✨Can Your Writing Cause Physical Harm? Lauren Seal Knows the Answer—And What to Do About It ✨

Plus, Erin Quinn-Kong's answers to our questions make us both snork AND nod in agreement, and our hosts share their written query critiques!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

We tend to be a bit irreverent here at The 💩, but, as you know, that doesn’t mean we don’t take all aspects of writing seriously. There’s a lot of potential power in what a writer chooses to share with the world, and in this week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members we take a closer look at wielding that power responsibly.

Every writer obviously thinks about how readers will respond to their work, but, as Lauren Seal explains, for those tackling particularly tough topics, the stakes can be higher than for others. And we’re not talking about making readers sad by writing about the death of a dog, we’re talking about books with the potential to cause harm that goes beyond emotional distress—the way the seemingly innocuous Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul on Tough Stuff became a manual for self-harm for 14-year-old Lauren. This was clearly top of mind for her while writing her novel-in-verse debut, Light Enough to Float, about her experience with anorexia, and Lauren shares how she approached the topic in her thoughtful and thought-provoking essay, On Writing the Least Harmful Eating Disorder Novel I Could. It’s packed with advice that anyone writing potentially triggering content will find invaluable.

Also this week, we’ve got Erin Quinn-Kong, who lightens the mood with her answers to our Author Q&A. We could not have been more delighted to read about her approach to choosing screen names for her characters in Hate Follow (we’re still giggling over “Big Hick Energy” in addition to taking notes on her research process). Erin also shares some solid advice on carving out time to write, as well as a peek into her outlining process that will likely be very validating for a not insubstantial contingent of you (Editor’s note: It sure was for me!).

And, of course, we’ve got our fabulous hosts’ written critiques for the queries reviewed on last week’s podcast! (Editor’s note: If you haven’t given it a listen yet, you should really fix that, if not for the awesome-as-always querying and craft advice, then for the seriously unserious rabbit hole Bianca, Carly and CeCe fall down when the topic of safaris comes up. Trust me.)

Happy reading!

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team