Happy Friday, fabulous TSNOTYAWers!
This week’s 📕Books with Hooks🪝is a feisty one with Carly and CeCe strongly disagreeing more than once! 🥊😠Bianca alternates between playing referee and egging them on! 😂 Make sure you don’t miss out on them discussing a literary LGBTQ novel centered on the closure of a rural queer bar—and the buried trauma tied to its history—as well as an upmarket dual-timeline novel set within Guadalajara’s expat community. Sparks fly! 🎆 As always, look out for the written critiques in Tuesday’s newsletter.
Bill Crisafi, author of The Glam Reaper’s Guide to Slaying, pens a brilliant and super voicey essay about Defying the Algorithm:
“Wanna get noticed on social media?
Me too, bitch!!
It is the driving force for so many creative businesses, and META has made it more annoying than ever for you to share your work and be seen, to which I say: fuck you, Instagram overlords.”
It’s not all just shaking his fist at the overlords! 😂 He has some really great advice!
In today’s video, Bianca chats with literary agent, Rachel McMillan, and her client, Christine Hill Suntz author of The Heiress and the Woodsman, to show you a behind-the-scenes look at how an agent and author work together!
LaToya Watkins, author of The Book of Chuck, tackles today’s author Q&A:
“Rejection and feedback aren’t really about me as a person. Sometimes they’re about the market. Sometimes they’re about trends. And sometimes they’re about the work itself. My job is to learn what I can from each experience and then get back to writing.
I feed my creativity the same way I try to nourish every other area of my life: by making room for joy, love, peace, kindness, ease, and self-control. Those things aren’t separate from the creative process for me; they’re part of it. When I cultivate them, I find that I’m much less likely to be derailed by disappointment or uncertainty.
Difficult feedback can be a gift if I’m willing to listen for the lesson inside it. Rejection can build resilience if I let it. Over time, I’ve learned to see both as opportunities to develop strengths that may serve me not only in writing, but in other parts of life as well.”
We love the rest of her incredibly thoughtful responses!
Finally, don’t forget about the Beta Reader Match Up and All About Fantasy Virtual Retreat!
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✨🎙️✨
It’s Books with Hooks week (listen to it here or watch it on YouTube)! CeCe, Carly, and Bianca critique two submissions: a literary LGBTQ novel centered on the closure of a rural queer bar and the buried trauma tied to its history, and an upmarket dual-timeline novel set within Guadalajara's expat community, where old secrets and unresolved love collide decades later.
In this fiery episode where lots of sparks fly, they discuss choosing stronger comp titles, balancing mystery with clarity in query letters, crafting irresistible hooks, building tension across dual timelines, and why specificity—not vagueness—is what truly keeps readers turning the page. They also dive into the nuances of POV, seamless scene transitions, and how to make literary fiction emotionally immersive without sacrificing momentum.
“I agree this feels like a masterful storyteller. What I didn’t agree with CeCe on was the transitions… I needed some more stage directions.”
-Carly Watters
Defying the Algorithm
Wanna get noticed on social media?
Me too, bitch!!
It is the driving force for so many creative businesses, and META has made it more annoying than ever for you to share your work and be seen, to which I say: fuck you, Instagram overlords.
I do admit I am lucky. I got into Instagram kind of on the ground floor, sharing photos I took that inspired my art, which eventually turned into a gallery of my drawings, costumes, and sculptures. It takes a long fucking time to build a genuine audience—unless you plug some prompts into ChatGPT, find out what influencer slop people are watching, and replicate that. Promise you’ll hate yourself after a few months.
My advice? People live for a niche. You don’t have to do it forever, but if you are truly in love with something, that will shine through, and people who love that thing will connect with you.
Leading to my second piece of advice: BE YOU.
I have a hard time letting the wall down sometimes, but audiences are absolutely ADDICTED to parasocial connection. They wanna see your face. They want to hear you talk. Some might even want to pay you to watch you get dressed in the morning (I have a paywall for that). As much as you share the thing you love, share yourself. Even if that starts off just in your stories or your captions.
My work was molded around realizing people crave relatability. I used to draw these whimsical, witchy characters and get pissed off when someone would take my work and turn it into some stupid-ass meme. What did I do? Made my own goddamn memes.
