Tag: Fiction

4 Ways To Ensure You Are Creating Real Human 3D Characters

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

We have all read books where the characters seem to leap off the page, where they feel so lifelike that you wouldn’t be surprised if they walked through your front door.   As a writer, I know that you want to ensure that your characters are like that so your readers fall in love with them, want to be them, and want to keep reading their story.   Here are four ways to ensure that happens.

Create your character’s persona

This is the character development portion.  I like to use a Tarot card for this, but you can use character bio worksheets, Pinterest mood boards, or just writing down everything you know about your characters in your project file.

For an example using The Empress card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck, watch the video below!!

If you already have a character created, get your notes back out and start from there – look at what you have and make sure you at least have the basics of who this person is, what role they play in your novel, and a few points about what makes them unique. 

Talk to your characters

You need to talk to your characters as if they are real human people (or aliens, or dragons, or whatever type of creature you are creating). I like to do this with the Tarot card I used to create the character, but you can also grab an image off Pinterest or a magazine – have something you can look at while you’re doing this exercise.  

You can do this either out loud – asking your character questions and then answering as if you are them (I like doing this as it lets me use some of my theatre training) OR you can do this in a journal or word document.  Start with a list of open ended questions and see what they say.  For example, if you ask them: What do you want me to know about your story? And they answer, I don’t want to be known as the villain.  Then your next question could be – why do people assume you’re the villain?  And so on and so forth. 


Become friends with your character

It’s true, you need to become friends with your characters – even the bad guys, even the truly evil antagonists you can create – the way you do this is what do you love about them? Probably for the bad guy, the thing you love the most is how evil they are, right?

To accomplish this, I like to journal as if I was the character.  Do they write in a journal? Keep an online diary? Are they teens and write things down in the notes app on their phone or keep a vlog via TikTok? I figure that out first then try to mimic it as close to possible so I can get into the mindset of my character. Then I choose a day – either from my novel or right before – and start writing.  

Every time I do this exercise I learn valuable information and things I can use about my characters for my novels – seriously, this is so much fun, if you only take away one exercise, let it be this one!!

Visualize them/Describe them to someone else

Now, step away from the images you have – either the Tarot card or Pinterest pictures, and try to visualize them in your mind.  If you are not able to do this – describe them to someone else. This exercise is to get you thinking about your character, seeing your character in your own mind so much that you if they did walk in, the other person would go – oh, them?! 

This helps you take everything you’ve learned and put it all together, creating a real human 3D character with quirks and flaws and emotions and all the things that make a reader fall in love with a person in a book. 

If you did this exercise with one of your characters, please let me know in the comments below how it worked for you and what one thing you discovered about them that you are definitely putting into your book?

And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle to Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face.

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Turquoise typewriter with the words The End

Are YOU the reason you haven’t been able to finish your book?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Have you used any of these excuses before while writing…

  • I’ll write later or I’ll write when the kids are older
  • I’ll write when my house is perfectly clean
  • I can’t concentrate until all of my projects are done
  • I love my characters, but they’re not doing what I want…and now my draft is messy
  • I’m waiting on inspiration to find my ending

Listen, writing The End is scary – trust me, I know, I’ve done it multiple times, but the truth is you cannot edit a blank page. You need to finish your draft.  So, now that we’ve established that fact, let me make it a little easier for you.

 

You need to have a plan of attack

How’s your outline looking? Is it fleshed out? Are you completely off track? First, let’s take a moment and see where we are and where we’re trying to go.  (Note, I have blog posts coming very, very soon about outlining so be on the lookout – or subscribe to my YouTube channel and not miss anything!)

Next, let’s get those characters cooperating.  Figure out what they’re trying to tell you by interviewing them, journaling as if you are them, and get them back on your side.

 

You are thinking too far ahead

Writing The End is really scary, because you are thinking too much about what happens next.  Your brain is five steps ahead thinking about the editing process or hiring an editor, finding beta readers, marketing on Instagram or joining TikTok.  STOP!!

