#AmWriting

Latest Episodes:

Episode 281: Writing with the Door Open (Stephen King May Be Wrong) Sep 17, 2021

Show notes

Stephen King says: Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. In this episode, we dare to ask if maybe that’s not always the case. Does having to put your idea into words and get it into another person’s head weaken it--or force you to make it strong?

Links from the pod:

The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction by Erik Bork

Great Stories Don't Write Themselves: Criteria-Driven Strategies for More Effective Fiction by Larry Brooks

Libro.fm

#AmReading

KJ: The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Jess has criticisms:

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

And—got a burning question about a writing life issue? Something on your mind you’d love for us to help you with? Email us at amwriting@substack.com. We can’t promise to answer everyone, but if we think we could be useful to you (or know someone who can) and if your issue is of interest to other listeners, we might invite you to come on the podcast for a little coaching.

Finally, KJ here with a little news about Author Accelerator’s Book Coach Certification Program. I’m in the middle of it! You might remember this bonus episode, where Jennie Nash and I discussed “Shiny Thing Syndrome” and I was dubious about whether working with other writers as a book coach was a great side gig or a distraction for ME. Since then, I’ve been trying on the coach role in a number of small ways, and I’ve decided to go all in. This program is absolutely everything you need to get started from the editorial, coaching and business perspectives. It’s also entertaining and inspirational and makes me want to leap in right away. Learn more at Bookcoaches.com. (Want to see what I’m doing? Click here.)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 280: Book Launching Fun with Jess Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

By popular request, it’s the 2021 The Addiction Inoculation Launch Story! Jess fills us in on the weirdness and craziness that was a mid-pandemic non-fiction book release. Her advice includes: don’t try to do too much, target your energy—and ask for help making choices when you don’t know what to do when. We talk balancing an outside and an inside publicist, working with local booksellers for signed copies and larger orders, the challenges of a world with far fewer speaking opportunities and just generally what went right and what could go better next time.

Links from the pod

Nicole Dewey

Media Mail via Paypal

Jess in People Magazine

#AmReading

Jess:

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Horns by Joe Hill

Sarina:

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

KJ Recommends:

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker

We are so grateful to our sponsor, Author Accelerator, and the writing community they’ve built! If you’ve considered becoming a book coach as a side gig or possible fresh new career, I—as in KJ—can’t recommend their coaching course highly enough. I’m doing it now, and even people who already have coaching businesses have joined in to build skills and connections. Plus it’s super fun. Head to bookcoaches.com for more details, or visit authoraccelerator.com to for their free book coach matching service.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 279: Collaborating, Revising and Proposing--What We Did On Our Summer Vacations Sep 03, 2021

Show notes

Jess and Sarina are back! After a hard-working summer and an August of anxiety (don’t tell us you didn’t feel that too), we talk about how we got all the things done and all the things we have planned, with a fun diversion into how and where to end a chapter to create the illusion of a break while keeping the reader hooked. Plus, a summer reading review that will absolutely add to your #tbr.

Links:

Sarina’s new co-author, Lauren Blakely

Sarina’s latest best-seller: Waylaid

The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction by Erik Bork. KJ thought she’d brought that book up on a Writer’s Bookshelf episode, but it turns out she didn’t—so it may turn up again in a future show.

#AmReading

Jess:

The Stand-In by Lily Chu, Wilding by Isabella Tree, and Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

KJ:

The Guncle by Steven Rowley, Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry, and Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

Sarina:

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews, Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez, and The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (KJ tossed in The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave.)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 278: Editing Aug 27, 2021

Show notes

For that moment when you’ve hit the finish line—and now you’re going back to the beginning and starting all over again in a different hat.

In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.

This week, it’s Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative versus Blueprint for a Book.

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 10 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator. Author Accelerator hand-matches writers with book coaches who have been rigorously trained to provide motivation and inspiration and give writers the support we need to stop making excuses and get the job done. Find out more, and get book coach Jennie Nash’s weeklong find-your-foundation writing challenge at authoraccelerator.com/amwriting. Author Accelerator also trains book coaches to build their own successful coaching businesses. For more on becoming a coach, go to https://www.bookcoaches.com/.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 277: Writer Comfort Reads Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

Sometimes you just need to spend a few hours with someone who really gets you—without actually having to talk to anyone.

This week, it’s Bird by Bird versus Making a Literary Life. Writer comfort reads from authors who know how we feel and can express it so well.

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 9 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator, where you can become as a book coach to build a side gig, or a full time career. Author Accelerator’s book coaches come from all backgrounds. They’re talented editors who’ve learned through rigorous training and ongoing education to coach writers through every step of the process, providing feedback, encouragement and tough love. Learn more about becoming a coach at https://www.bookcoaches.com/.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 276: When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This Aug 13, 2021

Show notes

Sometimes you find yourself asking—over a draft, or a failed draft, or a sagging outline or just during a really long drive—why exactly you do this thing we do. This week, we turn to some favorites to help answer that question.

This week, it’s Start with Why versus How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 8 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 275: Writing While White (or otherwise part of the historically dominant paradigm) Aug 06, 2021

Show notes

Everybody, no matter what box we check or refuse to check on the census, sees life most easily from our own perspective while knowing there are many, many others. How do we write books that reflect the world we live in and all the people we live among—without claiming to speak about experiences we have not and cannot have?

There’s no competition this week, because the books we found on this topic are all helpful, whether you’re a white writer working toward change or a writer who identifies in another way, ready to point your colleagues towards some books that will help them evolve—or a writer who fits into any category (that’s all of us) who wants to be sure her characters who don’t fit that same mold ring true. Because you can’t only write books about yourself. Or maybe you can, but those are called memoir—and you still better be able to see other POVs.

This week’s books:

* The Anti Racist Writing Workshop

* Craft in the Real World

* Writing the Other

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 7 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 274: Getting Published Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

Sometimes you just want to make that thing happen.

This week, it’s The Essential Guide to Getting Published versus 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might (which, KJ insists, is WAY more helpful than it sounds).

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 6 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 273: #Writing Books for When You're Stuck Jul 23, 2021

Show notes

Sometimes writing is hard, y’all. Well, mostly it’s hard (and it’s a fun job and we enjoy it)—but sometimes you’re just really stuck and you don’t know why. You need help—and we’ve got books that offer it.

This week, it’s The War of Art versus Dear Writer You Need to Quit.

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 5 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 272: Sometimes Writers Need to Up Our Game Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

KJ and Jennie truly go head-to-head in this one, because KJ loves a book Jennie loathes. Can she talk her around?

This week, we’re upping our games with The Practice versus The Bestseller Code.

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 4 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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