#36: What is a Book Coach?
In today's episode, I'm going to cover all the different ways a book coach can help you finish your draft and become a stronger writer. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:15] A book coach is someone who guides a writer through the entire book writing process from start to finish while giving editorial feedback, accountability, and support along the way. [04:20] Generally speaking, you can work with a book coach any time -- that’s kind of the beauty of book coaches… they’ll dive in and...
19 Jan 202112min
#35: 3 Reasons Why You're Not Writing
In today's episode, I'm going to cover three roadblocks that might be keeping you from writing. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:45] So much of writing or editing a book has to do with managing your mind. And there’s no getting out of having to manage your mind either -- you can understand story structure, you can study all the books and take all the courses on character creation or worldbuilding or whatever, but until you understand that what you think about is going to create the e...
12 Jan 202114min
#34: How to Plan Your Writing Projects for the New Year
In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through how to plan out your writing projects for the new year. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:25] Creating a strategic plan is something most writers don't think about doing but it’s the kind of thing that can actually help you achieve the big goals you have like writing a novel, or submitting a short story to publishers, or whatever it is that you're hoping to do. [02:55] Step #1: Review the last 12 months so that you can make a realistic...
5 Jan 202121min
#33: 5 Takeaways From Coaching Writers in 2020
In today’s episode, I'm sharing some of the lessons I learned from coaching writers this year. My hope is that these lessons will help you to keep moving forward with your work in the most efficient way possible. Here's a quick preview: [01:20] Lesson #1: It’s totally possible to write the first draft of a full-length novel in 90 days IF you do the hard work to outline and pressure test your story upfront. [04:25] Lesson #2: It’s okay to start with the plot of your story, or the extern...
15 Dec 202017min
#32: How to Start Editing Your NaNowriMo Draft
In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through what to do with your messy first draft now that NaNoWriMo is over. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:20] Everything we cover in today's episode can be used whether you participated in NaNoWriMo or not. All that matters is that you have a finished draft. [02:30] Step #1: Take a break from your draft so that you can get some distance and give your imagination time to regenerate. [03:30] Step #2: Read your draft to familiarize yourself wi...
1 Dec 202016min
#31: The 6 Scenes Every Thriller Novel Needs
In today's episode, we're going to talk about the key scenes that every thriller novel needs to have in order to work and to satisfy fans of the genre. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:18] Thrillers combine all the criminality and suspense of a good detective novel with the danger and life and death stakes from the action or horror genre. Usually, these stories center around a protagonist who's focused on stopping a future crime from happening. [01:40] Readers choose thriller novels ...
24 Nov 202012min
#30: 4 Reasons Why You Need a Target Word Count
In today's episode, we’re going to talk through four reasons why you should have a target word count for your story. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:50] Generally speaking, a novel is defined as any story over 40,000 words. But, the average novel is usually somewhere around 80,000-100,000 words. [02:05] Technically there’s no maximum length for a novel, but there are guidelines you can follow to determine whether your story is the appropriate length, or too long. These guidelines ar...
17 Nov 202012min
#29: Horror Genre Conventions
In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through the conventions of the horror genre. I'm also going to show you how these conventions show up in the movie Halloween. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:25] What makes the horror genre unique? In horror novels, bad things happen to good people. There are life and death stakes, a monster intent on death and destruction, claustrophobic settings, and a major fight for survival. [02:35] Readers choose horror novels because they want to feel...
3 Nov 202018min
