This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the two hundred to eighteenth episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

Podcast. I'm just finishing up my final post-first draft edit of my historical

steampunk storming before sending it off to the critters, which means I'm also starting to mull on the next book.

This one will be a return to the modern world, but with a time travel twist.

I'm still working out lots of the details on this one and I can sense

that I'm going to have to take my usual post- novel break. I've never been able to jump from

one book to another. I always need a space of at least a few

months to decompress after finishing one novel before I can move on to the next one.

So maybe by the first of the year I'll be able to start outlining.

The characteristic moment belongs at the end of your book too. The latest post in the video series on my blog talks about the little

discussed characteristic moment at the end of your story, which bookends the one at the beginning.

To watch it, visit my website at helping writers become

authors.com. New videos are posted every Wednesday. And now I hope you

enjoyed this week's podcast entitled Are You Hiding Behind Your Writing

or Using It as a Mirror?

Writing as an act of personal creation tells us things about ourselves and that can be scary

because we may not always like what we're reading about ourselves between the

lines of our stories. Even scarier, writing will tell others things about ourselves.

Every word we write becomes a testimony of ourselves to the world. Putting your heart and soul, your strengths, and your black-scabbed weaknesses

out there for both family members and strangers to read is dangerous business. No wonder the bare thought of it can induce bone-wracking

riders' walk. Sometimes we can be tempted to try to keep our true selves out of our

riding, but this is dangerous business as well. The less of ourselves we put

...