Podcasts about autocrit

In his 35-year career, Mark Morris has written and edited around fifty novels, novellas, short story collections, and anthologies. His script work includes audio dramas for DOCTOR WHO, JAGO & LITEFOOT, and the HAMMER CHILLERS series. Among his most recent work are new audio adaptations of the classic 1971 horror movie BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW and the M.R. James ghost story A VIEW FROM A HILL, the official BBC Books/Target novelization of the 60th anniversary DOCTOR WHO special WILD BLUE YONDER, and, as editor, the anthologies AFTER SUNDOWN, BEYOND THE VEIL, CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT and DARKNESS BECKONS. In this interview, we talk about his early experiences with writing, the transition to professional writing, his writing process and approach to editing, the importance of finding a good editor and maintaining a healthy dialogue with your publisher, plus his love for science fiction and horror. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. One of the most value-packed memberships for any author, AutoCrit brings you an incredible suite of tools that make it a breeze to plan, write AND edit your books all in one place. There's also a wonderful member community stuffed with live events, story workshops, feedback sessions, and even guest appearances that put you right in the room with bestselling authors from around the world. Head to www.autocrit.com/brock to get yourself a LIFETIME membership. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

It's almost Halloween! To celebrate, we've curated a spine-chilling compilation of the best moments from our interviews with the masters of horror. First, we have Mike Flanagan talking about THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and the freedom and challenges of working in the horror genre, then we have Dennis Lehane talking about the process of writing novels vs. TV and the balance of darkness and hope, followed by James Vanderbilt talking about the importance of character development in horror films and the differences between SCREAM and other slasher films, and lastly, we have Robert Eggers & Sjón talking about the role of curses in storytelling and the belief in the supernatural. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. One of the most value-packed memberships for any author, AutoCrit brings you an incredible suite of tools that make it a breeze to plan, write AND edit your books all in one place. There's also a wonderful member community stuffed with live events, story workshops, feedback sessions, and even guest appearances that put you right in the room with bestselling authors from around the world. Head to www.autocrit.com/brock to get yourself a LIFETIME membership. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Rob Letterman is the creator, showrunner, executive producer, and director of GOOSEBUMPS for Sony/Disney+. The series is a critical and commercial success for the streamer, debuting to more than 4 million households within its first three days of availability. Nick Stoller, is the director of the $379M-global grossing comedy franchise NEIGHBORS, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and the animated feature STORKS. He also co-created the GOOSEBUMPS TV series, an adaptation of the second best-selling book series of all time, for Disney+. The 2023 GOOSEBUMPS TV series tells the story of a group of five high school students who unleash supernatural forces upon their town. Now, they must work together in order to save it. In this interview, we talk about their writing styles and their collaborative process, their experiences adapting the GOOSEBUMPS series into a television show, including their approach to aging up the characters and maintaining a balance between horror and humor, plus some industry Insights. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. One of the most value-packed memberships for any author, AutoCrit brings you an incredible suite of tools that make it a breeze to plan, write AND edit your books all in one place. There's also a wonderful member community stuffed with live events, story workshops, feedback sessions, and even guest appearances that put you right in the room with bestselling authors from around the world. Head to www.autocrit.com/brock to get yourself a LIFETIME membership. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Daniel Church is a horror fiction writer and the author of THE HOLLOWS, which was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award. His second book, THE RAVENING, is out now and his third novel, THE SOUND OF THE DARK, will be published in 2025. In THE RAVENING, two women fight to free themselves of a terrifying thousand-year-old curse. Jenna lost her mum when she was a girl—a terrifying incident on a lonely road in the woods that no one, least of all Jenna, has ever been able to explain. She's been angry, defensive, and self-reliant ever since—until she meets Holly and begins to open up just a little. But just as life is beginning to offer some promise Jenna is ripped away from Holly; kidnapped by a bizarre cult in thrall, so they say, to an ancient demon who offers the promise of eternal life in return for a particular sacrifice. A sacrifice that links Jenna, her mum, and a bloodline reaching back centuries. With its antlered demon and a shadowy otherworld behind the veil of our world, THE RAVENING combines cinematic horrors with a compelling story of one woman's refusal to give up and another woman's fight for survival against terrible odds – both of them determined to overturn very different expectations. In this interview, we talk about, his childhood fascination with dark and creepy stories, his pen name, the writer's responsibility to serve the story and characters, the importance of avoiding self-indulgence and ego, and more. This episode is brought to you by AutoCrit. Head to www.autocrit.com/brock to get yourself a LIFETIME membership. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Looking for the best editing software for writers? Discover how AutoCrit, an online manuscript editing tool, can refine your writing style and get your work ready for publication. Find out why it's considered one of the best apps for writers and a must-have among writing tools. Book Award Pro - https://DaleLinks.com/BookAwardPro (affiliate link) AutoCrit - https://autocrit.com/  Subscribe to The Self-Publishing Hub - https://TheSelfPublishingHub.com Subscribe to my email newsletter - https://DaleLinks.com/SignUp Join Channel Memberships - https://DaleLinks.com/Memberships Join Me on Discord - https://DaleLinks.com/Discord Check out my main YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@DaleLRoberts My Books - https://DaleLinks.com/MyBooks  Where noted, some outbound links financially benefit the channel through affiliate programs. I only endorse programs, products, or services I use and can stand confidently behind. These links do not affect your purchase price and greatly helps to building and growing this channel. Thanks in advance for understanding! - Dale L. Roberts

Join hosts Christine Daigle, Jena Brown and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including AI that will create audiobooks for foreign titles, Don Winslow's retirement, and how "no one buys books." Then, stick around for a chat with AutoCrit's Daniel Kaplan! AutoCrit began humbly as the brainchild of an unpublished writer with dreams of becoming an author. She faced a common problem: how could she get expert, unbiased feedback on her writing without breaking the bank? Writers' groups, critique partners, and other beta readers weren't at the expert level, and friends and family weren't unbiased. Getting feedback took time, and the quality of the feedback was hit-or-miss. Hiring a professional editor was an expensive investment, especially for early, unpolished drafts. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/writersink/support

As I wrote the outline and script for the show on value shifts, I realised that there is a smaller unit of story that I need to discuss that's integral to understanding value shifts or how a scene turns. So, I considered adding it to that episode but soon discovered that the final version of the episode would be too long. That's why I created this, hopefully, short bonus show where I discuss what is a story beat. And how you can use them to create better scenes.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap047/The previous Episode ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap046/TAP045, The Anatomy of a Scene ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap045/TAP041, What is a Scene? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap041/Story by Robert McKee ⇢ https://amzn.to/49VnLAe *Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell ⇢ https://amzn.to/3Wcq8eN *Story Grid by Shawn Coyne ⇢ https://amzn.to/4aZNs3O *Suggest an Episode Topic ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/request/Ask a Question ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911 *AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq *Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur *Support the Show.Connect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Merch Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* This is a service or product offered by me** My bookish merchandise store

Discover the unexpected secret to improving manuscript quality and reducing editing expenses for self-publishing authors with Autocrit! Alexa Bigwarfe and Katherine Graham dig into all Autocrit offers to help authors write and improve their manuscripts.

So you've probably read the title of this episode and thought, what do cliffhangers have to do with outlining? I'm so glad you asked. Let me explain. If you're the kind of writer who needs to outline every scene, then you need to be aware of the types of cliffhangers and how to effectively use them to create a page-turning effect and not turn readers away. In fact, there is more than one type of cliffhanger—there are four. So, in this episode, I'll unpack the four types of cliffhangers in fiction so that you can avoid the common pitfalls and end your scenes with cliffhangers in a way that keeps the reader turning the page.Without further ado, let's get into the episode.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap046/The previous Episode ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts057/TAP045, The Anatomy of a Scene ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap045/TAP041, What is a Scene? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap041/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911 *AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq *Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur *Support the showConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Merch Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* This is a service or product offered by me** My bookish merchandise store

So, how do you write a great scene? But not just a great scene but a scene that keeps a reader engaged and turning the pages, no matter what genre you're writing. The answer is in the details. In order to write great scenes, you need to pay attention to the anatomy of the scene. So, what do I mean by anatomy? I'm referring to the elements of a scene, which include the goal, tension, conflict and stakes of a scene. In this episode, I'm going to break down these individual elements and share tips on how you can incorporate this into your writing.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap045/TAP041, What is a Scene? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap041/TAP009, The 5 Types of Story Conflict ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/5-types-of-story-conflict/TAP010, How to add more conflict in a story ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/create-conflict-in-a-story/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911 *AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq *Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur *Support the showConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Merch Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* This is a service or product offered by me** My bookish merchandise store

I'm back. And yes, it's been sixteen weeks since I released an episode of the podcast. Originally, I took the summer off because I needed to take a holiday from podcasting and writing. However, I did a bit of blogging during my break, where I discussed whether you should use AI-generated images in book covers. Also, I wrote a blog post on how to work with a book cover designer. This article was originally written to help potential clients and browsers for Le Villain Book Covers, but I shared the full article on authorpreneur podcast dot com because I believed it would be useful to you as well. While we're on the topic of book cover design, I discussed in another blog post the things you need to know before you design your own book cover. This episode isn't just about blog posts; I also discuss my struggles with writing and the epiphany I've had, which helped me make progress after chasing my tail for so long.Without further ado, let's get into the show.Courses, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts056/How to Work With a Book Cover Designer ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/how-to-work-with-a-book-cover-designer/AI-Generated Images on Book Covers ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/ai-generated-images-for-book-covers/Things You Need to Know Before Designing Your Own Book Cover ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/designing-your-own-book-cover/Accounting and Financial Terms for Authors ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/financial-terms-for-authors/Plot Gardening by Chris Fox ⇢ https://amzn.to/49egmNu *Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911 *Natural Readers ⇢ https://www.naturalreaders.com/AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq *Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur *Other Useful LinksAffordable Premade Book Covers | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/Support the showConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Merch Store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* This is a service or product offered by me** My bookish merchandise store

So, I have a confession to make. Actually, I've been struggling to sell paid books. Sure, I can give them away for free, but paid is a different problem altogether. I've been struggling to sell Duplicity, the second book in my James Lalonde Amateur Sleuth Mystery Series. A few days before my forty-second birthday, I realised that FreeBooksy had a spot open on my birthday, the 29th of May. In this episode, I'm going to share with you the results of that experiment and my attempts to re-create the results with a Fussy Librarian Promotion, which I scheduled for the 8th of June.Without further ado, let's get into the show.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts055/May Behind-The-Scenes Author Diary ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts054/FreeBooksy ⇢ https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/featuresThe Fussy Librarian ⇢ https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/advertising/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayGot a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911 *AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq *Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur *My BooksMy Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/The Locked Room | https://books2read.com/locked-roomRead Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://authoradhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* Affiliate Links** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

In the April Behind the Scenes Author Diary, I mentioned that I screwed up my amateur sleuth mystery series; well, a solution might be at hand. So, in this episode, I discuss my plans for my James Lalonde Amateur Sleuth Mystery series books three and four and a new shiny object. On top of this, I discuss a few self-publishing updates and selling direct with WooCommerce.But without further ado, let's get on with the episode.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts054/April Behind-The-Scenes Author Diary ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts052/Dave Chesson's Royalty Calculator ⇢ https://kindlepreneur.com/kdp-royalty-calculator/Changes to the paperback pricing on Amazon ⇢ https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GPGVYM9KWTYLD2GDWooCommerce ⇢ https://woocommerce.com/marketplace-sale/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *My Author WooCommerce Shop ⇢ https://authoradhay.com/shop/ **Le Villain Book Covers WooCommerce Shop ⇢ https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911*AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq*Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/DIVI Theme ⇢ https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/idevaffiliate.php?id=66529 *Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur*Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/My BooksMy Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/The Locked Room | https://books2read.com/locked-roomRead Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://ameliadhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop* Affiliate Links** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

