn’t causing my exhaustion.

That feeling was there long before I opened it.

The book simply becomes the place where I finally notice it.

The blinking cursor on the screen doesn’t create the burnout.

Like an open wound, it exposes it.

When Creative Resistance Isn’t Really Resistance

As a writer, I hear a lot about resistance, procrastination, discipline, consistency, and pushing through.

And as someone who is also trying to build a freelance business as a creative, I’ve started to notice that there’s a difference between procrastination and depletion.

I can avoid the work because I’m afraid of it.

I’ve done that before.

But I also know that right now, I keep pushing my writing back because I don’t have energy left to give.

That doesn’t mean we should never push ourselves.

Sometimes we need to sit down, open the document, and begin even when we don’t feel like it.

But struggling to write doesn’t always mean you’re procrastinating.

Sometimes you’re avoiding the work, and sometimes you simply don’t have enough energy left to give it.

Sometimes you’re resisting.

Sometimes you’re depleted.

Knowing the difference matters.

The Cost of Carrying Too Much

So what happens to the creative process when we’re burned out?

It doesn’t just mean we’re tired.

Burnout can look like:

rereading the same paragraph over and over
struggling to make simple story decisions
losing excitement about scenes you once loved
avoiding the manuscript because it feels like another obligation
comparing yourself to writers who seem to do more
feeling guilty whenever you rest
struggling to distinguish exhaustion from a genuine lack of interest

And perhaps the worst part is that burnout can lead us to resent the very thing we once loved.

The book we were writing.

The artwork we were painting.

The clothes we were sewing.

The thing that once gave us an escape can feel like one more thing demanding something from us.

I’ve been stuck with only three or four chapters left to finish my book, and I’ve been relatively stagnant since the beginning of the year.

Have I made progress?

Yes.

But not much.

I haven’t reached the goal I set for myself.

Instead, I’ve watched myself push that goal further and further back.

For a while, I assumed the problem was the book.

Meanwhile, I was working, building a business, supporting clients, networking, writing articles, dealing with uncertainty in my own life, and trying to keep everything else in check.

So now I have to wonder:

Was the manuscript ever really the problem?

Or was it simply the place where I finally noticed how tired I was?

Why “Just Write” Can Make It Worse

We’ve all heard some version of it:

Just do it.

Butt in chair.

Build the habit.

Write anyway.

Push through.

And those approaches can work.

I’ve used some of them as motivation myself.

But when someone is truly depleted, demanding more output can turn writing into yet another obligation.

And once creativity starts to feel like another obligation, we’re much more likely to withdraw from it.

This isn’t an argument against discipline.

It’s an argument for diagnosis before prescription.

Before telling yourself to push harder, figure out what’s actually draining you.

Maybe the answer is that you’ve been procrastinating and need to sit down and begin.

But maybe it isn’t.

Burnout Is a Capacity Problem

How much are we actually capable of carrying at once?

We only have so much attention, energy, decision-making ability, emotional bandwidth, and creative focus in a day.

Every responsibility draws from that same pool.

Writing doesn’t somehow exist outside of it.

If you’ve spent the entire day:

making decisions
solving problems
supporting other people
worrying about money
managing your business
or simply dealing with life

You don’t magically receive a fresh reserve of creative energy when you open your manuscript at night.

You’re drawing from whatever is left.

And sometimes, that isn’t much.

Protecting creativity, then, sometimes means looking beyond the writing and asking:

What else is using the energy my writing needs?

Maybe You Haven’t Lost the Story

I thought I was losing interest.

I thought I had failed.

I’ve had moments when I wondered if my book was dead.

But now I think: maybe not.

Maybe I’m tired.

Because I know the story is still there.

I still think about the characters.

I still think about the ending.

I still want to know what this book becomes.

Maybe I need to understand what’s been pulling me away from my creative space before I can figure out how to return to it.

And maybe that’s something we all need to consider before deciding we’ve lost our discipline, our motivation, or even our stories.

Before you decide that something inside you has disappeared, ask yourself a different question:

Have you lost the desire to create, or have you simply run out of room to carry it?

***

About The Author

Take her Creative Capacity Check-In Assessment to identify where your business may be quietly draining your creative energy.

Instagram @imanllompart • Instagram photos and videos

The post Protecting the Creative Life: Why Writers Burnout Before Finishing by Iman Llompart appeared first on Writer's Fun Zone.

