I’ve teamed up with my friend Beth Barany to offer the Shortcuts for Writers community an exciting opportunity—a chance to access the replay of Beth’s live training, NLP for Fiction Writers: Enhance Your Skills And Your Creative Flow.
For just $49, you’ll receive lifetime access to the replay, slides, course materials, and bonus session, all hosted in the Shortcuts for Writers Thrivecart dashboard.
If you haven’t met Beth, she teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books, and find their readers, as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”
To learn more about NLP and the workshop, read my interview with Beth below.
What is NLP and how can it benefit writers? Is it for mindset, motivation, developing your story, or all of the above?
NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming and it can benefit writers in lots of different ways. I primarily use it for mindset, motivation, overcoming writer’s block, dealing with the intrusive editor’s voice, and also to develop characters, refine character arcs, and support the writing process or workflow and enhance creative flow.
When you Google NLP, the types of techniques sound technical. Could you give us a brief overview in layman’s terms about what type of techniques fall under the umbrella of NLP? Are they techniques that people should just do once, or on a regular basis?
Sure, another way to think about NLP is what it can do for us. NLP can help us get clear on our internal habits, so that we can change them. Our habits lead to outcomes. NLP helps us become aware of our internal thought processes that lead to the outcomes we want. NLP uses a talking modality, a sequence of questions and answers to gain insight into how you’re really processing reality, so that you can shift and change toward your goal. You can use the simple techniques and tools all the time on new issues or concerns. The way I was trained is a transformational heart-centered approach helping people change without shaming who you are or were.
The simple tools I teach writers and I use with my clients are about asking questions—asking questions with curiosity, openness, and with a sense that we humans are very resourceful but we don’t always have access to them. NLP helps us have access to more inner resources and create the gentle habits to lead us to the outcome we’d like.
How did you get interested in NLP and how has it helped you with your writing?
I got interested in NLP at a business training years ago. The trainers used NLP to help people get clear on their goals and understand how often the things we think are in our way are not really what’s in our way. NLP is a way of understanding and tracking how humans are wired and how we grow, learn, and change. These business trainers had embedded NLP inside of the business tools they were teaching us. They told us they both trained at NLP Marin, so I checked it out, and then did their practitioner program—over 600 hours of training and practice.
These tools have not only helped me as a writer, but they also have helped me in every area of my business. Now I understand better how humans code reality so I can shape characters with more precision, I can edit with more awareness and can use these tools to get unstuck when I’m stuck with my story. It’s not the only toolkit I use but it is definitely one of the things I use to help me write compelling fiction.
How has learning NLP helped you with developing characters?
One of the benefits of these NLP tools is that once you use them for creating a change in yourself then it’s hard to remember what it was like before the change. I was going through my NLP practitioner certification training while working on books two and three in my Henrietta The Dragon Slayer series, and it made understanding my characters so much easier than I had experienced in book one. But it’s hard to chalk that up to only NLP. It could also have been connected to just growing and learning as a novelist.
Still, one of the things that I do put a lot of attention to when I’m story planning is a character’s change in their sense of self from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. I really got clear from the NLP training that for a character to face the big crisis and overcome it in the climax of the story, usually there has to have been an internal shift in their sense of self or in some primary belief that they held at the beginning of the story. I know I got this learning and this awareness from the NLP training. And now I teach it in my story planning and character development workshops and also part of our NLP for Fiction Writers Workshop.
What do you hope authors will come away with after this workshop?
My hope Is that authors will come away with a few exercises that they can use whenever they are stuck and a few exercises that they can use to craft compelling characters or to edit better characters for their novels.
Do you have anything else to add?
NLP has gotten a bad rap over the years because people have used it to manipulate others. But what is language really? What are we really doing with our novels? We are actually willingly manipulating the emotions of our readers to give them an outcome they desire. So like any tool NLP can be used for good or ill.
ABOUT BETH
Award-winning novelist and international writing teacher, Beth Barany, writes magical tales of romance, mystery, and adventure that empower women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives. She is the award-winning author of the YA fantasy series, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer, and the sci-fi mystery space station investigator series, starting with the award-winning, Into The Black, and of the acclaimed sweet paranormal romance Touchstone series.
Beth has also written books for writers, including Plan Your Novel Like A Pro, co-written with her husband, thriller writer Ezra Barany. Beth is currently at work on the fifth Janey McCallister science fiction mystery novel. Also, a Master NLP Practitioner, and certified creativity coach for writers, Beth runs a mastermind program for science fiction and fantasy writers to unleash their story’s potential and transform their draft into a publish-ready masterpiece and find their readers. She also facilitates and consults on Creative Entrepreneurship for fiction writers. A specialist in world building, Beth runs the podcast, How To Write The Future, and helps writers create positive, optimistic stories, because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so.
Get started on your story world building today with a free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers here.
Visit Beth on the web:
Workshop Blurb and Signup Link
NLP for Fiction Writers: Enhance Your Skills And Your Creative Flow with workshop instructor and writing coach, Beth Barany.
Learn how NLP, or neurolinguistic programming, boosts writing productivity and writing quality for authors. This approach is a gentle tool fostering self-acceptance while achieving desired outcomes effortlessly.
This workshop empowers writers at all levels to enhance their skills and overcome hurdles. You’re invited to engage curiosity and playfulness to refine your craft and improve your creative process.
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore:
– NLP’s advantages in learning new skills
– How to harness the senses to enrich your storytelling
– How to connect to the readers’ experiences
– A tool to beat procrastination and focus on writing
Perfect for writers seeking to enhance their skills, in this workshop, you’ll gain practical techniques to clarify your creative goals, expand your writer toolkit, and conquer writing challenges.
Sign up here.
Hi there! I’m Stacy Juba, an author, freelance editor, and the founder of Shortcuts for Writers. I’d love to connect. If you’re a writer, here are a few ways we can work together:
Enroll in my Book Blurbs Made Simple mini course for just $9
Sign up for my free, on-demand self-editing masterclass
Check out my courses and workshops
