093: One Essential Tool to Help You Improve Your Writing

 

I often get asked for my best piece of advice for new writers. It's hard to pick just one, of course, but this week's podcast episode covers a piece of advice that I haven't talked about much. It's something I did as a new writer, and it helped me finish my novel, develop a super efficient writing routine, and strengthen my craft.

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oNE ESSENTIAL TOOL TO HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

Welcome to the blank page to book podcast. Thanks for being here. I am almost 30 weeks pregnant at the time of recording this, I just recorded a TikTok video earlier this morning. It was a longer TikTok video and I had to pause and take some deep breaths in the middle of recording that TikTok video. And I think I'm gonna have to do the same thing with this podcast episode because I get winded so easily. And of course other podcasts, it's a little bit easier because I can just stop the recording. But if I sound winded, that is why. I did not just run up a flight of stairs, I'm not exercising, as I'm recording this. I'm just pregnant.

Okay, so I'm excited to talk about this piece of advice, because I've definitely touched on it a little bit. But what made me think about this is I did a podcast interview recently that will be released with someone in September, I was on her podcast and we were talking about what I feel like helped me be successful in finding an agent. And what I would recommend for new writers, whether writers are looking to to go down that road and try to find an agent or not just kind of what my recommendations are. And this is something that I talked about in this episode, because it's something that was so impactful for me. And it's yeah, it's something I'm excited to talk about.

And I'm also excited to tell you more about the writer shop, which is officially launching. And of course we'll talk about it in this episode. And you can click the link in the description of this episode to get an idea for what's all up in the shop at the moment. But yeah, let's dive in. Okay. I'll just go ahead and tell you a piece of advice. This one essential thing is taking a writing class. My experience with writing classes has been so positive, they have been so impactful and transformative for me for a number of reasons. The very first writing class that I ever took, it was shortly after I started writing. And I had just started writing my first book. And I quickly realized that I didn't know what I was doing. I thought that because I was a reader, a lifelong reader, I loved books, I thought that I would able be able to just figure out how to structure a book what to do. But it was a lot harder than I anticipated.

And I didn't have any sort of training in it really like I didn't. I have an English Lit degree, but I don't have a creative writing degree. And I had never taken a writing class before and just felt totally out of my depth. So I was living in Washington DC at the time, my husband and I lived there for two years. And there was a writing center that was in Bethesda, Maryland. So I decided, You know what, I'm just going to take a class, can't hurt, why not? And it wasn't, you know, there are the multi week writing classes where you meet for eight weeks for three hours, every Monday or whatever. Or they're writing classes where it's like, okay, it's just a two hour chunk of time. And it's a shorter version of a class. So that's what I did. I went for, I think it was 90 minutes, maybe maybe two hours at most on a Saturday afternoon. And it was in person at this writing center.

And I remember it was a really snowy day it was in the winter. And it took me forever to get there because I lived in Arlington, Virginia at that point and getting to Bethesda was an ordeal but I got there and the class was something like how to write a novel. For beginners. It was very introductory, it was very basic, but it was exactly what I needed at that time. And it was at that class where I learned the best. Truly what I think is the best tip for writing in terms of strategy, which is to focus on getting the first draft out first before you go back and edit, let it be messy. Doesn't matter. Just don't go back and edit, keep moving forward. Then go back and edit once you're done with the first draft. I'm aware that that advice advice does not work for everyone. Not everyone uses that strategy that is totally fine. But for me, that was absolutely life changing, because that is not what I had been doing.

Up until that point, I had been fixated on finding the perfect sentence and getting the dialogue exactly right and the perfect words and everything. As I was writing, and it was taking me so long, I would write for 30 or 45 minutes, and I want to get like 200 words done. And that's great. You know, I was still making progress. But it just felt like, it just felt frustrating because I felt like I was going to take it was going to take me 20 years to write the book. So that was honestly worth it. Just hearing the instructors say that piece of advice in the class made the class so worth it. The rest of the class was not, I don't even remember exactly what we talked about. I don't remember it being as helpful. But again, because I got that one nugget of information, that one thing the instructor said, that changed everything for me. And it was so worth it. And I would not have heard that piece of advice if I had not signed up for that class.

