When it comes to writing a story you’ve been mulling over for a while, you may have heard advice that goes something like this: “If you want to write a book, you need to stop daydreaming. Just sit down and write something.”

It’s hard to argue with the essence of this statement. Of course you need to write if you’re going to share your story! Some people respond very well to this direct, no-nonsense call to action. It lights a fire. It gets them going!

But it doesn’t work for everyone. In fact, for some writers, it just ends up making you feel worse. After all, you know that you need to write. And that’s been the problem—you find that you can’t… and you aren’t!

So, does that mean that those who don’t instantly get busy with pen and paper or put fingers to keyboard upon hearing “just write” simply don’t have it in them? Are they all destined to fail? I don’t believe that! (In fact, it’s the process-based premise behind The One Week Writing Workshop – where I show you that writing a novel doesn’t only happen at your desk!)

Rethinking “Just Write”

Let’s unpack “just write” together:

In my own writing as well as in my workshops, I’ve always been interested in the notion of steps. At a quick glance, there’s a huge gap between an idea for a story and a finished book. But in between are all kinds of steps.

Steps we can digest!

Steps are something manageable we can learn.

Steps we can take one at time and one after another until we’re no longer thinking of the gap, we’re simply heading in the right direction, even picking up momentum as we go.

Now, when a writer (and that writer is sometimes me!) feels unable to take the next step, whatever that is, I’ve made it my mission to figure out if there’s a different step or a smaller step available to carry things forward. Spoiler alert: there almost always is. Sometimes it’s about changing your way of looking at things, and sometimes it’s about getting creative. Sometimes it’s both.

Shift Your Mindset -Embrace the Dream!

With specific reference to the prescribed  “stop dreaming, just sit down and write” step, I’d like to first suggest a mindset shift. I think we can all agree that at some level in order to write, you need to daydream. Think about it: a writer’s story-daydreams might involve imagining vivid moments in our characters’ histories. Running scenes in our heads like movie snippets. Walking through our settings and experiencing them with our senses, and finessing dialogue between our ears….etc. Pretty essential story stuff! So, that means that daydreaming and creative writing are connected by definition.

Guess what daydreamers—you are already taking a writing step. Mindset shifted and confidence boosted!

Linking Daydreaming to Action

Let’s agree then that daydreaming isn’t the enemy of writing, it walks right along with it hand in hand.  Now, let’s take some creative action by deliberately connecting daydreaming with a writing practice.

Here’s how it might look. Pick a time and place, and a time limit. It could be an entire hour, but in no way does it need to be that long. Start small and doable—even what might seem ridiculously small to someone looking in. Fifteen minutes is just fine. (Remember, your issue is that you can’t get going – in this scenario, you are fifteen minutes further ahead. That’s something!)

For the first portion of your chosen time, actively daydream about your story. This should be no problem, especially if you’ve been doing it for a while. (By the way, you can go for a walk, rest on your couch, vacuum the floor—whatever active daydreaming looks like to you.) Set a timer if it helps. Step into your story’s world wherever it feels right—don’t worry if it’s not at the beginning but somewhere three-quarters of the way through, or you have no clue where the scene you’re imagining connects to the larger whole. Whatever scene, moment or aspect of your story is clear to you, that’s where you let your mind go.

When daydreaming time is up, your writing task is simply to transcribe. Don’t worry about point of view, voice, style if this doesn’t immediately come to you. Just jot down what you saw, heard, felt, etc. in your daydream. Keep this active writing time and goal very manageable too, maybe even more than manageable. For some, that might be 30 minutes or a 500 word limit. For others, five minutes, or a one hundred-word limit.

Do this for a few days in a row, picking another time and place to dream and then transcribe. Keep it up for as many sessions as you want. You can expand the sessions, but you don’t have to. Just keep going.

The Power of An Active Daydreaming Routine

Even after a few sessions, your story is beginning to live outside your head—you have the written proof right in front of you.  You see? You didn’t have to give up the daydreaming that’s been fueling you in order to write, you’re simply linking what’s been coming naturally to the act of writing.

You could potentially write a whole first draft in this way, zig zagging your way through your story until you have a draft that you can polish, harmonize and refine. Even if you don’t find a cohesive style or voice at this part of the process, you now have something outside of your head to work with. I can’t emphasize enough how potentially powerful this is!

