How two writers/publishing professionals found a way to finish our novels (and how it can help you!)
If you’ve been struggling to finish your book or find your voice, we get it because we’ve been there… literally.
When we started this process, it was actually as a bi-weekly accountability call so we could help each other finish the respective novels we’d been struggling with.
Because we’re both publishing professionals as well, our talks naturally evolved into long, in-depth discussions about our frustrations with the industry and how it’s difficult to help writers who are seeking editorial services or an agent but just aren’t ready yet.
The most common issue we kept coming up against was writers who still needed to spend time learning the foundations of what we call StoryCraft. For any other artform out there, it’s common to spend a lot of time learning. Music or painting or sculpting all require a significant amount of time learning how to “do the thing” before you jump into the unknown and start creating your own pieces, so no wonder why writers are struggling to finish novels!
Our solution was to create a platform where writers at all stages can dive into the fundamentals and learn about the craft in a fun and easily-digestible way, and for a fraction of what you would pay for an MFA program.
But beyond that, we also discovered an amazing process that breaks the act of writing a novel into several bite-sized chunks to make the writing easier (and more enjoyable). We spend so much time strategic planning for other areas of our lives, why aren’t we strategic planning our books?
When we put our plan into action, the results spoke for themselves. We both finished the drafts we’d been struggling with for years and then wrote more. The act of writing we both found painful suddenly wasn’t anymore because we’d taught ourselves a system to reduce stress, break up the tasks, and most importantly, get rid of the idea of perfectionism.
Now, we want to share this system with other writers. We’re starting with the StoryCraft Novel Challenge, a six-week abridged version of our foundational online course StoryCraft: Writing Your Novel. If you want to dive into the Beta version of the course, you can save $150 with coupon SCBETA.
We also created the StoryCraft Workbook, which features over 100 exercises designed to lead you through your novel from idea to outline and beyond, and it’s the process we both successfully use.
The Challenge itself is completely free. All you have to do is Subscribe to our Substack and follow along on social media. Every day of the week, we’ll have a short lesson paired with an exercise to help you develop your book. By the end of the six weeks, you’ll have a complete outline and a plan to turn it into a finished novel.
Our mission is to demystify the writing process and give writers the tools to create your own writing process. We know this system works, because we’ve done it, and we’re so excited to share it with you.
We’ll see you October 14th for the start of the challenge!
Happy Writing,
Jess and L Theodoora