✨"A Good Piece of Writing is Never Too Late" & Other Insights & Encouragement from Debut & Bestselling Authors to Get Your Fingers Flying✨

Plus, we take our own advice and take a moment to celebrate a win

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

In case you missed it over on our socials, we’re kicking things off today with a bit of exciting news:

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, the very publication you are currently reading, is the Number 1 fiction newsletter on Substack!🥇

We are in some pretty fantastic company, so needless to say we were both surprised and delighted when we saw the announcement.

And, of course, we wouldn’t be Number 1 without all of you—thank you for being here! We hope you know just how much we appreciate each and every one of our readers, and how happy it makes us when we hear from you about the writing milestones you’ve achieved that you credit us with having been a part of. That right there is why we do this (not for achievements like being the number1 anything, although we’re not gonna lie, we’re pretty stoked).

In other news…We’ve got another great issue for you today, starting with bestselling author of The Flatshare, Beth O’Leary (whose latest, Swept Away, is out now)! We loved her answers to our Q&A and think you will too, particularly if you’ve ever felt dismissed by someone based on the kinds of books you want to write (or read). Exactly when did the world decide everyone needed to be writing as if aiming to be the next Booker Prize winner? What about the value of entertaining and being entertained? And do those who are dismissive of so-called lighter fare actually read any of it? Because a lot of it deals with some pretty heavy stuff. Beth has her own thoughts on the pressure to write what she calls “Very Serious” books, and we’re very happy to be sharing them with you today. (Editor’s note: Marian Keyes, who Beth cites in her essay, is an excellent example of someone who weaves a lot of Very Serious stuff through her Very Funny pages. )

We’ve also got an essay (“Reinvent Yourself”) from thriller author Douglas Corleone, in which he—with apparent great glee—rips into a piece of writing advice that you’ve likely heard before (and likely took very seriously; it’s that kind of advice). We don’t want to give anything away, because you really need to read the entire essay in order to appreciate the 5 tips he leaves you with at the end, but will say that (beyond those specific tips), the essay takes you on Douglas’ journey through the highs and lows of his writing career and shares what made the biggest impact on him along the way. We think people will have lots of thoughts on this one and we’re looking forward to your comments!

Finally, our video this week is by short story writer Anu Kandikuppa (whose debut collection The Confines is out now). Tune in for her thought-provoking take on time in a variety of forms—the malleability of time in fiction,; the unfortunate lack of malleability when it comes to the time one must spend in order to produce said fiction; and time as it relates to our false beliefs that we need to achieve our publishing goals by some arbitrary deadline (Editor’s note: you may recall us mentioning this in last Friday’s issue, too. Guess what? We’re not going to stop banging on about it until we’ve convinced every last one of you that it’s never too late, no matter where you are in your journey or when you started it).

To close today, we’re going to leave you with this gem from Anu’s video:

“A good book, a good piece of writing, is never too late.”

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading! ❤️

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team