Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

Reading glamorous success stories can be so attractive and addictive. We look at brilliant musicians and say we wish we were gifted like that. We admire great art and lament we aren’t artistic. We read books, view sculptures, gawk at inventions, and marvel at math… and we think we could never do that. We think this brilliance and beauty somehow comes easily. That writers are magically born writers and the stories just burst forward effortlessly. That musicians and engineers and painters are gifted with something that makes their work simple and always free from trouble. We don’t want to think about the work that may be involved. Yeah, that’s right. It’s work. We’d like to ignore the non-glamorous parts and just think of the overnight successes, the prodigies, and the finished products. Yet most of writing is work that starts off messy. Most of it happens little by little, day by day. Even breakout success stories started somewhere. (Spoiler: it probably included a lot of work.) If we e...

If you’ve ever read much YA fiction you’ll notice that it’s pretty common for parents to be either dead or absent. There are a few contributing factors for this, but essentially it’s because in YA fiction, parents are a problem that writers need to somehow solve. The Parent Problem: The Parents Can’t Be In Control This is probably the number one parent problem in YA fiction: If the parents are present and in charge, that means that the teenage protagonist isn’t. And our protagonist needs to be the hero of the story. Alive and present parents are an issue for our stories because they could put a stop to our hero’s adventures (aka: no you can’t do that saving-the-world thing because it’s dangerous) or by taking the role of the hero themselves (aka: they are the more skilled and logical choice to fight the bad guy). Parents can also represent too much of a safety net, through which the hero knows they are never really in danger because their parents can always swoop in to save the day. We...

Let’s travel together by taking a look at some beautiful libraries and bookstores around the world! Yes, I want to visit every single one of these 🙂 Beautiful Libraries and Bookstores Around The World Prague Library, Czech Republic Image by  izoca  from  Pixabay George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Image by  Falkenpost  from  Pixabay Xidan North Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, China Photo by  Chengting Xie  on  Unsplash Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland Image by  Rudy and Peter Skitterians  from  Pixabay Livraria Lello Bookstore, Porto, Portugal Photo by  Ivo Rainha  on  Unsplash Stuttgart City Library, Germany Photo by  Amelie & Niklas Ohlrogge  on  Unsplash Bookshop in Gurney Paragon, Penang, Malaysia Photo by  Geraldine Ng  on  Unsplash Seattle Public Library, Washington, USA Photo by  Sylvia Yang  on  Unsplash Library of the Theological F...

Today I’m outlining a case for making bad art and why that’s so important. Now I can be kind of a perfectionist by nature so this goes a bit against the grain- if you’re a perfectionist as well, just hang in there with me! It may seem silly to make bad art on purpose, but there are several reasons why is not only unavoidable but should sometimes even be encouraged. A Case For Making Bad Art 1- Bad Art Is Necessary We won’t make great (or even good!) art on our first try every time. It’s just not accurate to expect that of ourselves, even if we’ve been honing our craft for years and years. This means that as long as we are creating things, some of our art  will  be less than good. We don’t want this bad art to paralyze us, though! It’s simply a natural part of the creative process. We can all be perfectionists at times and it’s important we don’t let the fear of bad art stop us. Intentionally creating bad art can be excellent practice in letting go of perfectionist standards. 2...

Sometimes there just seems so much to  do.  Those books won’t write themselves, you know! There’s pressure to  hustle harder  and get our butts on the chair and write write write. And they’re not wrong. But sometimes sticking to our to-do lists, hustling, and being busy busy busy isn’t actually the best way to go about things. And I’m not just saying that because of the burnout factor, though that’s certainly a danger! I’m talking about setting aside tasks in order to take time for dreams. Because the dreams matter. Call it dreaming, rest, brainstorming, procrastination, or what you will… It’s important. Putting in more hours and grinding away may work in certain situations, but we’re not machines. And our work isn’t always black or white with clear finish lines. We need time to rest. We need time to dream in order to feed our creative gardens. In fact, sometimes our time  away  from our work can actually be extremely valuable! Research has shown that ...

Theme in story can be tricky to pin down sometimes. Sometimes it’s described as what’s “below the surface” of the novel, or the iceberg that is mostly hidden below the water. A story’s theme is also referred to its “soul” or its “core.” Basically it means what a story is about, its universal theme, or its underlying central idea. It may be what you would say if you were asked to sum up a story in five words or less: for example a theme could be something like “love never fails,” “power corrupts,” or “loyalty.” (Any of those sound familiar from high school English class? 😉 ) Sometimes theme can be overlooked in our writing because it may seem vague or less measurable than the plot points of story structure, our characters, and the details and maps of our worldbuilding. However, theme connects and works through  all  of these things and should be given attention in its own right. Writing Theme In Our Stories Keep in mind that authors like to have a theme in mind befor...

As writers we are constantly needing to come up with names for fictional characters. So what’s in a name? Does a rose by any other name really smell as sweet? Would Frodo Baggins have been the same hobbit if he had been named Kikko Killingham? What about Shannon Lilac or Dimitri Ivanov? Names have a certain role to play in a story, just like everything else. They signal certain expectations to the reader and set a certain tone to our story. Which means when we go about naming our characters we want to keep a few things in mind! Naming Fictional Characters 1. Know the Name’s Meaning Every name in our story doesn’t need to have a deep significant meaning. But it can be valuable to know the origins and meaning behind at least our major characters. We can use the meaning in thematic ways or dismiss it entirely, but it’s worth looking into! A few names and their meanings: Lucy= light Mark= warlike Mei= beautiful Peter= rock Sarah= princess Vlad= to rule 2. Fit Names to Worldbuilding Locatio...