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Stephanie Dethlefs

Musings on craft and process, essays, recommended reading, pep talks, and more. Pictures of my dog are likely to appear. 🌻

Featured Post

Savoring Daylight and Recommending Things

This email may be too long for your inbox. Choose to view it in your browser instead! Hi friend, Well. Here we are, almost in November. As my grandmother used to say, shaking her head: time goes by. Earlier this month I spent a incredible week at a writing retreat in Halkidiki, Greece, in a workshop cohort mentored by the poet Maggie Smith and surrounded by the most amazing people. Our conversations and the focused time unlocked something in my memoir which I'm really excited about, and I'm...

The Heartbeat of a Story: what it is and why it matters

FREE WEBINAR: The Heartbeat of a Story HOST: Yours truly! FOR: Fiction and Memoir Writers WHEN: Saturday, October 31, 10am Pacific REPLAY AVAILABLE? Yes! Through November 7 Gather round, friends! In this free webinar, writer and writing coach Stephanie Dethlefs shares the three interconnected elements that create the Heartbeat of a Story: a message, a character arc, and intentional turning points. We'll do three quick exercises to uncover the first layer, and discuss how they interact to...