✨Writing Your Book One "Tile" at a Time; Learning When to Say "No" (Even in Response to a "Yes!"); and, Carly & CeCe's Latest Query Critiques! ✨

Plus, the Great Beta Reader Match-Up is back, and registration for Bianca's latest course continues!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

Are you one of those people who struggles to find time to write, who can’t, despite the best of intentions, manage to rejig their circadian rhythms such that they’re able to join the 5:00 am writers’ club, who gets most of their words down in brief bursts of Notes app tapping in between meetings, feedings and cleaning up? And do you by chance think it’s impossible to finish writing a book during such snatched moments? If yes today’s issue (entirely by accident) feels a bit like it came together just for you.

First up, and despite her assertation that “You should be suspicious of any advice from [her] about writing,” we think debut novelist Kate Posey (Serial Killer Games), has tucked some pretty solid wisdom in between the punchlines of her essay. In it, she takes aim at the impracticality of a lot of the more common writing advice you see, particularly that of the “write every day/treat it as you would a job” variety. With irreverent humour, Kate offers up her ideas on what you “should” be doing as emerging authors, and, while we don’t want to spoil anything for you, we think if you’ve been struggling with so-called “rules” that just don’t work for you, you might find that Kate’s non-advice advice is exactly what you needed to hear.

Kate’s description of her approach to writing (which includes a spreadsheet tracking her daily wordcount, which was sometimes “just” 500 words a day) aligns nicely with the mantra shared in today’s Q&A by Sarah Maria Griffin (Eat The Ones You Love), whose own approach to her craft has shifted over the years from the very demanding “Write The Thing” to one that that likens the writing of a novel to the construction of a mosaic mural: “I tell myself that I am building the mural one tile at a time. The tile is sometimes a page, sometimes a paragraph, sometimes two lines. Eventually, this will make up a book.” If you’re pressuring yourself to hit a certain target every day, maybe this mosaic approach is one worth considering. Instead of “I must write 1,000 words a day” think: “As long as I add at least one tile, I’m doing great.” (And, FWIW, you’ll be right. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼)

Taking the time to understand the writing pace that works best for you (as opposed to the “everywriter” at whom most writing advice seems directed) will serve you in other ways, too. In today’s video, The Book Club for Troublesome Women author, Marie Bostwick, shares insights that only someone with twenty years of publishing experience and 22 novels (!) under their belt can offer—including the fact that you can (believe it or not) say no to things like publishing deals (😱), especially ones that make unreasonable demands (like asking for a second book within four months!). In fact, there are a lot of things one can and should say no to, and you don’t even have to publish 22 novels to find out what they are—become a paid subscriber if you’re not already, and you’ll get all of Marie’s insights, with none of the headaches that went along with earning them!

Also in this issue, we’ve got Carly and CeCe’s written query critiques from last week’s 📕Books with Hooks 🪝episode of the podcast. (And don’t forget that at the end of the month we gather all of that month’s critiques and put them in our Books with Hooks Critique Archive so you have access to them in one convenient location).

Last but not least, the Great Beta Reader Match-Up is back, and registration continues for Bianca’s latest course, Circling the Building of Your Work. Keep reading for details!

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

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team