My weird little characters were then accompanied by funny slogans because I am what? Gay. And what are gays? Hilarious and deeply unwell. Just kidding—I speak only for myself.
Then, if you’re lucky, you’ll get an email you swear is a scam from someone claiming to work for Penguin Random House, asking YOU, of all people, to write a book.
To which I said: HELL YES.
I lie to people all the time and tell them Edward Gorey is my dad. (If they take that literally, that isn’t my fault.) So having the chance to expand on my world of misfits in book form was a dream come true.
I immediately sought the advice of a couple of friends who had recently published a book about getting representation, and they connected me with their agent. The crazy part? My book agent ended up being from the same area of Massachusetts I’m from. Total coincidence. And not to get too woo-woo, but I absolutely took it as a sign.
Now how the fuck do I write a book?
After my initial dive into this project with blind confidence, I realized making my drawings have more of a voice than my one-liners could be a bit challenging. Thankfully, the general outline of the tale really guided their individual voices with ease.
Each character is experiencing an inner struggle. Is it too on the nose that a sheet ghost is haunted by their past? Maybe. But I see myself in that ghost. And THAT IS WHAT MATTERS.
The thing I actually found most challenging was editing my drawings to work together. Some were originally drawn with far more detail than others, so I had to figure out how to make them all look like they went to the same plastic surgeon.
Simplifying the illustrations felt a little nerve-racking. It made me worry that people wouldn’t connect as much with the figures because the style felt like a different version of me. To rectify this conundrum, I added plenty of references to my past work, some of my favorite films, and paintings throughout the book. Almost like an “I Spy” game.
That really helped me have fun with the more graphic, simplified approach. The result is pretty iconic, if I do say so myself.
In conclusion, if you take anything away from this, it’s this: start posting on a platform, engage, let people get to know you, but set a boundary with a paywall in case they’re trying to see your bare feet or something.
Not everything is for free, toots.
Xo
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Author and Agent Relationships With Christine Hill Suntz & Rachel McMillan!
Unlock behind-the-scenes strategies for pitching and building relationships in the publishing industry, with author Christine Hill Suntz and her agent, Rachel McMillan, in today’s video. The two also share practical tips for authors aiming to sell in multiple markets.
Author Q&A with LaToya Watkins!
TSNOTYAW: What is your writing routine? Do you light a scented candle, turn on background music, write in silence, prefer a coffee shop or your writing desk at home? What about your practice works for you and why?
LaToya Watkins: My writing routine has changed with the seasons of my life. I started out as a night writer, and it seems that I still am. When my children were young, writing happened in the margins of the day, often after everyone else had gone to sleep. Then the kids grew up and left home, and for a long stretch I enjoyed the freedom of residencies, libraries, and borrowed spaces where the only thing I had to think about was the work itself.
Lately, though, something has shifted. I find myself writing at home again, mostly at night, especially when I’m on a deadline. My life has rearranged itself in a way that requires me to return to the hours that first made me a writer. So these days, you’ll usually find me at my desk late at night, when the house is quiet and the world has finally stopped asking things of me.
I don’t have many rituals. No scented candles, no carefully curated playlists (for the writing part). I think what matters most is this feeling I get—that I’ve crossed into a different kind of time—the hour when interruptions fade and I can hear the story clearly enough to follow where it’s going.
I guess what works for me is flexibility. Every book seems to demand something different, and I’ve learned not to cling too tightly to any one process. The only constant is showing up. Right now, that means writing at home, late at night, trusting the quiet. A few years from now, it may look entirely different. That’s one of the things I love about writing: the work changes, and so does the writer.
If you ever pitched an agent at a conference, how did you prepare, and what was the outcome?
I never did much formal agent pitching. I chatted with agents at conferences and retreats over the years, but I was fortunate to be agented fairly early in my career.
Part of that comes from advice I received from my first workshop facilitator. He told me to focus on writing the strongest work I could, submitting it widely, and building a publication record. His belief was that if the work found readers, agents would eventually come looking for it. Whether that strategy works for everyone, I can’t say, but it suited both my temperament and my circumstances.
As a result, when I met agents at conferences, I didn’t approach those conversations as pitches so much as opportunities to talk about books, writing, and the literary world. There was a lot less pressure that way. The outcome, ultimately, was that I connected with agents through my published work rather than through formal pitch sessions.
