✨Lidija Hilje, Attorney-Turned-Book-Coach-Turned-Novelist, Returns to the Pod; Pantsing, But Make it Next Level in Today's Essay; and Are You Paying Enough Attention to Setting? Lucy Foley Sure Is!✨
Plus, a bonafide "TikTok Sensation" turned non-fiction author opts to get real instead of taking the easy way out in a fascinating bonus episode with interviewer CeCe!
Happy Friday, writing friends!
It’s bonus episode time again and we have some incredible guests on the podcast for you this week, starting with Lidija Hilje, who joins Bianca to talk about her debut, the literary fiction Slanting Towards the Sea (if you’ve been here a while, Lidija’s name might ring a bell—that’s because she was previously on the podcast in her capacity as a certified book coach. That time, she was discussing her guide to genres, a great tool for any author trying to understand the differences between literary, upmarket and women’s fiction—and which one to apply to their manuscript when it comes time to query). If you’ve never done beta reading before, hearing Lidija talk about her work as a book coach might just convince you it’s worth trying—beta reading isn’t just about getting feedback from others, it’s about what you learn when you give feedback to them (this is, in fact, arguably even more valuable. Don’t believe us? Lidija, a former attorney, doesn’t have any writing-related educational experience and didn’t start writing in English until 2019, so….’nuff said?).
If you’ve been living under a rock and have somehow managed to not know who Lucy Foley is, Bianca’s about to fix that with this week’s bonus episode. The New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, whose contemporary murder mystery thrillers have sold over five million copies worldwide, joins our host to discuss her latest, The Midnight Feast, and share insights into her writing process. Want to know the key to keeping readers on the edge of their seats? Lucy enlists the help of unreliable narrators. Think setting is nothing more than a stage for your characters to walk around on? Think again—Lucy goes in depth on how setting can not only impact the plot of a novel, but even inspire them in the first place. Anyone who struggles with setting (or who struggles with coming up with story ideas and has a vacation on the horizon😂) won’t want to miss this one (the setting-inspired origin story for Lucy’s debut thriller, The Hunting Party, is worth tuning in for on its own).
Next, CeCe interviews her client, Dr. Courtney Tracy, about Your Unconscious is Showing, her recently published non-fiction debut that’s being described as “Half psychology textbook written by your best friend (who’s also a therapist), half comprehensive guide brimming with actionable insights.” It’s a fascinating conversation on multiple levels: a clear example of what we mean when we say platform doesn’t matter so much for novelists, but can be huge for non-fiction writers (having built a massive online following as “TikTok sensation The Truth Doctor,” she was approached by multiple publishers with offers to write books on various topics); the challenges of working with a ghostwriter, and how vulnerable you have to be when you decide to instead write it yourself.
Where are all our pantsers at? We know you’re out there, and we hope you’re reading this because today’s newsletter feature is an essay by Christopher J Yates, author of the dark academia Alice in Wonderland retelling, The Rabbit Club (and, honestly, if you’re already navigating away from the newsletter to go click “buy now” based on that description we can hardly blame you). In his essay, Christopher shares his “delayed inspiration” drafting process, which he swears is not just pantsing, but, rather, a way of “deliberately provoking your subconscious to work on a knotty problem.” Check out Christopher’s “targeting” techniques that he’s come up with to help make this happen in Part One of his essay today, then come back on Tuesday for Part Two, in which he shares how to set your subconscious up for success!
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✨🎙️✨
This week, Bianca interviews debut author Lidija Hilje about her novel Slanting Towards the Sea, exploring themes of literary citizenship, the writing process, and the emotional depth of her characters. Lidija shares her journey from being a book coach to a published author, the challenges of writing in a foreign setting, and the importance of emotional truth in storytelling. The discussion also delves into her querying experience and the significance of crafting a compelling opening for a quiet novel.
Listen to it here or watch it on YouTube!
“...Whenever you're trying to force reader to feel something, resist.”
- Lidija Hilje
More information about Lidija can be found on her website. She’s also on Instagram!
June’s Bonus Episode!
In part one of this month’s bonus episode, Bianca Marais chats with New York Times bestselling author Lucy Foley about her shift from historical fiction to gripping thrillers. They dive into the essential role of setting, atmosphere, and character development in her novels, and Lucy shares the techniques she uses to build suspense and keeps readers guessing.
More information about Lucy can be found here. She’s also on Instagram!
“I love first person point of view. I think, in a way, these characters are kind of like witnesses on the stand, but it's sort of more… intimate than that…they're kind of confiding in you. They're…whispering in your ear, but at the same time, there's an element of them trying to present [a certain version of themselves].”
-Lucy Foley
In part two, CeCe Lyra sits down with Dr. Courtney Tracy, a.k.a. ‘The Truth Doctor’, for an honest conversation about the writing journey behind her new book. From choosing to write it herself—no ghostwriter involved—to embracing vulnerability and authenticity, Dr. Tracy reveals how personal storytelling deepened her connection with readers, and reflects on how her book evolved during the process.
More information about Dr. Tracy can be found on her website. She’s also on Instagram!
“Throughout the process of writing, you said, ‘I want more of you, I want more of you.’ And I really couldn't give it to the reader at that time. It wasn't cooked. There was no way for me to be able to do it because I was literally actively simmering and I was not ready. And so I realized what, what am I living right now? That is a truth that I can share. And it changed the entire second half of the book.”
-Dr. Courtney Tracy
Listen to the interview here or watch it on YouTube!
You’re Not in Control of Your Novel—and That’s a Good Thing!
By Christopher J. Yates
PART #1
How to turn your subconscious into the most valuable weapon in your writing toolbox
Right now, I’m working on what will become—fingers-crossed—my fourth novel. In this tale, the head of an Oxford College is visited by a stranger who claims to have been at school with him. The stranger sets a Rumpelstiltskin-style challenge—work out his name or he will destroy the Oxford man’s reputation.