You need to stay in the phase that you’re in right now – the discovery stage, the learning about your characters and their story stage, the beautiful messy first draft stage.  If you have ideas about things for the future, write them down somewhere, but don’t get stuck in too much future planning especially since social media platforms are always changing – ideas for excellent Reels might not even make sense in six months or a year if Instagram decides to change something…again!

Try to relax and enjoy the first draft – it’s supposed to be FUN!!  Revisions are fun in a different way and when you get there, I’ll tell you the same thing – stay in your lane and enjoy where you are.

 

 

Schedule your writing time

Here’s some honest truth, if you need your house completely clean before you write, it’s never going to happen – this is just an excuse.  So may I make a small suggestion?  Clean the room or area you’ll be working in.  I get it, I know people like this – I mean, I’m not like this – but usually having them clean their desk, or their bedroom, before writing helps them feel a bit more grounded and ready to rock. Or write.

Ok, so excuse number one down, let’s look at the excuse of having kids around.  Can you get up before them? Got babies or toddlers who are early risers, can you write during nap time? Can you write when your partner gets home? Can you swap writing time/work time with a friend who has a baby? There are ways to do this, but you have to communicate your needs with the people you live with and schedule your writing in a way that works for YOU. 

My son is ten so this looks very different now than when he was a baby, but I had to do some interesting things – write during baby gym classes, write at night or in the morning, have my husband take him to baby music classes on the weekend so I could write every other weekend – it’s tricky, I’m not going to lie, but it can be done. 

You may not be able to write every day, and that’s okay, but figure out what’s realistic for you and your family or situation and schedule that time.  I’d rather you be consistent with one day a week than never write because you are waiting for that “perfect” time to appear out of thin air – it’s not going to happen.

And finally, writing should be fun – I’ve said that before and I’ll keep saying because it’s true – you should be enjoying at least a little bit of the writing process, or why do it?!? If writing is starting to feel like a chore can you do something to make it more fun? I like to add music to my writing sessions, but you could add in a reward, a writing snack, a fun new place to write in, or stickers on a calendar! 

I know writing is hard, I know getting to that ending is scary, but these things can help you get over the writing slump and get back into the groove so you can type The End, all with a smile on your face.

And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle to Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face.  

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How To Make The Book Writing Process More Fun

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Has writing your novel lost its luster?

You started writing with all kinds of ideas and energy and excitement, but now that you’re in the muddy middle, it all just feels a little blah, a little hard. Sitting down and forcing yourself to write feels about as much fun as riding the New York City subway without air conditioning in the middle of August – icky.

Let me share three reasons you might be finding the writing process less than enjoyable and a few ways to fix that.

Your characters are feeling dull


Now, one reason for this might just be that you need a break, because you are so involved in your characters and their lives, it all becomes repetitive, but if you don’t feel like you know your characters very well or you’re not writing them in an exciting way, that’s when you need to take a step back and talk to your characters.

I suggest interviewing them, asking them some questions like:

  • What do you need me to know today?

  • What do you need me to know about your story?

  • What can you tell me about “other character names here”?

  • Why aren’t you doing what I want you to do?


Or, you can do one of my favorite things – journal as if you were them! You can do this in a physical journal and hand write or you can do this in a word document. Basically just pretend you are your character and pick a day, either from your book or from before your book started, and write the journal entry as if you are them. It tells you a lot about their quirks, their habits, how they speak to themselves, what they share when no one else is around. It can be very, very insightful. 

Another fun thing I like to do, especially when things are feeling stagnant, is throw all the characters into one scene and throw something big at them.  Even if this is not something that’s going to be in your book later, it can still be a lot of fun and give you some insights into how your characters interact with each other and handle the pressure of a new situation.  An example would be having them all at one party, now this works for me because I write young adult books, but you can also have them all at a bar or the office, and then I might decide that police show up to shut the party down.  How do each of my main characters react to that? And write as if you’re going to hit all of your characters, write from their point of view – again, even if this isn’t how your book is set up, it gives you time in each of their heads to find out more about them and their quirks, their habits, their issues.