Looking back, I’m grateful for that path. It allowed me to spend more time developing as a writer and less time worrying about how to sell myself before I felt ready.
How do you feed your creativity? Particularly in the face of rejection or difficult feedback?
I try to keep it moving. Rejection and feedback aren’t really about me as a person. Sometimes they’re about the market. Sometimes they’re about trends. And sometimes they’re about the work itself. My job is to learn what I can from each experience and then get back to writing.
I feed my creativity the same way I try to nourish every other area of my life: by making room for joy, love, peace, kindness, ease, and self-control. Those things aren’t separate from the creative process for me; they’re part of it. When I cultivate them, I find that I’m much less likely to be derailed by disappointment or uncertainty.
Difficult feedback can be a gift if I’m willing to listen for the lesson inside it. Rejection can build resilience if I let it. Over time, I’ve learned to see both as opportunities to develop strengths that may serve me not only in writing, but in other parts of life as well.
Creativity thrives when it isn’t constantly defending itself. So I try to approach setbacks with curiosity rather than fear, take what is useful, leave what isn’t, and continue the work.
What’s your editing strategy? Do you edit drafts in phases, paying attention to specific elements of craft and storytelling with each round of revision, or do you tackle everything at once? Do you still use beta readers during the editing process?
I tend to complete a full draft before I begin serious revision. For me, it’s usually only after I’ve written the entire manuscript that I truly understand what the story is about. The themes reveal themselves, the characters become clearer, and I can finally see what the book has been trying to do all along.
Because of that, I don’t really edit in neat phases. I know many writers devote separate rounds to structure, character, pacing, language, and so on, but I tend to tackle everything at once. Once I begin revising, I’m looking at the whole machine—story, sentence, voice, structure, emotional arc—all of it working together. If I discover something fundamental about the story, that realization often affects every level of the manuscript anyway.
I do still rely on a few trusted readers. They’re close friends whose judgment I value and whose honesty I trust. By the time they see the work, I’ve usually done a significant amount of revision on my own, but their feedback helps me identify blind spots and see the manuscript from the perspective of an actual reader.
More than anything, revision is the stage where I discover what I’ve really written. The draft gets the story onto the page; the editing process helps me understand what it’s trying to say.
If any of your books have had a complicated structure (braided storylines, multiple timelines etc.), how did you manage the material? Did you write the stories out separately and then weave them together? Or did you jump around as you wrote?
The Book of Chuck spans nearly a century and follows multiple generations of one family, so managing the timeline was definitely one of the challenges of writing it. Surprisingly, I didn’t write each storyline separately and then weave them together. I wrote the book much the way I experienced it—as a conversation across time.
I tend to write linearly enough to keep myself oriented, but I’m also willing to jump ahead when a scene arrives with urgency. Sometimes a moment from one generation would illuminate something in another, and I’d follow that thread wherever it led. The structure evolved alongside the manuscript rather than being imposed on it afterward.
What helped most was understanding that the book wasn’t really interested in chronology as much as connection. It’s a novel about inheritance, memory, family, and the way lives echo across generations. As I wrote, I became increasingly interested in the idea that time might not be as linear as we experience it. I found myself thinking about theories of time in which past, present, and future exist simultaneously, and that became a useful lens for the novel. Characters separated by decades are often engaged in the same questions, carrying the same wounds, or reaching toward the same forms of love.
The challenge wasn’t keeping the timelines straight so much as making sure those echoes felt meaningful. Once I understood that, the structure became less about organizing dates and more about arranging resonances. The book taught me that a family story doesn’t always move forward in a straight line. Sometimes it moves outward, with one life illuminating another across time.
What do you do when your editor, agent, or publishers want to take your book in a new direction? How do you decide when to listen and when to push back?
I’ve been blessed in that my experience with editors, agents, and publishers hasn’t really involved anyone trying to take a book in a completely new direction. The people I’ve worked with have generally responded to the work I presented rather than asking me to write a different book. Their feedback has been focused on helping the manuscript become more fully itself.
That doesn’t mean I accept every suggestion automatically. I listen carefully, especially when multiple readers are responding to the same issue. If someone is confused, unconvinced, or disengaged at a particular point, I take that seriously. The reader’s experience is valuable information.
