The Sh#t No One Tells You About Writing Podcast

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The Sh#t No One Tells You About Writing Podcast Your hosts are Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra.
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This is a podcast for emerging writers, who are looking to improve their work with an aim to having it published, or anyone who would like a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry.

This is the last 🧩 piece ahead of tomorrow’s cover reveal! I can’t wait to get this most puzzling tale into everyone’s h...
20/11/2024

This is the last 🧩 piece ahead of tomorrow’s cover reveal! I can’t wait to get this most puzzling tale into everyone’s hands so you can meet world-renowned enigmatologist, Destiny Whip, and her faithful companion, an emotional support urn ❤️‍🩹

Woo hoo! Bianca and CeCe are thrilled to announce 6 incredible speakers of the 12-speaker lineup for the 2025 Deep Dive ...
03/11/2024

Woo hoo! Bianca and CeCe are thrilled to announce 6 incredible speakers of the 12-speaker lineup for the 2025 Deep Dive Virtual retreat that’s being held on the 1st and 2nd of February!

To register for an email reminder that will go out the day before the early bird registrations open on the 29th of November, check out our website.

And please share this with all your writing friends ❤️

www.thesh*taboutwriting.com

Get those questions in before the end of the month if you want them included in our November Q and A newsletter and bonu...
28/10/2024

Get those questions in before the end of the month if you want them included in our November Q and A newsletter and bonus podcast episode 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

We’ve had two awesome episodes come out this week! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼The first was on Monday for July’s bonus episode in which Bianc...
01/08/2024

We’ve had two awesome episodes come out this week! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

The first was on Monday for July’s bonus episode in which Bianca interviewed Kern Carter, author of And Then There Was Us.

They discussed the different routes to publication and the differences between traditional and self publishing; how Kern worked to improve his craft while trying to land an agent; the challenges of writing from a perspective that isn’t your own, and why you might choose to do so; how he approached characterization; the importance of nailing emotionality in YA novels; the supernatural elements of And Then There Was Us; trusting your editor and agent; how Kern pitches new ideas to his agent; and all his upcoming projects.

In today’s Books with Hooks, we’re throwing it back to an early backlist segment.

After which, CeCe speaks with her very own client, Anamely Salgado Reyes, author of My Mother Cursed My Name. They discuss Anamely’s query letter to CeCe and CeCe’s response to it; Anamely’s experience with her first round of edits from CeCe; the inspiration behind her work; how she feels about family and friends reading a work that was loosely inspired by them; and what has surprised Anamely about publishing.

Don’t forget that all new BWH critiques are still going out in Tuesday’s newsletters despite our on-air BWH break.

Calling all you awesome fantasy writers! Bianca is super excited to announce the All About Fantasy full day virtual retr...
01/08/2024

Calling all you awesome fantasy writers!

Bianca is super excited to announce the All About Fantasy full day virtual retreat on the 28th of September from 9am-5pm ET.

Whether you write YA Fantasy, Romantasy, Adult Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Cozy Fantasy, Dystopian Fantasy, or any other variation, you won’t want to miss out on this amazing day of learning dedicated especially to those writing in the genre.

The phenomenal lineup includes award-winning and bestselling authors like Tomi Adeyemi, (author of Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, and Children of Anguish and Anarchy), Amber Chen (the UK #1 bestselling author of the YA silkpunk fantasy novel, Of Jade and Dragons), and Andrea Hairston (award winning author of Redwood and Wildfire, as well as Archangels of Funk).

We’ll also have Literary agent Mary C. Moore critiquing 3-4 of the delegates’ query letters, not to mention presentations by Elizabeth Hetti (an editorial assistant at Atria who specializes in cozy fantasies and romantasies) and Sanaa Ali-Virani (an assistant editor at Tor Publishing Group).

Registrations open on the 16th of August with an early bird special price on that day only!

To get all the deets, go to www.biancamarais.com and look for the All About Fantasy tab. And don’t forget to diarize both dates and then share this post with all your fantasy besties!

You still have a few days left to register for the July Beta Reader Match Up!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼Even if you aren’t signing up this ...
28/07/2024

You still have a few days left to register for the July Beta Reader Match Up!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Even if you aren’t signing up this round, please share with as many writers as possible. The more registrations, the better the matches will be!

Writers, we want to hear from you! What's your favorite writing hack? 👇🏽 Let's share the wisdom!
29/05/2024

Writers, we want to hear from you!

