Happy Friday, writing friends!
This week’s podcast episode doesn’t have just one author interview - it has 3️⃣! 🤯Make sure you don’t miss out on all the incredible insights from Chris Bohjalian, Bailey Hannah, and Tarah DeWitt! 👀
And if you enjoyed Tarah’s interview, you won’t want to miss today’s essay! Tarah, author of Lost and Found, discusses healthy habits to build on your creative journey:
“Art Begets Art. Creativity Begets Creativity. I used to think if I was behind on a word count or on an arbitrary goal related to writing, I needed to remain glued to that work until I cranked it out. Not so. To find inspiration you have to seek it out. You have to activate those parts of your brain if you want to access them for yourself. Read. Yes, even when you’re behind. Sometimes reading words that are not your own is the one thing that will unlock you. Go to a museum. Take in the art as well as the people taking in the art. Color. Do a craft. Read some more.”
Then, Nyla Matuk, author of Leila & Khaled, tackles sustainability in your writing career. In today’s video, she also discusses:
long gaps between projects,
why she never truly considered giving up on writing despite periods of creative silence,
and how accepting an unconventional process has helped her continue producing work.
Today’s Q&A features Christina Li, author of The Hardest Ones to Fool:
“There is the dream of the everyday writing practice, or the ritual, or maybe the expectation that you’re not a “real” writer if you’re writing all the time — I think of writing as this maybe perennial cycle where things ebb and flow. I have months where I write a hundred pages. I go months and write nothing. I am still a writer through it all.”
Last, but certainly not least… CeCe is teaching her popular Writing Tension course in the fall which now features an all-new interactive component, The Acquisitions Pipeline, an exciting simulation of how a book gets sold. Scroll down for more details and to sign up!
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading! ❤️
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
P.S. Still not sure about upgrading to paid? Check out our Tuesday Teaser below to see what you’re missing!
This Week’s Podcast✨🎙️✨
In part one of this week’s episode, Bianca Marais sits down with bestselling author Chris Bohjalian to discuss The Amateur. Don’t miss this incredibly insightful interview that touches on voice, tension, and emotional storytelling. Chris explores how to create deeply flawed yet unforgettable characters, use specificity to reveal backstory without slowing the narrative, and build suspense through foreshadowing and structure. He also shares why he wrote the novel in just 90 days, how he balances first-person narration with psychological depth, and why action—not exposition—is often the strongest path to revealing character.
“I'm a pantser. I've never written an outline. I respect authors who use outlines, but the pleasure for me is having my characters take me by the hand and lead me through the dark of the story.”
-Chris Bohjalian
Shifting over to Bailey Hannah who joins Carly Watters to celebrate the final book in the beloved Wells Ranch series, Love Wells Kept. They discuss bringing the five-book journey to a close, writing an emotional marriage-in-crisis romance centered on amnesia, balancing heartbreak with hope, and researching traumatic brain injuries to portray recovery authentically. Bailey also shares her approach to romance tropes, crafting emotionally intelligent heroes, writing interconnected series, and why aspiring authors should stop waiting for the perfect moment and simply write the book!
“I just can’t help myself but add all of this traumatic backstory to the characters and make them feel real because they feel like real people to me when I’m writing it.”
-Bailey Hannah
In part three of this week’s author interviews, Carly Watters interviews Tarah DeWitt about her new book Lost and Found, the culmination of her Spoons series. They talk about themes of grief, motherhood, and the complexities of relationships, exploring how Tarah's characters navigate their emotional journeys. The discussion also touches on the balance of sweetness and spice in romance writing, the impact of social media on authors, and the powerful connections formed with fans through storytelling.
“When I wrote ‘Funny Feeling’ specifically, it was the first time I thought if I write a good enough book, enough people will talk about it.”
-Tarah DeWitt
Listen to the episode here or watch it on YouTube!
Habits to Build on Your Writing Journey
My road into traditional publishing was non-traditional in just about every way but having been on this path for a few years now, I do have a few pieces of sage advice—things I wish I would’ve embodied from the start that might have helped me establish better habits foundationally and protected my viewpoint in such an overwhelming industry. Whether you are just beginning to write, querying, or halfway through a contracted deal, I feel these are things you can always use as touchstones regardless of where you’re at in your author journey.
