✨Niceness & Unicorns Need Not Apply: CeCe Shares the Secret to Piquing an Agent's Interest; and Bestseller Rachel Joyce Has Something She Wants You to Know✨
Happy Friday, writing friends!
It’s 📕Books with Hooks🪝week over on the podcast, and we’ve got another special episode for you featuring an emerging author in conversation with our hosts about her query letter and opening pages. This time they welcome, Casey, winner of the Masana Literary Project Fundraiser, who joins Bianca, Carly and CeCe to talk about her coming of age fantasy manuscript, The Break of Light. In addition to our host’s usual helpful feedback about the query letter itself (such as the importance of a plot paragraph adequately conveying your protagonist’s goals and story arc), they get into several aspects of writing craft that a lot of emerging writers seem to find challenging (like causality and upping narrative stakes), offering tips to help you get it right. CeCe makes the case for showing your characters’ messy emotions, and also makes a valiant—and largely successful—attempt at a sports analogy (Editor’s note: I think so, anyway. I mean, it’s a sports analogy so what do I know? Except that I think CeCe is right and that dribbling IS something people do with basketballs and it IS almost certainly something that’s a lot harder to do than it looks. Although probably not as hard as coming up with the perfect opening line. If there are any basketball playing writers out there, we’d love to know your thoughts on this one... 😉).
Is there such a thing as a practical hug? If there wasn’t before, there is now, in the form of today’s essay by Rachel Joyce (whose The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry you’ve most certainly heard of if not read). In advance of her latest, The Homemade God, coming July 8, Rachel joins us today with words both encouraging and wise (for starters, you—yes, YOU—are a writer. If you don’t believe it when you say it to yourself, hopefully hearing it from a bestselling, Booker-longlisted author will do the trick!). On the practical side, Rachel describes writing a new story as being like finding “a magical house” in the middle of a wood that you really want to enter but can’t, then shares her process for finding her way into the door- and windowless space (if this is reminding you of something, it could be Bianca’s most recent course. So there’s definitely something to this notion!). She has so many wise and helpful nuggets of advice, including this tidbit from her awesome essay’s closing line: “Be you.”
Finally, if you’re the sort who devours everything we have to offer you (we’ve heard from more than a few of our more recent fans who’ve gone back and listened to every episode in the archive and we are suitably impressed!) and are looking for even more, Carly has a recommendation for another great writing resource for you to check out once you’ve finished up here—keep reading to learn where you can find 10 Steps to Writing a Novel for Beginners (and more)!
That’s all for this week! Until next time, remember: YOU ARE A WRITER! Rachel Joyce believes in you, and so do we!❤️
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 exciting episode of Books with Hooks, Bianca, CeCe, and Carly sit down with Casey, winner of the Masana Literary Project Fundraiser, to chat about her query, The Break of Light. The hosts dive deep into Casey’s query letter, unpacking the story’s emotional layers, compelling plot, and rich character dynamics. CeCe and Carly offer sharp insights on upping the narrative stakes—with tips on mastering causality, embracing messy emotions, and building a vivid, believable world.
Listen to it here or watch it on YouTube!
“I encourage all storytellers to not shy away from emotions that we as a society have taught our kids [are bad]. Like, ‘that's not nice to feel that way.’ Yeah, it's not nice, but it's super interesting. I want to read about that. I do not want to read about characters who are so nice all the time and so kind all the time and live in the fairy land with the unicorns.”
-CeCe Lyra
Dare to Dig Deep
By Rachel Joyce
If you are reading this, you are a writer. I say that not because I am flattering you, but because you clearly care deeply enough to want to find a way to improve your skills. So I am going to be really frank with you—one writer to another.
My feelings about our craft change all the time but there is one thing I know for certain, and that is that it is necessary. Even when I was a child, I wanted to write - and not just for myself, I wanted to write stories that other people would read. I sent off my first book to a publisher at the age of 12 and I called myself Mary Thornton, partly because I thought all good writers had a pseudonym and partly because it sounded more writerly than Rachel Joyce. I still have the letter of rejection.
Stories are how I communicate with the outside world. Through stories, I ask questions, I educate myself, I give shape to things that appear to have no shape, and are sometimes so large I might get lost in them. And yet after my failure as Mary Thornton, it took me a long time to write another book that I would try publishing. By my mid-forties, I knew a few things—about children and school runs and laundry, and feeling unseen. I knew real grief and happy love, and I knew sad love too. I had written a number of radio plays. But something in me knew I hadn’t done the thing I wanted to do. I hadn’t published a book. And it wouldn’t exactly have been a wasted life if I hadn’t got published, but it would have felt a waste if I hadn’t at least tried. So that’s what I did. And it is what I still do.
I write every day. You keep a story alive by being with it. Even when I am not writing, the thing I am working on is with me. You wouldn’t expect an athlete to run a marathon without some serious training, and a decent pair of shoes, and it’s exactly the same being a writer. You need to put in the time and you need to learn what enables you to keep at it.
I keep a journal. Not every day, but a book isn’t where I want to air my small, daily disappointments. And a journal is always useful when you want to remember how it feels to be lying beneath a scorching blue July sky when it is January and you can’t see for rain. It’s also a good place to discover who you are as a writer – the things you notice, the things that move you, the sentence rhythms that come most naturally.
I think that’s something to look for in your writing, by the way. The thing that gets you. In your heart.