What's your favorite writing hack? 👇🏽 Let's share the wisdom!

Everyone give a warm welcome to some new members of the pod crew!💻 Project Manager: Taneet Grewal, content editorTaneet ...
24/05/2024

Everyone give a warm welcome to some new members of the pod crew!

💻 Project Manager: Taneet Grewal, content editor

Taneet Kaur Grewal is an author, content creator, and single mother of two, based in Ontario, Canada. Taneet is dedicated to connecting with authors from marginalized communities and supporting fellow BIPOC creatives. Her passion for reading and storytelling began in childhood with fictional and magical characters, which later evolved into a love for journalism focused on human rights issues during her post-secondary education, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts. Over the past several years, Taneet’s writing has centered on her journey as a South Asian mother, mental health, abuse, gender equality, and empowerment for women of all ages. She recently published a book of poetry dedicated to her daughters and is currently working on a memoir focusing on alcoholism in the Panjabi community. When she isn’t writing or mom-ing, Taneet works as an assistant coach, helping her writing community overcome resistance and combat toxic productivity and hustle culture. Additionally, she is an accomplished copywriter, crafting compelling content for various clients and industries.

📰 Newsletter Editor: Suz Dugard

Suz honed her writing skills during a six-week residency at the Banff Centre, going on to publish poems in literary journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Now a freelance communications consultant and fiction writer represented by Writers House and hard at work on her second manuscript (with one in the drawer), she is HUGELY excited to join The S**t No One Tells You About Writing team (particularly as it will be nice to see something she’s written go out into the world while the long journey to publication continues…)

A reminder of who else works on the show:

🎧 Alicia Maini: our lovely long-time Audio Producer

🎙️ Your co-hosts: Carly, Bianca and CeCe!

Gotta polish those jewel timelines and POVs to a shine 😂💎😂👏🏼Bianca still fields emails from confused listeners who wonde...
14/05/2024

Gotta polish those jewel timelines and POVs to a shine 😂💎😂👏🏼

Bianca still fields emails from confused listeners who wonder what these are. 🙈 She’s practicing to say D-U-A-L.

Who got their copy of this month 🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♂️Guess which podcast hit the list of best websites for writers?Writer’s Digest...
10/05/2024

Who got their copy of this month 🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♂️

Guess which podcast hit the list of best websites for writers?

Writer’s Digest puts out an annual list of the best podcasts, websites, resources and more for authors—and we are so honoured to be on it. 🎖️

Whoooaaaa! 10k on snuck up on us! 👋
08/05/2024

Whoooaaaa! 10k on snuck up on us! 👋

In today’s Books with Hooks, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe are joined by two awesome guests, author Rachel Kapelke-Dale and he...
02/05/2024

In today’s Books with Hooks, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe are joined by two awesome guests, author Rachel Kapelke-Dale and her agent, Sarah Phair.

They discuss ensuring your comps align with each other and with your work; making sure your query is representative of your whole novel and not just one part; using your author bio to help show why you’re the one to write this story; the concept of auto-fiction; the importance of highlighting the POV you’re writing from; being specific with your plot points in your query; finding the right balance between what you withhold and what you reveal; and the need to show your character’s emotions, especially messy ones.

After which, Bianca interviews Kelly McMasters, author of The Leaving Season which is a memoir in essays. The two unpack writing essays vs a linear timeline in memoir; publishing essays from the collection ahead of the book’s release; deciding what to include and what to leave out; how to know where to begin; using external events and settings as metaphors for your character’s emotionality; what memoirists owe their readers vs what they owe themselves; community vs platform; and making it all matter to the reader.

Who do you think our special guests are? Pick ✌️A) author B) agentC) editor
29/04/2024

Who do you think our special guests are? Pick ✌️

A) author
B) agent
C) editor

Today! See you this afternoon 👋
28/04/2024

Today! See you this afternoon 👋

This all applies to querying literary agents too!! If you need a boost to help you keep going, you don’t want to miss to...
25/04/2024

This all applies to querying literary agents too!! If you need a boost to help you keep going, you don’t want to miss today’s wonderful interview with the incredible ❤️👏🏼☀️ We all need this kind of literary sunshine right now.

