Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon (one of my latest nonfiction reads) is a short, to-the-point book chock filled with truth and fun doodles for creative people everywhere. I enjoyed this book immensely and plan to refer to it regularly as a guide to keep me on track when writing and creating is hard. Because let’s face it, writing is hard! Having guidance, encouragement, and reminders of truth along the way is critical. Steal Like An Artist walks us through “10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.” All 10 are great truths and I recommend you track down a copy of the book if you get the chance! Today we’ll look at 2 of Kleon’s points from the book that stood out to me this week (numbers 5 and 6, for those of you reading along). 2 Creativity Truths from Steal Like An Artist Truth 1: Side Projects and Hobbies are Important Are you a writer but also love to paint? Are you a mechanical engineer who plays piano? Do you find yourself with several passions instead...

Today I am super excited and honored to be guest posting over at  Fiction University ! Fiction University is a blog hosted by Janice Hardy that is chock filled with information, great advice, and a million resources for writers. In my post  5 Tips on Writing with Small Children , I’m sharing some writing mindset and time management strategies I’ve developed with the help of my two little girls. Whether you have children in your life or other forms of chaos that make writing a challenge, I hope you find these strategies helpful! 🙂 So please check out  my post ! And definitely check out  Fiction University  and all the great stuff they have going on over there. Originally published May 17, 2019 on Bethany-Henry. com.

Why worry about character motivation? Our characters are critical to bringing our story to life and in keeping readers engaged. Which means we need characters that are real, that entertain, and that aren’t shallow. We don’t want our characters to just be pretty good, we want  great. To create great characters we need to dig deeper than hair color and surface questions. Character motivation is the key here. And no, their motivation can’t just be to fulfill our plot needs and to do what we tell them. That makes for an easier job for us as the writer but a frustrating read for anyone else. Every single character in our story should want something. Even if they just want things to stay the same, that’s still a motive. What a character wants will influence their actions, what they say, and ultimately the shape of our story and plot. 2 Questions to Ask For Each Character 1. What does this character want? What are their dreams, goals, and plans? What do they want in the next five minutes?...

As writers, it is a good move to have some sort of a website in place. Today we’re looking at ways to make money with our websites. Having a way to make some money through our website can be great, especially for us writers and artists who maybe aren’t raking in millions (yet anways 😉 ). But is it really possible to make any significant money? And how hard and confusing is it for people (like me) who aren’t super tech savvy? The good news is, there are lots of options available. And if you’d like to make some money off your blog but aren’t sure whether you want to pursue that because it just seems a little, well, slimy and salesy-  I hear you . And honestly, I’m glad that’s on your radar. No one likes over the top self-promotion and our readers aren’t going to appreciate aggressive sales tactics that don’t provide value. The key is that there is a beautiful middle ground here: It is possible to both help other people AND make money at the same time. That’s our sweet spot. Tod...