Beth Barany always wanted to be a writer. Her great grandmother was a writer and she remembers asking her how to publish a story.

At 13 she realised she could do it and started a journal, which she continues to this day. It wasn't until she was 18 years old, however, that she made the conscious decision to be a writer. She just didn't know how to do it!

At that time non-fiction was easier for her to write and so she found the courage to put herself forward and submit some small pieces to magazines. She had her first submission accepted, and that gave her the confidence to carry on. 

Later in life she realised she had to either stop with the dream of writing a novel, or do it. And so she spent the next five years slowly but surely making her way through The Weekend Novelist by Robert J Ray, completing the exercises and, little by little, writing her first novel.

“The point was to finish.”

Beth tells us about her Janey McCllister series, describing it as ‘CSI in space’.

Beth Barany talks about her coaching programmes, both 1:1 and small group. Her strength with coaching is that not only does she use her experienced coaching skills, but she is also a developmental editor so helps students become better writers as they go through the programme. 

We then talk about her book for writers, Plan Your Novel Like Like A Pro. Beth talks me through each of the stages of the book, which are divided into weeks. 

Week one is all about the elevator pitch, because it's a great way to start planning your book.

Week two is all about getting to know your characters. Beth talks us through the many ways you can do this, including the Empathy Formula:

Recognition
Pity

Humanity

Admiration

Emotional Stakes

Beth goes into each of these in more detail in our conversation.

Week three is about structure, but rather than tackle it in the usual way, Beth Barany encourages her students to examine the genre they write in. 

This is a great way of approaching your story because it teaches you to include those expected scenes ahead of time, rather than fitting them in when it’s time to market the book. 

Something I wish I’d thought of before I wrote my first book!

Week four is about outlining and we discuss how this can be used by both detailed planners, and intuitive writers like Bethany.

The key is to think of each scene having a problem and a solution. She describes it as a daisy chain of problems and solutions, one scene leading seamlessly onto the next. 

We finish the conversation with Beth telling me what she's working on now, and where you can find more about her online.

Connect with Beth:

Fiction Coaching for Novelists (bethbarany.com)

e-Books – Beth Barany, Novelist

Plan Your Novel Like A Pro: And Have Fun Doing It! · Writer's Fun Zone (writersfunzone.com)

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