Honestly, I can't believe I made it this far; it's mind-blowing. I know that's cliche, but it's how I feel when I see that episode number. Let's just say it has been a wild ride, a ride that is not yet over, and I'm glad I stuck with podcasting through those difficult times. And I've dabbled with a few great interviews and had my first-ever guests. It's been both challenging and fun all at once.In the spirit of celebrating the 100th episode milestone, I'm going answer the top questions asked by my Blog Readers, YouTube Subscribers, and Podcast Listeners, and questions asked through my Ask A Question form on my website.The QuestionsHow do I turn a page of notes (637 words) into a story?Should you self-publish an ebook, paperback and audiobook all on the same launch date or separately?Do I need separate ISBNs for a paperback novel published through KDP Print and Ingram Spark?Is it ok to post an unpublished novel on your blog?I've heard that blogging is dead. Is this true, and is it worth doing as a fiction author?Is it better to wait until you have more than one book in a series beforeWhen discovery writing, how do you ensure that all the scenes and chapters you write move the story forward and not end up being wasted words that are deleted during revisions?How do I know when it's time to finish revising and start working with an editor?Can you recommend an editor to me?Do I need developmental editing? It's very expensive, and I'm not sure if I can afford to spend that much money.How long did it take for you to get consistent book sales when publishing-wide?Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/100th-episode/TAP033, The Case for Outlining, Outlining Pitfalls, and Overcoming Writing Obstacles ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap033/TAP034, From Idea to Outline: How to Outline a Novel (Part 1 of 3) ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap034/TAP035, From Idea to Outline: How to Outline a Novel, (Part 2 of 3) ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap035/TAP036, From Idea to Outline: How to Outline a Novel (Part 3 of 3) ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap036/TAP037, How I Edit the Outline of a Novel Before Writing the First Draft ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap037/TAP043, A Tale of Two Novels: My Experience Writing into the Dark ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap043/Course on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/writing-into-the-darkBook on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith ⇢ https://amzn.to/3LUjkNV *Blogging as an Unpublished Fiction Author ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/blogging-unpublished-fiction-author/ProBlogger ⇢ https://problogger.com/Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911*AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq*Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur*Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/My Books **My Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/The Locked Room | https://books2read.com/locked-roomRead Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://ameliadhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop ***** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

Welcome to the ninety-ninth episode of the Authorpreneur Podcast. Yes, I'm doing the countdown thing—I know, it's super dorky, but I'm embracing it anyway. At present, I'm struggling to sell book two in my amateur sleuth mystery series, and I'm going into detail about my experiments to get this bookselling and my issues with publishing direct to Barnes and Noble upon the advice of going wide webinar. Let's just say that I regret leaving Draft 2 Digital. And I discuss how I've screwed up my amateur sleuth mystery series. Just saying that out loud gives me anxiety.But without further ado, let's get on with the episode.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts052/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayGot a burning question that you would love me to answer on the 100th episode ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Course on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/writing-into-the-darkBook on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith ⇢ https://amzn.to/3LUjkNV *Course on Writing a Locked Room Mystery by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/pop-up-17Course on Writing with Depth by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/apr-depth23Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911*AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq*Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur*Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/My BooksMy Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/The Locked Room | https://books2read.com/locked-roomRead Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://ameliadhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

Welcome to the ninety-eighth episode of the Authorpreneur Podcast. Honestly, I can't believe that my podcast has come this far. But, back to the matter at hand.Toward the end of March, I started working with my editor on the Locked Room, and in this episode, I share the mistakes that were found in that manuscript in comparison to the previous stories that I've written.So without further ado, let's get into the episode.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap043/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayGot a burning question that you would love me to answer on the 100th episode ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Course on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/writing-into-the-darkBook on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith ⇢ https://amzn.to/3LUjkNV *Course on Writing a Locked Room Mystery by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/pop-up-17Course on Writing with Depth by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/apr-depth23Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911*AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq*Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur*Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/My BooksMy Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/Read Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://ameliadhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

How to edit my self published novel is necessary to help you have a winning manuscript.. Check out these six programs. 1. PROWRITINGAID – FREE TO $70 PER YEAR ProWritingAid is the first on my list because it's popular for non-fiction and fiction writers. In addition, this online editor and plugin detect grammar errors and spelling mistakes while you are writing. 2. GRAMMARLY (MY CHOICE) – FREE TO $139 PER YEAR Grammarly works as a grammar checker and a proofreader. If you require a grammar checker to check typographical errors and word choice, then GRAMMARLY is one of my best choices. It works as a grammar checker and a proofreader. GRAMMARLY IS A TOP-NOTCH SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND PLAGIARISM CHECKER. It'll help you locate and fix errors quickly and works simply everywhere. It's trusted by millions upon millions of writers for a reason! 3. AUTOCRIT – FROM FREE TO $80 PER MONTH This application lets authors compare their works to other famous writers. AutoCrit will analyze your manuscript to help you find areas where you can improve. This was the first I used when looking for editing software for my novels. • Self-Publish Your Own Novels at Draft2Digital - https://www.draft2digital.com/sidneystjames • Get More Subscriptions from YouTube – with TubeBuddy - https://www.tubebuddy.com/sidneystjamesshow • Convert Audio Podcast to Video Podcast for YouTube - https://repurpose.io/?aff=48660 One of the largest Seller of books will have my novels: https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-100770460-13917199 Love Stephen King. Go HERE: https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100770460-15310446 On a Health Journey. Great Health Supplements HERE: https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-100770460-14074766 Great Christian Audio Books Found HERE: https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100770460-15261738 Doctors Weight Loss Program. Info HERE: https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-100770460-14092315 New and Used Books. Go HERE: https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-100770460-10554066 All of my Christian Paperbacks HERE: https://www.jdoqocy.com/click-100770460-10554066 Interested in the Optavia 5 & 1 Plan to Lose Weight Write: sidneystjames@yahoo.com A Certified Health Coach! Join Sidney St. James on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sidney-st-james-show/id1561741505?itsct=podcast_box&itscg=30200&ls=1&ct=The+Sidney+St.+James+Show Go Directly to Draft2Digital for Uploading Your Novel: https://www.draft2digital.com/sidneystjames Do you want to convert your audio files into video files to post on YouTube? The program I used for the last four seasons is: https://www.repurpose.io/?aff=48660 • Mystery & Suspense Romance, “Belem Towers” by Sidney St. James o https://books2read.com/u/mdGL8w • Detective Murder Mystery – “Ace of Spades, Part I” featuring Vincent Gideon by Sidney St. James o https://books2read.com/u/mBOr8N • Christian Novel, True Story from Memoirs. First Ordained Woman Minister in Louisiana, “FAITH” o https://books2read.com/u/bw29eZ • Fantasy Romance – “Nevaeh – Lost City of Nemea” by Sidney St. James o https://books2read.com/u/3JVqNX • Creative Historical Nonfiction – “Mary Elizabeth Surratt” – First Woman Hung by Federal Government o https://books2read.com/u/mdG2el • Science Fiction Thriller – OMEGA – The Lost City of Altinova o https://books2read.com/u/3npBl5 • Texas History – Sam Bass and His Horse Marines o https://books2read.com/u/4Ax59J CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction to How to Edit My Self Published Novel 00:23 Grabbing the Attention of the Reader in the First Three or Four Pages 05:23 First on List to Discuss in ProWriting Aid 08:11 Secondly, My Choice, Grammarly 12:45 The First Editing Software I used, AUTOCRIT 16:13 The Hemmingway Application for Editing 18:19 Smart Edit Software for Editing 22:09 National Writers Month Every November 24:44 Final Words on Novel Editing Software --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sidneystjames/message

In February, I finished writing the Locked Room into the Dark, and I'll discuss how I achieved this, along with the response of my favourite beta reader. As you've come to expect, I will share my writing stats, days, time, word count and the step-by-step process that I used. Now that I've mentioned that, it's crucial that I point out that I'm following Dean Wesley Smith's Writing Into the Dark method, which he teaches in a course and in a book. I highly recommend that you check out both of these options if you're interested in learning how to discovery write.Without further ado, let's get into the episode.Course, Podcasts, Books, and Tools MentionedCheck Out the Show Notes ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/tap043/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayCourse on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/writing-into-the-darkBook on Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith ⇢ https://amzn.to/3LUjkNV *Course on Writing a Locked Room Mystery by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/pop-up-17Course on Writing with Depth by Dean Wesley Smith (WMG Publishing) ⇢ https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/apr-depth23Products I RecommendScrivener ⇢ https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=authorpreneurpod *Grammarly Premium ⇢ https://www.grammarly.com/Pro Writing Aid ⇢ https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=22911*AutoCrit ⇢ https://www.autocrit.com/Marlow/Authors.ai ⇢ https://authors.ai/marlowe/?awref=rt2q4bq7zq*Fiverr ⇢ https://www.fiverr.com/Host Your Author Website with SiteGround ⇢ https://www.siteground.com/go/authorpreneur*Other Useful LinksLooking for an affordable premade book cover? | https://levillainbookcovers.com/shop/ **Be on the Podcast | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/interview/Support the show by buying me a coffee ⇢ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Got a burning question that you would love me to answer on the podcast ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Answers to Questions on Writing from Previous Shows ⇢ https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/My BooksMy Short Story, the Lawn | https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wi5nh80cx4The Candidate | https://books2read.com/the-candidateSuspicion | https://books2read.com/suspicionDuplicity | https://books2read.com/duplicity-adhay/Read Entitled to Murder on my blog | https://ameliadhay.com/entitled-to-murder-001/Read Entitled to Murder on Wattpad | https://www.wattpad.com/story/245779659-entitled-to-murder-a-murder-mystery-book-clubConnect with me on Social MediaTwitter: https://twitter.com/writeradhayFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indieauthorpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorpreneurpodcast/YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/authoradhay/Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WriterADHay/shop** This is a service or product offered by me*** My bookish merchandise store

In Elizabeth Ann West's Do What? How method, AI writing tools help writers ethically create works of genius as a creative director. Check out Elizabeth's AI outlining and co-writingcourse. https://gumroad.com/a/818630867/mvjup Longer video https://youtu.be/M-yIbVOglS8Elizabeth Ann West, an AI specialist, presents the "do what, how" approach to authors wanting to use AI tools in their writing. SudoWrite is a recommended example with powerful features to strengthen and edit writing. We discuss the ethical considerations that should be taken into account with the use of these tools. Elizabeth offers two classes to learn how to work with AI: Intro to Collaborating with AI for Writing and Intro to AI Art. Get step-by-step instructions on how to use the technology and tailored advice at an affordable rate - unlock the power of collaboration between authors and AI! Elizabeth makes using new AI tools to write books accessible and has developed courses to help people take advantage of the ever-changing tools. Her Do What? How method involves using a verb to tell AI what to do, as well as providing the genre and other details. She recommends SudoWrite for its commercial algorithms, its First Draft feature, and for editing. Autocrit and Pro Writing Aid can also be used for editing. AI writing tools can help writers improve their grammar and sentence construction. Finally, writers should use AI as a junior writer, and they act as creative director rather than letting AI write all the words so readers can appreciate the author's genius. #sudowrite #aiwriting #chatgpt #ai

In this monthly q & a session, the guys answer listener questions. J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned CARRIE on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author. Join New York Times best-seller, J.D. Barker, and indie powerhouses J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon as they pull back the curtain on some of the world's most prolific authors. Where did they start? What is their process? The biggest names in publishing all have origin stories, all have a process, all have tips and secrets... What does it take to consistently top the bestseller lists? Get your notepad out. School's in session. This, is Writers, Ink. Join us on Patreon and ask a question guaranteed to be answered on the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/writersinkpodcast Questions asked: Just wondering how much your children are involved in your writing business and/or how much you plan to get them involved in the future. Would you discourage them from pursuing writing full-time? A question for each of you today: What one writing skill would you like to improve about your own fiction writing? Is there something you've been wanting that represents a level up investment for your writing life (e.g. joining an exclusive mastermind, going to a new conference, buying a new computer, etc.) that you'd like to do by the end of the year? I'm going to a conference that has a ‘pitch fest' where you have 5 minutes (3 minutes to speak and 2 minutes for editor to respond) to pitch your project to editors and agents. Have any of you taken part in a pitch session? The conference organizers have provided some guidelines but would love to hear any tips. I'm pitching a non fiction book proposal. Thanks! Having talked with so many authors at this point, what seems to be the same thing or advice all of them say/do (besides that they write books)? Links: J. D. Barker - http://jdbarker.com/ J. Thorn - https://theauthorlife.com/ Zach Bohannon - https://zachbohannon.com/ Free Writing Challenge from AutoCrit - https://autocrit.com/challenge2022 The Author Life Summit 2022 - https://theauthorlife.com/summit2022/ Death of the Black Widow - https://amzn.to/3rsA97v Curse of the Spiral - https://books2read.com/cursespiral Proudly sponsored by Kobo Writing Life - https://kobowritinglife.com/ Music by Nicorus - https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep Voice Over by Rick Ganley - http://www.nhpr.com and recorded at Mill Pond Studio - http://www.millpondstudio.com Contact - https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/ *Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/writersink/support

When a Knife Salesman makes one last call on Halloween night, he just might end up biting off more than he can chew. This week's story was written by Luis Medina as a part of an AutoCrit horror writing competition sponsored by Haunting Season and Nightmare Fuel. Check out the Haunting Season podcast this week for more about Nightmare Fuel and to hear an interview with this week's Author. But first, grab your headphones, turn out the lights, find a safe hiding space and fall in to Haunting Season. Welcome to Haunting Season, a weekly storytelling podcast about life and the afterlife, hosted by Joshua Sterling Bragg and Cody Dugan. New episodes every Friday! Subscribe for more haunting: http://bit.ly/HauntingSeasonSubscribe Check out our latest episodes: http://bit.ly/HauntingSeasonRecentUploads Guest performance by Molly O'Blivion of the Final Girl Friday podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/51sjjsw05HHahKD7JUbULO The incredible thumbnail art comes from Braxton Gaither! Check out their art on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bwgaither?utm_medium=copy_link Haunting Season is brought to you by the Nightmare Fuel, the horror Writing Course that Josh took himself: https://www.hauntingseasonpod.com/autocrit Also by Memento Mori Los Angeles, one of the most unique oddity shops in Hollywood. https://mementomori-la.com/ Haunting Season Theme Song and other select music was created for the show by North Innsbruck https://www.northinnsbruck.com/ Follow us on TikTok for horror movie reviews and BTS: Haunting Season on TikTok Help Us Create Content on HiHo: https: //hiho.link/c/HauntingSeason DM us on Instagram and get show updates: http://bit.ly/HauntingSeasonIG Send Josh something cursed, weird, scary or fun: P.O. Box 9681 Glendale CA 91226

Authors are often told that they really need to invest in good editing. While that can certainly be true, does the rule apply to everyone? What happens is you're the type of author who already writes clean? Can you self-edit your books rather than hire it out? In today's episode, I'm discussing the truth behind self-editing and why some authors need to embrace the idea of self-editing (and how I go about doing it). Have a listen! Be sure to check out the show notes by going to authorrevolution.org/83.

