Bestselling author Lesley Crewe on avoiding the pitfalls of an omniscient POV, and The Change author Kirsten Miller switches genres⎯again!
Plus: The Query Lab, a new video on stakes in the novel, and Carly Wahl wants to know if you're okay
Happy Friday, writing friends!
It’s time to settle in and get comfy because we’ve got a lot to share with you this week! First, listener Jennifer joins our hosts Bianca, CeCe, and Carly on the podcast to discuss her thriller submission during📕Books with Hooks🪝, followed by Bianca’s interview with Lesley Crewe, author of Death & Other Inconveniences. In addition to insightful advice on omniscient narrators and avoiding “head-hopping” Lesley has some wise words to share about pressuring ourselves to achieve our publishing goals by a specific deadline (which I’m sure none of us can relate to. I mean, I certainly can’t…🤥).
On a related note…a dear friend of The💩, writer Carly Wahl, has laid her soul bare for us this week in an essay about taking care of yourself on the perilous path to publication—even if that means taking a break. We can likely all relate to her thoughts on the frustrations and fragility of this writing life, and if by chance the essay doesn’t resonate with you…well, you are a fortunate writer indeed!
It’s bonus episode time again, and this month Bianca welcomes The Change author Kirsten Miller who talks about her latest novel, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books and shares her experience of changing genres, editors, and more. Also this week, we’ve got a new video by author, journalist, podcast host and writing instructor Mark Cecil on story structure, where he discusses the importance of stakes and how to use them to get your reader invested.
Finally, don’t forget that our hosts are taking a break from Books with Hooks in July and August. But fear not: we’ll still be sharing brand new author interviews each week, alongside Books with Hooks segments from the archives. Also, in each edition of Tuesday’s paid newsletter in July and August, we’ll be sharing brand new written critiques of queries from our listeners. Now is a great time to upgrade to paid!
Thanks for reading! ❤️
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
P.S. Still not sure about upgrading? Check out our Tuesday Teaser below to see what you’re missing!
This Week’s Podcast✨🎙️✨
This week on the podcast (listen to it here!), listener Jennifer joins Bianca, CeCe, and Carly to discuss her thriller submission on📕Books with Hooks🪝. They chat about:
Trigger warnings and their necessity in a query
Ensuring your stakes aren't too obvious while illustrating the bigger 'why' at hand
Framing your query letter in a way that highlights your POV characters and not others
The need for causality when it comes to plot points
Utilizing similar pitch copy to help write more difficult or unique aspects of your query
Tips for writing a query for a novel that is first person POV
Avoiding over-explaining and trusting your reader; and
How interiority that’s surprising can elevate pages.
“I always tell people, beware of the satellite plot points. That's when your plot points are orbiting the sun, which is the book. What you want is for them to have the dominoes tipping over effect.”
– CeCe”
After which, Bianca interviews bestselling author Lesley Crewe. They discuss:
Lesley's latest novel, Death & Other Inconveniences
The art of writing humour well
Writing attention-grabbing opening pages
Inciting incidents that don't occur on the page and how to write them successfully
The inspiration behind the novel
The importance of characters' wants and needs
Lesley's main character's arc
Successfully writing from multiple POVs without head-hopping
Viewing omniscient POV as passing a baton; and
Writing for yourself before writing for others.
“You know, don't go on thinking that, you know, you have to have your book done. You need to have it done by the time you're 30. I wrote my first book at 50, you know. I didn't care. Well, like I said, I wasn't planning on being published. So, I mean, it didn't matter. But don't put so much pressure on yourself. You know, be kind to yourself. You're not going to get it right the very first time. And it's just the experience of writing something that may make you feel better, not the publishing of it. That's it.”
- Lesley
More information about Lesley can be found on her website here.
You can purchase Death & Other Inconveniences on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. Buying books through this link supports a local indie bookstore, as well as The Shit No One Tells You About Writing 📚❤️
June’s Bonus Episode 😍
In today's bonus episode, Bianca interviews The Change author Kirsten Miller to chat about her latest novel, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. They discuss:
Writing across different genres and what drove Kirsten to change up her genre
Writing with the intention of sharing a message with readers
The inspiration behind the novel
Kirsten's experience working with different editors
Putting a book on the shelf for a while rather than quitting altogether
Releasing a book during an election year, particularly a book that's inherently political
The structure of the novel and the challenges associated with writing it that way
Kirsten's drafting process
Accepting your unique writing process; and
Advice for writing satire.
