Write for a Reason
Episodes
70 episodes
Ten Top Tips for Writing Tight Sentences
Tight SentencesAs in every area of art, writing tight sentences is not an exact science, but I hope some pointers in the right direction might help you with your work in progress.The aim of writing tight sentences is...
Surprises in Your Story
Some surprises in stories can be good - some can be bad.Listen in and get some tips for your own novel, to make sure you are thrilling your readers with some great surprises!
A Few Thoughts on Characters
Welcome to the Write for a Reason podcast. My name is Janet Wilson; I'm a publisher of Christian fiction for young people with Dernier Publishing. If you are a Christian, and new to writing stories for kids and teens, stay tuned for encoura...
Tips on Writing Great Dialogue
Some writers are great at dialogue - others find it more challenging. Here are some tips to help you write dialogue that will move your story forward, help your readers to get to know your characters better, and bring in lots of emotion....
Compelling Settings
The setting of our story is important!Janet Wilson of Dernier Publishing (Christian fiction for kids and teens) discusses the importance of choosing a compelling setting to enhance your story, and how it can increase reader engagement.
Descriptions - 7 Quick Tips
Getting descriptions right can be tricky. Janet Wilson of Dernier Publishing gives 7 tips to help you write great descriptions for your stories.
Do You Need an Antagonist?
Do you need an antagonist in your story? Not necessarily!Listen to this podcast episode to find some other ways of introducing conflict into your stories.
Weaving a Message into Your Story
In one of our recent Writers for a Reason Unite groups, one of the things we talked about was weaving a message into our stories. How do we do this gently, with respect? After all, we are not here to persuade, as much as allow readers to think ...
Divide Your Character into Four
We usually start of with a good idea of what our characters look like. But what about other parts of their personality?Here's a writing exercise for you to do, that will help you get to know your characters better.Try this in your...
The Changed Character
With your theme and message in mind, how will your protagonist, and any other characters, change during the course of your story? How will they be different at the end, than they were at the beginning? How ...
Improving the Pace of Your Story
Keeping up the pace in our stories is essential, if we want to hold our readers' attention.This is even more true today than it was a few years ago!So how can we do this?Here are some fun creative writing tips, to help y...
Your Writing Mission Statement
This may sound like a daft question, but knowing who you want to write for, and why, is an important foundation for our writing.We can have what we think is a brilliant idea for a story, but will it resonate with our target audience?
Different Voices for Different Characters
Today I have a little tip for you, on writing dialogue. Someone was asking me recently about what mistakes I see most often in dialogue, and one of them is that their characters all sound too similar.The way people speak will denote thei...
Leaving a Legacy with Your Writing
We are leaving a legacy with our writing, whether we are thinking about it or not. So why not be intentional? Listen to this episode and be inspired to change lives with your stories.
Conflicts in Stories
We may avoid conflicts in real life, but in our stories we should embrace them as our best friends, because without conflicts we do not have a story!In this pocast episode we get deeper into conflicts, so grab your w...
Some Guidelines for Writing Christian Fantasy for Kids
Hi, Janet Wilson here.The issue with writing fantasy, and how we deal with it as Christians, came up in one of our Writers for a Reason Unite meetings recently.One of our members had been reading a children’s book, where witchcr...
Where Do You Find Inspiration?
In this episode, Janet looks at the whole subject of inspiration. Sometimes we have to go out looking for inspiration... it doesn't always come when we want it... here's how, and why.Enjoy!
How Often Should You Write?
What writing times work best for you?How often should you write?The advice write every day is excellent advice!But not for everyone can stick to that, and it can be counter-productive to attempt something that does...
Pinpoint Your Target Audience
Asking who you want to write for and why may sound like a really daft question, but when you think about it, it's absolutely foundational to writing a successful story. Listen to this episode and see if you agree!Oh, and gr...
Showing Not Telling - Some Ideas to Help You
Show not tell is an essential part of creative writing.We all know we need to show not tell, but how exactly do we do that?Here are some ideas to help you.Enjoy - and let me know what you think!
Keeping on Track and Getting Your Story Done
Starting a story is great - finishing is even better! In this episode Janet gives 7 tips to help you keep on track and get your story done.
3 Common Mistakes with Dialogue
Dialogue isn't like real speech - it takes a lot of work!Check you aren't making these three common mistakes with dialogue...And if you find this episode helpful, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a review.Thank you! :-)
Surprises and Twists
Welcome to the Write for a Reason podcast. My name is Janet Wilson; I'm a publisher of Christian fiction for young people with Dernier Publishing. If you are a Christian, and new to writing stories for kids and teens, stay tuned for encourageme...