On the other hand, fueled by the confidence of seeing words on a page and the momentum of a regular practice, you might find a writing rhythm and approach that is a little more methodical and that makes sense to you. Voice, p.o.v., and narrative style might well begin to emerge.

Yet another possibility—as you see your story come alive in words, you might be inspired to redirect your energy toward an outline or storyboard, and then dip back into drafting.

In any case, you’re now so much further along in your writing journey. And you didn’t have to stop the daydreaming you found fun and natural like it wasn’t the real thing.  It is an invaluable part of the real thing, and you know exactly how to do it. Happy writing – you’ve got this!

Karin 🙂

I’m currently working on a novel with multiple points of view and several distinct narrative “threads”. The story has evolved through planning and drafting, and I’m getting there—I’m even enjoying the process (most days)!—but still, something has been off. I’ve needed to pause and take a bit of time to get to the bottom of it.

Generally speaking, there are a number of reasons why a draft might feel this way: issues with action (too little? too much?), characters (one-dimensional? unrelatable?), dialogue (forced? on-the-nose?). I’m not saying my piece is exemplary in these areas at the moment, but I’m convinced that my most pressing issues right now have to do with plot.

Have you ever felt this way about a draft? It’s good (or getting there) plot-wise, but it’s not quite as rich-layered-textured-clear-balanced etc. as it is in your own brain…? I know I’m not alone, so for anyone looking to re-balance a draft (plug holes, shave off excess, spark a place that’s dragging, etc.), below are three strategies you can borrow today.

How to Self-Reflect to Clarify Your Plot

The *Reverse Storyboard

I love this technique. I sometimes call it “taking a story inventory”. (I’ve chatted about it as a helpful technique for those who don’t like to plan before they draft in my article How to Plan a Story…for Pantsers?!?). Basically, it means creating a storyboard not for what you want to have happen in your story (at least, not initially), but based on what exists in your draft as it stands right now.

You can construct your storyboard anyway you choose. You can take a pile of index cards and simply start noting each scene or beat you encounter in your draft on a separate card. Get colorful if you wish, using different coloured cards or markers to keep plot and subplot(s) distinct, or to represent which character is in a given scene’s driver’s seat.

I keep my definition of scene or beat loose when I do this; the key is jotting down “story moments” in point form. When you’re finished, lay the cards down in order on a table or tack them to a board if you have one. Now you can run through your story quickly as a whole without getting lost in tweaking language and otherwise fussing with your prose. What lags? What drags? What skips ahead too quickly or too confusingly? Rearrange cards, add new ones, tear up redundant ones, and work your board until a read through feels more balanced.

The Reverse Storyboard is visual, to-the-point, and might be your quickest path to seeing your story as a whole, warts and all, so that you can get busy addressing the issues. (*I call it “reverse storyboard” because I also use a storyboard before I draft, to generate my plan. This one happens after the plan, so – “reverse”!)

The Chapter or Scene Synopsis

Like the Reverse Storyboard, you’re going to summarize each scene or story moment. But this time you’ll work in a document (separate from your draft) and allow yourself a sentence or two for each scene. When I do this, I always aim to write one strong sentence that captures the moment (because I read somewhere that this was the most effective technique). To be honest, I rarely succeed. I always end up with at least two or three sentences, sometimes a brief paragraph. But instead of getting down on myself, I’ve just decided that, for now, this is the way my brain works and if the exercise helps me and my story, I’m doing fine. (Also, I’m sure that aiming for one keeps me down to three!)

Like the storyboard, this exercise helps you to run your eyes through your entire story relatively quickly without getting lost in the minutiae. I’ve found it to be very helpful in terms of highlighting plot problems so that my next draft is much stronger. You can fill in the gaps or make adjustments with additional notes directly in the document, and it becomes your more balanced outline to serve your revisions.

The “What Do We Learn?” Approach

With this technique, once again you’ll make a new document alongside your draft. Chapter by chapter, make notes on what your reader will learn, discover, or likely wonder about your story in your draft as it stands right now.

