LISTEN ON APPLE PODCAST | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY | LISTEN ON YOUTUBE Receiving your first book review can be both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Whether it's a glowing five-star love letter or a brutal one-star takedown, reader reviews can send even the most confident authors into...

Are you struggling to weave together multiple storylines across different time periods? Dual timeline novels have captivated readers in bestsellers like The Nightengale, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and All the Light We Cannot See, but crafting these intricate narratives requires specific t...

In a world where readers increasingly crave both epic adventures and heart-fluttering romance, it’s no surprise that the Romantasy genre has exploded from a niche corner of BookTok to a global publishing phenomenon that's reshaping the literary landscape. But what exactly does writing a Romantasy...

If you want to write a novel that hooks a reader’s interest, you had better write an engaging first chapter. But how exactly do you do that? Since I’ve already provided resources on how to write a solid set of opening pages and the big mistakes to avoid when writing your opening pages, I thought...

If you’re an aspiring author who is struggling to finish writing a first draft, I want you to know you’re not alone. So many talented first-time writers get stuck (and fail to finish their drafts) not because they lack good ideas or creativity but because they’re only focusing on one piece of the...

In today’s episode, we’re going to do something fun and a little different. Since we’re nearing the end of 2024, I thought it would be fun to continue with last week’s theme of lessons learned over the last twelve months. I hope some of the lessons you’ve learned this year came from this podcast,...

If you’re serious about becoming a published author, determining your novel’s genre is one of the most important things you have to do.  Not only do you need to know what readers expect from a story like yours, but you’ll also need to know how your novel fits into the marketplace to determine wh...

It’s no secret that one of the biggest roadblocks to getting traditionally published is the dreaded literary agent rejection. But to find the right literary agent for you and your story, you have to go through the process of querying various agents—which means you should expect to get a handful o...

One of the questions I get asked by a lot of aspiring authors is, “What books should I read to learn how to start writing a novel?” Below are the 5 best writing books that every aspiring author needs to read. Now, this list is not the latest and greatest, nor is it exhaustive. There are so many ...

Have you ever Googled things like “how many words should be in a novel?” Or “how many scenes should a novel have?” If so, you’ve probably gotten answers like “80,000 words.” Or “somerhwere between 40 and 60 scenes.” Easy enough, in theory…But if you’re like most of the writers I’ve worked with, ...

Earlier this year, I published my first book—and in doing so, I learned sooo much about what it means to effectively market a book. In this post, I’m sharing 10 surprising lessons from my first book launch, including what worked, what didn’t work, and what I’ll do differently when I publish my ne...

Do you ever wish you could take a peek behind the scenes of other people's writing process? If so, you’re in for a treat!  I reached out to some of my Notes to Novel Season 4 students and asked them to share the number one thing they learned about outlining and writing a first draft, while actua...