Over the past few months Autumn and Jesper have tested out different types of writing software. Against AutoCrit and Fictionary, your hosts decided that ProWritingAid is the best one of them all. In this episode of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast, Autumn and Jesper (well, mostly Autumn), explains why ProWritingAid is such a great support tool for authors. Sprinkled in are tips and tricks, you can take away and apply in your own writing process. ProWritingAid can be found here: https://prowritingaid.com/  Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.  SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.  Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going. Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast. In today's publishing landscape. You can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now on to the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I'm Jesper And I'm Autumn. This is episode 121 of The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast. I, and the over the past few months, we have been testing out some different types of writing software. We tried Fictionary AutoCrit and pro WRITING eight, and I think we've arrived at a favorite that we can talk about today. Autumn. Autumn (55s): Yes, I definitely have my favorite in there is actually I should mention that one or two features that I wish it had at one of the other ones sort of did. So, you know, maybe I'll do some, maybe I'll be able to convince the staff at the one of our top choice. They've had a few features. That's my wishlist. Jesper (1m 15s): Yeah. So we are going to deep dive a bit on ProWritingAid today and share our thoughts about it. And why are we? Well, I, I think it's not a secret that we like it very much. So we are going to talk about that and hopefully that will help some people, if they are not familiar with ProWritingAid already, then maybe they we'll be inclined to check that out. Or if they are already using pro Writing eight, maybe we are going to mention a few things they were not aware of. Autumn (1m 44s): Absolutely. Or at least may be some ways of using it that they hadn't considered. So I think it will be fun. I've definitely been using this tool heavily on some major novels. I feel like all I have been doing is editing I since January and that's okay. That means there was a lot of Writing in 2020, so that's all right, right. It's good to be pushing things out the door in Publishing. So that's exciting. Jesper (2m 19s): Its been Easter holidays here in, in Denmark, which means that a, I actually got quite some writing done on a book One. Yes you have been doing really well. Yeah. I am only seven chapters so away from the ending now, so that's pretty cool. Autumn (2m 34s): That is so cool. More editing. Jesper (2m 38s): You're never going to be done. It's just forever and going. Autumn (2m 42s): Oh this is my punishment. Like I think so, but yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just clocking right ahead. Well, I hope you had a good Easter as well as some time off or. Jesper (2m 55s): Yeah. Yeah. Well I do to the usual Corona stuff to there wasn't much we could do, but I got some Ikea furniture put together and we got rid of the bit of the, I think we are down to like five or six moving boxes after we moved, but everything else has not been unpacked. Yeah. That's amazing. Autumn (3m 16s): That's good. So that is really good. And that means that you can, hopefully now that it's turning towards spring ish, I would have hoped they're that you can actually go for walks on the beach are through town and not be worried about, you know, coming back to a new apartment full of boxes. Jesper (3m 31s): Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Autumn (3m 33s): And, and we've also started to allow soccer game now. So I'd been out refereeing, a couple of matches, which was nice to get started on again. So things are lightening up. No, you can't say lighting up. That sounds like we were putting on fire, but it's not getting better. That's exciting. And that's always an improvement. How about you? Oh, Goodlife my husband I'm was on top of things and he made an appointment for me to actually both of us to go get our coronavirus vaccine. So I'm very excited. And at the end of the month I, I might get to go down and see my parents and that's exciting. Autumn (4m 14s): So I'm looking forward to that. We have, we don't have kids, so we didn't have like an Easter where your high things, but we have our own traditions since we never did have children that we, I have a deal. I've got an in with the Easter bunny and he comes every year and gives me this nice little basket of all of my favorite things. I don't know how he knows, but then he hides Adams, everything. So everything is hidden. And I get to spend the morning sipping. My tea is sitting there like this watching for his Easter candy. And it's just one of my favorite holiday. He has a, he gets back though. Autumn (4m 55s): My tea delivery is brought by Easter, Easter Bunny's cousin is Jack and Jack likes to hide my tea delivery. So, you know, we each have our own issues with rabbits. Yeah. Jesper (5m 11s): All right. Okay. Autumn (5m 12s): Rabbits on a naughty, I guess. So we had an actual, a visitor That this year it was possibly an Easter raccoon. We had a raccoon outside of the cabin on Saturday night and he was adorable and just the big guys, he was a very healthy, feisty invasive right now, but he hasn't come back since then. Jesper (5m 36s): Oh wow. Yeah. Autumn (5m 37s): Yeah. Well that animal life I noticed as well, somebody in the Facebook group a and apologies, I forgot who it was, but I just noticed that somebody was a posting some stuff about, I think it was a, she that she almost died because she was, she got bit by a snake. Yeah. Jesper (5m 57s): And as she survived, she was Okay now, But it was just like sometimes when I hear stuff like that, it it's just so foreign for me here in Denmark. We, we don't have any thing, you know? Well, I think we have one snake that has some venom that can be, but there was only that one, a type here in this country and it it's not lethal. Oh, well, okay. If you are out in the middle of nowhere and you get bitten by it and you don't get to the hospital, I guess you could be lethal, but its not, it's not to bad. You have time to go to the hospital and everything as well. So it's not like instant re reacting, Venmo or anything like that. So I don't know that the whole thing about all those animals are not, well, it doesn't have to be posted it, but just because like you were mentioning like, Oh that that whole thing has just so foreign to me. Autumn (6m 45s): I mean, I think they don't know if you remember, if I told you that last year when we were walking to the, the main house on the property, We, I saw something running through the field and coming up towards us and I'm like, why is there a Shetland pony loose? I mean, I'm in Vermont, of course people would have ponies and that I'd be like, that's not a pony. That's a bear. That way. It was literally the biggest black bear I've seen outside of the Labrador we traveled, I slept next to Grizzly's have visited our camp site, but to be walking and Vermont, you know, I'm on my way to take a shower. My dog has like 50 feet ahead of me. And I'm like, yeah, it was cute. And I just happy. Autumn (7m 25s): My dog is very well behaved. And if you open, you do a hug thing and you call him, he comes running with ears back. It was a little tail wagging. So I was doing that. Well, I watching this bear run about 10 feet behind him and I'm like, okay. So yeah, there is. And then a few other ones a month later and we saw the female mother with two of her Cubs walked right by the front of the cabin. And so what, that was just amazing and I'm glad that it was inside of the camp because she would have had the third Cub going on with her. Jesper (7m 56s): Yeah, Autumn (7m 56s): Yeah. If I could sit inside and watch it and I know that I am safe, then I think that would be pretty cool. But honestly walking around like in the forest and knowing that that bear could suddenly pop up, like I know why as a dangerous person, I'm just not used to that kind of thing. And it's only one thing that frightens me and the forest and that's actually other humans, most animals is there. Fine. People are scary. Jesper (8m 21s): That Is true. Yeah. And, but that's also where we normally see and all the, some of the TV series, right. Is actually the humans that are the most scary ones to come across and not to some of these. Autumn (8m 34s): No, no, that's true. Narrator (8m 39s): A week on the internet with The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast., Autumn (8m 44s): So I was wondering that you noticed that the Facebook has announced that they're gonna, they're going to create a new Publishing platform. I haven't seen something and I noticed that the article, but I didn't go read the full thing. So no, you can feel the listener in as well as me. Yeah, Jesper (9m 2s): Well, yeah, kind of. I just thought that it was quite a significant news, so I just want it to share it. But I did actually write up a post for our patron supporters with my thoughts on this topic. So if people want to go into the details, then should I should just to go on to patron it and check out what I, she had there, but I just found it pretty interesting. And that's why I wanted to share it. And of course you can also do a search on the internet if you want to check it out yourself. But I think it's something to keep an eye on, but I'm not so convinced as of yet, which is what I explained on Patrion, but let's see where it goes. Jesper (9m 45s): At least I just want it to mention it so people can keep an eye on it. Autumn (9m 48s): Yeah. Well, you know how I feel about Facebook that yeah. Yeah. And I actually, I like Instagram, so that's kind of sad. I think I liked it better before Facebook bought it, but yeah, that's pretty much my, a theory on most things of Facebook is okay. That's a nice little moving on. Jesper (10m 9s): Yeah. Moving on. Okay. Well let's speaking of patron as well. We want to give a huge shout out to Brian men. Dunka I hope that's how you pronounce the names, but yeah. Bryan is our new newest patient and support us. So thank you so much, Brian. And then we could not keep The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast going if it wasn't for people like you. So thank you for that. Autumn (10m 36s): Yeah, definitely. Well, we love having you join us there and I mean, it's been good. It's been busy, even Dominic. I want to give a shout out to him who posted a link to us, unspecified spontaneously. And it's saying how much he was enjoying what he was learning on Patrion. So that's just, that's wonderful to know that you're really helping other authors and that's what we do over on Patriot and even more than we do in the Am Writing Fantasy Facebook group. So I would love to see other people. Do you have to sit there? Yeah, Jesper (11m 9s): Absolutely. Yeah. So those are the link in the show notes, if you are interested and there's all kinds of rewards that we offer over there as well. So, so, so I'll go and check that one out. But one more thing on M O O D is, and I almost felt like not sharing this one with a new term. Autumn (11m 30s): You really do have something else. Now what's up Please. I, how are you saying that? These for me? Jesper (11m 39s): Yeah, I did actually say yes and I loved to spring things on you in the middle of a podcast episode, but this one is actually gonna play in your favor. And that's why I want really to be shared with you because I feel like I'm playing cards into your hands that you can use laid on Against me. Autumn (11m 55s): And I don't like that. I love that. Please share it. It's my birthday this month. Come on. This is my present Please. Okay. So, okay. So let us stay present. And did you notice that the YouTube comments on Episode 119, where was she at the 10 WORST stories ever told, Oh, well let me guess I'm winning and by winning, please tell me I'm winning. So when we, just for the listener, when we are doing these alternating lists episodes where we sort of go a bit crazy and have a bit of fun with some random topic like we did in episode one 19, when we, she had those a 10 worst stories ever Told, we always a have a bit of a competition going on as well, where we try to best each other and see, you can build the best list, basically. Autumn (12m 45s): What are the best, worst lists? You know, the best worst lists. Yeah. Usually, And on that note, Dominick said, and this paints me so much to read out loud. So you are killing me, Dominick. They just don't post like this in these kinds of comments. You Dominic. So Dominic wrote quote, Oh, Oh my God. I'd have to psych myself up for this evening. She'll just send it to me. All of them tends to win. Yes. Pro on quote is what it says. Autumn temps to when, what is that? It wasn't even just that episode. Autumn (13m 24s): It was in general. What, Davidic your, thank you. You made my day. I owe you like a page or a review or something. Thank you. Jesper (13m 39s): Yeah. Well, no, I strongly strongly disagree with those YouTube comments like that. And I, I don't actually appreciate getting that kind of comments. Oh, I love it. That's just fantastic. I have a winning, I hate it. That I have a feel for this one is going to come back and bite me later. I don't like it now and now it's hanging There. It's the precedent. Has it been, can we move on? I don't feel like talking about this anymore. All right, lets get into editing Narrator (14m 9s): And on to today's topic. Jesper (14m 13s): Okay. So when we write together, I'm usually doing the first draft while you and shots of the editing Autumn. So pro Writing ADE is sort of your domain. Yeah. You did give me a virtual to have a providing aid before we invested in it. But the fact that I'm not doing the editing also means that I have a, not too much knowledge, is that what you are actually doing inside the stool? Well then I guess you're a role in today's podcast is letting me know if what I'm saying is clear and understandable and not gobbling, but yeah, it was right to ask the stupid questions today. Autumn (14m 57s): And It is, I, I, we started in January. So again, I had, we were planning on writing together. You were working, we were working on the novella And I was also finishing up my tainted face series and I wanted something to really enhance my editing. I mean, I think I do a pretty good job. I do several passes. We've talked about how we edit it before is that I do like a content edit and then I do like a word choice that I am doing really the fine tuning, you know, making sure everything looks good. And then I send it to the editor and I just wanted something a little bit more on that fine tuning. And so this was after the content edit were, I know all the subplots are good in general, everything. I think everything, I think it should be, there is there, but something before I said that to the editor and because of that, we looked at Fictionary we looked at AutoCrit and when I was looking at Fictionary, I think I suddenly thought I should check out for a Writing aid because I was a user with that when they were just mostly either or the like a little BB company. Autumn (15m 60s): Umm. And it was on my Google drive when they still had my full time job. And I was doing some editing like in Google drive all at work and in my lunch break and stuff like that. So I had a premium subscription at one time to ProWritingAid long time ago when I thought it was pretty impressive that what they do now, there are pretty awesome. So that's, that's sort of the background of what happened. Yeah, Jesper (16m 32s): Yeah, yeah indeed. And I just want it to inject as well that, because the other part of why we we're looking at these different software was also that we have been thinking that at some point in the future, we don't know when, but, and it could be years out. I don't know. But we have been thinking that at some point because the, the world, the fictional world, a, a, a fantasy world that we call it Elysium, the one that we created is so big and we created it so big on purpose because we were thinking that maybe at some point we would like to publish other authors who write in this setting as well. Jesper (17m 13s): So one of the initial drivers behind looking into all of this was actually that we were trying to see if we could find some sort of software that could help analyzing work. Meaning for example, let's say that we wanted to take on board a two or three authors or something like that. And we said, okay, we are, if anybody is interesting in us Publishing your work, which would also mean that we are advertising it and all of that stuff on your behalf, then M you know, send some, some of your work to us so we can see your writing. But the problem with that of course, would be that it means that we would have to sit there and REIT nine novels. Jesper (17m 57s): For example, we are at my reading speed, how will it take three years? So that's, that was not very good. So if we were trying to see that the Fictionary AutoCrit is that those were the two weeks we started with before Autumn thought of ProWritingAid. But when we were trying to see, can we use any of those tools to sort of like load in a manuscript and then get some sort of report from the software saying, what is the WRITING like, so that we want to, we, of course, do you want to read some of it, but we don't want to be forced to read entire novels. You know, it would be like in initial screening thing. So we, if it said already, or if the software were to assess, this is not a very good, and then why spend all the time reading It? Jesper (18m 43s): Whereas if the software says, this is really good, Oh, there's no problems with it. Then we could go in and read it. Right. So we were, we were looking for some sort of screening process. So, so it was just to put the whole thing in context, because I may be, some people will think that pro writing aid is not quite the same as AutoCrit and Fictionary, there is some overlap, but its not quite the same. So it was just to explain where we were coming from as well. They're right. How about it? Autumn (19m 8s): Yeah, I don't think so. There are all, I would say it's definitely worth checking out AutoCrit and Fictionary and they all have different things that they do. AutoCrit steam to be more towards editing. They had a lot of reports that were similar to ProWritingAid, but not quite as beefy. And then Fictionary had some really good tips on how to write better and develop your novel better. But actually it didn't get into a lot of the editing I aspects where pro writing aid has a really in depth editor. But besides that they have this wonderful overview that tells you, Hey, these are the areas, your strong in which I love that they started out with, these are the ones that you did well in. Autumn (19m 53s): And then they have ones where they kindly say, these are our areas you might want to look working on. And then you can go into each of those individual areas that they say you need to work on. And there is a sub report where you can just look it just that one and work on it and fix it. And I've developed 'cause I've done like what three or four devils already. And it's what March is pro writing aid and going through all of these Stories, I, I feel like I'm like totally an expert on which of these reports that I go through and I have my own little standard of running through them to see how things develop and what I liked to develop. And I have noticed actually some really cool corks, but depending on my characters that a few reports will actually show up different ways. Autumn (20m 40s): And so you can almost see the character's voice showing up in the report. So it's kind of, that's really fine tuned in a nuanced. When you notice, when you're noticing a software in AI going through something and saying this report, this metric has always reading this one, it's this character or you're like the herd. That's really funny, but the nice things that are really cool, it is really cool. And I could tell you what to report that is, but which ones I noticed, but there are definitely some reports there that I don't go into quite as much. And that's okay. I mean, everyone is going to look at things differently. Some of them, I just don't take the time and maybe they should spend more time on them, but I feel like I've already covered them later, but some of them we can get into some of the best reports. Autumn (21m 25s): And I know my favorite is I call it echoes and this is a phenomenon. I'm sure you've noticed this, that once you think of a word, you tend to use it two or three times really close. Like after you write it the first time, like you'll think of something really such a strange word. I don't want to pick out something, but you know, we would not pencil, but it would be like maybe a description and action and you'll end up using like thrust or pooled or glanced. Look, those words like that. And you'll look it, you