 

Your plots feels a little flat


Again, you might just be tired of writing and need a break – and that’s cool, or it might mean that you need to add a few things into your plot, some new ideas to add tension or conflict.  I like to brainstorm by using Tarot cards, and you can watch the video above to see a real-world example, but you can also just start writing down new thoughts, ideas, and come up with something to add to your plot now that you are further along that you maybe didn’t think of back when you were first starting out writing or working on your outline.

Maybe it’s not so much the plot itself, but the next few chapters you need to write aren’t exciting you but a chapter or scene a few bullet points down is.  Give yourself permission to write out of order. I don’t always do this, but something you are just too jazzed about an upcoming scene and writing that will do two things. One, you’ll keep up the momentum and excitement you were feeling at the beginning on a project. And two, it will show you that you might need to punch up the chapters or scenes you skipped to make them more exciting.

The words are just feeling super weird when you write them


If the words sound weird, and this is what’s causing the writing process to now seem fun, add in something new to your writing ritual.  I like to have special things that I do before, during, and after I write.  For me, I like to pull a Tarot card, light a candle and play a pump up playlist to get me super hyped for writing.  During my session I’ll have a vision board, Tarot card, or my Big Why somewhere close by to remind me of why I’m telling this story and I usually also play music while I write.  Afterwards I reward myself with chocolate, a fancy coffee, some downtime, or time with my family. Creating a writing ritual like this makes the whole process more fun, more magical and makes you happier. 

You can also create a reward system so with every five writing sessions, you get a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts coffee. Of if you write every day for two weeks straight, you get three days off, whatever works for you, but figure out a little reward system.  It doesn’t have to be anything huge or expensive, if buying a Starbucks is too much, maybe make yourself a yummy beverage that you only make when you’re done writing or have a run of writing sessions. 

I also like to make it a game. I love to use timers and I try to see how many words I can write in 25 minutes. (Note, I’ve been doing this awhile and 25 minutes works for me, but I would start with 10 if you’re new to timers and writing).  I set the timer and see how many words I can write within that time frame. Write the number down.  The next time I sit down to write, I see if I can “beat” my own number.  Let’s say in one session you write 100 words, can you do 110 the next day? 120 the day after that?  If this starts to stress you out, please just put this option away and go back to the reward system instead – I don’t want anyone being more flustered and frustrated with their writing, okay?  Cool!

The other thing I want you to remember is that our writing feels weird to us, especially in first draft land. We are trying to tell the story that’s in our head and putting it down on paper, and that is a funky process. Just know the words are not always going to feel right. You can’t always be subjective with your own writing and that’s okay. That’s what revisions and beta readers and editors are for, down the road. It’s okay if the words sound a little funky to yourself.  Remind yourself that you can always fix things later.

First drafts are messy and that’s okay!

Now that you know the three reasons why sitting down to write may feel hard, which one is hitting you the most right now? And what are you planning on doing this week to make writing more fun? I would love to know in the comments below. 

And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle to Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face.  

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Does Your Novel Really Suck?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Every writer that I know, myself included, always hits a wall at some point in their writing process. Usually it’s smack dab in the middle of the manuscript where you look at your book and you think, does this suck? Do I suck? Should I just scrap this whole thing? 

 

I’m going to give you five questions to ask yourself before you chuck that 70,000 word manuscript into the digital trash.

 

Do you hate your character(s)?

 

I’m gonna admit something. This was me. I wrote 70,000 words on a novel that I basically had to toss and start over with because I really hated my main character. If I had stopped, when I started to feel stuck, and asked myself this question, I could have saved myself a lot of time and energy. 

