✨Getting Your "Yes" by Changing Genres; Amping Up Atmosphere; Literary Foreplay; & a Bonus Tip About Writing 'Unlikeable' Characters✨
Get those beautiful notebooks out and prepare to jot down a few brilliant insights!
Happy Tuesday, writing friends!
To kick things off today, Chrystal Schleyer, author of A Most Peculiar Poisoning, shares an author video in which she discusses her advice for creating the kind of atmosphere that does more than just bring setting to life. She also gives us a much-needed pep talk about persistence! 🙌
USA TODAY and #1 Amazon bestselling author Trilina Pucci, author of One Killer Night, shares a ton of excellent advice in her author Q&A, including how literary foreplay can get the reader in the mood for the good stuff 🔥.
We also love this truth bomb of hers:
“Nobody buys that” just means “we don’t know how to sell your idea.”
Kate Belli, author of The Gallery Assistant shares how she got her yes (after a grueling, two-year submission process filled with a ton of rejection) by flipping genres from a historical romance with a mystery subplot to a historical mystery with a romance subplot. If you aren’t quite ready to give up on a passion project, but also aren’t getting any bites, this essay might be the lightbulb moment you need! 💡
Mark Waddell, author of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World, expands on Friday’s essay with a bonus tip about How To Write Morally Gray Characters That Readers Will Root For.
Finally, there’s still time to sign up for the last Beta Reader Match Up of the year!
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading! ❤️
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
This Week on ‘Shooting the Shit’
If you missed yesterday’s episode of Shooting the Shit, in which you get to sit fireside with CeCe and Carly as they spill the tea 🍵 on the publishing industry, you can listen to it here or watch it on YouTube! This week, Carly and CeCe discuss their recent experiences at conferences, insights into digital first publishing, and the importance of managing client expectations in the literary world. They explore ethical considerations in publishing, share juicy DMs from listeners, and emphasize the competitive nature of the industry. The conversation wraps up with a look at upcoming events and the importance of communication between agents and authors.