So fast forward, we moved to Nashville. I lived in Nashville for five years. And there's an amazing writing center in Nashville called The Porch. And The porch has all kinds of classes they have in person classes, they have online classes, they also do, you know, a multi week kind of class or just a an afternoon, two hour kind of workshop. And I just immersed myself in classes at the porch. I took a lot of classes there that basically anything that sounded interesting, every semester, they would release their class offerings. And I would just be like, okay, well, it looks good. What do I want to take, I took a multi week narrative nonfiction class where we worked in a personal essay, I took a dialogue class, I took a business and branding for authors class, just all kinds of classes to it was almost like I was building my own personalized MFA program, I do not have an MFA, I do have a graduate degree, but it's not in creative writing.

And at the time, I really wrestled with whether I should go back and get my MFA in creative writing, but ultimately decided not to, because at that time, I was still paying off my student loans from grad school. And it just, I just couldn't justify taking on more debt. And there are some MFA residency programs that you don't have to pay tuition, and you get like a little stipend. So I could have tried that route. But I just, you know, at that point, I was working full time already. And it just felt like it wasn't the right decision for me. But I wanted to get some education and some training. So those classes were essential for me to do that. And I feel like I grew so much as a writer, from those classes that I took. And part of it was just building a community and being around other writers. But my craft, the actual skill at writing got so much better.

From when I first started taking classes to the time that I left Nashville this spring, and moved back to Charleston. It just, yeah, I really can't say enough about The Porch. It's been amazing, amazing place. So it was the writing center in Bethesda, by the way, it's called the Writers' Center, but only took that one class there so I have a lot more experience with The Porch. Anyways, the point is, taking a writing class is a fantastic way to stretch yourself to challenge yourself and to get information about writing. And I think what can be tempting sometimes, in today's day and age especially, is to think that getting information for free online is a good substitute. And sometimes it is, like you can absolutely find a lot of the information that's conveyed that's covered in a writing class, online.

Like if you just look at YouTube videos, if you listen to podcasts like this one, if you look at social media content, read articles or blogs, like you can absolutely piece a lot of this together. So I'm not saying you can't, but taking a writing class is a great way to get all of that information distilled into an hour, 30 minutes, 90 minutes into our whatever session and really get it can really just give you actionable stuff. A lot of times you get a chance to, you know, get specific advice that you wouldn't be able to get through a YouTube video or a podcast, and everything that's covered in a class is there intentionally the instructor has really put together the curriculum and the material intentionally because they know, hey, I've only got this short amount of time to teach this one thing. Let me make this as effective and good as I possibly can.

And I found I have never taken a multi week, general class on like how to write a novel or anything. But I have taken again, like I mentioned, I took like a world building class and took a dialogue class, took a revision class, so I pieced these different things together. And I found those really, really helpful, because again, I could get quick advice and tips around one specific part of the writing process, instead of overwhelming myself. So with that being said, you can certainly look at writing centers where you live, if you live in a bigger city, chances are you have some kind of literary center, or writing center, or maybe even just a local bookstore that also puts on writing classes you never know. So I definitely encourage you to check out that and see if that's an option.

But I know that that's not feasible for a lot of people, maybe you live somewhere, you live in a small town, you're out in the country and it's just not an option for you to do that. And the good news is that it's 2023. And there are so many resources and classes that are available online. Like The Porch I mentioned, my literary center in Nashville, those are classes online. Actually, the last class that I took from them, I think it was last year was a class that was online, so you can definitely do that.

But that also leads into me announcing and telling you more about The Writer Shop. I wanted to have a resource for people where they could get training on something specific to writing. Where they could get help and it was in an easy to digest format. So The Writer Shop has when you click on the link, you will see links to all of my all of my stuff, basically, you'll be able to see links to the freebie that I have, which is a free character profile template that you can download and use to help you flesh out your characters. There's a link to listen to the podcast. But there's also a little shop part, the first part of it, where I have some trainings that you can purchase and watch. And it's yours to watch as many times as you want. Like once you purchase the training or the workshop, it's yours for life. And you get to watch it as many times as you want. It's available right away as soon as you purchase.

