It happens to many of us. But having a group with the same goals can make it less lonely.

That’s why I started my membership group – Storytellers Elite – as a place for writers to connect. It combines three key elements to support your progress with your writing projects and your development as a writer – Accountability, Development and Motivation. We support each other, and share both the good and tough times.

A virtual community for Writers

This group is for writers who know the basics like showing and telling, plot, and character development, but want to improve further. It’s for those with some writing experience who are considering writing as a career. We meet online to help each other through tough spots in our stories, find what’s missing, and get inspired. Our writing sprint sessions help you set aside regular time to write, so your word count grows naturally. Paired together, it helps you get back on track.

Storytellers Elite is for people with some writing experience who are considering writing as a career

When you have some ideas for writing, but you’re not familiar with the fancy words that writers use. 

Have you ever felt intimidated when you hear writers talk about their craft? I know I have. When I was hosting a live event recently, I realised that I was using some jargon that might not be clear to everyone. Maybe I was confusing them, or worse, making them feel like they don’t belong! Sometimes writers use words that you don’t know, and you start to doubt yourself. That’s not a good feeling!

Learning how to write… as you write!

Sometimes you might feel unsure about your writing skills. Maybe you don’t know when to use an apostrophe, or what some words mean, or how to spell and punctuate correctly. But that’s OK. You don’t have to be perfect to write well. Or maybe you don’t know the technical word for something in writing, simply because you’ve not encountered it before – that’s fine. Even I have to check things sometimes when I forget or get confused. And then there are those days when you have a great idea in your head, but you can’t find the right words to express it. That happens to everyone. Don’t let that stop you from writing, or make you feel bad about yourself. No one is judging you.

Practice makes perfect!

Think of it like this: you get a Marvel comic book as a gift. You don’t have to know everything about the characters before you open it. You just dive into the story and have fun with it. Maybe you’ll get curious and want to learn more about them later. That’s how writing works too. You don’t need to study it first, you just have a go at doing it. You learn as you go along. Don’t they say, every day is a school day?!

There are some things you should learn all about before you start doing them. There are certain jobs or tasks where you will of course need some background knowledge, qualifications – situations where someone might get hurt, or your actions affect others. But writing isn’t like learning to drive, at least not in that way. You’re not going to do any harm by having a go at writing. Maybe you will do it badly to start with, but you can always get better with practice. You can improve the ways you did it the first time around, but by playing about with ideas and making a start, you have already given yourself a great start.

Write what you want to write

So, just ‘doing the thing’ – in this case, writing fiction. If you want to, you can try to do everything by yourself – just start writing and learn as you go, improve your skills, solve problems along the way. Or you might want to join others who are also writing and get their feedback and help – my Book Forge community is a good option, which is all about sitting in the chair, spending time writing, and achieving your writing goals. It’s nice to have people who share your dreams and can give you advice and support. 

Whilst it can be helpful to learn some of the common terms, especially if you want to communicate with other writers, editors, or readers – it’s not a requirement. The important thing is that you are actually doing it. Don’t worry too much about writing jargon. It can be useful, but it’s not a must-have. Write what you want to write, how you want to write it. That’s what matters most.

A common writing wish is to write books for children. A children’s author has lots of genre options, just like authors who write for adults. There’s children’s fantasy fiction, adventure, crime, even horror. Why choose to write for children, though?

There’s something magical about a book that’s written for children. There are no holds barred with what’s possible. And children aren’t jaded. They haven’t seen it all before. They are still in that fabulous time of life when they’re still surprised and thrilled by the stories adults have become blind to. Writers of children’s fiction have this wonderful audience to write for.

Children’s Author Claire Fayers

One such writer is Claire Fayers, author of The Accidental Pirates series, Storm Hound and most recently Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends. Fayers weaves magic, mythology, humour and adventure into her stories. Her books are loved by children and parents alike.

Claire Fayers will be joining me on Clubhouse for a discussion and Q&A on 23rd September 2021 at 8pm (UK time). This is an exciting opportunity to listen to a traditionally published author give her experiences of being a writer of children’s books – and maybe even ask your own question!