What I’ve learned, though, is that there can be a difference between identifying a problem and prescribing a solution. Often an editor, agent, or early reader is absolutely right that something isn’t working, but the fix may not be the one they’ve suggested. My responsibility is to understand the underlying concern and then decide how best to address it while remaining true to the book.
For me, the question is always: Does this feedback help the book become more fully what it already wants to be? If the answer is yes, I’m eager to listen. If it feels like the suggestion would turn the manuscript into a different book altogether, that’s usually a sign that I need to think more carefully about what the work is trying to accomplish.
Fortunately, I’ve worked with people who respect the vision of the project. The conversations have felt collaborative rather than adversarial, which makes it much easier to stay open to feedback while protecting the heart of the work.
How do you dive into each new world you create? With characters first, world first, plot first? What’s your process when you’re beginning a new project?
Characters always come first for me. Before I can write a convincing world or plot a story, I need to understand who is moving through that world and what burdens they’re carrying.
My process can get a little unconventional. I do extensive character studies, sometimes immersing myself in the kinds of jobs my characters have or spending time in environments similar to the ones they inhabit. I’m interested in how people move through a day, what they notice, what they fear, what they hide, and what they want.
One of the most useful tools in my process is something I call taking my characters to therapy. I literally step into character and explore their histories, motivations, wounds, contradictions, and relationships as if they were sitting across from a therapist. The goal isn’t necessarily to uncover information that will appear on the page. It’s to understand them deeply enough that their choices begin to feel inevitable.
Only after I know the characters do the world and plot start to emerge. The world becomes a reflection of the people inhabiting it, and the plot grows naturally from their desires, flaws, and conflicts. By the time I’m drafting, I often feel less like I’m inventing events than discovering what these particular people would do under these particular circumstances.
For me, beginning a new project is less about asking, “What happens?” and more about asking, “Who is this person, and what is it like to be them?” Once I can answer that question, the story usually follows.
🐉All About Fantasy Virtual Retreat🪄
In recent years, fantasy and romantasy have made a huge impact on the market. From seven figure deals and self-published sensations to BookTok, the book market has been radically transformed by the huge sales and demand for a genre that whisks us away to a new world with the turn of the page.
But what does this mean for new authors?
Join Bianca Marais (the USA TODAY bestselling author of A Most Puzzling Murder and a cohost on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing) for a 6-week virtual retreat that will answer this question and so many others!
Whether you write YA Fantasy, Romantasy, Adult Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Dystopian Fiction, or any other variation of the genre, you won’t want to miss out on this amazing 6 weeks of learning dedicated especially to you and those writing in your genre.
The incredible lineup of speakers includes:
Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, fantasy, and erotica/romance where women of color get leading roles! In 2023, her short story collection, titled Chrysalis, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and in 2024, was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, among others. Her debut novel, A Kiss of Crimson Ash, the first in a new medieval India-inspired romantasy trilogy, came out earlier this year, with book two scheduled for release in spring 2027. Anuja lives in Hamilton with her partner, two kids, and two cats.
Anuja’s Topic: WRITING SEX & MAGIC: A bit of craft and a bit of courage!
Sex and magic – both awesome, both common elements in most fantasies/romantasies (to some degree), both REALLY challenging to write well. Join award-winning author Anuja Varghese for an interactive discussion around writing romance, building sexual tension (and yes, actually writing the spice!), combined with writing magic systems that feel complex instead of convenient and propel your story forward. In this session, Anuja will guide you through fun, low-pressure writing prompts to play with common fantasy and romance tropes, to get past feeling awkward or silly about writing sex and magic, and to leave with new ways to weave these deeply compelling pieces together in your own work.
Maddy Belton joined Madeleine Milburn Agency in 2022 to build a list specialising in SFFH and romance. Her list includes bestselling authors Lucy Jane Wood, Alexandra Christo, V.S. Bovalino and No.1 Sunday Times bestselling Maithree Wijesekara and Amanda Connolly. She represents adult and YA fantasy, romantasy, science fiction, horror and romance. She was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2025 and is always on the lookout for books with big feelings, that help us all escape when we need to.
Maddy’s Topic: What Makes an Editor or an Agent Stop in Their Tracks?
