✨Bailey Hannah's Secrets to Making Readers Care How Your Story Ends; & Alexis Daria Falls Back in Love with Writing (and You Can Too)✨

Plus, Lindsay Zier-Vogel shares how to get paid for your writing—even if you haven't sold your manuscript!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

If you’ve ever found yourself feeling like throwing in the towel, unable to remember what it was that made you think this torture we call writing was a good idea, today’s issue might just contain the reminder you need to get your fingers flying again.

We loved how bestselling author Alexis Daria (Along Came Amor) answered our question asking if she’d ever considered giving up on writing, and if so, what stopped her. To be clear, we’re not happy when we hear anyone talk about wanting to throw in the towel (it’s understandable, of course, but still sad), but it does make us happy to know we’re not the only ones to have ever toyed with the idea, and it positively delights us when they share how they got past it—and it’s a potential fix anyone can try. Read today’s Q&A to find out what Alexis ditched in order to rediscover her love of writing (and reading)!

We’ve also essay today from Bailey Hannah (Change of Hart) on how to use intimacy to show character growth. Sure, Bailey is a romance author but, as she wisely points out, “intimacy isn’t just about sex”—and it also isn’t just relevant to the romance genre. Intimancy is “about trust, connection, and those fragile moments when a character feels safe enough to let their guard down” (which sounds a lot like it’s related to that whole interiority thing CeCe is always asking for more of, don’t you think?). Regardless of the genre you’re writing, Bailey’s five tips for creating characters that feel real are handy tools to add to your craft toolbox.

As you likely know by now, most writers have other jobs, and nobody gets into this book writing business does it thinking they’ll get rich (we’re not saying it never happens, we just hope you didn’t, like, give up your job as the CEO of something-or-other in the hopes of becoming the next Stephen King…). But there are other ways to get paid for your writing, and today we’ve got an essay by Lindsay Zier-Vogel (whose The Fun Times Brigade was named one of the Toronto Star’s 25 Books-To-Read-In-2025) on the shit no one tells you about grant writing. A potentially fraught and intimidating endeavour, Lindsay breaks grant writing down into practical steps, sharing insights that could only come from someone who has written millions of dollars worth of successful grant proposals (for herself and others). There’s a whole world of grants out there (need to research your WIP’s setting that just happens to be castle in Europe? There’s a travel grant for that!), and someone gets them—why not you?

Finally, we thought we should let you know that Bianca’s big launch party for A Most Puzzling Murder is now officialy sold out! We’re so excited that so many of our readers and listeners are going to be there. See you June 9th! 🎉🎉🎉

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

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team