 

Sometimes we really don’t like our characters, but there are fixes for that.  Before you trash the whole thing, ask if there’s another character you’d rather write about or are you just bored with this character? If it’s another character calling to you, stop and retool your outline and try writing a few chapters from the new character’s point of view.  If you’re just feeling bored, try interviewing your character or journal as them to see if you learn some new things.  You can also throw something kooky at them to see how they would react – it can even be something totally out of the norm for your genre like an alien invasion, earthquake or other natural disaster – you can always toss that chapter later, but you might find you discover something about your character or book plot that will help you feel more excited overall. 

 

Are you connected to your story anymore? 

 

Writing a novel is a long process and I believe it’s pretty normal to get bored. We know our stories so well. We live and breathe them every day. We think about them constantly so it’s easy to get tired of our own words. If you’re feeling disconnected (or a little bored), maybe you just need a break. Maybe you need to write something else for a while. A short story, bad poetry, or create some characters for something new. 

 

You might need a break from writing all together. That’s okay! 

Do you just feel burnt out? 

 

Are you tired? Do you just hate sitting down to write? To go along with the above question, if you’re feeling burnt out you might need a break from writing all together.  Maybe you don’t wanna think about your book or your characters anymore. Again, that’s okay. Give yourself a time period. One week, two weeks. Don’t give yourself too much time, but give yourself a couple of weeks and do something completely different.

 

Play guitar, paint with watercolors, take a photo walk with your phone. Whatever YOU think is FUN – do that! Then come back and see if you feel better. 

 

Do I just not see a way to end this stupid thing? 

 

Even if you have an outline and have an ending written down, you might have gone through some twists and turns and you’re not where you thought you should be. Now you don’t know how to get to that end.  

 

When this happens, I like to take a couple of days and journal it out to rethink some things. Do you like where your outline was or not? Do you like where you are now? 

 

Start from where you are, figure out where you want to go, and then keep writing from there. If you need to take a couple of days to do this, it’s better to do it now than to just keep spinning your wheels or wind up scrapping the whole thing and never finishing. 

 

Are you judging every word you’re writing?

 

I do this. This is your inner editor talking. I also believe this is sort of the on ramp to feeling burned out. If you can catch this now, when you’re judging every little word before you get completely burnt out, you can save yourself a couple of weeks of frustration. 

 

If it is your inner editor, you’ll want to befriend your inner editor and get them on your side.  The easiest way to do this, have a conversation with them, ask them what they’re trying to tell you and how you can work together to keep going. Hopefully they give you some useful information and they allow you to get back to work.  If they aren’t being helpful, make sure you write that down and see if there’s something you can do to quiet the voice for awhile. 

 

Remember that this process can take some time, but again, stopping to deal with the issue now will keep you from giving up all together and never getting to The End.

 

Great, so let’s say you’ve asked yourself these five questions, you’ve fixed the problems and you’re ready to push through and finish your novel – you love your story, you’re grooving again with your characters, you see the ending – but you don’t know how to get there.  That’s where I come in with my 1:1 Coaching Package, Muddy Middle to Manuscript where I walk you through a process to help you overcome your issues, learn more about your plot and characters, and find the needed motivation to get to The End. 

 

If you have any questions, leave them below.

4 Fears My Inner Editor Has Convinced Me I Have

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

…and how I have used Tarot to overcome them

Our inner editors can be very loud and can totally convince us that we have a range of fears from fear of success to fear of failure. But I think that if we learn to acknowledge and address these fears, we can overcome them with journaling and Tarot. 

In working with my clients, and in my own writing career, I have seen the same four fears come up over and over again. And they all stem from that loud inner editor. 

The fear of failure – This book is not gonna be a success. Why am I even bothering? 

The fear of success – Oh, this book’s gonna be great, but then I’m gonna have to write a second book…I can’t do that!

The fear of bad reviews – Just the thought of someone critiquing our books can cause us to completely shut down.

The fear of being “found out” as a fraud, otherwise known as imposter syndrome – Oh no, someone is going to come and take me away to fraud jail because I’m really not – insert thing here causing you panic.