In recent years fantasy and romantasy have made a huge impact on the market. From seven figure deals and self-published sensations to BookTok, the book market has been radically transformed by the huge sales and demand for a genre that whisks us away to new world with the turn of the page. But what does this mean for new authors? How can you make your voice stand out in the ever-growing crowd? Using real examples, Maddy Belton speaks to the new era of fantasy publishing, with advice on querying, editing and the publishing experience. This session is for anyone looking to learn more about the fantasy book market in general (and all its niches!), who is looking for exciting ways to pitch their work and showcase what makes their story sing.
Amanda Ferreira is an editor at Random House Canada. She primarily acquires adult fantasy, romantasy, and contemporary romance, and is drawn to books with an early hook, accessible worldbuilding, and diverse characters that feel true to the communities they’re a part of. In particular, she loves morally grey FMCs, green flag MMCs, and tropes like friends-to-lovers and there’s only one bed. Her list at Random House Canada includes Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu, A Dance of Lies by Brittney Arena, Tethered by Elayna R. Gallea, and Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch.
Amanda’s Topic: Fantasy Market Trends
From romantasy to dystopian, dark academia to LitRPG, self-published books to fanfiction, join Random House Canada editor Amanda Ferreira as she pulls back the curtain on what’s in her inbox while she discusses the fantasy subgenres she sees selling at auction, dying on sub, or just beginning to break out.
Rachel Howzell Hall is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of 17 novels, including the bestselling thrillers, Mist and Malice and Fog and Fury, and the romantasy, The Cruel Dawn, and the Good Morning America Book Club selection, The Last One. She is also the author of bestselling thrillers, including What Fire Brings, What Never Happened and These Toxic Things. She is a two-time finalist of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for And Now She’s Gone and We Lie Here.
Rachel has been nominated for a number of mystery awards, including the Anthony, Strand and International Thriller Award, the Lefty, Barry and Shamus. She is also the author of the Audible Originals bestseller See How They Run, and the Thriller Award- and Audie Awards-nominated How It Ends, Rachel is a New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister with James Patterson. She’s also received acclaim for They All Fall Down and for her Detective Elouise Norton series.
Her shorter works have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Shattering Glass and Unoccupied Earth. “Breakdown in the Right Lane,” was published in Alta Magazine and was selected as a Distinguished Story in Best American Mystery & Suspense for 2023. Her short story, “Clout Chaser,” was a nominee for the British Crime Writers Association’s Short Story Dagger Award.
Rachel is a former member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America and was a featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast; she has also served as a mentor with Sisters in Crime, Pitch Wars and the Association of Writers Programs.
Rachel lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. For more information, visit
www.rachelhowzell.com
Rachel’s Topic: Flawed, Fierce, and Unforgettable
What makes a good romantasy? It isn’t just the magic or the world-building–it’s the complex, beautifully flawed characters fighting for their lives and their hearts.
Join bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall for an insightful, practical deep dive into character creation and developmental editing. In this session, you’ll learn how to move beyond basic tropes by layering your heroes and villains with captivating contradictions, raising the stakes to drive narrative momentum, and using dialogue and setting to reveal deep character truths.
Bring your questions for a live Q&A and discover how to craft unforgettable characters readers will passionately root for from page one.
Literary Agent Mary C. Moore has represented the Nebula-nominated The Unbroken by C.L. Clark (Orbit,2021); and Indie Next and Book of the Month pick The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker (Inkyard, 2021).
Mary’s first career was in field biology, which took her around the world, from Ghana to Costa Rica to Maui, before settling at the San Francisco Zoo. But her love of books proved to be just as strong as her love of animals.
While working at the zoo she earned her MFA in Creative Writing and English at Mills College, Oakland. She worked as a literary agent at Kimberley Cameron & Associates before moving to Aevitas. Mary represents a wide range of fiction as an Aevitas agent based in the Bay Area.
Mary’s Topic: Queries with Mary
Mary will do a live critique of 3-4 query letters submitted by delegates ahead of the retreat to help ensure they’re as good as they can possibly be ahead of delegates querying their dream agents.
Jennifer Michelle Herrera was born in northwest Ohio and has lived in Missouri, California, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. She studied philosophy in graduate school before moving to New York City, where she became literary agent.
She went on to represent New York Times bestsellers, IndieBound bestsellers, and winners of multiple prestigious awards.