know, reuse it like two sentences later and then you'll reuse it like six sentences later and that just gets boring for the reader. That's why we have a thesaurus. Autumn (22m 8s): And it's hard though, when you're editing and especially in editing, editing your own work, it is so hard to find those words are used to read backwards. My entire manuscript backwards, just trying to find them other people would read it allowed because you hear it. It often can you catch up so much easier that way. So you have to do something to really see what's in front of you or are, you can run it through a ProWritingAid and look through the echoes. They have two different versions that it took me a second to do this, but they have word repeat, which looks at every single time you've used that word in the entire chapter. I, the beautiful thing about ProWritingAid is if you write in Scrivener, like we do it actually can open a and file and edit chapter by chapter in Scrivener. Autumn (22m 50s): So you don't need to have to like move your file into a different format or spit it out into word. Its just, I love having everything in one place. So it's so nice that it does that. And so I'm opening up my Scribner file and letting it run something you don't want to do the whole repeats, but echos just does when you use that word again within the next, so many words, like you can set it to whatever you want. 300, 500, a thousand of that's a little high, but depends on what you're writing. If you are doing a site to a scientific journal, you might want it really high. You might run at a really low. And that is definitely to me. The place to start is to see how many times we have reuse the same word. Autumn (23m 30s): And it's just like, even when I thought I was good and I was being paying so much attention too, you know, not reusing the word too many times. Oh no. When you run it through this echos check, you're just like, Oh my goodness. I am in love with this word. Look as fallback. WORST. I, I double check that one all the time because it seems like I always reuse that one way to many times. So I'm often running through and doing stuff There. Jesper (24m 5s): Yeah. Yeah. I can't say on top of my mind, which ones I, but I definitely noticed as well that even when I write the first draft, sometimes I, I noticed myself repeating the same word. So I do, I do as will pick up that you saw us and tries to try to even the first draft to try to use some different words just to not make it too painful for you. Autumn (24m 30s): I do have a painful on myself. It's just our tendency to do that as a writer is it's like we get these things stuck in our head and we just keep using the same word. And it's just so nice. Like I said, it's so hard to find it on your own and that it has this echo cheque is just so fantastic. It was one of my favorite once you run is where I usually start. And it is impressive how much that cleans up your Writing right off the get go. You're really forest it's nice. Cause highlights, not only where are you used it at? Like how many spaces do you use it? But then it comes up. If you'd click on it, you could come up with a thesaurus and you can see, you know, other options you can think about it. Autumn (25m 13s): And that's really, that's my most time consuming. Umm, so the terracing to it, that that is my most time-consuming edit in pro Writing rate ADE is running the Echo's cheque that can easily take a half an hour or more. Cause I'm really reading through it and pulling things out and trying to change, not just using the Taurus. Yeah. First chapter and that just using us the stories. But I tend to sometimes rearrange sentences and really try to really, really develop things a little bit better with this check. Jesper (25m 46s): And when you do that, so when you make changes, it changes inside the Scrivener file itself, correct? Autumn (25m 52s): Yes. Correct. And that is one of the nice thing. So when I then go back and open up, Scrivner all my changes, our there, as long as we hit save it and it does more new, if you didn't save it, it says, Hey, you didn't say this, but you do have to hit save. Its not like I'm I worked on a Mac. So when I get so used to like what I changed something, obviously I wanted to change it. If I changed it, I wouldn't have changed at all if I didn't need to change that. So max always save everything if you change it, but me and upper Writing it, you have to actually hit the safe. Right. And so Jesper (26m 23s): What are some of the other reports and in the software Autumn (26m 26s): From their I, the one I have noticed that actually have some nuances based on character's as well as my own author of voice is called stickie, which I think that it's just sound like a fun, have fun reports to run, But sticky sentences, our ones that you use a lot of filler words instead of the nouns and adjectives and verbs, the filler ones like the is, Oh, well actually yours is a verb, but you know, not even strong verbs. So when you have the sentence with a lot of those, its harder to comprehend for a reader. They are going to call us and they can be really short sentences, but usually they tend to be your longer sentences. And that's the one I've noticed that I have a few characters that do speak in a kind of wordy styles and those sticky, those were my sticky rating. Autumn (27m 13s): We'll be like 46%. And it does give you ranges of what is normal in writing. So I think Forti is usually the upper level. I tend to, if I hit 40, I'm really proud of myself, usually 42% like you, my low end, I tend to write short sentences, which is funny. And it gives you a sentence variation that it says like average sentence length. I think it was between 11 and 18 based on the genre I've chosen. And I tend to write like 10.2 sentence length, 10.2 words per sentence, as my seems to be my average or a 10.8, 11.2. But my sticky index has a really high. So every once in a while I have a sentence it's like 32 words, you know? Autumn (27m 55s): So, and it is, it is at least something that does give you, there is a whole report on length where it'll tell you your sentence length and it'll show you almost like an audit auditable, Audio graph, you know, the ups and downs. It will show you so you can see that you are really varying your sentences. These are important tools that it's happy. It's when I do, you know, read ProWritingAid eye, look at it and I'm like, Oh yeah, I've already got that good. So I tend to skip the length report unless I just feel like, you know, looking at fun squiggly graphs, but the sticky sentence, one is one where you get to sit down and you see the sentences. And then it's in this computer is saying, this might be confusing. This is going to make readers stall and you can go through and try to reduce those sentences and clean them up and move out some of the stuff. Autumn (28m 41s): Do you really need to have this description, the description and, and, and an, or, and can you break this into several sentences and clean it up? And that really does help. That will help your reader so much to no, Hey, this is really long sentence or this was a really, even a short sense that just is not clear. Or can you put it in a better noun? Can't you put it in a better verb, make this a little bit more concrete, less sticky sentence. And so that was a fantastic one. And from there I think, Jesper (29m 16s): Yeah, yeah, yeah. And quite a lot of these basically things that helps with the line by line editing. But I believe that, yeah. I mean, I don't think unless I'm wrong, but I don't think you are using it so much. But I do believe that ProWritingAid has some stuff that helps with short of character arcs on all the plotting elements and stuff like that. Autumn (29m 39s): Yeah. But it has a little bit, it has some later ones, it has reports on pacing. So you can see how many sentences, how many paragraphs you have that are slow. One thing I wish it did is it will tell you how many paragraphs you have that are slow, but it won't tell you out of how many paragraphs and the chapter I have a knot, it'll tell you sentences. Or like how many sentences you have, but not how many paragraphs. And I think it would be so cool. If it would tell you, you have like nine paragraphs out of 28 that are slow because then if you wanted to, you could make your own chart to see how that is graphing. But it does help to see like, is this a lull you can, you should know for yourself, like, Hey, I meant to write this chapter as a law or this one is a hurdle. Autumn (30m 26s): So it should be a lot more exciting. And you look at it and you're like, Oh, I only have four slowed paragraphs. Perfect. This is a hurdle. Or you lug it out and you open it up. And its like its 10 slow paragraphs that are full of like description and emotion. And its just really slow and you're like, Oh well that's okay. This is a lull. Or should it be, should I be reworking lists to make sure it's better? So that is one. And that it has one report. This is the only platform out of everything that we looked at that had to report that was on the census, that it actually looked through your text and pulled out how many times, how many words you use at fit each of the five senses. And that was fantastic. And that's where it Fictionary I thought was pretty cool. Autumn (31m 7s): It gave you some advice to always use all the senses, but you were supposed to fill in which words you were using, ProWritingAid says, Hey, you use 2%. So four words that were in a smell. And I think that is really cool. So with just one quick check, you can say like I hit all of the senses or it says you're missing one. You can be like, Oh gosh, I'd have to go back in and add in this one. So I think that's a fantastic report. It really gives you an idea of how you're doing on all using all the senses. You know, do you see only 50% is site and you didn't use any touch. This would be horrible. You need to go fix that. Jesper (31m 51s): Yeah. So in some degree or some sense, I guess you could say that if you are looking for some sort of software tool, when you are, let's say first starting out and you basically want to work more around story structure, character arcs, then Fictionary might be the better choice. But if you're looking for some software that can really help elevating you're writing and, and looking sense Instructure's structures, word choices, using a census and all of that stuff, then pro writing aid. Well, it, it, it is more powerful than Fictionary and, And I, I, I, and I also think the Fictionary is better than an AutoCrit. Jesper (32m 38s): So, so I think that's the thing is it's almost like AutoCrit then Fictionary and then ProWritingAid I, but, but that's of course looking at our own needs, but if you are like a completely new author, you want some help, some software help in terms of just structuring the story, then Fictionary might actually be better than ProWritingAid for your needs. Autumn (32m 58s): I agree. Yeah. The one thing I really enjoyed with Fictionary for the cause there was a free trial and I mean, if you want to go check it out, that's what I think it's really cool. It's got a 14 day free trial, the Fictionary and there's a 14 day free trial with ProWritingAid I, so you can't lose the fact. You can do both the same time and you use ProWritingAid I in Fictionary and then you are really doing some powerful writing at the same time. He probably could just focus on one or the other first though, but there are some really cool note features and Fictionary where it goes. And you want to know that, like it tells you to use a sentences and you can go click on the little question, Mark and explains why and what you're supposed to be doing. And I kind of like those notes at the time. Autumn (33m 39s): I was like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now when I'm in ProWritingAid of the one thing that I think it really isn't the gray that greatest, That, and I've actually sent out a question to the staff over there is I think the thesaurus is kind of the week. I also have a pro or a premium subscription to Grammarly and Grammarly is purely just fixing your sentences, the thesaurus period's, you know, those kind of things, the concrete changes. It doesn't give you any of the reports, a writing ProWritingAid. So I think ProWritingAid has more powerful, but Grammarly is the stories and understanding how you used the word in the sentence. Like if it, the word could be announced or a verb Grammarly, we will figure out what it is and give you some really amazing concrete suggestions for your thesaurus. Autumn (34m 30s): ProWritingAid I, 70% of the time, I think there's a word in there that's acceptable. Maybe less than that. Sometimes 40%. It depends on the word. Like I had, I had reuse shoulder or a few times and one of the F the suggestions, and this is the source was left. And like, how has left a good replacement for a shoulder? I just, that one sticks in my mind, but it's not usually that bad, but there are times where if you highlight the word one place, it will give you some suggestions and then you highlight it below. It won't have any suggestions. And I'm just, I don't like those in consistencies. I'm often either, either I know a better word myself, or I'm reworking the sentence and I'll just come up with something better or I'm going into, you know, Googling synonyms of another word. Autumn (35m 17s): And I've actually put in a, a S a T they don't have a ticket, but they have a way of putting in features that you suggestions. And so I put it in a suggestion where we can add in our own words into that, the source, because I am so sick of Googling the same words, because I can't remember that I used it in the previous chapter. And I know there is something better. So that's about it. The one place, I really think ProWritingAid, I does kind of fall flat that the source could be a lot more robust and, you know, if I could have anything I ever wanted, I would love to see them like do a next generation where it says, Hey, you use this word, like shoulder or a glance. So many times, why don't you try using a different body part? Autumn (35m 58s): Why don't you try? I would love to like, see, like the emotional side is Saurus if you've ever used that online or have that book, which we'll have to have it on my Kindle when they were doing, you know, edit. And I wish it would be like tied into pro writing aid where it says, Hey, this looks like it's an emotional Q, why don't you try this one? But in all honesty, that's what you pay an editor for. If you're paying for a really good editor, they should be picking this stuff up. I think it would be so cool to be like developing the AI too that level. But, you know that's a really big ask it. I know that I was basically like, I want you to like, program an editor into a pro writing it, but it would also be really cool if it could develop that much and be like, Hey, you're using an emotional Q, why don't you try something else here? Autumn (36m 47s): Hint, hint, you know? Jesper (36m 49s): Yeah, yeah. For sure on that. That would be cool. Yeah. I should also mention by the way that, and I do not remember the episode number, but you can go out and then you can go back and check if you, if you want. But we did interview the CEO of Fictionary and a past episode when she talked to Christina, I think she is called and she a, she talked a lot about, well, all the features within Fictionary. So it Fictionary is something you were interested in just to go back through the podcast feed and find the one where we are talking about Fictionary and then listening to that one as well. But I was also thinking Autumn. Mmm. So using a software can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming, meaning like, Okay, so I have all of this report's I've had all this stuff I can, I can get from the software, but maybe if you maybe would be useful for some people to just, if you sort of just boil down a bit about what would be the sort of steps that you would suggest, like do this and then do this, and then do this sort of a give or give some people a bit of a template for ProWritingAid basically. Autumn (38m 1s): Yeah, absolutely. And it's one of those things, no matter where you open it, it has this huge menu of reports across the top. And you can run an overview, always, especially if you're just getting familiar with the program and your not sure where to start or how your own writing is looking, run the overview report for us, because it'll get you oriented. It'll tell you where you are strong. Yay. I love that. They tell you what you are strong. It will give you some graphs. It it'll tell you, go focus on, you know, go look at these other individual reports. So, you know, that will give you a good starting point. Then at that point, the One report, I would say, never, ever, ever run. They have one that is basically All it'll run every single report that it does all at the same time. Autumn (38m 44s): And just highlight all of your texts. It is chaos. I mean, I am chaotic. I admit it, but this is chaos. This is so overwhelming. So just to skip that one. Yeah. And also skip repeats because those two will just make you feel like, Oh my God, I don't even know where to start with this. You will feel so overwhelmed. Just skip that, go to the Echo's, you know, do your overview, go to the echos, you know, to double check your length of your sentences, which is a good one. Run your sticky report below stickie, as cliche as that is a fantastic one. There was a report on dialogue. It'll tell you if you're using things consistently, there's also a consistency cheque, which is also really awesome. So you will tell you if your capitalizations are a consistent, like, are you M you know, mages, or do you have names that are your upper cases and sometimes lower casing. Autumn (39m 32s): It will get you to, you have fixed for that. You can go down and then do there's one for homonyms. I used to be horrible in homonyms have gotten better. I would say the homonym report that there is, it tells you every single word that is a potential homonym. It doesn't just look for ones you might have missed. You used that so that it might confuse you. Cause like if you, it will highlight or a cause, or it can be an, or it can be aura as in like a panel. So he'll say you might get yourself a little more overwhelmed with some of those reports. You've got to look at them in, take a minute. You know, there is some information that you can go online and see what they're about. Read those run, you know, the sensory, the pacing run all of those, but to each one individually in a kind of his set up in order that if you start on echoes and work your way to the right, just go in that sequence and then come back. Autumn (40m 25s): And there is a final one that I love to wrap up. Two final ones to wrap up with. And one is overused and its like echoes, but its totally different. It, it tells you if you simply used this word too many times as compared to previous WRITING, like I say, look so it'll tell you, Hey, you have started sentences with ING endings way to many times compared to publish Writing, go fix those. And then once you do your overused words, checked, go and run the regular grammar. That's the last step, which is actually the first report. So it's a live report, go fix everything there it tells you to do and then hit save. Autumn (41m 11s): And that chapter's done. Jesper (41m 13s): Yeah. So I think overall, if you are, I mean ProWritingAid should probably be a useful tool for almost everyone. I would say AutoCrit I would say Nope, just to skip that one. If you need to ask, if we set before, if you, if you are quite knew to writing and you need more of the structural help than probably check out, Fictionary maybe get both Fictionary and a pro Writing eight on trial versions and see which one you, you like the most. But I think it's probably safe to say that you are editing phase and you're writing will become better by using some of this software. Jesper (41m 58s): It's not, it's not just some, you know, nice thing to have it it's almost in the category of need to have, because it actually does make a big difference. It really does. I think my set, my chapters edited with pro writing aid are so much stronger than what I was doing before pro writing aid. I really think that the sentences and the echos and the checks that I'm doing through providing aid, I see an improvement. It's got an extra Polish that I could not have done on my own. Yeah. So that's something for, for you to check out, to sign up for a trial version of pro writing aid. Jesper (42m 39s): If you have an AE or if you are using already and to see what you, what you think of it. But other than that, then the next Monday, I'm hoping to have an interview for you with Alex Newton, from Kayla Tricks. And we are going to talk about what sells in the fantasy genre. Yeah. Narrator (42m 57s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Autumn and Jesper on patreon.com/AmwritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month you'll get awesome rewards and keep The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