In today’s Book with Hooks, Carly and CeCe critique two listener queries, a resubmission and a YA fantasy. They discuss the issue of starting with a protagonist that has a ‘simple, stable’ life; a great example of an inciting incident; ensuring your major dramatic question is strong enough; good storytelling as the promise of change; making your protagonist the ‘sun’ of your story; infusing emotion into the information you provide; ensuring that your plot feels like a set of dominos tipping over; taglines in a query; differentiating your novel’s tropes from how they’re used in other novels in your genre; and making characters’ motivations clear in a query.

 After which, Bianca interviews award-winning author, Caroline Leavitt. They discuss A Mighty Blaze and its origins; being a good literary citizen; Caroline’s key to longevity in the industry; not taking rejections too hard; avoiding writing to the current market; Caroline’s latest novel, Days of Wonder; her research process; using universal personal experiences that help connect your readers to your characters; Caroline’s reasoning for the settings she chose; how she approaches characterization; and her thoughts on genre.

Some gems from our today 💎
23/04/2024

Some gems from our today 💎

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We had the best time chatting with the awesome @kjda about how much context is too much. 😂🙈 But also, how your process is your process, so don’t sweat it. Don’t miss today’s episode! #reesewitherspoonbookclub #thechickensisters #namingcharacters #writinglife #worldbuilding #writinginspo #authorinterview

If you thought we were done with all the amazing content in today’s bonus episode, you were wrong! We have another incredible interview with the fascinating @amysho to discuss The Setback Cycle: How Defining Moments Can Move Us Forward. This is something all writers can relate to so don’t miss it!! 👏🏼❤️👏🏼 #setbacks #thesetbackcycle #overcomingadversity #overcomingsetbacks #motivation #motivational #inspirational

Don’t miss out on today’s bumper bonus edition in which @biancamarais_author also chats with the delightful @franceswhiteauthor, author of the brilliant TikTok sensation, Voyage of the Damned. If you have side characters who keep fighting for their moment in the spotlight, you’ll 💯 relate! #podcast #writingcommunity #authorsofinstagram #authorinterview #writingpodcast #amwriting #writingtips #writingresources #voyageofthedamned #franceswhite #booktok

Besides CeCe’s epic interview with Liane Moriarty on today’s episode, Bianca also chats with NYT bestselling @hannahnicolemae and her agent, Brent Taylor, about the VERY LONG PROLOGUE in Assistant to the Villain. You definitely don’t want to miss this one, especially if you’re on Team Prologue!

Holy shiznet, Batman! Have we got an AMAZING episode for you today, or what?! 😳🤯❤️ Have you ever seen CeCe so happy? 😂😂😂 Us neither! Make sure you don’t miss this incredible interview! And then let us know your favourite parts. #lianemoriarty #lianemoriartybooks #hereonemoment #authorinterview #nytbestseller #podcast #authorpodcast #bookspodcast #authorsofinstagram #writinginspiration

It’s Thursday and we have an all new Books with Hooks in today’s episode! ❤️👏🏼🙌🏼 Also, here’s a Sophie’s choice for CeCe 😂👏🏼 #writingcommunity #podcast #writingpodcast #literaryagent #writersofinstagram #amwriting #chocolates #books

In today’s author interview, Bianca interviews Amanda Peters, author of Waiting for the Long Night Moon, which is a collection of short stories. Amanda reads the first short story in the collection, and the two discuss framing and POV and Amanda’s deliberate choices regarding POV in her stories; tension that comes from the reader knowing something the characters don’t; writing quiet stories that are emotionally weighted; finding your way into a beginning and the evolution of Amanda’s second story in the collection; problem solving as an integral part of being a writer; and Amanda’s experience oscillating between writing short stories and novels. #problemsolving #problemsolvingskills #podcast #authorsofinstagram #amandapeters #writers #authors #authorinterview #writingresources #writingcommunity

More awesome insights on character arcs from today’s Books with Hooks 👏🏼❤️👏🏼 #literaryagent #literaryagents #writingcharacters #characterbuilding #writingchallenges #writingtips #writinglife

Don’t miss out on today’s all new Books with Hooks! Or on CeCe’s notes - subscribe to the podcast’s Substack so you get them next week Tuesday!#podcast #authorsofinstagram #writingpodcast #literaryagent #amwriting #writingcommunity #writingadvice #writersofinstagram #authors #writingresources

We have a new Books with Hooks up on the podcast tomorrow! Don’t miss it! ❤️👏🏼❤️👏🏼 #podcast #authorsofinstagram #writingpodcast #literaryagent #literaryfictionbooks #literaryfiction #amwriting #amquerying #writingadvice #writingcraft #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity

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