You can purchase The Change and Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here.
Please Note…
If you’re looking for our usual Q&A segment, that now gets published as part of our end of the month Substack newsletter. Subscribe now to get access to that—and so much more—for free!
Our Comps Segment with Emilie Sommer will return in September.
In defense of taking a break. (Maybe forever.)
By Carly Wahl
About a month ago, I dumped a writing friend. I dumped her because she told me I was being a miserable jerk and miserable jerks don’t like hearing things like that.
But like it or not, her assessment of my mental state was valid.
And it needed to be addressed. Pronto.
Because I, like so many of my writer pals, have had the historic tendency to experience something I refer to as “dark waves.” Powerful and unmooring moments wherein all the light seems to get snuffed out and the churning ocean floor renders you unable to stand and hence unable to catch your breath. You feel like you’re dying. You feel like there’s no hope. You begin to believe a whole slew of unpleasant things about yourself, your talent, your future⎯all of them untrue⎯but when you’re in a wave and you can’t identify up from down, true or not, these horrible feelings and beliefs become all-consuming.
And that’s no good. We all deserve better than that.
My friend’s tough words made me recoil and bare my fangs. (At that time, my mental health was fragile.) But in hindsight, it’s become abundantly clear that I desperately needed to hear them. I needed something that would cause my eyes to fly open so I could truly see where this publishing journey had taken me, and then question if it was a path I should continue to take.
And from what I’m hearing, and observing, some of you might benefit from some straight talk too.
With love and tenderness, I now take you gently by the shoulders and ask:
Dearest Baby Writers—Are you OK?
I know the road to traditional publishing can be a minefield for folks who aren’t made of titanium. Rejection is so often a trigger for those of us who first picked up the pen to scribble something along the lines of, “First I got born, then the troubles began.” Writers en masse are ironically (cruelly?) often poorly designed to withstand what can feel like unending criticism and rejection. As a group, we have big feelings, and skin that is thin enough that the world around us can easily seep in, churning and fizzing until we turn it into Story. This fragility is integral, as it allows us to do what we do when it comes to the art of spinning a yarn.
But it also leaves us vulnerable—so vulnerable, in fact, that you may find yourself in very odd places both emotionally and, in my case, even physically, at a certain point in your publishing journey. For me, it arrived around Year 15, when statements like “Rejection is just redirection” and “Success is on the other side of self-doubt” no longer made me feel energized and motivated. Instead, these statements had me rolling my eyes, like an asshole … or even worse, walking downstairs to my basement, opening my utility closet door, and crawling inside. Repeatedly. To cry whenever some complete stranger (whom I decided to anoint with the title of “dream agent”) rejected my full.
A short time after my friend’s tough words, my husband found me in that closet, utterly heartbroken and covered in snot.
As my pain poured out about how devastating this most recent rejection was, he suggested I self-publish. I wailed even louder. I didn’t have the marketing chops for that, and … and … he just didn’t get it.
Traditional Publishing. We hold this aloft like the Holy Grail.
He and I went around in circles. He’s borne witness of my dedication to achieving this goal for half our lives now, but he was helpless to make it happen for me. The truly frustrating and maddening part was that I felt helpless to make it happen for myself. The grief, the longing, the sacrifices…
But then he asked me a very simple question.
“Babe, you know a lot of writers now. Writers you’ve beta read for and then spent weeks declaring them brilliant geniuses. But can you name one who, in the last five years, in this order, wrote a book, queried to the slush pile, got an agent, and that agent sold their book?”
My mouth dropped open. I forced it closed. I wiped my snot on the hem of my T-shirt and stepped out of my dungeon and into the light.
Here’s what’s recently been illuminated for me:
Unrelenting perseverance toward a publishing goal isn’t a healthy option for everyone. And that’s okay. Maybe it’s due to some childhood un-awesomeness, or maybe it’s just your DNA. But if continuous criticism and rejection rob you of your ability to feel the sun on your face, I think you need to ask yourself if it’s worth it.
I began writing so I could have a voice when I felt like I had none. I kept writing because I wanted others to feel less alone. I wanted to change things via the mighty pen, and in the wake of so much rejection, I began to feel like my words were worthless. Like I was worthless.
To paraphrase a quote from the late, great Amy Winehouse—“What kind of fuckery is that?”