This can be a great tool for revealing gaps you’ll have to fill, especially concerning information that’s clear in your own head but somehow didn’t make it into your draft! As I’ve recently discovered, it can also shed light on places where there is too much backstory, the fiction equivalent of TMI. In fact, that was the key to my current draft problem. After doing this exercise, I saw that I was front-loading too much of my story with backstory. It inspired me to look for other opportunities in my plot to share,  suggest or “spread out” essential backstory elements, and for places where I could safely just let it go. Using a new color, I ended up making another set of notes below my “what do we learn” notes—this time capturing what I wanted my audience to learn in a given spot. I’ve been using it as my outline as I revise, and it’s working very well!

If you’re revising a draft or wanting to clarify it, give one or all of the techniques a try. Modify them in ways that make sense to you. You can even creatively combine them into a new technique. ( For instance,  I sometimes combine The Chapter Synopsis with the What Do We Learn approach so that I have a summary of events followed by an analysis of why they matter.)

If you’re looking for more revision techniques, or tips for every step of the novel-writing process, please check out my writing guide The One Week Writing Workshop.

Hope that helps—happy drafting and revising, writers!

Karin 🙂

My first published book was Lights! Curtains! Cows!, a humorous middle grade novel. I wasn’t terribly familiar with writing guides and writing handbooks at the time. As a lifelong writer, I’d certainly come across a few. But the texts I remember turning to for inspiration and guidance were other books in the same style or genre as the story I was writing. Reading these books with a “noticing eye” helped answer practical questions that arose as I wrote my own draft (word count, chapter length, etc.). They also helped me to absorb the beats that occurred in the kind of story I was writing, and the overall rhythm of story itself. It was slow going in some aspects, but it wasn’t a bad way to (begin to) learn the craft. To this day, I will always remind my fiction workshop participants that their own bookshelves are like teachers ready to share their wisdom.

Another advantage to writing my first book without a guide: there was a certain freedom in just letting my story come to me and unfold as it would. I wasn’t thinking about story structure or character development in the way I do now, and I’m still quite delighted by how much of that came through intuitively and from my lifelong love of storytelling. I have, however, never had so many rewrites to do at the request of an editor. And while these rewrites were a great learning experience, consulting a writing guide might have saved me some of this work!

After Cows! was published, I became more aware of the writing guides on the market. What a transformative experience! There’s a wealth of information out there about story structure, the essential elements of stories, character creation, and building immersive settings. Some guides drill down even further offering beat sheets and templates to help you craft a story into something readable and engaging.

But here’s the problem—and it’s not necessarily with the guides themselves, many of which are brilliant. It’s my personality. I love to learn, and that’s a good thing, right? But as I cracked open fascinating guide after fascinating guide, I let myself get caught in a sort of “learning loop”. I was reading a lot, and it was great—but it came at the expense of my own writing.  And when I did try to get around to writing, I would often become paralyzed by all information I’d taken in. Gone was the freedom of just letting my story out, and using my creative intuition. I’d start writing but then worry if this scene landed at the right moment…or if that scene properly expressed a particular story beat. For me, the problem was that I was measuring my fledgling idea against the ideal, finished product (i.e., the novel) that is often analyzed and broken down by writing guides. I started to doubt that my ideas could ever become the complicated, intricate beautifully paced and structured thing I was learning about.

To keep going with my writing, I had to come to a place of balance. I had to find a way to harness the amazing things I’d learned about story, while still allowing my intuitive, creative self to express the story that was unique to me. I’m glad I did, otherwise I may still be stuck in a mindset that says I don’t yet know enough because I don’t know it all.

I know from teaching creative writing workshops and getting to work with all sorts of writing personalities that I’m not alone—there are plenty of us who are wired to fall into a learning loop and then let ourselves get caught in information overload. That’s why I’ve constructed my workshops the way that I did: each session contains an essential nugget of informative, encouraging instruction, then…use it and go write! It’s why I wrote my own writing guide The One Week Writing Workshop with this same structure. It’s a writing guide that will teach you story essentials, but it’s activity-driven. You write as you read, you write as you learn…basically from page one. I know from experience that a lot of us need that approach! BUT, I also learned from the very slow, stopping-and-starting and blunder-filled process of writing my first book: it’s helpful to have some guidance.

In a lot of ways, The One Week Writing Workshop tries to replicate the conditions of my first writing experience—making the writing process as hands-on and organic as possible—but offering the helping hand at the places I could have used that expert help! I guess I wrote the book I personally would have loved to have found back then. For writers like me out there, my hope is that maybe you can benefit, too.