A piece of advice I’ve tried articulating to peers and friends numerous times over the years is something I’ve since seen simplified by the brilliant Chelsea Fagan, and that is this: diversify your identity. If you are only ever thinking about You The Author, you will inevitably suffer from a scarcity mindset which will only lead to insecurity and jealousy and rob you of joy whenever you do hit a milestone or reach a goal. If Author (and everything that implies these days) is the entirety of what you’re focused on—your author branding, your social media presence, what accolades you and your book are getting, what lists you’re hitting, what numbers you’re achieving, and, consequently, what everyone else is getting that you are not—not only can the writing itself become more difficult, it can feel like you’re not measuring up on any of it.
Your wins will feel small in comparison if you’re comparing to everyone else doing this. Writing is a solitary gig and if you don’t diversify it’s easy to get myopic about it. While passion, tenacity, and ambition are absolute requirements for success in this business, having too much of your identity wrapped up in Author is like putting all your eggs in one basket that you’re not even in charge of carrying. Keep your focus trained on laying the eggs (your writing) while also enjoying being a hen (gender neutral) with a broad range of interests and abilities. Get out of the coop (off of your laptop or phone), go out in the yard (anywhere in real life away from a screen), and spend time with the rest of the flock (any of your people who are not necessarily involved in publishing). I promise it’ll keep the rest of it in perspective.
Another thing I want to note is relevant all the time is that Art Begets Art. Creativity Begets Creativity. I used to think if I was behind on a word count or on an arbitrary goal related to writing, I needed to remain glued to that work until I cranked it out. Not so. To find inspiration you have to seek it out. You have to activate those parts of your brain if you want to access them for yourself. Read. Yes, even when you’re behind. Sometimes reading words that are not your own is the one thing that will unlock you. Go to a museum. Take in the art as well as the people taking in the art. Color. Do a craft. Read some more.
Be open to changing lanes but not directions. When I had my first conversation with my agent, Carly Watters, she highlighted the things in my books that also happened to be most important to me, that I felt aligned with what I perceived my brand to be. It was wildly affirming because as authors we think we know what we’re going for in our work, what we are aiming for, but we never really know what is coming across the page. Don’t be afraid to ask the people on your team these kinds of questions and only work with people you would feel comfortable having this conversation with. If they feel your strengths lie elsewhere in your writing—maybe they see your books more as true romcoms rather than emotional contemporaries with humorous moments—be open to hearing it but stay wary of anyone who wants you to write like someone you know you are not. Those two distinctions as far as genre might all end up on the same table at the bookstore, but how that work is presented will be affected, from the cover chosen to the marketing that goes into it. Don’t be afraid to ask an editor or an agent where they see your books sitting on a shelf, what authors they see you sitting besides, and make sure you have similar visions.
Lastly, I wish I would have taken the time to celebrate every single thing. Every single win in publishing deserves to be a win. We’re part of a tough business filled with rare and beautiful momentous, with some trudging in between. Let everything be a big deal because it is, don’t simply look at it as the stepping stone toward something else.
Nyla Matuk on Sustainability In Your Writing Career!
Author and poet Nyla Matuk reflects on the realities of sustaining a writing life over the long term, sharing how voice notes, notebooks, and patience have become essential tools when inspiration feels distant. Nyla, author of Leila and Khaled, also opens up about the surprising joy of seeing readers connect with her work, something her younger self never imagined, and shares her perspective on writers and social media, challenging the idea that authors need to remain mysterious or removed from everyday life.
Author Q&A with Christina Li!
TSNOTYAW: If you could have a drink/tea/coffee & chat with ANY writer (living or not), who would it be & what would you ask?
Christina Li: James Baldwin. His writing is generational and stunning and powerful. I was just reading his biography on vacation, and he lived truly such a fascinating, itinerant life. I would love to just have a long, long, chat with him in some cafe in Paris (in probably some Midnight in Paris-esque way)—about love and longing and isolation and divinity and creative conviction.
What’s something about your life as an author that people don’t know, or make incorrect assumptions about?