I don’t believe these fears ever truly go away, but I do believe that if we work on acknowledging and working through them, we can quiet them down enough so we can take action and move forward toward our dreams.

That is a huge key to getting over writer’s block. 

 

 

What I would like you to do is grab a journal and answer these questions:

  • Which fear are you currently dealing with or which fear do you deal with most often?
  • How does this fear show up in your life? 
  • How does it stop you from writing and how does it affect your writing life in other ways? 

 

Once you’ve acknowledged the fear, keep journaling, let your mind wander and really get everything out about how this fear shows up and how it stops you from pursuing your dream.  
If you are dealing with a few fears, start with one and work through both exercises and then you can go back and do the same thing with another one – in fact, it might be super helpful to do these with all four fears, but let’s start with one. 

Once you’ve done the journaling work, the deep inner work, and you know which fear you are dealing with – let’s do something a little fun, a little different – a 3 card Tarot spread!

Grab your favorite deck, give it a shuffle and lay down the three cards – one for each of the following questions.  If you’d like to watch me go through this process in real time with my own fear, click the YouTube video above. 

 

Facing Your Fears Tarot Spread

  1. What is my fear trying to tell me?

  2. How can I face my fear with grace and acceptance?

  3. What’s one action I can take to move forward through the fear?

 

So that is what I would do first. I would acknowledge my fears by journaling first, and then I would work through the 3 card Tarot spread to deepen my knowledge or the fear and to come up with action steps through the fear.  

Because I really don’t think our fears ever truly go away. I think we just have layers of depth where we learn more and more about ourselves, more and more about the fear and why it’s coming up and how to effectively deal with it. BUT I do think doing this work quiets the fear so that it’s not so prevalent, it’s not so in your face, and you can then take the action steps needed to move forward toward your goal.

I would love to know if you try these, what came up for you or what action step you are now going to take, so leave a comment below.  

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6 Ways Tarot Has Made Me A Better Writer

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Sure, I was a good writer before I found Tarot but since I’ve started incorporating these magical cards with my writing….I’ve become even better!  How has it helped me?  Let me count the ways. 

 

Helps me get out of my own head

 

We all get stuck in our comfort zones, our own little ways of doing things, but using Tarot and the imagery in the cards helps me break free of that and see things that I might not have thought of before.  If the villain in your book always kills their victims in a certain way and you’re getting tired of that, pulling a card and seeing what else might be possible helps with the brainstorm process, helps your brain make new connections.

 

Helps me develop ideas

 

For my novels, Tarot has helped me create characters, develop subplots, helped with conflict, and gotten me out of stuck corners during problem scenes or sections.  I always get some new ideas, new things to think about that allows me to continue forward movement and continue writing – even if I need to fix things later, at least I have words on the page. 

 

I also use Tarot to help me come up with ideas for YouTube, Instagram, email sequences for my business, and my newsletter.  It really can help you come up with ideas for almost anything – tell the cards what you are looking for while shuffling and let the magic happen.  

 

Helps me deepen my relationship with my characters

 

Yes, I teach how to use Tarot to create characters – and you can check that out here – but it also helps me deepen those relationships, even developing friendships with my characters. Even with my villains and antagonists!! When I create characters I usually choose a Tarot card (or let the Universe provide me with one) and I’ll keep record of that so I can grab that card and “talk” to my character when I need to. 

 

I do this normally by journaling with them, but you can also record yourself speaking and answer yourself back as if you were the character – sometimes it can be super fun to do these kinds of things to help you learn more about your characters.  Ask them about their likes and dislikes, what makes them tick, why they do the things they do and what they want you to know.  I guarantee you will know so much more about them if you take the time to talk to them.