Please know that I think many writing guides are brilliant, as are the experts who have shared their experience and knowledge in them! We can feed our writers’ souls with the wisdom contained in these books. They can play a crucial role in our professional development—they certainly have in mine! I also think a possible strategy for any writer can be to write your first draft, then consult a writing guide (or two) during the revision process to help you fill holes, strengthen your structure, and make your story the best it can be. (I’ve written more extensively about this in my article How to Plan a Story…for Pantsers?!?)

Bottom line for me—at the same time we’re listening to what other writers have to say about writing, we can’t lose sight of our own creative spark, our own writers’ intuition, the way that our own unique stories are yearning to express themselves—and the best way to get at all of that good stuff is to write. Whatever writing guide you choose, be sure to balance reading it and learning from it with the act of doing your own writing.

At the end of the day, I think both of these things can be true at the same time: writing guides can support your writing…and you’re (already) capable of more than you think!

Happy writing, all!

Karin 🙂

I had the absolute pleasure the past November of leading a creative writing talk at Clifton School in Winnipeg. I was a guest at the staff’s regular learning meeting where I know all sorts of creative and innovative ideas are surely discussed! That’s because the moment you walk into this vibrant school, you are welcomed by student projects proudly and beautifully displayed in the hallways. There are colourful, permanent murals from years past celebrating the school and surrounding community created through collaborations between students, staff and community artists. In the hall in front of virtually every classroom space, current projects are shared. At first glance, they are dazzling mixed media creations that showcase student ingenuity. On closer inspection, the artwork pieces are also amazing vehicles for exploring math and science concepts, books and literature, and ideas about who we are and can be as individuals and together. Clifton hallways must be an ever-changing gallery of ideas and imaginative creations!

I was at Clifton in order to share a bit about my new book The One Week Writing Workshop and to offer a brief mini-workshop on creating fictional characters. As often happens in a workshop, time became a factor and we didn’t quite get to everything I had planned. But…since a lot of this had to do with our great discussion, I personally feel our meeting was a success (hoping you all did, too 😉 )! Teachers shared past and current writing-in-the-classroom experiences they’ve had. I loved to hear about eager students who are quick to take your lessons, like making an outline, only to expand it to suit their boundless imaginations. There were also lots of great experiences shared about using oral storytelling strategies to invite the youngest of students into the writing process, and students who are emerging as writers. And of course, the use of artwork as a storytelling strategy—so evident when you first walk into Clifton—was a popular and engaging tactic you’re clearly using and using well!

I was so glad to hear these things! They line up with aspects of my own process as an author, which I share about in my book and have chatted about in a little reflection on my writing workshop method here on my blog.  Writing and storytelling are not exclusively desk-only, pen-and-paper-in-hand activities! I personally love using arts (and crafts), even theatre exercises, and I definitely support  adapting and expanding tools to suit the needs of a particular project (like some of your students seem to do instinctively: “We need a BIGGER storyboard!!” 😉 …I love that!). It’s all writing, and the more we see writing in this holistic way, the more we can invite students of all ages and stages into the process, not only those who early on have discovered a love of scribbling in notebooks (but of course, they’re coming along, too!).

I want to thank you, Clifton teachers, for a great discussion that certainly left me inspired. I’m also grateful for your willingness to jump right into the lessons I brought with me, fearlessly sharing your creative thoughts, even though we’d only met moments before! In about our hour, we had created a list of intriguing characters including moody superhero manatees, a caring, organized woman perplexed by her family’s behaviour, and a trio of pirate pumpkins. We also brainstormed ideas about fictional Mark, the 14 year old competitive swimmer (my former workshop participants have met Mark before. Each group gives him a different dimension…I should get all the Marks together on one web someday!). Had we had a bit more time, I think it would have been fascinating to explore how “Clifton’s Mark” might deal with his unique combination of traits and experiences, some apparently in tension/conflict with others (oh, how human!). I think we all agreed that several intriguing stories could rise up out of this web!

Last but not least, we grabbed a stretch exercise from my workshop book and spent a bit of time getting to better know our newly created characters by asking them open-ended questions. Challenging ourselves to think and even speak like our characters as we responded was a fun and  effective way to get to know the differences and similarities between these unique individuals we’d created, don’t you think? A few of you noted that this last exercise, which we did as an oral Q & A would be a helpful way to develop students’ writing abilities without needing to present another writing-only exercise. Yes! I agree! Have any of you tried it since with your students? Let me know if you have!!