Not familiar with Clubhouse?

It’s a fairly new platform with a real difference from other social media outlets in that it’s audio-only… great if you’re shy of being on camera! Think of it as a bit like listening to a podcast or radio show, except that’s it’s live. There are clubs and rooms on all manner of topics. These clubs are like communities of support, help, conversation and human interaction, which for many of us can be hard to come by these days. 

My Clubhouse club is called Writers’ Pool and is, unsurprisingly, about writing! I host regular rooms discussing various topics to do with writing and there’s a lovely ethos of idea sharing. It brings together people from all over the world who otherwise wouldn’t ever meet. How great is that?

One of the best things about attending a ‘room’ on Clubhouse is that you don’t have to speak if you don’t want to. You can remain in the audience and just listen. This makes it great if you’re doing other things at the same time or if you’re shy about joining in.

When you’ve got your confidence, though, you can come up on the ‘stage’. There you can ask questions, suggest solutions, or just reach out to other human beings with the same interests as you. Let’s face it – the people you live with don’t always understand what you’re talking about.

Authors on Clubhouse

Clubhouse is not just for those who love tech. I certainly don’t, and I find it super-easy to navigate. All you need is a smartphone.

I am very excited that Claire Fayers is coming along as a guest to my club very soon. It’s a great opportunity for you to ask a published full-time author your questions about writing and getting published. Or listen in and hope someone else asks your question!

Advice for Writers: Show don’t Tell

The advice writers are most often given is ‘show don’t tell’. In Facebook writing groups, critique groups, writers’ circles, creative writing workshops, the mantra is ‘show don’t tell’.

What does it even mean? What are you supposed to achieve with that?

It sounds confusing. It sounds like you’re meant to draw pictures for your readers rather than write them a story.

Creating a world of story

I remember when I was a child visiting my grandparents. My grandfather was a reader of crime novels, war stories and spy thrillers. Every week, he would visit the public library and take out another two or three books. 

I watched him reading them. I would try to guess what exciting things must be happening in the story. I always knew when he was in the middle of a dangerous bit because of his physical reactions. His legs twitched and jumped as if he were running away from an enemy soldier or spy. His fingers ran along the edges of the pages almost like he was grabbing for a gun. 

He enjoyed the thrill of those stories. He felt the excitement as if the events were real. He felt it physically.

The writers he enjoyed most were those who drew pictures for him so that he could see, hear, feel, smell and even taste what the characters were experiencing. They didn’t go in for long descriptions of scenery or detailed character sketches. Those writers created a world of story and dumped my grandfather into that world unceremoniously.

Those writers focused on the experience of the characters in the story, how it made them feel, and what they were struggling to achieve, and made it become real.

Writers who ‘show don’t tell’

That’s what writers who ‘show don’t tell’ are trying to achieve. A good writer will get out of their own way and stop dictating facts to their readers. They won’t tell their readers what they are supposed to think. Not directly. A good writer will show their readers the world from the point of view of their characters. Then they let their readers experience the events along with the characters.

It’s like living another person’s life. Even sat in your armchair in front of the fire, just like my grandfather did, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. You can be James Bond. You can catch that spy and hunt down the criminal mastermind.

As a reader, you know that. You’ve had that experience yourself, whatever genre you read. As a writer, it’s your job to give that gift to your own readers.

I can help you start doing that exact thing. Access my FREE workbook to help you learn the difference between showing and telling in your writing…

Are you writing stories that no one will ever read?

‘Sure, I’ll read your boring novel. The way you’ve told it is like wading through mud, your characters speak like robots and you’ve written lots of dull and pointless description, but I know you’ve spent time writing it and you think it’s fabulous so of course I will give up twenty hours of my life to make you feel good.’

… said no reader EVER.

I spend some of my social media time in support groups for writers and storytellers. I like to keep up with current issues, see what people are worrying about, and it is always possible to learn something new.

Some of the time, though, I end up shaking my head in disbelief. Recently I saw a thread started by a young writer who was worried that he was wasting his time. He was concerned particularly that he might be creating stories that nobody else would ever think were worth their time and effort to read.