 

Helps me have a relationship with my Inner Editor

 

And speaking of creating relationships, over the years I’ve developed one with my Inner Editor.  I chose a Tarot card to personify that voice in my head and started having conversations, learning more about them and telling them more about me.  He’s changed over the years but we now have a very nice working relationship where he helps me (rather than hinder me) and I can write so much faster and with greater purpose than before.  

 

If you’d like to learn more about this process, I teach all about it in my signature course – Turn on the Tap, which is coming this June, so sign up for the waitlist here.

 

Helps encourage me when times get tough

 

Who here has cried over a draft or section of their writing? I have.  One of my favorite ways that Tarot has helped me become a better writer is it encourages me when times are tough.  Listen, things are not always going to be rosy when writing.  Sometimes we feel defeated, we get blocked for days or months, sometimes are characters are real jerks and stop listening to us, or sometimes we just paint ourselves into a corner and can’t see a way out.   Tarot can help you see the big picture.

 

For me, specifically, it helps me see how far I’ve come, how much I’ve already accomplished and how amazing my journey has been.  In the video attached above, I pulled The Magician card and realized how perfect that was for encouragement because we do all have the tools we need to move forward, sometimes we just need to remember how magical we are, how amazing we are for being able to pull words out of thin air and create whole new worlds and people!   The Magician reminds us that we can feel grounded while reaching for the stars – it’s a beacon to help you keep going.  

 

Helps me when I need a writing coach

 

In that same vein, Tarot has become somewhat of a writing coach for me.  Yes, I am a writing coach and have amazing support around me from a kick ass editor to a really awesome writing group, sometimes you need to be able to rely on yourself for answers. 

 

When you are having a panic over something at 3am, you can’t always call on another human being, but you can reach for your trust deck of cards to give you guidance and answers.   For this example, I pulled the Knight of Wands which is all about the fiery passion, nurturing your dreams and your projects while keeping both feet planted on the ground – it gave me a message of your project being precious and you being an amazing writer who cares so much and it shows! You can’t see it right now, but you have bigger things to conquer, bigger mountains to scale and you are going to do just fine!!

 

And that’s how I use Tarot as my writing coach, sometimes you need that little burst of inspiration to help you stay in the moment and keep writing.  We all need someone to tell us we are doing a great job and we don’t all have those people in our lives, so let Tarot do that for you.

 

By combining the magical tool of Tarot with the innate knowledge you have about writing can help take your writing career and journey from pretty good to freaking awesome.  Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and hopefully this gave you some insight into why I think Tarot is the best tool for writers to help unlock their creativity and keep them writing for the long haul. 

4 Creative Ways To Name The Characters In Your Next Novel

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

 

Anyone can grab the baby name book off the bookshelf, or use any of the apps available, but I think there are more fun and creative ways to come up with character names. 

 

Start with the time period and country your book is set

If you’re writing from a book set in the United States in the 1980’s you are going to come up with very different names than if you’re writing about Japan in the 1800’s.  My name, Jennifer, was extremely popular in the late 1970’s, especially in the midwest, versus what’s popular name in baby names so make sure you keep these things in mind before you jump into books, apps, or your own imagination. 

 

Think about the main theme of your book

Let’s say you are writing a Young Adult romance novel with the theme of love conquers all.  I would use that word – love – and search for names that mean love.  Then I would brainstorm other words that make you think of love.  Romance, roses, chocolate and use those to help search for names. 

What chocolate brands are out there? Can they be used for last names? 

What rose varietals are there? Can they be used for last names?

 

Use movie and TV credits

Speaking of last names, one of my most fun tips is to use movie and TV credits to borrow/steal actual real names.  This works extremely well if you’re writing a story set in another country.  Find a movie on Netflix or Amazon from that country and use the credits to grab names.  Note: I would google the meaning just in case it comes up as something weird or contradictory to your book’s theme.   

Use Tarot cards

Who didn’t see this coming? I like to shuffle my deck, pull a single card, and concentrate on something small – like a river, a flower, or a city scape in the background – and just brainstorm all the possible names that come up for me.