So I’m taking a break from trying to get published, maybe forever. Instead, I’m now focused on finding my way back to my love of writing, just for the utter joy of it.
Step One: Hi, Ego. Please stop messing with my art. I need my art in order to be happy, healthy, and fulfilled. You are not useful here. Byyyyyee.
Step Two: Goodbye to the shame and embarrassment I’ve been carrying for so long due to the fact that I’ve never had an agent request to have “the call.”
Neither of these are easy tasks but they are made a bit easier by realizing this. Now lean in close, Dearest Baby Writers, because from where I’m now standing on the outside of the journey, I’ve discovered a truth I need to share:
The “gatekeepers” (as genuinely lovely and talented as many of them are) actually aren’t special all-knowing beings with magical powers of sniffing out the one great book that will propel us all toward a sustainable Utopia. Nor are they pulsing orbs of truth who lift up the worthy and discard the rest. Rather, they are fallible humans, just like the rest of us. Normal people with a job to do. And a part of that job involves making decisions based on data, and what they think will best enable them to afford overpriced bananas for their families, medication for their dogs, and the fancy purse that they hope will make them feel happy and accomplished (but will actually just make them feel nervous and a bit weird every time they carry it). No judgment. This late-stage capitalist nightmare comes for us all.
And honestly, that’s the big thing that crushed my heart and led me astray.
Your purpose and your passions don’t need to be monetizable or applauded by the masses, in order to be valuable. We are not here to earn money for ourselves or for others. (Do we need money? Yes. But is making it our purpose? No.) We are here to witness this period of history, perhaps record it with our written words, and emit goodness wherever and whenever we can.
Your writing, your words … You … have tremendous value just by existing. And if you’re sitting here reading this and thinking that statement is wrong—because if it were right, you’d have an agent/book deal/bestseller/TV deal—I implore you to take a break. Take a breath. Reassess.
You’re not quitting. You’re bravely taking the space to grow. The move you make next ⎯from a place of peace⎯ will feel so much better than whatever sludgy hellscape you’ve been dragging yourself through lately. I promise you.
Authentically and wholly, I adore every member of this community. I applaud your every effort.
Go look at a star, whose light took a billion years to reach you. Admire a flower as it exists in the breeze.
Write from a place of joy. Take all the breaks you need. Agents, book deals, all of it— it’s all just business, baby. Don’t let it hurt your soul.
The planet is so lucky to have you here.
You are amongst friends. Be well.
- Carly
P.S. Should you be interested, here is my Publishing Break-Up Playlist. Shake that ass you sexy thing.
Gatekeeper - Jessie Reyez
Batshit - Sofi Tukker
Toxic - Britney Spears
Pursuit of Happiness – Kid Cudi
Salt – Ava Max
About Damn Time - Lizzo
I’m Still Standing - Elton John
Thank u, next - Ariana Grande
Don’t Look Back in Anger - Oasis
Non, je ne regrette rien – Édith Piaf
Alright – Jain
Carly has lived in Toronto, Ontario her entire life. She had her first baby as a teenager and her second as a “geriatric”. Every morning starts with a chai latte made by her husband unless he is travelling. Why he goes to St. Louis so much is anyone’s guess. Like what do they even have there? An arch? She has a bulldog named Clover who goes by BoboLinky (obviously) and they both enjoy long walks in the ravine. Carly detests being sad or a bummer so she spends as much time as possible in quiet contemplation or giggling with the people she loves. She loves a lot of people. People are good stuff.
The Query Lab 📝🖊
Welcome to The Query Lab where each Friday for the next few months we’ll be
sharing a successful query letter that got an author their agent AND their book deal.
Today we’ve got a query from Kirthana Ramisetti, author of Data Shastri’s Last Day 😍:
Dear [AGENT],
Dava Shastri, one of the world’s wealthiest women, always lives her life with her legacy in mind. What will the world say about her when she’s gone? After she’s diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at age seventy, she takes drastic measures to find out.
Dava summons her four adult children and their families to her private island compound to disclose shocking news. Not just that she has a terminal illness and will end her life very soon. But she admits she let news of her death break early so she can read her obituaries.
As a billionaire who dedicated her global foundation to women’s empowerment, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her “death” inadvertently exposes the two secrets she has spent a lifetime guarding from everyone, even her beloved late husband.
