Fiction Writing Tips: The Story Success Clinic

by Kerry-Ann McDade · Published September 6, 2022 · Updated April 4, 2023

Sign up for your no obligation 30 minute Story Success Clinic and listen to the How To Write The Future podcast episode to hear all about what your entails below.

Beth Barany is an award-winning novelist, master neurolinguistic programming practitioner, and certified creativity coach for writers, including being a workshop leader & keynote speaker. Beth has published books in several genres including young adult fantasy, paranormal romance, and science fiction mystery.

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

RESOURCES

Creativity Coaching for Writers: https://www.bethbarany.com/

SHOW NOTES:

“Some days the thing that is successful is taking a break, is doing something fun, or inspiring.”

In today’s podcast episode titled “Story Success Clinic,” Beth invites you to sign up for her 30-minute Story Success Clinic which will help you gain exposure in your fiction and feature you on an upcoming podcast episode. Beth also shares why she’s offering this service to help writers.

In the Story Success Clinic you will:

Identify different ways to help you gain inspiration and motivation for your next writing step
Discover new ideas for marketing your work
Learn how you can make your storyworld come alive

ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCAST

Beth Barany runs the How To Write The Future podcast for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write optimistic, positive futures and bring those stories successfully out into the marketplace. Because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so.

Questions to Ponder:

What does story success look like to you?
If you change your vantage point, how would your sense of self and the world change?
What is one thing you like to accomplish at the end of your day?

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany is an award-winning novelist, certified creativity coach for writers, and a workshop facilitator. In addition to her how-to books for writers, Beth has published books in several genres including young adult fantasy, paranormal romance, and science fiction mystery.

TRANSCRIPT for 08. Story Success Clinic

Hey science fiction and fantasy authors, would you like to get more exposure for your books, and get some support to uncover story ideas, enhance story cohesion, and get some ideas for marketing?

Then sign up for my 30 minute Story Success Clinic interview on my podcast, How To Write The Future.

Every 30-minute story success clinic is recorded and gets aired as an episode of the How To Write The Future podcast.

So sign up today. The link is in the show notes. And now let’s get on with the show.

Hi everyone. This is Beth Barany with How To Write The Future podcast. This podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures.

Because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so.

In this week’s episode, I want to share about why I decided to launch the Story Success Clinic.

I am a writing coach and have been one for over 16 years, and actually started helping writers, years before that. I taught English to non-native speakers when I was 30, did it here in the United States, as well as abroad in Paris, France.

I have been a writing teacher since, gosh, since about over, over 20 years now. I actually started teaching short story writing when I was teaching English to non-native speakers.

All that to say, I am passionate about storytelling, passionate about helping writers. And I believe that your unique vision that you are sharing in your stories can impact the readers in unknown and amazing ways.

I have been impacted by everything that I’ve read throughout my life and things read to me since I was very small child, an infant. Even in the womb, my parents were reading stories to me.

Stories shape how we see ourselves. Stories shape how we see the world. In fact, I would say that everything is a story — our belief systems, our organizations, the way we do things. Culture. Even science is a story.

Being human means being story makers, and this applies whether you are a writer or a creative or an artist of any kind. We are all looking through the lens of stories to see the world. Another way of talking about this is mental maps. We all see the world through our own particular lenses. Maybe you are not really sure what I’m talking about. So let’s give an example, and this comes from my own life. Maybe you had something similar happen to you when you were young.

When I was 15, I really wanted to travel abroad. In fact, I had wanted been wanting to do that since I was about 13. Through the grace of the support of my parents, they were able to send me abroad. I went through AFS, American Field Service. They placed me in Canada, in Quebec and I was so young. And I did not know where canada was. I know it’s silly, but I did not know where Canada was.

I finally looked at a map and my whole sense of the world just shifted. Just from that, Hey, you’re going to Quebec, you’re going to Canada. Sorry, you’re not going to Paris, France, which is where I initially wanted to go. I’m grateful. Very much grateful for the fact I got to go to Canada.

Then when I got there and started learning about Quebec and started learning French and started figuring out where I was in relation to other locations. I had this great map book that I still have that’s even though it’s falling apart at the seams. My whole sense of self shifted. My whole sense of what is the world shifted.

The story I told myself about who I was changed. I was no longer just, a girl who grew up in Northern California. I now became a citizen of the world. I was meeting students who like me high school students from around the world. We’re all being placed in different parts of Canada. It was amazing.

Little plug here that if you can all at all live abroad. And send your children abroad in high school or college do it. It is a life changing experience.

Coming back to mind maps. If all we know is maybe a hundred miles radius from where we live, then our sense of self and our sense of the world is entirely shaped by that.

On the other hand, if we could travel to a space station in high earth orbit and turn around and see the earth, from that vantage point how would our sense of self and the world change?

I started off this podcast sharing with you about my Story Success Clinic and why I’m offering this service. It is a way that I can help writers do a few things. Get more exposure for your books. Brainstorm ideas to make your story world come alive, and also brainstorm ideas around marketing.

One of the biggest challenges I notice with especially science fiction writers is they are going into new territory and doing things we haven’t seen before. And they may not even recognize — you may not even recognize that what you’re writing is science fiction. All you know is that it is set in the future. All you may know is that it has different rules and different kinds of people. What you’re writing about doesn’t look like anything you’ve ever seen before. So maybe you question: Is the science fiction. What is this? Then you might even be a little bit frozen in fear around how do you market something you don’t even know what it is.

So I will cover those topics in our discussions and help you gain clarity and inspiration and motivation. Because by the time you’re done with our chat, I want you to leave with your next step. We’re not trying to solve all the world’s problems in 30 minutes. We’re just going help bring some clarity and get you inspired and motivated for the next step. And of course, this is my way to showcase my skills as a coach.

So, if you want to work with me further, you are invited to have that conversation with me. That’s a separate conversation. This is not a selling conversation. This is conversation, me being helpful to you. Also me giving you the opportunity to get some exposure as an author. Learning how to market your books and yourself as an author is such a key skill.

I look forward to speaking with you. If you have any questions about the Story Success Clinic, contact me through email, LinkedIn or Twitter. Those details are in the show notes.

One last thing.

What does story success look like to you?

When I sit down to write on my book each day I do so, I think about — by the time I lay my head on the pillow, tonight, what would I have liked to accomplish? Future me, a future version of me, the one who is falling asleep there at the end of the day what does she want to feel proud of? What does she want to have accomplished?

And this is how I keep focused on the one thing, on the one thing that I really want to be doing today. And each day it might be different.

So, what is your one thing? What is your one thing, with your writing, cause that’s my focus, but I honestly, it could be anything. This is about making your each day, a success for you. And I know for me, it is about writing. And for you too, it may be that as well. But I do want to stress that some days you’re not writing and that’s okay.

Some days the thing that is successful is taking a break, is doing something fun, or inspiring.

So, what does story success look like to you?

I’d love to hear. Hit me up. Twitter, LinkedIn, email. Any of those is great. Especially Twitter. I’m on Twitter the most.

All right, everyone! Have a wonderful writing day, and I look forward to speaking with you in our 30-minute Story Success Clinic interview.

Write long and prosper.

Science fiction and fantasy sign up for your 30 minute Story Success Clinic and get more exposure for your books.

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061

or in your podcast home of choice.

***

CONNECT with Beth Barany

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

Email: Beth@BethBarany.com

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT

https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)

MUSIC CREDITS:

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz

License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll.

Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.

DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)

SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany

SHOW NOTES BY Kerry-Ann McDade

***

For more “How To Write the Future” episodes, go here.

If you’d like to invite Beth onto your podcast, drop her a note here.