✨Karissa Chen on Trusting Your Reader; and Cynthia Weiner on Knowing What They Want✨
Plus, the Great Beta Reader Match Up and our Deep Dive Contest continue!
Happy Friday, writing friends!
As emerging authors you’ve no doubt all been urged at one point or another (or many) to “write what you know”—and what other topic could you possibly know more about than you? Maybe that’s one of the reasons fiction writers have long been known for mining their lives (and often the lives of those around them) for story material, but intimate knowledge of a subject is no guarantee of a compelling story and, in fact, comes with its own unique set of challenges and roadblocks. Fortunately for you, dear readers, this week we’ve not one but two authors who are generously sharing their experiences and processes with us so we can pass them along to you!
To kick things off, Bianca is joined on the podcast this week by Karissa Chen, to discuss her debut novel, Homeseeking. Inspired by a photograph of her grandfather standing in front of a grave in Shanghai, clutching chopsticks and weeping, Karissa set out to answer the question: Who was this person, so different from the reserved man she’d known, who wasn’t prone to displays of emotion? This led her on a journey of in-depth research and quite a few insights into the process of writing this kind of story, including how immersing herself in a wealth of facts was actually the key to unlocking the fiction she ended up writing. Anyone writing from a similar inspiration will definitely want to tune in!🥢🗝️
Next, we have a Q&A with Cynthia Weiner, who talks about the importance of conserving your creative energy (and how to do it) and shares the piece of writing advice that most resonated with her—and no doubt influenced the writing of her upcoming debut novel. Inspired by her upbringing on New York’s Upper East Side in the 1980s, A Gorgeous Excitement clearly leans into the notion that it’s the things “you don't want to acknowledge…let alone publicly with strangers” that are “where the real feeling is, and the art,” but to find out why, you’ll have to keep reading. 😉
Don’t forget to enter our contest to win registration in this year’s Deep Dive Virtual Retreat! There have been lots of entries so far, but the contest doesn’t close until January 23rd, so go go go! (And see below for complete details.)🤩
Finally, in case you missed it, Bianca’s Great Beta Reader Match Up is back and better than ever, with romantasy now one of the genres you can request to be matched in! 🐉🧚🏼♂️💘
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✨🎙️✨
In this week’s author interview, Bianca chats with Karissa Chen about her debut novel, Homeseeking. Listen to it here!
During the conversation, they explore the inspiration behind the story, the challenges of navigating language and cultural identity in literature, the integral role that music plays in framing Karissa’s narrative, and her thoughts on the responsibilities of writers to their readers.
“For a long time, I really wrote about it in nonfiction…To be able to give myself the space to fictionalize it … actually required a lot more research, because once I think I had a really good grasp of the situation, of the historical events, of the time period, I felt a lot more confident in being able to sit down and be like, OK, now let me not think about all that stuff. Let me just treat it like anything else where I would write about the 2000s. But I don't think I was able to do that until I felt like I understood everything else and could feel confident immersing myself in the world first.”
– Karissa Chen
More information about Karissa Chen can be found on her website. She’s also on Instagram!
You can purchase Homeseeking 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 📚❤️
The Deep Dive Virtual Retreat Contest Continues🎉🎉🎉
We’ve seen some great entries for our contest to win free registration for the 2025 Deep Dive Virtual Retreat, but if you still haven’t entered, don’t fret—the contest doesn’t close until January 23rd at midnight! And don’t forget, even if you’ve already signed up, you can still enter, we’ll simply refund your fee! See below for more details on this amazing opportunity!
The Musts:
Post about the Deep Dive Virtual Retreat on your socials (Instagram stories or grid, Facebook etc.—basically, if you can tag us on a particular social platform, then you can enter the contest on it!)
Use the graphic below (simply right-click the graphic and select “save image as…” to download) or create your own image, video, etc. Feel free to get creative!
You must use the hashtag #DeepDiveOrBust
You must tag The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
You must post before midnight on January 23rd
Other Stuff:
Post as many times as you like
Each post counts as one entry
The winner will be announced on January 24th
If you win and have already paid the registration fee, your money will be refunded!
Good luck!
Cynthia Weiner Wants You to Write What Makes You Uncomfortable
Cynthia Weiner has had a long career writing and teaching fiction. Her short stories have been published in Ploughshares, The Sun, and Epiphany, and her story “Boyfriends” was awarded a Pushcart Prize. Recently, her story “A Castle In Outerspace” was republished in Coolest American Stories 2024. She is also the assistant director of The Writers Studio in New York City.
A Gorgeous Excitement, her first novel, was inspired by her upbringing on New York’s Upper East Side in the 1980s, and particularly by the infamous “Preppy Murder” of 1986, to which she had a personal connection, having spent many nights drinking with the real-life Preppy Killer and his friends at Dorrian’s (the model for Flanagan’s bar) that summer.
Weiner now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
TSNOTYAW: Do you have a go-to mantra or pep talk for the days when writing feels hard?
