✨Jennifer Probst Lays Down the Law; Affirmations for Introverts from Sophie Madeline Dess; and Chemistry Lessons with Jane Costello✨

Plus, learn how to grab your readers and not let them go with CeCe’s new workshop; and the countdown begins for the latest Great Beta Reader Match-Up!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

The giving and receiving of writing advice is a fraught endeavour. On the one hand, we all want it—it is the reason we’re all here, right? On the other hand, what works for one person (or many) might not work for you. And, worse (and this where the fraughtenizing happens), advice can even have the opposite of its intended effect. When, for example, someone says (as many someones have) “You must write every day” but that just isn’t feasible for you for all kinds of valid reasons, instead of feeling like you know what you need to do to succeed (which is, after all, the point of advice), it can make you feel like giving up because there’s an insurmountable obstacle standing in your way.

Which is all a long way of saying we really loved what New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst (whose To Sicily with Love is out now!) had to say on the subject of writing advice in today’s Author Q&A. It was succinct and brilliant in its simplicity: “Don't ever take advice as law.” (Which, funnily enough, is actually probably the one piece of advice you should take as law.) Jennifer also has some amazingly specific and helpful advice on publishing contracts and some encouraging words for anyone who’s ever wrestled with writer’s block and thought about throwing in the towel.

Next, we have an essay by writer and critic Sophie Madeline Dess, whose debut What You Make of Me, is out now. In addition to using the word “shit” an amount of times that both delights and impresses us here at The 💩, Sophie says so many insightful, funny, and quotable things we hardly know where to begin.

“If you want to produce work, you have to have not just the ability but the desire to dedicate the best years (and the worst years, and the medium years, and generally most of your years) to the quietness and embarrassments of your imagination. You must be okay with feeling useless.”

A bit of a cold cup of coffee, yes, but at the same time something of a warm hug—reading it, you know without a doubt that you’re not alone when your brain starts trash talking you when you sit down to write.

We’ve got a great video this week for all the aspiring romance novelists out there. Award-winning and bestselling romance novelist Jane Costello (check out her latest, It’s Getting Hot In Here) shares her process for whenever she’s starting a new book and wants to create two characters who have sparks absolutely flying off the page. Whether you’re writing open door, closed, or something in between, there’s something in this video for you.

Finally, don’t forget to register for the Great Beta Reader Match-Up, and be sure to check out Starting it Right, CeCe’s new course on how to write the kind of opening pages that will grab your readers and not let them go!

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

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team