Show versus tell... show versus tell... show versus tell...If we are true to ourselves, no other bit of writing advice has been given out more times than any other. Editors are perpetually yelling at us to show and not tell.For old hands at the wheel, we know it when we see it and usually say something. Editors have magic red pens that can write "Show... not tell" on your manuscripts automatically by saying some sort of incantation.For the rest of us in the world, we have wonderful insights from other authors and some great articles we can consult from time to time to help us on our writing journey. Won't you join me?By the way, the articles mentioned in this podcast are:From Writer's Write, https://www.writerswrite.co.za/5-instances-when-you-need-to-tell/, by Amanda PattersonFrom Autocrit, https://www.autocrit.com/editing/support/showing-vs-telling-indicators/ Please, if you enjoyed this episode, hit like and consider a financial donation to help keep things rolling.Have a blessed day,Bryan the WriterSupport the show (http://paypal.me/BryanNowak)

You've finished the first draft of your novel. GREAT! Now, how do you tackle edits? We've got you covered. In this episode, we discuss the pros and cons of different editing methods, take a peek at how Autumn runs her edits, and what you can do if you really aren't a fan of editing (like Jesper). Check out the Ultimate Fantasy Writer's Guide before enrollment closes on March 7th! Head over to https://ultimatefantasywritersguide.com/main/. Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday.   SUPPORT THE AM WRITING FANTASY PODCAST! Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review.   Join us at www.patreon.com/AmWritingFantasy. For as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcast going.  Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion). Narrator (2s): You're listening to the Am Writing Fantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need an literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt, and Jesper Schmidt. Jesper (30s): Hello, I am Jesper Autumn (31s): and I'm Autumn. Jesper (34s): This is episode 114 of the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. And this is one off Autumn's favorite Topics. And for me, not so much. Autumn (48s): That's fair enough though. I have to admit, I have been so up to my nose and edits recently that maybe it's not quite as favorite as it is at other times of the year. Jesper (59s): No. Okay. Fair enough. Well, we're going to talk about how to edit your novel today. So hopefully that'll prove very helpful for listeners. Yes, I think so. And I definitely, the first time I said was editing, I was a mess and I didn't know where to start. And I think a lot of re writers they're really good at writing, but they don't know how to tackle edits in an organized way. That is the most efficient and I love efficiency. So this should be a good topic. I hope. Yeah, for sure. But how have things been over the last week? Have you broken anything, any websites or computers you have messed up coding? That's so not fair. Jesper (1m 40s): A question. Oh, it's bad. I did to finish up that story. I did get my laptop back from the Apple Replair repair place and they ended up, I think if I hadn't had stickers on the back of my laptop, they would have just given me a whole new whole new laptop, but they took off my old screen, put it on a whole new base and I have new batteries, a new logic board, a new video graphic card. I have everything but more memories. Autumn (2m 7s): So because they refuse to upgrade the memory in the year of computer I have, but I have all my files. And so my laptop is working famously and I love it. I love the new keyboard. The old keyboard was crap. So I actually enjoy typing on this one, which is kind of nice for a novelist, but yeah, everything was going smoothly and I was catching up on work. And then our hosting agency for the websites got hacked and luck knock on wood. I happened to have been in there almost the exact same time it happened. And all they had done was just changed a few emails, you know, kind of weasel in through a few back doors. Autumn (2m 50s): And my husband and I spent the next three days blocking cleaning and upgrading and updating and doing a whole bunch of stuff. And that kind of like it was book, I'm a writer. I thought I was like a cyber stalker worm killer. I don't know. It was just a nightmare. It's just not our month. It's my year. I keep thinking about your comment that said, you know, now, you know what your characters feel like. And I'm like, I feel like the main character in someone's favorite novel right now, because it's just, as soon as I get a chance to catch my breath. Whew. Right on the roller coaster again. Autumn (3m 29s): Oh my goodness. Hopefully you'll get a break tonight where I feel so bad for my characters. Now, if this is like, if it's like, I should just come with a warning, this is to not touch, may break something very quickly. So yeah. So that's my life. How are you doing? I hope it's calm over there. Jesper (3m 55s): Well, yeah, compared to all the rest of the world, luckily enough, you're the one dealing with those issues, even though it's a, of course also my issue with such, but you're dealing with it, so I don't have to worry about it. So I guess while you were doing all of that, I finished up watching Vikings. So on HBO, that sounds horrible. Autumn (4m 18s): Don't tell me how it is. I haven't finished it yet. We're still watching it. It's one of our rotations. So it's taking forever to get through the last episodes. Jesper (4m 27s): Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But by the time this episode airs, I will have posted a video in our Facebook group for readers sharing my thoughts about the show. I'm not going to do any spoilers or anything like that, but, but I, I just thought I, I would talk a bit about the endings without any spoilers, but more like the idea about it. Because I mentioned, I think I'm one of the quite recent podcast episodes as well. I mentioned the ending of game of Thrones and I know, well, we have a lot of haters on the internet about that show, but, but I was mentioning quite recently how I liked that they wrapped up each character arc very well in game of Thrones. Jesper (5m 11s): Yes they did. And I, and I was very pleased that they actually did the same thing here. So I liked it. Oh, good. Yeah. Very good. Ending to the six seasons. As far as I know that I'm not going to do any more episodes. I don't think that they at least, so I think this is the end of the series as a whole. And I actually think they left it in a good place. So I was very positive about DHEA, the ending of it all that gives me something to look forward to unless I break the TV. Well, yes, you might want your husband to turn on the persona, press play and stuff like that. Autumn (5m 49s): He won't let me have the remote at this point. I'm surprised I'm allowed in the kitchen. Jesper (5m 54s): Yeah. Or even on a podcast. Autumn (5m 55s): At least the podcast is still recording it's because you're hosting. Jesper (6m 0s): Oh, right. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. But as I said, I'm going to share some thoughts in the Facebook group and well, this is of course the Redis group we have on Facebook. But if any of the listeners should be interested in that, just search for fans of immersive fantasy among the Facebook groups. And you will find one that is called fans of immersive fantasy Redis club for the world of Elysium. Yeah. So that's what it's called. Autumn (6m 27s): Yeah. That's us. Jesper (6m 29s): So you're welcome to join if you want, but to keep in mind that this is a group for fiction readers. So we do not share any kind of author advice or any of the other usual stuff. You, you, you get in the am writing fantasy, our Facebook group. So it's a very different compared to that one, but you're welcome to join. Of course, if you're interested. Autumn (6m 51s): Absolutely. Narrator (6m 51s): Oh, a week on the internet with the yam writing fantasy podcast Jesper (6m 58s): First, can I just mention that something came across all over my Facebook feed? So I don't know if you noticed, but the Jeff Bezos announced a quite here recently that he was stepping down as the CEO of Amazon. Did you notice that? Autumn (7m 18s): I, yes. Adam told me about it. My husband. Jesper (7m 22s): Right. And then of course, I don't know if we authors are just like Chronicle worried about all kinds of things. I don't know. But then I noticed some posts on my feet where some authors were concerned now because when Jeff Beto started out Amazon, it was like an online bookstore that he started. So he, and we know he likes books and then people starting to get concerned that, well, if Jeff is gone, then he's the guy who loves the books. What will then, will that end up having some sort of effect on KDP? So what do you think about that? Autumn (8m 5s): I'm not a worrier. And so I read it to me. It's always been Amazon might not. It won't. I mean, there's just no way. It's always going to be the number one place to buy books. Things will change. And that's why you should build your own fan base and mailing lists. Because if Amazon went belly up tomorrow, that way you'd still have a way of reaching readers, you know, that's very true, indeed. Jesper (8m 29s): I honestly think it matters absolutely nothing. It's not going to change anything that Jeff Bezos is not the CEO anymore. I really don't think so. I think the readers are so active and it's a part of Amazon that unless it was making, unless it was losing money, they wouldn't cut it off. Autumn (8m 49s): No, I don't think it makes any difference whatsoever. And it's just one of those things that can we please stop worrying about all kinds of stuff that doesn't really matter. It's just the unnecessary spend of your mental capacity and resources. It's a, Oh my God. I don't know if we authors or just a worried bunch in general, but it's just, Oh, I wouldn't. Jesper (9m 12s): I was not laughing at the post because obviously somebody is truly worried, so it was not, but I was more like, ah, Jesus, can we, can we move on a bit instead? Autumn (9m 23s): It's not like chicken little, the sky is falling. The sky is falling about every new thing. I just, I'm not a worrier about things like that. I'm much a wait and see kind of person. So I will monitor the trends, but I'm not, I'm not exclusive to Amazon. So I'm not that worried. Jesper (9m 43s): No true. But all right there, the really big thing that we needed to mention here instead is that for the first time in six months we have our online writing course open. Autumn (9m 55s): Yes. Whew. I always love it. When the ultimate fantasy writer's guide is open again. It's still my little baby. Jesper (10m 3s): Yeah. So I have a very short testimonial sunk clip from past students that I want to play now. And then maybe afterward, you can explain a bit about what the course is about open. Autumn (10m 13s): I will try to explain, you know, how my week's going. Jesper (10m 16s): Oh, well that's true. Unless your internet breaks by the time I've played this. Okay. Well, here it goes. Catherine (10m 31s): Hi everyone. I'm Catherine. I'm currently working my way through the ultimate fantasy writers guide and I've been finding it very helpful. One of my main problems has been plotting. I had a very hard time getting my plot to go through and have continuity after going through the workshops for the plotting section I have now got a full plot and have begun writing. It has been very helpful for me and I'm sure you will find it very helpful too. Thanks. Jan (11m 3s): Hi, I'm Jan B read fantasy author and I just watched autumn bread's launch day module. It was a really informative, had a lot of great information. She had ideas I had never thought of before really excited to implement her ideas and launching my own book. I highly recommend the ultimate fantasy writer's guide because it's one of the best programs I've ever seen. It not only covers pretty much everything about writing from start to finish, including fan bases and staying confident and everything. It also has things like languages and naming your characters based on that. Jan (11m 47s): And it has Map making it. It's just so excellent. Jesper (11m 57s): Map-making that's just like, Oh, I love my, Autumn (12m 2s): I, yeah, we both have that. That's what brought us together almost as fantasy maps. So that's how we first really started talking. So go figure. Jesper (12m 11s): Yeah. So maybe you can share a bit about what's in this course. Autumn (12m 16s): Sure. Well, it's 12 modules and the first six, the first half are all about writing from everything, from idea development to characters and world-building magic rules from magic. So this is a four, it is designed for fantasy author. So I made it, you know, we made it so that it would go this way. Cause you've definitely helped me on it. After my initial attempt, you've gone through it all as well. And after that, it goes, it breaks down the actual writing process into writing the beginning, writing the middle, you know, the mushy middle and writing the end and the components that go into each of those areas. And there's just some advanced writing tips. So those first six modules are really all about how to write. Autumn (12m 58s): But if you're a self-published author, you know, writing is literally only half of the game. So the other six modules are all about building fans about editing, huh? That's today's topic today on a podcast where you go, how to make time and stay motivated. Because if you're working, if you have kids, if you have a family that's, that's its own issue and then you know, other platforms and what are the funny, I still remember the, one of the questions when I upload it up loading my debut novel born of water was that, you know those questions on Amazon and how do you answer them into my really answering them correctly? The first time you go through it, it is definitely like, Oh shoot, you don't know what to do. Autumn (13m 41s): So it goes through all of those questions and what you need to know have do when you go to upload and how to launch your book, launch it to fans, how to get reviews and how to take all of that. If you want to keep going and make an career, make an author platform, an author brand and talks about that. So it really steps you through, from having an idea to having a platform all in one course, because I wanted, I was tired of all these places that just like buy this one here, buy that one there. And then they often contradict each other. No, it's, it's all in one course, one voice it'll get you there. Steadily shortly has as long as it takes you to get through it all. Jesper (14m 22s): Yeah. And the courses online as well. It is self-paced so you can do it from the safety of your home. And I think these days that's pretty good. Autumn (14m 32s): I love, I have loved that. We do have a live component. We have the student Q and a every month and I really just, I love it. I love seeing students and hearing about what they're doing and what they're writing. It's just a total perk me up kind of day. Jesper (14m 48s): Absolutely. And it's also the first course we created, which means that over the years we've had out of quite a few bonus modules to the cost. So you will get access to those too. And as well, I should mention that there is a 30 day money back guarantee. No questions asked. So if you don't like the course after purchasing it, you just let us know and we will get you a refund and we're not going to ask why or anything. We'll just refund your money. And it's simple as that. Yes, I exactly, I it's, you can't lose by trying it out and seeing if it's gonna work for you. And I really hope it does because it is full of everything that has made a difference in my writing my career and how things have gone and why I'm a full-time author now. Jesper (15m 32s): So I hope it helps you to. Yeah. So we've included a link to the course in the show notes. So if this is something that you think will be useful for you, you need to go and check that out, but you have to be quick about it though, because we're closing the course for another six months a week after this episode airs. So you'll need to get in before the seventh of much. Otherwise it's going to be closed again. So yeah, don't tell you around or whatever you say, dilly dally do not delete Allie, come and join us. Narrator (16m 12s): Today's topic. Autumn (16m 15s): So editing. Jesper (16m 18s): Yeah. You sound much more enthusiastic already than I do. Narrator (16m 22s): Well, I want to start with a quote. One of my favorite quotes is definitely having ways. It is a write drunk, edit sober. I just love that one. And it is very true because writing tipsy can help the flow of creativity. But when it comes to editing, you need to have a clear head. I don't think it's very healthy though. Long-term drinking well. Jesper (16m 48s): Yeah. Okay. But if you get tipsy, if, I mean, there was the other advice that you should write every day. So if you're getting tips, I think is probably not the best of combinations. Autumn (16m 58s): I think pirates would make really good writers. Jesper (17m 1s): Oh yes. Maybe actually they would make good writers. Vikings would be excellent writers. Autumn (17m 8s): Yeah. There you go. See, you just need to find the right audience. Jesper (17m 14s): Yeah. That might actually be true. But I was thinking that maybe we could go through some different ways. One can edit a novel and maybe she has some pros and cons on the different approaches or absolutely. Autumn (17m 28s): And I definitely, I mean, for me, I wanted to share to like my organization, how I see it as different layers and different levels because by doing that, you can refine it without wasting too much time. Jesper (17m 42s): So I think those are important too, but let's I want it. Autumn (17m 44s): So you found some different types or topics of editing? Jesper (17m 49s): Well, more like some different ways of doing it, I guess more so I could think of four different ways and there might be a bit of overlap in them too, to some degree, I guess. But yeah, the first one I had was basically edit as you go. And this is certainly not something I recommend doing, but I guess the pro of doing that is that once the manuscript is done, it's done now. Autumn (18m 27s): Yeah. That's it that's pretty nice. I always, there was a writer I knew when I had my previous job as a conservationist and when I went to visit him and we talked to was a comfort, you know, we I'd worked with soils and plants and things. And so he would put it in terms. He thought I would understand. He he's like in the, in the gardener in the morning, I, I go and tend, you know, I plant my vegetables and in the afternoon I weed. So that was, he did edit as he goes in the morning, he would write in the afternoon he would edit. And I always say, well, that's a fun way of doing it. But I also think he was non-fiction. And so I think it's easier. But with fiction, I, there are times we just had this discussion in the am writing fantasy group. Autumn (19m 9s): Cause we, this was a recent post and there are times, and there are people who do edit as they write. I think that you would have to be a good plotter so that, you know, you're not wasting your time editing something that you're going to end up cutting, but it's so much easier to edit something written. Jesper (19m 27s): Yeah. And th that was also the con I have with this one is basically that you do run the risk that let's say you get to chapter 35 and then you figure out, Oh, shoot, I need to change something back in chapter 20, which is now fully edited. So you put in the man hours to, to do the editing and now you have to go back and change this, which means you have to edit it again. So, and let's say that maybe you haven't plotted that well, so you have a bit of a mess on your hand, which then means that by chapter eight and 11 and 14 and 17 and 18 and so on, there's stuff you need to correct. Yeah. You're going to spend quite a lot of time re editing the same stuff again after changing it. Jesper (20m 11s): So I'm not a hundred percent fan of this approach. So I must admit no. Autumn (20m 16s): Well, I, I really try to avoid it. There's times I will go back and edit in. Like I recently realized I was missing a point of view of a character that I really thought when I realized it was important as three quarters of the way through the novel. So I had to go back and add like two or three chapters in that was editing. And sometimes there's just like, I realized that there's something that's wrong and I just need to get it right. Or it's not flowing correctly. So I'll go and edit. But in general, I just leave myself notes and I wait until I go through my first layer Jesper (20m 48s): Of editing before I go and tackle real edits, the true edits. Otherwise I just, just leave notes for yourself. I have a whole folder in Scrivener. That's just editing notes of things. I want to go back in and change, or I do it where I go and it's available through it's there so that I can go back and, you know, put it like right in the Scrivener file, right in the chapter. I need to go in edit. I'll just add a comment or a note saying, Hey, add this into. Autumn (21m 20s): Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Jesper (21m 23s): I, I also feel like, I mean, I don't know why I've burnt my burned myself and learn my lessons. And if not, when I got like 50 K words into the first book I wrote and then figured out that I had to digital thing, just imagine if I hit as, Oh my God. Plus I would say that Maybe it doesn't matter too much if you're very seasoned, but at least when you're starting out, I think there's a lot of value in completing something. Yes. And if you're editing as you go, it takes you forever to complete that manuscript. Whereas if you just push through and get a bit of a messy draft done, at least you got something done. Jesper (22m 9s): And then I think you said it before. Autumn (22m 10s): Right. Jesper (22m 11s): Then you can start going back into something you actually have, but, but it just that the art of, or the experience of proving to yourself that you can finish a first draft. There's a lot of value in that. And for that alone, I would almost say, don't edit as you go. Autumn (22m 30s): Yeah. I, my, I completely concur, especially for your first few novels. Don't don't do it. Don't get yourself trapped in the editing and not finishing finish and then edit it's. One of the things say we teach in the guide is, you know, right. The goal is actually to write for a short, bad book, just a short, bad manuscript. Maybe it should be just write it and then add to it and then enhance it because that is, it's much more possible. It's easier to do when you have something there and you see the whole story arc, all the characters when you have it all there. And you're like, Oh, that's how it ends. Well, now I got to go fix the beginning and that's fine. But yeah, playing the devil's advocate when you and I write together, technically you write and I go back through and I'm writing and editing, but this is like, you know, it's like book 24 for me. Autumn (23m 22s): I'm not that. And you're up in the tens now too. So we have it all plotted out so that we can actually work together and stay on the same path. So I'm not that worried about what we're doing, but that's an exception. I will say that because technically I am, it's already written though. You wrote it, but I'm writing in editing at the same time. Jesper (23m 43s): Yeah. But I, in that case, I would almost, because there's a difference between sitting and writing the first draft. Let's see. Okay. Yeah. I sit down, I write my chapter one and then I go back and I edit my entire chapter one. And then I write chapter two when I go back and edit chapter two and so on all the way through. Right. But what you're getting, you're getting a full book basically. I mean the entire first draft is there when you get it from me. So yes, you are editing as you go. And of course you will also writing in the chapters and you are adding to it, but, but the novel is there. So to speak of the bones of it. Jesper (24m 23s): Is there already? Autumn (24m 25s): Yes. So it's sort of a different process. Jesper (24m 28s): Yeah, I think it is. Yeah. Well, somebody can judge us on that. That's Okay. Autumn (24m 33s): If you want to, we can take it easily after the week I've had please judge me on my writing techniques or my editing techniques. That's fine. All right. So what's the next one that you have as a method? Jesper (24m 49s): Yeah, the next one I had was I'm doing a content edit and then afterwards doing all the like grammar would copy editing and so on and so on. Right. So basically what I mean by that is doing multiple passes over it. And the, the upside of doing that is that you're going to end up with a very thorough editing because you have been over the manuscript several times, which means that you should, at least in theory have covered all your basis once you've gone over the last pass. So in the beginning passes, you are not worrying about incorrect commerce or finding the perfect word or stuff like that. Jesper (25m 33s): You, you just making sure that the character arcs are there, the stories working and so on, and then you worry about those things in a, in a future pass. So doing that at least. Yeah. I think it's, it gives a very, very good end result. The con is that it can take quite some time to go through it over and over again in different passes. I just, Autumn (25m 56s): I agree. I don't think it takes too much time that's because this is my favorite method and it is what I do when I'm writing by myself. The first thing I do is a content edit that usually begins by reading through the entire book, almost as fast as I can, like as if I was a, a reader, but also taking really not meticulous, but really good notes that very specific, like the point of view, the plotting phase, I, cause I know the editor will need it eventually new words and names. I talk about what happens in the plot because I have my initial plot, what I think is going to happen. And then I have what actually does end up happening in the story I use, you know, the census use to make sure that I'm covering all the senses. Autumn (26m 40s): I write a very detailed what needs worked and I'm pretty on myself there. And since then I've started opening, you know, my opening hooks, closing hooks to make sure they're varied, making sure that the opening paragraph does, you know, anchored little touches like that. Do I have the setting? The point of view is all that in there. And that is just literally the first round. And after that I go into the ones who are under the, what needs work. I find the ones that are like, Oh my God, this is horrible. What were you thinking? You idiot. And I go and I fix everything in those. And then I start on the going through and doing a coal pass of fixing up everything. And then usually I do one more pass at is more the grammar writing punctuation. Autumn (27m 24s): That's usually using at this point, like a grammarly or pro writing aid or something like that. And then I send it to the editor. I used to do eight to 10 passes. So now I've gotten it down to like three to four. I think I'm doing, I have my book. I still remember. I've told you this one before, but I've had readers ask how do you remember that such and such has happened? I'm like, I have read this book 25 times before you've ever even see it. It is ingrained. Plus I have a semi photographic memory. So it's just like between the two, if I forgotten something I'm so disappointed in myself. Jesper (27m 60s): Well, at least, at least for me with English, not being my mother tongue and stuff, stuff like that, you know, it's doing multiple passes. It takes a long time And I know I'm not the only one writing in English, even though it's not my mother tongue. I mean, I know we have listeners, I can see it in the, in the podcast that we have listeners for from many, many different places. So there are certainly other people who is in the same situation. And I think that they will, hopefully I hope sympathize with me in the sense that the less passive Autumn (28m 41s): And I think a lot of people, I am surprised. I think there's in my mindset is definitely organization and structure and the, I thrive on that. And so the multiple pace passes to me feel good because I'm actually going through, like, I can do three or four chapters a day. I feel like I'm making huge progress. I go, boom, boom, boom. I'm through the whole book. I started again and do the whole thing. And like two weeks later, I've completely two, three weeks. I've gone through the whole book and I think it's fine. I don't, I even when I'm writing them that way, if I'm in the same chapter for two to three days, I feel like the chapter is never going to end. I usually just do a summary and I skip ahead because I cannot stand to sit there on the same thing for day after day after day. Autumn (29m 25s): I like lots of irons in the fire. I like getting through things. So it works well for me because it's very fast. Lots of facets. Jesper (29m 33s): Yeah. That's funny you say that because actually for me, it's sort of the opposite in the sense that if I have to go back to the same again, I feel it really annoying. It's like, I'm not moving ahead. I'm not getting anywhere because now I'm at the same chapter again. So I really like to, it might be done, but I'd like to do one chapter and then it is done because then I'm not going back to that chapter. I know I can tick it off my to-do list and I know it's gone, whereas going back and redoing it, I don't know. It annoys me. Well, I don't like editing in the hall, but it's true. Autumn (30m 15s): I mean, every author is different and that's why even writing courses and everything else could be. So you've got to figure out all the advice and figure out what works for you, because that is going to what helps you flourish as a writer and as an editor. And obviously some authors are never going to be fantastic editors. They might need to go through a much more in depth hiring an editor that can handle more than just punctuation or, I mean, I tend to go through just proofreading. I don't really need a content edit. I don't need someone. Who's going to pick out too many awkward sentences. I know which ones at this point are pretty bad. I just need a proofreader. But other authors are going to want to have maybe a different level, have a beta reader, an alpha reader to help them develop some things that they would miss otherwise because they just, they don't have that editor instinct. Jesper (31m 7s): No. Yeah, that's absolutely true. So my next one is very similar, but it is more like instead of doing multiple passes, you just go in one, pass over the entire thing. But the thing is here and that this is where, I mean, there might be a bit of overlap with the ones that I already mentioned. Right. But because to some extent, we talked about editing as you go. We also talk talked about doing the multiple passes, but, but basically for this one to work, and this is to be honest, my preferred way of editing, but first to work, you have to have a pretty thorough outline. Jesper (31m 52s): So that can be no plot holes. That can be no character arcs ending up in nowhere, all of a sudden and stuff like that. Right? So you have to have it so that you can basically as a, well, I sort of alluded to it to it a second ago, but you can edit a chapter at a time and you know, that once you're done with that, it is done. Meaning that once I get to chapter 25, I'm not going to discover something that requires me to go back to chapter eight and, and redo some part of that. So you can understand that for this to work, the outline has to be very, very solid, right? So it also means that you are going to spend some more time in the outlining phase because you have to work out all the well, should we just call them different things, but you need to make sure that there is nothing that is missing or something that is inconsistent and stuff like that. Jesper (32m 47s): But if you do that, then you are gonna basically be able to edit the entire manuscript one chapter at a time. And as soon as you're done with the chapter, you're not going to see it again. And yeah, that's my preferred way of doing it because I hate redoing chapters again and again and again, but to some extent is probably also why I don't like editing in the first place because once I've gotten the story out of my head and onto the page, I really don't want to visit it again now. So Autumn (33m 20s): That seems fair enough. And I think this one though, you'd, if you're a pantser, this one is possible. If you do what I said first, if you do that first read through, take notes on everything that happens and, you know, get your, even, like I said, the new words and names or your setting, get all that information to a spreadsheet, a table. See, it's make sure everything needs sense. So, you know, make sure that at that point, if you're are, then you'd go back and look at your plot, make sure everything's fine. Put in your notes of what needs to be fixed. And then start doing the chapter one chapter two, chapter three, and just finish each one as you go. So if you didn't plot it in the first place, if you basically plot it on the second on the backend and then fix it, you could still do it as just like, basically, I don't know if you call that first one, a pass or just a read through. Autumn (34m 7s): It's not really, you're not editing, you're just taking notes, but it helps you, especially. I mean, I remember the first time, I mean, I know with you to the F ignoring the debut novel, which for everyone takes more than a year, unless you really know what you're doing with writing. So go to your second novel. It, it still took me about our year to write rule of fire and edit it. And so when you go back to that chapter, number one, you're like, Oh, I haven't seen this for a while and you need to reread it before you can really tackle, edits, even if you've plotted it. Because sometimes you're just like, Oh gosh, I can't remember what I even wrote there. So it feels good to do that. Read through, get yourself organized and then tackle your edits chapter by chapter. Autumn (34m 50s): You can certainly do this. Jesper (34m 55s): Hmm. Yeah. Well, or you can find somebody to do the editing for you. Autumn (35m 1s): I would say that's true. But I definitely, I have worked, have worked with slash seen something that literally looked like someone had written and then sent off to an editor and it didn't even have the dialogue tags don't do that. Don't don't, don't, don't don't ever do that, go through your work and at least put in like the quotation marks and things like that. Jesper (35m 24s): Yeah. It was probably my delivery that wasn't too. I was trying to make it feel fair to say that you get a writing partner and then you get her to do the editing and then you don't have this problem anymore. Autumn (35m 36s): That's true. Hmm. I wasn't actually implying, Oh, Hey, I've started to rethink this. No, absolutely not. I do enjoy writing with you and editing. So that's fair enough. Yeah. Well, Jesper (35m 55s): As usually we're lucky that we're good at different things. Yeah. Autumn (35m 58s): Yes. That's very true. And if I found that it's too right, I still have my own back-burner projects going on. Jesper (36m 7s): Right. Yeah. That's true. The last thing is not really a fourth way of doing it, to be honest, it's probably more like an add on thing. And I can't say too much about it because obviously I'm not the one editing I want, wanted to put it in here, just because then maybe you could add a bit about how you do it, but this is basically like whether you're doing it as a one go or you do several passes and then this part is about it's incorporated into one of those passes. That's up to you. Right. But what I mean is that it's the use of software. So like pro writing aid, we tested out Pictionary, we tested out autocrat. Jesper (36m 50s): And actually we might dive in deeper with these particular tools in future episodes and do a deep dive with them, but more on a high level note, you know, how do you make use of software to help you during editing? Yeah. Autumn (37m 2s): Oh, that sounds good because that's definitely, I mean, I've always used Grammarly, but I've recently I ran through AutoCrit and Fictionary and Pro Writing Aid and came up with some pros and cons on a winner. So I definitely think there's some, some things that can be added by using this level and one of them, and that would be sort of my add on to your ad then dumb number three is that you need to find a way of not seeing what you think you wrote, but what you actually put on the page. Oh, AI using the something, a software that can go through and like, say, Hey you did you really mean this word? Autumn (37m 46s): Or this is a homonym or you're missing the here having something to do that is useful. And you can do that with something like pro writing aid or you can, they say changing the font size or the text size changing, reading backwards. That was always one of my favorite ones because by reading it and reverse you, don't literally starting at the end paragraph and reading backwards. I usually go paragraph by paragraph, you don't get caught up in the story. And that is the one thing you do not want to do when you're, if you're doing a really intense, final editing round is don't get caught up in your own writing. You have to see the words. You have to see how many times you repeat the same word, because it is a writer's natural habit that when you use one word that you're like, Oh, that's clever. Autumn (38m 30s): Your mind is like sticks in your mind and you will use it two or three times on that same page. And you don't want to do that. You want to change things out. You want to find the source. So you want to find a better description, something different, a different sense you can use. And you can do that by going backwards or reading a loud or bigger text something. Yeah. Jesper (38m 48s): Loaded on Kindle. I actually quite liked that because when you move the medium on which you read away, you know, away from the computer away from Scribner, wherever it is that you wrote it and onto a different device, for example, on the Kindle, you will automatically read it slightly different because you know, on the Kindle you normally read your books. So your mind set when reading the words is different. Yes. So I quite like that trick as well to just sort of cheat your own mind and put it on Kindle. And then you can just, of course you can just highlight whatever, stay on your Kendall that you'd want to correct or something you can make highlights and notes on the Kindle as well. Jesper (39m 30s): So that's not really a problem, but I think it helps you spot things that you necessarily not necessarily would have seen in Scribner. We use Scrivener as an example here as your writing tool. Autumn (39m 43s): Yes. I agree. And it's you need to do something. Some people, you know, this is where they say, well, let it sit for three months. Well, in today's publishing world, I mean, especially if you're trying to be a career author, you don't usually have three months. You can let something you edited and is just about ready to be published. CIT, most readers kind of want to get it. So yeah, it's probably going to be something you're going to have to find a way of fooling yourself unless it happened to be book one of a trilogy and you've edited everything and then you're going to go back and release them back to back. Jesper (40m 17s): Yeah. But do you use the software as its own kind of pass or do you do it during the other passes that you do? I have Autumn (40m 28s): Using it as basically the third pass. So I usually go through my quick read through with all my notes. I go through a second round where I'm fixing everything in the notes and doing a lot more constructive. Story-building maybe bringing out the census things that I think are, are more creative. And when I'm ready to do the proofreading, the store is sorta like, when did I repeat this word too many times the mortar more technical, then I'll use something like a software, because at that point, my mind is more on the technical aspect and not the pretty word or the story building or the plotting. I know all of that is solid. I just need to look at word choice at that point or commerce. Autumn (41m 12s): And it's literally, I supposedly left-brain right-brain is not really a thing, but to me it's left brain right brain. So when I have switched over to these sheer technical side, it's I don't have to worry about the creative side anymore, unless I'm trying to choose sumptuous over delightful or something like that. Jesper (41m 31s): Right. Okay. Well, very good. Is there more on your process there that you want to share? Otherwise? I think I have a bit of a conclusion for us. Yeah, no, I think I've covered sort of how I do my process. So I think, you know, hopefully it gives someone some tips that there are many ways of editing about the only wrong way. The one we don't recommend is to do it literally as you're writing, especially if you haven't even finished the chapter, don't start editing and doubting yourself, especially if you're using it to just never finished because you don't think it's good enough. That's not the point of editing. If you're starting to do it as an undermining technique technique, and only you don't know if you're doing it that way. Autumn (42m 12s): If you have that little writer's voice and the doubt creeping in saying, that's not good enough, you've got to keep working on it. You got to keep worrying and you're never getting anywhere. Just stop, stop that, tell it to shut up and finish your chapter, finished your entire first novel and then go back and learn to edit and edit it. Don't don't give into pushing it, kicking it down the road, finish it. Hmm. Nope. Fair. And I think, well, to some degree, I think you've already mentioned what I wanted to say was the conclusion of all of this. I think, I think you'd actually did too, But then maybe Jesper (42m 52s): Just to reiterate, because it is important and the point is just that there is no right or wrong way of editing your novel. It really comes down to testing out the different options and then see what works for you. So we mentioned some options here. I'm sure that maybe, maybe some listeners can think of even more and if you can let us know, but at least we mentioned some options here, some pros and cons to each way of doing it. But I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to actually try out these different options. Not you might, you know, intuitively feel like, I think this one works best for me, but honestly you don't know until you've tried it. Jesper (43m 35s): So test them out too. And maybe even you're going to end up finding your own way, which might be a combination of some of them that you like one element from one approach and another from another, and then you combine it it, and then you have something that works for you. So I think that's the best advice we can give when it comes to editing. And it's the same thing. More or less cultural writing in general that you have to find your own path and nobody can tell you how to do it. Yes. And if you can't find your own fath, find a writing partner who has a good path and send it to them. That was part of the conclusion as well. Narrator (44m 15s): Okay. So next Monday, we are going to have a bit of fun autumn, and I will share with you 10 terrible ways to creating characters. So you can look forward to that. If you like, what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the am. Writing fantasy. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Ottoman Yesper on patrion.com/and writing fantasy for as little as a dollar a month, you'll get awesome rewards and keep the M writing fantasy podcast going, stay safe out there and see you next Monday.

