Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

Sometimes we just need to know we’re not alone, we’re not (too) crazy, and that other writers have been here before us. Writing is hard and a little encouragement can go a long way! Here are some inspirational, go-getting, and encouraging quotes for writers no matter where we are on the journey. Enjoy, and I hope they bring joy to your day! Special shout out to anyone doing NaNoWriMo this month- hang in there! I think you are amazing and brave and I believe in you! Encouraging Quotes For Writers “One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” -Lawrence Block “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very ...

Let’s be real. We’re not always going to “feel” like writing. We’re going to be tired. We’ll be busy and have other things to do. If you’re like me, you’ll realize it’s suddenly really important to wash the dishes and maybe reorganize something while you’re at it. (I’m never so motivated to do housework than when I have something else I’m trying to avoid doing. 😉 ) And I’ll be honest: sometimes I’m just feeling downright lazy. I’m comfortable chillin’ on the couch doing mindless quizzes online and I don’t want to do my daily wordcount for nanowrimo or have to think about anything at all. So what do we do when we don’t feel like writing? And that is the question, isn’t it? Because *no* writer always feels like writing. Writing can be frustrating and hard sometimes. We’re not alone in our moments of procrastination and laziness. Ironically, it’s what we do in these moments when we don’t feel like writing that defines us as writers.  Because (drumroll please…) writers...

Do you feel like your story is stalling out? Are things feeling a bit stale and boring and you’re not quite sure where to go next? Never fear! Writing prompts are here. There are endless possibilities in store to spice things up a bit. 🙂 Whether you’re just completing your first week of  NaNoWriMo  this month (congrats!) or working on your usual projects, these writing prompts are designed to encourage and inspire our stories. Sometimes things are just a bit too easy for our protagonists or we need something unexpected to happen. Sometimes none of our ideas make sense and we just need a bit of a nudge to get our story moving again. Here are 21 prompts to pick and choose from and work into your story. Not sure which to pick? Roll some dice (or use a  virtual dice roller ) and try to use whichever prompt gets chosen! For even more ideas, check out this post on writing prompts and everyday inspiration.  As always, these plot prompts can be changed, adapted, a...

This month we’re taking a break from our usual Steps to Success series in order to take a look at something near and dear to my heart. Because  NaNoWriMo  (National Novel Writing Month) is here!! Which means that today we’re talking about how to accomplish big writing goals.  Whether you’ve signed up with NaNoWriMo to write 50,000 words in a month, you’re not sure if you’re ready to commit to that, or you think we’re all a bit crazy (very possible), these are strategies we all can learn from.  Basically we’re looking at how to accomplish big writing goals.  Many of us say we want to write a novel yet we struggle to actually do so. National Novel Writing Month is designed to provide encouragement, resources, and community to help people reach their writing goals. Alternate writing goals and projects are totally allowed as well.  The point of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing. Yes, writing a novel in a month sounds insane. (Yes, it kind of is ...