I think just that every day of an author can be so different. There is the dream of the everyday writing practice, or the ritual, or maybe the expectation that you’re not a “real” writer if you’re writing all the time — I think of writing as this maybe perennial cycle where things ebb and flow. I have months where I write a hundred pages. I go months and write nothing. I am still a writer through it all.
How did you choose your comparative titles? Did you struggle with that process? Did you change the comps after feedback (or lack thereof) from agents you queried?
Coming up with comparative titles is actually probably the easiest and most fun part of the process! There’s no battling a draft, there’s nothing to revise, it just comes from either brainstorming with yourself or your editorial team / agent / friends, which is a pretty widely read crowd. So something is bound to come up and stick. One of my favorite parts of conceptualizing a book is coming up with the comps. For The Hardest Ones to Fool, Inventing Anna meets Genuine Fraud took a few back and forths, but ultimately a combo that my editorial team came up with — and I couldn’t be happier about it.
What inspires you to keep writing? Both on an everyday level and an ‘I’m starting a new book’ level?
A book is always a question I am trying to answer, or a dissertation I am write about something. One of my books explores the question of unlikely and unexpected friendship. One of my books explores the topics of gentrification and dealing with a relative with Alzheimer’s, both through a lens of memory and legacy loss. One of my books deals with the things we inherit — material or memory — through a series of ghostly hauntings. I think that there are questions I ask myself as I move through the world and explore the world around me, and if it’s not something I can answer immediately, I often explore it through a novel. I think that is where the “inspiration is everywhere” answer comes from (which always frustrated me because it seemed like such a general cop out response!) But I think it truly comes down to the fact that writers are curious people that wonder about the world around them, and the primary way they can process or address that curiosity is by writing about it. And there are so many things to wonder about.
What is your advice to new/aspiring authors who are told not to write to trends and then struggle to find representation because of inability to fit into the market?
So many people can write to a trend, but only you and you alone can write a book that is true to yourself. My friends and I talk about wanting to read “weird little books” all the time. And we say it completely affectionately. Those are the books with premises we never saw coming, or meandering books where nothing happens and then everything collides together at the end. Those are the books that attach to me and don’t let go, because I think I can sense the unabashed entirety of the author’s heart in there. During the writing of my first novel, I was so careful about trends, and how the book would be pitched. That book lingered on sub and didn’t sell. Finally I threw in the towel. Then I came up with the idea for a book that I was worried was too quiet, but I knew fascinated me, and that I knew I wanted to tell myself. That book would be my debut novel.
What’s one question you asked your agent on “the call” that ended up being super helpful, and what was their answer? Is there anything you wished you’d asked? Or that you’d say is a non-negotiable question to ask?
I didn’t know it at the time, but the most helpful question I asked my agent on the call was, “what if this book doesn’t sell”? Their answer will tell you everything. I’ve been with my agent for over ten years, and for the first few years of our partnership, we were subbing a book that ultimately didn’t sell. But she stuck with me, I wrote another book, and then we sold it in a matter of days. So much of publishing is luck and tenacity and being creative about making your book known and heard. It’s amazing if the book sells immediately! But how they approach the partnership when publishing is hard tells you everything.
If you don’t have an MFA or comparable education: how did you develop your craft? Do you feel like an MFA would’ve benefited you?
I think the question of getting an MFA is always so interesting because I feel like it is always implying a binary answer, like: yes, I should have gotten an MFA, or no, an MFA isn’t worth it. I think I would have been a fundamentally different writer had I chosen to get an MFA. I have friends who went to MFA programs and it fundamentally changed the trajectory of their writing lives and careers. I didn’t get one, and my self-cobbled MFA degree is this: I was determined to be a writer. I was a teenager who would beg my dad to drive me to author events two hours away. I would look up every single article or blog post about querying or craft that I could. I pitched my agent live. I would cold email authors and weep for joy when they responded (and some did). I would read and read and develop my curriculum — of the poems and the books and the narratives that moved me. I think the time and focus of an MFA is incomparable, and those are things that are so necessary to be creative. But I cobbled together my own education, and there will be opportunity costs associated with that, but that is a choice I made and will stand by for myself.