Cynthia Weiner: I tell myself to write for five minutes, that that’s all I have to do: just work on one sentence, or one paragraph, and then I’m free for the day. Almost always, if I manage to get engaged with that sentence or paragraph—to work my way inside the story, instead of looking at it from the outside—I find I want to keep moving forward.
Were you ever close to giving up on writing and, if so, what stopped you?
It’s hard to imagine giving up, since writing is the way I’ve understood myself and processed life since I was a kid. But there have been a couple of times in my life I was going through especially difficult experiences and found it impossible to do any writing. For me, accessing my imagination takes a confidence and playfulness that’s nearly impossible when I’m emotionally shut down. What brings me back, always, is reading. During the hardest times, I found myself re-reading some of the books I loved when I was young and first starting to write—A Wrinkle in Time, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Outsiders. They both reignited my love of story, and also brought me back to the version of myself that feels the most true.
What would you say you’ve done right to build a strong and supportive writing network?
I’ve always loved being part of a writing community, and many years ago I was lucky enough to find the Writers Studio, a NYC-based writing program for adults (now also online, and with branches all over the world) founded and helmed by the poet Philip Schultz. The school has workshops, a reading series, and a weekly Craft Class where we analyze writers’ narrative techniques in contemporary and classic poems, short stories, novels and memoirs. It’s an intimate and intense environment that’s led to many of my closest friendships, an amazing network of writers and writing teachers to discuss books with, exchange work, and share publishing information and advice.
What one piece of advice (craft- or publishing industry-related) has always resonated with you?
I once heard Donald Antrim say, “The things you least want to write about are the things people most want to read.” Meaning those uncomfortable things that make you squirm, that you don't want to acknowledge much less talk about, let alone publicly with strangers: that’s where the real feeling is, and the art, and the universality. People are hungry to read what’s authentic.
How do you ensure you have enough time to write amidst so many obligations competing for your time?
I always try to reserve the morning hours for writing, when I feel most energetic and alert. I also force myself to say no a lot (uncomfortable as that is for a pathological people-pleaser) especially when I’m at an intense place in the writing process. Sometimes I even pretend to myself that I’m in medical school: no one would be upset if a medical student studying night and day had to miss a party/wedding/Seder, would they?
One of the best lessons I learned from Heather Sellers’ terrific craft book Chapter by Chapter is the importance of conserving your creative energy. If you’re draining your energy with chores and tasks and errands and keeping the house sparkling clean and going out to lunch with friends and a reading one night and a party the next…you’ll be drained. There won’t be enough psychic stamina left to write. It isn't enough to clear your social calendar; you've got to clear your thoughts about tangential concerns if you're going to have the energy to write something worthwhile. As Sellers says, "[T]wo hours of writing time a day takes a lot of attention during the other twenty-two hours."
What is something you’ve learned about yourself later in your writing career that would have surprised your younger self?
That I would write a novel! For years and years I wrote short stories—many that took years to write. In fact, what came to be A Gorgeous Excitement started out as an attempted short story. I can't tell you the number of times I tried to write it that way, because short stories were what I knew and had some success with. But as much as I tried to write it as a short story, first from one point of view then another, or in one setting or time period or another, it just wasn’t working. But as I kept at it, more characters appeared and scenes grew bigger and broader and more ideas and themes revealed themselves, until before I knew it, I was writing a novel.
I’d love to continue writing stories, and I have some ideas I’m playing around with, but my mind keeps finding connections between them, so maybe it’ll be a group of linked stories? A novel? It’s too early yet to tell.
Do you have any regrets about your journey so far? Do you wish you had done anything differently?
It would have been nice to have allowed myself a little more optimism and joy to counter the doubt, angst, fear, doom, and defeatism which crept in along the way and isn’t exactly fun to live with. Last New Year’s Day in a yoga class, the teacher asked us to come up with a word for something we wanted in 2024. I came up with two: “trust” and “enjoy,” which carried through for maybe a week. I’m doubling down for 2025.
You can purchase A Gorgeous Excitement on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. 📚❤️
The Great Beta Reader Match Up is Back…and Better Than Ever! 🐉🧚🏼♂️💘
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 time zone, so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time? (And is your genre by any chance romantasy? If yes, you’re in luck—due to popular demand, Bianca’s added it as a genre to the match up!)
Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3000 word evaluation.
Registration for this particular match up is open from now until March 2nd, with the match up emails going out March 3rd .
For more information and to register, click below!
And spread the word! The more writers we have signed up, the better the matches will be!
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, we’ve got Renée Rosen (author of the USA Today bestselling Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl and the forthcoming Let’s Call Her Barbie), whose answers to our questions are the perfect medicine for anyone feeling discouraged about their writing (with an additional boost for pansters in particular!), and an essay from award-winning YA and MG author Padma Venkatraman (whose novel in verse, Safe Harbour, comes out next week), breaking down her process for creating characters readers will connect with into five straightforward steps.
Not yet a member? For just $8USD a month or $80USD 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!
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
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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.