When I first begin to work on a book, it always feels like finding a house in the middle of a wood – a quite magical house – that I really want to enter, but there are no doors and no windows. There is nothing. I can see there is a book I want to write. (The house.) I can sense there are some people inside I would like to know. (The owners?) On a good day, I can hear they are asking questions I want to ask too. But that’s all. The best I can do is go round and round and round that house, circling it, touching the external brickwork, until I find the smallest hairline crack, and gradually bit by bit, it opens to maybe a finger sized crack, (at least I think it might be,) until eventually I begin to see something that could become my way inside. You might get impatient and want to pick up a sledge hammer but a sledge hammer will not work. The way in is only really by staying close, and pacing round and round and round.
During this time, I make a lot of notes. I find quotes and ideas and photographs that appear to belong to this house. And I begin to write little unconnected scenes. I don’t even know what they are, or whether I will use them. They are just moments or conversations that float into my consciousness. I try not to judge them. (Ha. As if.) I find out who these people might be and who they like and what they want, and what they don’t have, and what they hide beneath the bed.
I also think a lot about what the story might be, and what it is trying to say. The story is the walls and foundations of the book – it is why someone picks it up and keep reading from one page to the next - but the fittings, like wallpaper and beautiful mirrored candles, are the questions the book is asking. I know too there are beats to a story that I want to hit because when as readers we find them, it’s like a delicious feeling of landing, or maybe it’s the opposite, maybe it’s flying, but when a story does that, when it hits those ancient beats, everything in the world feels right. So I know what an inciting incident is, and an end of Act 1, as well as a midpoint and the famous all is lost section. (If you don’t know about them yet, I really recommend finding out.)
Once I have all those little scenes or snippets, then comes the process of trying to stitch them together. I will already have a sense of how I want it to hang but it may well surprise me and not hang the way I hoped. So one of us has to adjust, and it is often me. Sections that I really liked may have to go because when I begin to put the book together, I see they’re holding us up when we need to accelerate, or they’re too similar in tone to a bit that’s gone before, or maybe I just need to make a jump and shake things up a bit. Part of this process has been getting to know the characters, and the story, and often you only find out what works by finding out what doesn’t. I accept now that I make loads of mistakes. I honour the waste paper bin.
Somewhere around this point I look at my book, my beautiful book/ house, and all I can see is carnage/ a building site. And I wish I had chosen another house, or another wood, or - even better - a book that someone else has already written. I say this because I don’t want you to be surprised when it isn’t easy. I suffer doubt. Oh, such crippling, awful, nasty doubt. But I have learnt something about doubt and this is it: It is part of being creative. So I sit at my desk and I think, This is awful! Why can’t I write better? And then I think, Oh hello doubt! Take a chair but we have some work to do if you don’t mind. And on I go.
I say all this because not to put you off but to remind you that writing is a slog and when it’s difficult that doesn’t mean you are not a writer. It means you are getting in there and things are a bit messy and scary but this is how it should be. So don’t stop.
Find time every day to write. It might only be ten minutes but that’s okay. Find your writing time. No one else is going to say to you, Would you like to write now? So you are going to have to be brave and say it yourself. Find out what is your good writing time. (Mine is very early in the morning. It’s like secret time.)
I light a candle when I write. It’s part of my ritual. And some days I put on a pair of cloppy shoes because they make me feel a bit like someone who knows what she’s doing, but that’s not necessary. Find out what keeps you company.
Buy a journal. And I don’t mean a crappy notebook. I mean a lovely one because this is really important to you.
And lastly, because you are taking yourself seriously as a writer, you must dare to dig deep. It’s not enough to cast something off and think, Oh I have had enough, that will just have to do. It is up to you to challenge yourself, and to be honest about the places in your writing where you know you are just getting by. Don’t let something go until you know you have caught the story you want to tell.
Honour the writer in you. Don’t be Mary Thornton. (Unless by some bizarre chance you are called Mary Thornton.) Be you.
Want More Writing Insights? Carly Watters Has a Recommendation for You!
If you like The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, allow me to introduce you to Fiction Writing Made Easy! Hosted by Savannah Gilbo, this show transforms the overwhelming process of writing a novel into clear, actionable steps for writers at every stage. Each episode delivers practical craft techniques, story structure insights, and revision strategies that you can immediately apply to your manuscript. Savannah breaks down complex writing concepts without the fluff, helping you overcome common obstacles and make real progress on your fiction.
My most recent favorite episode? Episode #186, “Your First Draft Roadmap: 10 Steps to Writing A Novel For Beginners” where Savannah reveals the exact framework she uses with her clients and students to write a solid first draft. Check it out here!
Happy writing!
Carly
Tuesday Teaser 😉
Paid members will find Carly and CeCe’s written critiques of the 📕Books with Hooks🪝 query discussed on this week’s podcast in next Tuesday’s newsletter, but that’s not all. You’ll also get for Q&As from Tamara Yajia (Cry For Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star) and Ashley Ream (The Peculiar Gift of July) and an essay from Hannah Sharpe, TSNOTYAW fan and debut author of Between Lies and Revenge—all three of which have extremely helpful advice to share on the important topic of feedback and the absolutely critical role it plays in a writer’s success. If you struggle with hearing feedback on your work (or even putting it out there for feedback in the first place), you’ll definitely want to read this one.
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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
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.
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.
"Buy a journal. And I don’t mean a crappy notebook. I mean a lovely one because this is really important to you."
A few years ago, I found a guy on Etsy who made gorgeous notebooks with custom designs on the cover. I'm now on my sixth one. They're not cheap, but they bring me a lot of satisfaction.