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, we’ve got ….
An essay by Isabelle Spotts, author of Saint Delilah, that’s titled Three Good Reasons Not to Take Writing Advice: How Letting Go of the Rules Shaped My Writing Journey:
“I think most writing advice is well-intentioned, and there’s a lot out there that’s really solid, tried and true, and derived from writers who know exactly what they’re talking about—who’ve built enviable careers, no less. It can be tempting, if not downright maddening, to try and take all that glorious advice in, to absorb enough of it so that writing becomes effortless (a dream!), and the pursuit of publishing less chaotic (a hallucination!). But when it comes to something as subjective as writing and as diverse as publishing, we all must recognize, there is no morsel of wisdom that will save us from our own process.
You’ll want to read her three reasons to see how they might apply to you!
In Tuesday’s video, Abbie Emmons, author of Make Your Story Matter, tackles the question: Is Plot Really the Problem? See what Abbie says about the one storytelling question that can instantly diagnose a flat manuscript!
In our Meet Your Dream Agent segment, we profile Lauren Khan from FinePrint Literary Management. You’ll want to see the query letter she shares that got a whopping 47 full requests!
Finally, Leslie Bazzett, author of Mia, tackles our Q&A. We love her take regarding social media:
“I actually do not have a social media platform at all, and have literally never been on any social media. As Bartleby said, I would prefer not to. In similar passive-defiant form, this is not necessarily something I broadcast to my agent or publisher! But the thing is, there’s just so much distraction coming at us right now; our minds are literally becoming fragmented and incapable of sustained engagement. And so, as writers and artists, I think we have a call to resist; to nurture mindfulness and presence in the way we receive and reconfigure and translate the world, in all its fierceness and strangeness and wonder.”
Not yet a member? For just $10 USD a month or $120 USD a year you get:
an exclusive newsletter on Tuesdays featuring bonus author Q&As and other exclusive content from industry experts
access to Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra’s written notes on queries from the podcast’s Books With Hooks feature
monthly bonus podcast episodes, AND
regular Ask Me Anythings / Q&As with Carly, CeCe, and Bianca Marais.
If that doesn’t kickstart your writing journey, we don’t know what will!
CeCe’s Writing Tension Course Featuring The Acquisitions Pipeline!
CeCe is teaching her popular Writing Tension course in the fall featuring an all-new interactive component: The Acquisitions Pipeline.
The Acquisitions Pipeline is simulation of how a book gets sold. Students of the course will be invited to submit their pages to be reviewed by a panel of 4 seasoned literary agents. Their mission: to select the works with the most potential. All students of the course will get to see which submissions made this shortlist. Then, those submissions will be sent to a panel of 9 top acquiring editors from major publishing houses. Their job: to select the top two per genre (that’s a total of 18 selections!) and critique them at a live event moderated by CeCe, highlighting what’s working, what’s not, and how the writer can make their work more competitive.
Does that sound super fun and also a little terrifying? It does to us, too!
Maybe your work will be selected. Maybe it won’t. The true value lies in witnessing how experienced acquiring editors (whose day job is to acquire books!) read real pages across different genres.
Please note that the Acquisitions Pipeline is an educational opportunity—submitting to the pipeline does not constitute a submission to a literary agent for representation and/or a submission to an acquiring editor for acquisition.
Due to the interactive nature of the course, spots are limited.
To find out more about this special edition of Writing Tension featuring the all-new Acquisitions Pipeline email learnwithceceassistant@gmail.com, or click below!
That’s all for this week’s news! If you enjoyed it, why not share the love? 🥰
Tune in again next week for more invaluable wisdom from our wonderful hosts! Until then, happy writing! 😍
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
Our work takes place on land now known as Toronto and Ottawa and we acknowledge that these are the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples as well as the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Toronto is covered under Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties. We respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures, languages, and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada. We invite you to learn more about the land you inhabit, the history of that land, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together at Native Land or Whose Land.
Cece Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates. If you’d like to query CeCe, please refer to the submission guidelines at www.wsherman.com. Carly Watters is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency, but her work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly on this podcast are solely that of her as a podcast co-host and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
What a post full of writers' perspectives and tips!