Out of the shadows already had come fifty or more group members, almost all singing from the same song sheet…

‘Don’t worry about it, man. So long as you’re writing what YOU love, that’s the point.’

‘Just write from your heart and there will be people who resonate with your story.’

Stories that readers find irresistible

That poor guy was expressing his concern that he might not find an audience to read his stories. He was terrified that he would put them out there and get nothing but tumbleweed around them. He was writing because he wanted to have an impact on people and make a success of himself as an author, not so that he could tuck it away in a drawer or create a support group for a specific issue.

What he wanted was to make his stories irresistible. The reason he posted in that Facebook group that day was because he knew his stories WEREN’T irresistible.

Now I don’t know what was good or bad about his writing: he didn’t share any extracts in the thread. But he knew it could be better and he knew it was his job to make it better.

That guy looked to be in his early twenties. Many of the people offering him ‘advice’ must have been twice his age, at least. He didn’t know it, but he had wisdom that those ‘experienced voices’ simply didn’t have and probably never will have. Despite his lack of confidence, he had grasped the truth that no audience out there will ever read something just because its writer loves it. He could see that every person who chooses to read a story will do so because they can see something in it for THEM. What’s more, he could see that it is up to him to engage people in his stories.

Nobody owes him their time, effort or money to give him an audience. That goes for the rest of us too. It is the job of all of us to write stories that are irresistible.

Do you get upset when people can’t see your story’s value? Especially when they say they’re interested in what you want to share with the world, but their actions don’t live up to this? They don’t read your blog (never mind share it), don’t come to your talks, don’t put their money where their mouths are.

I know, it is frustrating when that happens. It can even leave you feeling rejected, as if your story isn’t worth telling. I feel your pain. But I’m going to tell you where you’ve been going wrong so that you can start to fix it.

All Our Stories Have Value

It’s true – ALL our stories have value, intrinsically. Whether your story is about climbing an impossible mountain (literally or metaphorically), about your years in front of adolescent pupils, or about a boy wizard. Your stories come from within you. As such, they are valuable.

So why don’t others recognise the value of them? Why do you feel like nobody cares? This is the truth of the matter… all of us –including you – only care about the stories of other people when the parts of our brains which control empathy, imagination and emotion have been stimulated. In other words, we only give a flying fiddle about someone else’s story when we can imagine ourselves in that situation and facing the same challenges.

You might be thinking right now: “That isn’t the way I think. I always care about other people’s stories. I’m really interested in other people.”

I’m not denying that you have a normal degree of empathy in your psychology. That empathy has to be triggered, though. Unless you are an extreme empath, you do not engage with others’ experiences entirely by your own devices. That would be a very uncomfortable nature to have. How would you ever get any peace from other people’s pain?

What Those Storytellers Have Done…

Those storytellers who have triggered your empathy have done so in such a skilful way that you probably don’t even realised they did anything. That’s why you think it’s all down to your own empathy. What they have done is tell their story in such a way that they have made your brain experience it as if it is actually happening to YOU, not to them or their character. They’ve got into your head and made you feel as if you are there, with the problems and threats in the story facing YOU.

Your brain does not know the difference between the sights, sounds and smells in real life, and the sights, sounds and smells you are only hearing in a story. That sounds insane, I know, but it’s true. If a neuroscientist looked at scans of your brain in the two scenarios, there would be no marked difference in the bits that lit up.

How Do I Fix My Stories Then?

Our imaginations are linked to our senses. Learn to tell your stories by stimulating your audience’s senses. Once they can imagine it, they can begin to develop empathy. Once they have developed empathy, they will begin to care about what happens in the story. They will be captivated because, you see, they no longer feel that it is someone else’s story. It is now their story as well as your own.

Would you love to learn how to tell stories that captivate? Join The Storytellers’ Academy.

Curious? Want to discover more? Join the FREE group I’ve Got a Story to Tell.

Our own mortality weighs heavily on us humans. If only we could make ourselves immortal. Sound a bit heavy? Only because it’s true.