For example, with a river, I might think of the character River Song from Doctor Who, who is played by the amazing Alex Kingston. Or my favorite flower is the Sunflower, so a nickname for my character might be Sunny.  City names were really popular for awhile so you might have an Austin or Brooklyn or London.

This can be used in many ways, so pull cards and have fun with this process!

 

Which one of these tips was your favorite? Which one are you going to try? I would love to know, so share in the comments below. 

And if you loved this, then I think you would especially like my free training – Novel Narrator: Creating Your Book’s Characters in 30 Minutes Using Tarot – which you can grab here.  

 

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6 Questions To Get You Unstuck & Writing Quick

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Experiencing writer’s block can cause you to feel all kinds of emotions from shame to guilt to anger and back again. If you are dealing with writer’s block and you’re afraid you’ll never write again, I have six questions that can help you get unstuck and back to writing again. 

Note, if you’re like me and you love using Tarot, you can turn these into a spread by putting the first three questions on top and the second three questions on the bottom.  Otherwise, grab your favorite journal and let’s get journaling!

Q1: What excites you about your current project?

Think back to when you first had the idea or when you first started writing. Jot down all the things that excited you – was it the character? Was it the conflict? The theme? 

 

Q2: What scares you about your current project? 

Are you worried that you’re not ready to write this book? Are you writing a new genre or trying something new with your writing? Just write down all the stuff that might be holding you back. 

 

Q3: Why do you think you’re having writer’s block? 

Honestly, I think deep down we know why we’re stuck. We don’t want to admit it to anybody else, or ourselves. So, take a deep breath and let the words flow. Don’t judge yourself – just get it all out and down on paper. It will seem less scary.

 

Q4: What is the block trying to tell you? 

The block might actually be there to teach you something. Do you need to slow down and figure something out? Are your character’s not talking to you so you need to deal with them a little bit?  Write down what you think might be causing the issue. 

 

Q5: What do you need to know to bust through that block? 

So what came up in the previous question that you can now deal with? Do you need to stop and interview your characters again? Do you need to slow down and go through your outline? Do you need to research something so you can continue writing?

 

Q6: What is one creative solution that you can use to bust through the block? 

Now comes the fun part. Brainstorm some creative ways that you can bust through the block. Maybe you need to walk and talk, right? Get an app on your smartphone that allows you to dictate your words so that you can walk around your neighborhood or walk around your house. That’s one idea, come up with a bunch and then choose just ONE to start with. 


I would love to know what your one creative solution was, so please let me know in the comments below, and know that Writer’s Block happens to the best of us, but with these six questions you should be back to the keyboard in no time.

Adding Depth To Characters

How To Add Depth To Your Characters

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Creating characters that make readers fall in love takes time and many, many layers of development.

If you’ve taken my free training, Novel Narrator, and used Tarot to create your characters then you have an amazing character but to take that character and add some depth, we need to do a few more things.

 

What is my motivation?

Yes, this is a terrible actor cliche, but it’s true! Your character needs something to motivate them to do things in your book.  What do they truly want and what do they need by the end of their arc? This is usually two different things too, which can be confusing.  Let’s say your character wants to find the murderer – that is what is motivating them to take on the case.  But what they need is to have closure around their own father’s murder from twenty years ago – that will help them grow and evolve.  

 

Flaws make for real humans

I know we don’t like to look at our own flaws, be we all have them. From little quirks to big things we would like to change (or maybe we love them and others wish we would change) we have character flaws. These help your fictional characters feel like actual humans, people that your readers can root for and feel connected to. I like to use Tarot cards to help me find these, but you can also look toward friends or family and just tweak it a little.  For example, say your friend is always late, like annoyingly so.  To change it up a bit, maybe your character can always be early.  What would that do to your novel and the people your character has to interact with?