And now the whole world knows, including her children. They aren’t completely shocked by the news of her affair with a singer-songwriter. After all, he had titled his Oscar-winning song after her. But the other secret—a child Dava gave up for adoption and befriended thirty years later without revealing that she’s her mother—upends everything they thought they knew about their ambitious, slightly remote mother, changing their relationship with her and each other.
In THE MATRIARCH, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that irrevocably altered her life and make peace with her family in the limited time she has left.
The novel blends Succession's uber-wealthy dysfunctional dynamics with The Farewell's bittersweet examination of mortality and familial grief. Complete at 107,000 words, this multi-generational family saga will appeal to fans of Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest.
As a former entertainment reporter for Newsday and the New York Daily News, I have written my fair share of stories about the lives (and deaths) of the rich and famous. I have a master’s degree in creative writing from Emerson College, and have been published in high-profile publications including The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and The Atlantic.
I read an interview in which you stated you were seeking novels that explore the complexities of families, so I hope my book will be of interest to you. Per your submission guidelines, I am enclosing the first five pages in this email. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Kirthana Ramisetti
You can learn more about Kirthana here ❤️ and purchase Dava Shasta’s Last Day on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. 🥰
Click below for the downloadable version of Kirthana’s successful query!
New Video: Stakes in the Novel
Author, journalist and writing instructor Mark Cecil shares a short but informative videos exploring the “four Ps” of stakes and how they contribute to story structure (Editor’s note: we love a good mnemonic here at The Sh*t, and this is a good one indeed!).
Enjoy!
You can purchase Bunyan and Henry Or, The Beautiful Destiny on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. Buying books through this link supports a local indie bookstore, as well as The Shit No One Tells You About Writing 📚❤️
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, our Author Q&A features romance writer Kirsty Greenwood, who makes the case for taking an organic (as opposed to planned) approach to writing chapters and scenes, and Carly chats with author Carolyn Crimi about her new book, Weird Little Robots, and how she drew her own childhood in writing it (you know we here at TSNOTYAW are BIG proponents of recognizing milestones, and Carolyn also shares the extremely awesome way she celebrated getting published that we really wish we’d snagged an invite to!).
But wait! There’s more! Starting next week and continuing in each edition of Tuesday’s paid newsletter for the next two months, we’ll be sharing brand new written critiques of queries from our listeners.
Here’s everything else you have to look forward to if you subscribe for just $8USD a month or $80USD a year:
an exclusive newsletter on Tuesdays featuring bonus author Q&As and other exclusive content from industry experts
weekly 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!
Something Special This Way Comes…✨🔥
There are certain universals when it comes to writing fiction, but there are also some genres that have their own unique conventions (and the associated challenges that go with them). If your first thought on reading that was “fantasy”, that’s no surprise—interest in (and sales of) this genre have skyrocketed in recent years, with more people reading (and writing!) fantasy than ever before. Are you one of them? If yes, mark your calendars for Bianca’s all-new webinar on September 28, and stay tuned for more details in the weeks ahead!
Be part of Carly’s Masterclass 😍📝
Carly’s class includes 10+ hours of writing and publishing video lessons you have lifetime access to, monthly Q&A sessions, and fresh content every quarter.
Did we mention there’s an app, too? You can keep learning on the go. Don’t miss a minute of Carly’s top career advice for aspiring, emerging and published writers. Get the writing career you’ve always dreamed of.
Bianca’s Great Beta Reader Match Up!
Are you looking for beta readers, some of whom might potentially become writing group members down the line?
Are you wanting to be matched up with those writing in a similar genre and/or time zone, so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time?
Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3000-word review!
Registrations are open from now until July 31, with the match emails going out on August 1.
For more information and to register, click below!
Looking for Participants for Publishing Master’s Program Dissertation Project!
Are you a writer who is currently querying or has queried in the last 5 years?
If yes, you’re invited to share your thoughts on your experience of the process and how it could be improved for a project called ‘How could a querying platform, focused on visual and easy submissions and evaluation, improve the querying process for publishing professionals and writers? – An Analysis and Business Plan’. The project aims to investigate whether it’s possible to create a querying platform that could serve both publishing professionals and writers equally.
This study, being undertaken as part of a Publishing Master’s at City, University of London, is completely anonymous and you can opt-out at any time.
To participate, please complete this 10-minute survey.
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.
Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work in this newsletter is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe in this newsletter are solely that of themselves and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
Love this essay by Carly Wahl so much 💜💜
Um, I don't think you're supposed to include THIS much useful information in ONE newsletter you insane overacheivers. Love this so much!