Picture those alchemists of old, hunched over bubbling potions, strange collections of ingredients lining the walls. See those scientists intent on their microbes in petri dishes and stem cells in… whatever receptacles stem cells are kept in. All of them focused on finding the way to extend life, perhaps forever.

Our human instinct towards survival is not only an instinctive concern with the survival of our species. It is a concern which each of us has with surviving as an individual for as long as possible.

How Long Can We Really Live?

Who knows what life expectancy in good health future generations may look forward to. Some scientists predict that in years to come it will be quite normal to receive your telegram from the Queen on your hundredth birthday. Happy days. And good news for the job security of admin staff at the Palace.

Sooner or later, though, the day must arrive for us all when we shuffle off our mortal coil (to quote the Bard). Go to meet our maker, push up the daisies, snuff it (to quote Monty Python – we all know the sketch!).

So Is That The End?

I’m not talking about an afterlife or reincarnation or being cryogenically preserved. That’s for other people to write about. I’m talking about living on in this world as yourself.

So, are you up for it? Want the secret?…

This is what you do…

Tell stories that captivate, that arouse the imagination and engage the emotions of other human beings.

Stories that captivate can change lives. Change the lives of others, and you can live on.

Would you love to learn how to tell stories that captivate? Join The Storytellers’ Academy.
Curious? Want to discover more? Join the FREE group I’ve Got a Story to Tell.

The One Thing that Makes a Good Story..

What makes a story a good one?

Ask one person and he will say, “Action, and lots of it.”

Ask another and she will say, “I want to get to know the characters and what makes them tick.”

Ask a third and you will get the answer, “I want to feel like I know the world where the story is set.”

These three people have very different ideas about what they want in a story, right? So how can we pin down what makes a good story to just one element?

The clue is right there, staring us in the face. We just have to take a step back to see it.

What wisdom can you take away from this blog?

This.

You have to know who you are writing for. Know your audience. What sort of person are they?

Then consider this. What are they looking for when they read your story? What kind of beginning, middle and end will satisfy them? What kind of point do they want your story to make?

Because that is ultimately what makes a good story… a story that satisfies the desires of the audience. So get to know your audience. Knowing your audience leads you into the style to suit them.

Want to learn how to transform the impact you have with your stories? Find out about my membership community for writers, Storytellers Elite.
Found this article useful? Join the free Facebook group ‘I’ve Got a Story to Tell’

Want to tell your story and make real connections? Learn the secret…

What’s the big secret? … The story is not about you!

How can your story possibly not be about you? You’re the one who lived through the events, right? Sure you did. However, once you turn what happened into a story, it becomes about your audience – not you.

This is often the hardest thing for a teller of personal stories or memoirs to wrap their head around. It is also the most crucial thing. Let’s unpack it…

When you tell a story, you’re giving away a gift. Think about the times you have chosen a physical gift for someone else: you considered what sort of gift would be right for that person, yes? You took into account their interests and tastes rather than your own.

But have you ever made the mistake of buying a gift for someone based on what you would like to receive? Remember that blank expression that crossed their face when they unwrapped it, before they managed to hide it behind a smile? Right then, you knew that the gift you thought was so lovely was going to vanish into a drawer, never again to see the light of day.

That doesn’t mean the object itself was awful. It just wasn’t a good gift.

Telling your story is the same. You have to take into account your audience’s interests. 

Does that mean my story has no value?

No. No it doesn’t mean that.

Every story has value. That is true whether your story is about raising your children, rowing across the Atlantic, teaching pupils to read, or the journey to becoming a millionaire.

So how do I tell my story so that other people will be interested?

A story that holds other people’s interest is one which allows them to imagine that the story is about them. They need to ‘live’ the story for themselves along with you – either looking over your shoulder or actually being you, especially when the tension of the story reaches its height.

They need to see, hear, feel and smell the experiences. Your job as the storyteller is to park your ego and allow them to do that. Allow them to make the story their own.

In other words, you have to learn to let the story go. Give it away. That might feel scary. It might feel unfair. After all, you’re the one who lived it.