Building Your Inner Circle of Support: How to Find Beta Readers | How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 218

Kerry-Ann McDade — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:38:47 +0000

Building Your Inner Circle of Support: How to Find Beta Readers – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 218

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“We may write alone, but we actually edit together.” – Beth Barany

This short episode packs a punch!

Did you know building trusting relationships with your beta readers can make the process easier when it comes to your next book as they’ll be waiting for the email about your new story?

Listen to this episode of How To Write the Future titled “Building Your Inner Circle of Support: How to Find Beta Readers” where host Beth Barany shares why it’s important to nurture your beta reader relationships, where to find beta readers, and what questions you can ask them after they’ve read your book.

Beth also shares an actual sample email in the resources you can adapt to your book from her article: “3 Essential Editing Tips: Beta Readers (Pt 3).”

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES

Getting Feedback on Your Novel by Beth Barany

3 Essential Editing Tips: Beta Readers (Pt 3) by Beth Barany

https://writersfunzone.com/blog/2015/09/17/3-essential-editing-tips-beta-readers-pt-3-by-beth_barany/

About the How To Write the Future podcast

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 218 Building Your Inner Circle of Support: How to Find Beta Readers

Welcome and Topic

BETH BARANY: We may write alone, but we actually edit together. This episode is about finding beta readers. Nurturing your supporters, your fans, and beta readers is a relationship. It is not transactional, in my opinion. You can have transactional relationships, but I want to encourage you to have real relationships with your beta readers.

Hi everyone. I’m Beth Barany. I am the host of How to Write the Future podcast. I’m a writing teacher and coach, and specialize in helping science fiction and fantasy writers.

[00:35] Where to Find Beta Readers

So today we’re gonna talk about how to find beta readers and the importance of beta readers. How do you find them? You may find them in your critique group, writing group, online, in your social media channels, on your email list.

If you have a Substack, that’s a good place to find them. If you’re in a writing community, that’s a good place to find them.

[00:58] Preparing Your Request

So what do you ask beta readers?

Here’s what you ask beta readers.

And you can follow the resource link for the actual sample email that I suggest you send to beta readers.

So first, you wanna get their agreement and get them on a waiting list so that when you are ready to send out for more feedback to these beta readers, you are ready. You have a list of people.

So there you are, you have your list of people, and you get right to the point.

Thank them for their, their feedback and support.

[01:32] Formats and Deadlines

Tell them that you have attached the manuscript with the working title, or maybe you have a fixed title. Give it to them in the format they like. I usually offer people Word, PDF, or EPUB. And Draft2Digital lets you convert easily a Word document into an EPUB and PDF.

And I collect what is their preferred format ahead of time in a Google form. I have a sample of that. You can see my actual beta reader request form also in the resource section.

You tell them how long it is and you give them a deadline. People love deadlines. And then you give them a list of questions. Here are six questions that I ask them, and they’re in the email, and I say, “Short answers are fine.” These are not editors. These are people who are reading your book for free.

We’re not expecting them to be editors, copy editors, fix our typos, although some people will because they can’t help it.

[02:26] Six Key Questions

So here’s what we want to ask them.

Number 1: At what point does the motivation or the actions of the characters seem realistic?

Number 2: Where does the story get boring?

Number 3: What was missing? What do you want more of? It’s two different ways of asking the same thing.

Number 4: What would make this a five-star story for you?

Number 5: Do you feel attached to the characters?

Number 6: Optional. Any line edits like typos or grammar would be great.

[03:01] Set Expectations and Thanks

Then I tell them this. I say, ” Thank you for your honesty. I would rather learn that my story doesn’t work now than learn that it sucks from Amazon reviewers, and I don’t take constructive criticism personally. Thanks again. Have a great week.”

And then I do my sign-off.

So that is a sample note that you can send your beta readers.

[03:24] Wrap Up and Teaser

Let me know if you have any questions about finding beta readers or dealing with beta readers so I can answer them in an upcoming episode. That’s all for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

Need instructions on how to leave a review? Go here.

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Support our work for creatives: leave a tip: https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

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ABOUT BETH BARANY

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT

Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580

Email: beth@bethbarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
EDITORIAL by Iman Llompart

c 2026 BETH BARANY