Jennifer lives in Philadelphia (go Birds!) with her husband, children, and two rambunctious kittens. She loves karaoke, making outlandish assumptions based on people’s charts, and, of course, taking care of her many plants.
Her latest novel is Siren Says.
Jennifer's Topic: Building Worlds That Readers Want to Get Lost In
One of the most challenging aspects of writing fantasy is creating a dynamic, believable world that also drives forward the plot and enhances characters' development. In this course, we will look at successful fantasy worlds in some of the books we love and analyze why they worked. We will also develop our own blueprint for creating (and improving) the fantasy worlds in our own novels. These will be based on the magical rules of our world, the setting, the abilities of the characters, the plot archetypes, our character arcs, and how to develop our fantasy worlds slowly over time so as not to overwhelm the reader. Folks will come away from this course empowered to create and re-evaluate the immense worlds they've imagined.
The cost for the six-week course is $229.00
Tuesday Teaser 😉
Paid members will find Carly and CeCe’s written critiques of the 📕Books with Hooks🪝 queries discussed on this week’s podcast in next Tuesday’s newsletter, along with…
Del Sandeen, author of These Walls Remember, pens an excellent essay titled Knowing Your Genre: From Reading the Classics to Writing for Today’s Audience:
“Does your prose have to meander down a lane like Virginia Woolf’s did, taking its leisurely time to reach its destination while simultaneously providing a dizzying array of detail? Or do you have to name every character, even the most minor ones, à la Stephen King?
Of course not. After all, your style is yours alone.
But it’s worth pulling back from the past—this includes the most famous classics as well as lesser-known works—to help shape your work today. You might even take an old story with problematic elements and invert it. As an example, H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Horror at Red Hook” was turned on its xenophobic head in Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom, a novella with a Black man as protagonist.”
This essay has so many great nuggets of wisdom, you might need to print it out and highlight sections!
Max Doty, author of The House That Eats the Dead, discusses iteration over success in Tuesday’s author video. Curious to know what birdhouses have to do with writing and creativity? Give it a watch!
In our Meet Your Dream Agent profile, we chat with Carleen Geisler from Britt Siess Creative Management:
“What are the most common mistakes authors make in their query letters?
Vagueness! I often see queries that tell me what their book will make me (supposedly) feel, or how they want readers to react to their book. That information is not helpful when I am evaluating a query. In addition (and along the same track), authors will sometimes write a query that tries too much to “stand out” from a typical query structure. Unfortunately, that just makes evaluating it more difficult on my end. I’m sorry to say that the standard structure is that way for a reason!”
Keep reading to see if you and Carleen would make a good match!
Finally, Liv Constantine, author of Promise Me Never, tackles our author Q&A. We love what the writing due have to say about giving up:
“When I was first sending out queries years ago, I received rejection after rejection and my mantra was: Not if, but when. I was determined that I would never get up. I believe you should never give up on your dream. That said, I did other work for years while I was trying to get published but I never gave up on my goal of being a full-time writer.”
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!
Beta Reader Match Up is Back!
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!
On the 8th of September, Bianca will match you up with between 2-6 other writers in similar genres and/or time zones depending on how many writers sign up. After that, it’s up to you to set up a date when you’ll either all meet up virtually to discuss your work or just send each other your written critiques. Whatever works best for you!
Important Instructions:
Submit 3000 words in a Word document before midnight ET on 7 September. If they aren’t opening chapters, you need to provide a summary so your beta readers have context for the submission. You may ask 2-5 specific questions within the same document for your beta readers to address.
The summary and questions don’t form part of the 3000 words.
Cost: US $25
Please note: NO AI whatsoever may be used to critique each other’s work!
More about the match up here!
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.
The below is so right on…my manuscript address the both/and… rejection touches a place in us, a wound that hasn’t been healed… We’re taught transcendence but what about integration… The rejection might land better if we follow it home.
Good Rejection and feedback aren’t really about me as a person. Sometimes they’re about the market. Sometimes they’re about trends. And sometimes they’re about the work itself. My job is to learn what I can from each experience and then get back to writing.
I feed my creativity the same way I try to nourish every other area of my life: by making room for joy, love, peace, kindness, ease, and self-control. Those things aren’t separate from the creative process for me; they’re part of it. When I cultivate them, I find that I’m much less likely to be derailed by disappointment or uncertainty….
? I want you to hit me as hard as you can.