So there are a couple of different trainings that I want to just touch on briefly. So you know, kind of like what's included, and you can decide if something sounds helpful for you. So first of all, there is a creating strong characters workshop, this is a replay of a workshop that I did about a year and a half ago, maybe that was all about creating strong, memorable characters in your novel. And there's a lot of good information about in there about developing characters, introducing characters, what to do if you're stuck on a particular character mistakes to avoid. So definitely check that out if you want.

There's also a training on how to edit your novel. This is a shorter one, it's 30 minutes, 35 minutes, I think. And this is like the actionable strategy focused training like okay, you finished your first draft? How the hell do you edit your book now, and I talk about my five draft editing strategy. And I also give you some tips and techniques and hacks just to make the process easier and more effective so that you're not like, Well, how do I do this? What do I do? How do I edit my book. And then also, what's really exciting is I have a full online course called Idea to Book that is available in The Writer Shop as well.

So Idea to Book is a comprehensive online course that as the name implies, takes you all the way from idea like you've got an idea for a book, it's kind of percolating all the way from that stage to fully finished, edited, novel. So there are a bunch of different modules, there are nine modules that you go through. And it really contains everything that you need. There are some more craft focus modules with lessons on things like creating dialogue and characters and developing setting and how to create conflict in your novel. But then there are also some modules and lessons that are more focused on mindset like overcoming impostor syndrome, how to write when it feels like you have a really busy schedule, and you just don't have time, all of these things and if you click into the link the idea to Book link on the course. There's a little video that I recorded that gives you a sneak peek of what it looks like. So you can look at all the module headings and see kind of a an overview -- What's included with that course. But that's the more comprehensive one.

So if you're just looking for a quick, you know, burst of like motivation or some training some education on a particular topic, check out the trainings. But if you want, if you want someone to walk you through point A to Z, how to write a book, and then how to consider like what you do after that, then definitely check out the idea to book course. And that is, again, once you purchase the course you had access to it, it's yours, you can rewatch the modules as many times as you want this idea to book courses previously only available to people in my blank page to book membership. But I've made it available so that if you just want to purchase that you can.

The plan with the Writer Shop, there are just a few things up there now. But the plan with the Writer Shop is to gradually add more resources and trainings there. So I would love I have a couple of training ideas already outlined. But I'd love to just keep adding every month or so like there's a new training in there every month, maybe down the line creating like a workbook for people. So I want this to be an evolving thing where people can can find all kinds of resources. And the other thing that's important about The Writer Shop is that they're stuffed for every budget, you know, the idea to book courses, the most expensive, still a pretty good price at $199 If you think about everything you get with it, but that's the most expensive and then the how to edit your draft training is just $33.

So I want to have a lot of different options available for different price points. So that if you are on a budget, maybe you can still find a training or a class that's going to be helpful for you and not have to spend, you know, a few $100. So that is the Writer Shop and why I think classes are so so important. Definitely check it out. Again, I'll have the link to the shop in the description of the episode. And it's also going to be the link on my Instagram and my TikTok. So if you're ever on my social media profiles, you can just click into that, check out what's available. And I will of course update you as soon as I add new resources or new trainings to the writer shop. Last thing I'm going to mention is a coupon code that is available this week only. So it's available from Tuesday, August 8, through Tuesday, August 15.

You get a week to use this coupon code. It's August 20. And you get 20% off of the trainings and the course in the shop. That means 20% off of the How to Edit Your Draft training the characters workshop and the Idea to Book course. So definitely take advantage of that. Again, you've got a week to use that coupon code August 20. Get yourself a little little deal. And yeah, thank you for you know, checking out the shop and if you have an idea for a training or a class or something that you would like to see added to the shop, definitely reach out to me can send me a DM on Instagram at Katie Wolf. Thank you so much for listening. I'm excited about the Writer Shop and hope you are as well and I will see you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Katie Wolf