But here’s the thing. After 40,000 words, I still have no idea who this stranger is or why he’s made a sudden appearance forty years after the Oxford man’s schooldays. I don’t even know if he’s telling the truth. And if I can’t work everything out, this will not be my fourth novel regardless of how tightly I cross my fingers. It will be junk, slop, landfill. It will also represent a year’s work gone to waste.
Exciting, isn’t it?
*
This might sound like an unusual position for a novelist to find themself in. However, this is precisely the same technique I employed to successfully write my first three novels.
One of the favorite messages I’ve ever received as a novelist was from a reader who wanted to congratulate me. This reader claimed to have guessed the endings or solved the whodunit questions in almost every novel they’d ever read. They were contacting me about my debut, Black Chalk, to say they hadn't foreseen a single plot twist I'd concocted.
I said I wasn’t at all surprised.
This wasn’t arrogance, however. As I explained to my message-writer, it’s very hard to read an author’s mind if the author’s mind is blank. When a plot development comes as a complete surprise to me, it’s probably going to have the same effect on the reader.
*
I happened upon this technique—let’s call it delayed inspiration—mostly by accident. But now I’ve been writing for long enough to know it’s the most powerful weapon in my toolbox. Delayed inspiration is no longer happenstance, it’s methodology. And I now weaponize this method for smaller plot questions as well the main thrust of my stories.
However, this isn’t simply a matter of trusting your intuition or some kind of woo-woo magical thinking method. Neither is it mere “pantsing.” (Or if it is, it’s a refined version.) This is a case of deliberately provoking your subconscious to work on a knotty problem (part #1 of this essay) while giving your subconscious its best chance to succeed (part #2 of this essay.)
Now let me share with you the “targeting” techniques I’ve come up with to help make this happen. I’ll mostly provide examples drawn from my own writing, because they’re the main ones I’ve got!
Set yourself a puzzle
If you enjoy puzzles—let’s use crosswords as an example here—you may be familiar with the following scenario. You’ve completed most of the grid, but there’s one corner you just can’t solve. So you stare at the blank squares, trying to force the gears in your head to grind harder. Eventually you throw down the puzzle and storm off.
Several hours later, you pick up the maddening crossword and kaboom, one of the answers explodes in your head like a firework. You complete the crossword in a matter of seconds.
This is a common experience for puzzle solvers—I should know, I once worked full-time as a puzzle setter and editor, and represented the UK at the World Puzzle Championships. At said competition I came next-to last, however, so you don’t need to be a world class puzzler to use a puzzle-solving technique in your writing.
This is all about giving your subconscious a target, a sense of purpose. Here are some of the literary puzzles I’ve set for myself.
A senseless crime: My second novel, Grist Mill Road, opens with a thirteen-year-old girl, Hannah, tied to a tree. A boy, Matthew, is shooting at her with a BB gun. The obvious question is—why? I had no idea. In fact, I’d written three-quarters of the novel, some 80,000 words and still had no good ideas. Heading to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, the answer to this whydunit exploded in my mind. In the space of what felt like a single second, I knew what had made Matthew commit his vile crime, as well as his entire background. I even knew additional consequences that stemmed from the incident. It felt as if 10,000 words had landed inside my head. It was undoubtedly the greatest moment I’ve experienced in my writing life.
An unknown narrator: I’ve deployed this trick twice because it works so powerfully for me. In my upcoming novel, The Rabbit Club, a section of the novel is narrated by… someone. I wasn’t sure who. All I knew was his voice—British accent, sounds like a lunatic, professor of English in a college like Vassar. When finally I worked out how he fit into the rest of my tale—set two decades earlier in Oxford—I knew how everything would come together at the end. Pre-publication reviews suggest this ‘move’ has been especially well-received.
Meanwhile, my favorite ever review—for my debut, Black Chalk—aired on All Things Considered. The reviewer, Jason Sheehan, said the following: “Black Chalk has, somewhere around the turning of its first quarter, one of the greatest surprise reveals I've witnessed. A twist that's like screwing your head on backwards. And when you see the tricky switch Yates has pulled, you just want to kiss him.” Guess what, readers? I didn’t see this plot twist coming either. Therein lies its power.
An unknown victim: Black Chalk is about a senseless game of psychological dares played by six Oxford students. One of these students dies once this game has turned nastier and more competitive. (This isn’t a spoiler. The cover literally states this: “ONE GAME. SIX STUDENTS. FIVE SURVIVORS.”) I didn’t know who was going to die when I set out writing the novel. I didn’t need to. The more I wrote, the more inevitable it became.
An unknown murderer: I’ve never written a whodunit, but if I did, I’m certain I would set out having no idea of the murderer’s identity. I would begin with the crime, create a cast of suspects and then just wait for the answer to spring to mind. Shazam!
Now that you’ve seen how to create a clear target in your mind, I’ll explain in part two of this essay how to engage your subconscious by creating the best conditions for success.
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, we’ve got part two of Christopher J. Yates’ essay on his “refined pantsing” technique; Stella Hayward (The Good Boy) gets comfy in our Q&A hotseat; debut novelist and climate activist Emily Buchanan (Send Flowers) contributes a video that covers everything from how to turn ideology into compelling fiction, to writerly intuition (and not needing fancy degrees); and our latest literary crush, Hattie Williams, shares an essay on a topic we KNOW will resonate deeply with a LOT of you: letting misbeliefs stop you from writing before you even start (in Hattie’s case, it was the belief that, until she came up with a high-concept idea, there was no point trying. Spoiler alert: her introspective debut Bitter Sweet releases next week!).
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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.