Thanks again Clifton teachers for an invigorating morning full of ideas and imagination! Have a great school year!

Till we meet again,

Karin 🙂

Hello teachers and creative writing workshop leaders!

I know firsthand how challenging your jobs can be – I’ve seen you in action and have learned so much from you all! 🙂

One of the biggest of these challenges has got to be the number of different personalities, learning styles, interest levels, and the emerging levels of various skills among your group. When it comes to planning a creative writing unit, this has got to be “top of mind” for you! (In fact, from the questions you’ve asked me over the years, I know this is true!)

I wanted to point you to a couple of articles I wrote that were recently posted on my publisher’s site.  I wrote them with teachers and leaders in mind – I think you’ll find some handy information there and some helpful points for getting you in a great mindset for classroom writing!

Two Recent Musings on Creative Writing in Groups

The most recent article is “Thoughts on Teaching Writing in the Classroom” – it’s about seeing and harnessing the diversity that naturally exists in your classroom as an absolute asset for exploring writing!

Another piece is about that often-dreaded-but-let’s-have-fun-with-it-instead topic: revision! Check out the article “Looking for Inspiring Creative Writing Teaching Ideas?” for more on what I hope you’ll see can be a creative, fun classroom activity!

I’m planning more teaching-related posts for my blog in the near future, so be sure to stop by! And please…if you’re interested in having me explore a particular writing topic of question, send me a note and let me know!

Until then, happy teaching and writing!

Karin

I’m thrilled to announce that my new book The One Week Writing Workshop: 7 Days to Spark, Boost or Revive Your Novel is finally here! It’s for anyone wanting guidance as they write their first novel. It’s also for writers who’ve been at the craft for a while but are looking for fresh inspiration, or a new way of looking at things… (we’re always learning, aren’t we?).

This is my first non-fiction book, but it’s based on a lot of years sharing my process with groups and classrooms (I can’t believe I started in 2010!). Having seen that showing others how I wrote could help them to spark ideas or get out of a rut was my motivation for putting together my workshop sessions in a book. My hope is to reach even more people who know they have a book in them, but aren’t sure how to begin or have gotten stuck along the way.

I had my workshop sessions in mind as I laid out all the book’s (70+ !!) tasks. I’ve tried hard to keep my instructions brief, encouraging and to-the-point so that you can immediately start creating and writing—just like in a writing workshop. We go through the whole novel writing process from start to finish so that you learn and practice a method that will serve you now and for years to come. I think the format is what I’m most proud of and what I hope you’ll enjoy, too—you write as you read.

I also love how gathering my workhop sessions into a book allowed me to include everything. Live, in-person workshops are awesome—especially for the ability to have discussions. But those discussions often mean you have to dial back the activities…not so in a book!

…and YET…BECAUSE it’s a book, you can go at your own pace. You can do it in a week or take longer. And you don’t have to do everything the first time around. You can pick and choose what appeals to you and what feels most “right on” for your project. Then…you can come back to the book later, or for another project, and do a whole other set of activities if you’d like. (In fact, an online video course based on the book is set to release soon, too—so please stay tuned!)

I’m really happy with how the book came together, and if you read it you’ll notice that I have a lot of people to thank in the acknowledgments. I’m also very grateful for the positive feedback I’ve been receiving from readers and reviewers. I especially love hearing that the activities in the book have sparked new ideas and kindled (or rekindled) the joy of writing for many of them. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

If you’re dreaming of writing, writing already, or wanting to add to your idea-sparking and creative-block-busting strategies, I hope you’ll check out The One Week Writing Workshop today!

Hello Teacher Friends!

Hope that “back to school” is going well so far. I also hope that somewhere in your schedule there may be a little creative writing planned for your students…

In fact, maybe you’re already to start thinking about what a creative writing workshop might look like with your crew! Quite often, we go straight to hunting for tips and strategies best suited to the beginning of the process: how to spark ideas, how to develop interesting characters, how to inspire great descriptions, etc.  And of course, you’re going to need a writing plan to cover all of these things!