 

Friends and Enemies

Another layer to add on to these characters we are creating is how they act around other people.  Do they have quirks or coping mechanisms when they are around their parents? Do they have friends that bring out things they would rather hide about themselves? Are they putting on masks around anyone?  We all tend to do this, but it can be tricky to see, but adding this element to our novels takes our characters from blah to holy crap, I totally relate!

 

Using Tarot

Like I teach in Novel Narrator, I love to use Tarot to help me with all these layers.  If you used 1-2 cards to create your character, get them out and place them on the table.  Then shuffle your deck and add 3 more cards to help you add depth and layers by assigning one card per issue above – you can choose which card goes with which layer.

Choose your card, grab your notebook or open your document and start writing down all the ideas you get.  Remember – look at the background and foreground, use the colors of the cards, and think about what happened right before and after the card’s images.

 

If you haven’t taken my free character creation training, sign up below!!

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4 Tips For Keeping Motivation High During Editing

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Yay! You’ve finished your first draft – congratulations!  Now, are you ready for the editing process?  Don’t be scared. Yes, editing is a totally different beast and it can get long and lonely, but following the advice below will help you keep your spirits high and motivation even higher.

Make it FUN

Editing can be a long process with lots of moving parts.  I know my editing list includes things like: fix character voice, add more details and descriptions, and totally change the ending.  It’s a multiple pass system where I’ll be focusing on different issues on different days.  Editing is not always fun so you have to make it fun by using writing rituals that light you up. I like to light a candle, turn on my book’s playlist, and pull a tarot card before each editing session.  Figure out 1-3 things that will make you smile before opening your document or grabbing your notebook.

Another thing that helps me keep the editing fun is mini goals and rewards.  I like to set weekly goals and bigger mini goals of finishing either things on my list or a percentage of the book and then I reward myself.  For weekly goals, I’ll reward myself with a full day off and for bigger goals I’ll buy a new eBook, take time to read a whole magazine and drink a cup of coffee, or even just relax with a movie.  Whatever makes you happy will be a good reward.

Find your people 

Editing, and writing in general, can be a lonely process – where you spend hours, days, weeks, months (not at one time hopefully) sitting by yourself in a room with your notebook or computer working away so it’s good to have some people that understand what you’re going through.  Writer’s groups, people online, real life friends and family.  Make sure you’re taking breaks within your writing schedule to stay connected to the real humans in your life, even if they are online friends.  Cultivate those relationships, share in their wins and aggravations too so it’s not a one-way street.

You can also use social media and your online support group for accountability.  Post on your Instagram your weekly or daily goals, or post a picture before your writing session and again afterwards.  Not only does this keep you on track, but it’s fun – and shares your behind the scenes with potential readers of your book.

Get organized

Editing is messy even if cutting and pasting happens digitally (for the most part) it’s still messy so make sure you have one place for keeping all of your notes.  It can be somewhere on your laptop or phone or a battered old spiral notebook, but make sure you choose one for each project.  You can always change it up on the next book but if you have too many places to look for character name changes, ideas, and plot twists you’ll lose them.

Having one place always helps if you want to blog about your project. Blogging about your book really helps get those readers interested in the characters, the backstory, the why you decided to write this particular story, and about you as a writer so when you launch that book they are ready to jump and buy it on day one.  Even if you don’t want to share, keeping a journal of what you did each day gives you a boost of happiness and keeps you motivated.  Seeing progress helps on those days when motivation is nowhere to be found.

Use Tarot

When the blahs settle in and you’re feeling less than ready to sit down and work, grab your favorite Tarot deck and ask it for help.  Ask why you might be feeling stuck or what your main character wants you to know at this moment.  You can even ask it for advice on a sticky area or something that’s just not working.  

I also like to keep my character’s cards front and center when I’m working so if I do get stuck I can journal a conversation with them and ask them for help.  Our characters know more than they’re letting on so if they aren’t doing what we want, ask them why – they might unlock a whole lot of stuff that you can use in this draft.  

What do you do when you are feeling less than motivated during the long editing process?  I’d love to know below.

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