In this episode, Shaunta, Juneta, and Meg spoke with Beth Power from Autocrit, a really awesome tool for writers that compares your work to others in your genre in order to help you be the best writer you can be!Click here to check out AutoCrit today!Check out AutoCrit's Deep Dive Live: Power Words YouTube video.Join the AutoCrit Author Community on Facebook.Take this quiz to find out what type of writer you are and stay up to date on all things Ninja Writers.Click here to get the first month of the Ninja Writers Club for $5!Subscribe to the Write Brain for extra content and to never miss an episode.

Coming up in this episode, I'm going to discuss where I'm at in the publishing process for Missing, my thoughts and plans on how I'll self-publish my crime thriller novella, and a few more marketing ideas. Before we dive into my exciting publishing news, I want to first talk about a slight change to my podcast and why I struggled with consistently publishing episodes. And, what I plan to do to overcome these issues in the future.In this episode, I will discuss:How I struggled with my mental health.Changes to the podcast.An update on working with a professional editor.The self-publishing tasks I've completed.Translating a novel in French.A few book marketing ideas.Tasks I need to complete before publishing.The publishing date for my crime thriller, Missing.And, my new podcast.Thanks for listening, and happy reading and writing, everybody.Check Out the Show Notes The Blog Post | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/bts024/Videos, Podcasts, and Other ResourcesBehind the Scenes Writing Vlog #13 on Mental Health | https://youtu.be/fpvK1aa2dP8How to Choose a Title for Your Novel (YouTube) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qXbOBErEksAlliance of Independent Authors, ALLi | https://allianceindependentauthors.org/?affid=6701Crime Thriller Short Story, the Lawn | authoradhay.com/blog/the-lawn/Thriller Novel Nerd Podcast | http://www.authoradhay.com/podcast/KDP | https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/Ingram Spark | https://www.ingramspark.com/Nielsen UK ISBN Store | https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/Home/Isbn (UK ONLY) Books and Tools MentionedWriting Killer Blurbs and Hooks by Adam Croft Mastering Amazon Descriptions by Brian D. Meeks How to write a sizzling synopsis by Bryan CohenVellum | https://vellum.pub/BookFunnel | https://bookfunnel.com/features/Grammarly | https://www.grammarly.comProWritingAid | https://prowritingaid.com/AutoCrit | https://www.autocrit.com/Support the Podcast by buying me a coffee | https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant the podcast straight to your inbox? | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/Connect with Me on Social MediaTwitter: @WriterADHayFacebook: www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFB group: The Authorpreneur Podcast CommunityInstagram: @authorpreneurpodcastYouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: www.goodreads.com/authoradhay