But I wanted to say just in case: don’t forget about revision! I know it probably feels like a far off step. BUT…I also know that it’s one of the most-often-asked-about topics I get when I plan a workshop with teachers. So the odds are if you’re not thinking about it just yet, you will be eventually!

Take a look at my new article Looking for Inspiring Creative Writing Ideas?  – here I offer my best tips and strategies for teaching revision in your creative writing unit in a way than can be fun and get results!

Hope you’ll take a look – drop me a line anytime to let me know what you think!

– Karin

My new non-fiction book for adult writers launches on October 17, 2024. It’s called The One Week Writing Workshop, and it’s for anyone who wants to write a novel (and enjoy the process!). I cover writing essentials while we write and take actionable, inspiring and methodical steps together.

In writing The One Week Writing Workshop, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I first came up with my writing workshop method—how and why I teach writing the way that I do…

How could I devise an interesting writing workshop method?

These days, I would describe my writing instruction style as “from the ground up”—where I encourage writers to start with their own ideas instead of story prompts. From there, we build and develop those ideas through my methodical (but flexible!) seven-step writing process. We let ideas grow into what they’re meant to be rather than focusing on satisfying an external checklist or story template. 

I say that I approach writing “from the ground up”…and working with young writers helped me to figure out just where this ground begins. But not, as you might think, because I had to simplify things in order to work with kids. Quite the opposite! I had to find the absolute core of the various steps I take when it comes to writing a novel—and figure out for myself why I do them, what purpose they serve, and how others (anyone!) can harness the same steps to draw out and create with their own unique ideas.  

When I got my first long-term ‘gig’ working with children—a two-week residency at an elementary school—I was thrilled. Then…I realized that I was also kind of terrified! What was I possibly going to do with 25 fourth graders for an hour at a time…for two weeks?

As a writer, I spend my time thinking, planning and sitting at a computer. How would I show that to others? How would I convey it? And not only that, unlike a sculptor who could bring in some super fun, squishy materials to inspire hands-on creativity, or an actor who could use props and do energizing drama exercises, I was going to talk about writing—something students were learning already. Or, as I suddenly realized, something many students even disliked already. Writing – ugh! That’s so school-ish!

I was worried. And my immediate response was (forgive me!): handouts. I made crossword puzzles and word jumbles related to “writing words”. I made fill-in-the-blanks adventure stories and templates with space for cute story-related doodles. I used little writing-supply graphics to jazz up pages for lists and notes about our stories…You get the picture.

I printed everything off and brought it to the librarian who was my point person at the school. I am eternally grateful to her for how gracious and kind she was to me as she reviewed my plan. She even praised the hard work that I’d put into the materials. But then she looked straight at me and said something like this: “But is this how you actually write?”

Of course, the answer was no. And of course, her implication was: we want you to bring your actual process into our classrooms, not busy work.

It was a wake up call. A good one. I went back to the drawing board before my first session. I ditched the fill-in-the-blanks worksheets, and dug out my own character webs. I grabbed my old storyboards and storyworld maps and notebooks full of different colors and rudimentary, for-my-eyes-only (but not anymore!) sketches. I decided that I would get vulnerable and show the students exactly how I planned, no matter how rough and clunky. I’d show them how I imagined and played with my stories as I planned and wrote them, and then invite them to try it for themselves. I thought deeply about why I worked the way I did, and experienced several personal epiphanies about my own process along the way (e.g., webs have organic connections between the parts, just like people— perfect for planning characters—no wonder they feel so right to me!)

The response was terrific. The creativity that came out of the students was astounding. And for me, there was no looking back. This was how I would explain my writing process to writers of any age—an authentic process that anyone could experiment with, discover with, see themselves and their stories in…and tailor and tweak for their own unique ideas. 

So, I want to thank the youngest of my writing students and their teachers for giving me a chance to go deeper than I might ever have (or thought I needed to) in pondering the essence of the writer’s craft. When we get to that essence and mix it with our unique ideas and writing personalities, that’s when truly exciting stories come to life. That’s why I teach writing the way I do, no matter the age or stage of the writing group in front of me.

And if it weren’t for that question: “But is this how you actually write?”, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.

In addition to my new book, coming soon is the launch of The One Week Writing Workshop Online Video Course. Visit www.authorinyourcorner.com for more information!