Last week my revisions for Missing became analytical thanks to the AutoCrit software. I'm also getting back to blogging my novella after a long absence. And, I have some exciting personal news to share with you. So, stay tuned for more details coming up in the show. Here's what you can expect from this episode:Exciting news that's both personal and has an impact upon my publishing schedule.An update on my revisions on tenses and dialogue using AutoCrit.I share a series of great blog posts on writing dialogue from the blog off an editor (you can find these below).The reason why I'm getting back to blogging my novella.And, I share my decision on using professional beta readers.Thanks for listening!  ** Check out the show notes **BTS018, Revising a Novella with AutoCrit, Back to Blogging, and Professional Beta Reading** Check out the Blog Posts on Dialogue from Pen Ultimate Word**Dialogue in fiction: Part I – How to write authentic dialects and foreign accents Dialogue in fiction: Part II – The essentials Dialogue in fiction: Part III – The nuts and bolts Dialogue in fiction: Part IV – The nuts and bolts, cont'd. Dialogue in fiction: Part V – Writing your characters' thoughts Tools & ResourcesAsk a Question on Writing | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/Your Questions on writing, editing and Self Publishing Answered | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/question/faq/Support the Podcast by buying me a coffee | https://www.buymeacoffee.com/authoradhayWant podcast episode updates sent straight to your inbox? | https://authorpreneurpodcast.com/podcast/tap/ ** Connect with Me on Social Media **Twitter: @WriterADHayFacebook: www.facebook.com/authorpreneurpodcastFB group: The Authorpreneur Podcast CommunityInstagram: @authorpreneurpodcastYouTube: www.youtube.com/c/authorpreneurpodcast/videosGoodreads: www.goodreads.com/authoradhay

Mark interviews authors Kerrie Flanagan and Chuck Harrelson about the steamy romantic comedy novels they have been co-authoring under the name C.K. Wiles. Before the interview, Mark shares a personal update explaining why he isn't participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, even though he loves it. He talks about how he will be using the month of November to get caught up on previous unpublished NaNoWriMo novels - in an effort he is calling NaNoComMo (National Novel Compleition Month) as well as a few other outstanding book projects he has in the works, including print and audiobook versions of two of his recent books on writing & publishing, The 7 P's of Publishing Success and Killing It On Kobo. He then thanks new Patron of the show, Mary Jo Rabe as well as the other existing patrons via www.patreon.com/starkreflections for their support, then gets side-tracked into remembering television shows like Romper Room and The Polka Dot Door. This episode is sponsored by Findaway Voices . . .During the interview, Kerrie, Chuck and Mark talk about: How Kerrie and Chuck first met, about ten years ago, via a developmental editing project The support Chuck has offered in helping hold Kerrie accountable for various writing projects over the years The strategic decisions behind the collaborative C.K. Wiles project The origin of the psuedonym The process of how they brainstorm, map out, outline, and write each of the novels How Chuck uses AutoCrit's web-based editing software (which provides automated recommendations for improving your manuscript in over 20 areas – categories like poor dialogue, use of adverbs, and relying on cliches) The cast and universe of characters that they have created and draw upon for each novel in this series The interesting and unplanned story arc that is beginning to reveal itself as they were working on the third book The logistics of how they published the C.K. Wiles books to the various retail platforms The co-author contract/agreement that Kerrie and Chuck created regarding this author name and series The importance of trusting one another and "having no ego" on a collaborative work - looking at the work as "ours" as it is being worked on and re-written The different elements that Kerrie and Chuck each bring to the narrative that make it better Plans they have for promotions and attention for this series After the interview, Mark reflects on one of the elements that Kerrie and Chuck mentioned, which is playing off one another's strengths. He considers teamwork and the importance of recognizing strengths and weaknesses when working with others. Links of Interest: C.K. Wiles Website C.K. Wiles Books Sign up to get Book One for FREE Kerrie Flanagan Episode 31 - Interview with Kerrie about Writing Magazine Articles Northern Colorado Writers Group Findaway Voices NaNoWriMo Romper Room The Polka Dot Door Polkaroo AutoCrit Patreon for Stark Reflections Stark Reflections Survey The 7 P'S Of Publishing Success Killing It On Kobo   Kerrie Flanagan is a freelance writer with over 20 years' experience and is the author of Guide to Magazine Article Writing. As a writing consultant, she works with writers, giving them the encouragement, support, resources and tools to find success on their writing journey. She is the author of 8 books under her label, Hot Chocolate Press. Chuck Harrelson resides in Denver Colorado and is an active member of both the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and the Northern Colorado Writers Group. His past manuscripts won the 2014 Top of The Mountain Book Award competition, the Ballot Press Competition and one was a finalist at the 2016 San Diego Writers Conference.    The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0