#91: Student Spotlight: How She Went From First Draft to Landing Her Dream Agent with Jamie Varon
Fiction Writing Made Easy
Savannah Gilbo
4.9 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2023
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today’s episode, I’m sitting down with Jamie Varon to talk through her incredibly inspiring story of how she went from writing the first draft of her novel to landing her dream agent. Here’s a preview of what’s included:
[04:15] A quick introduction to Jamie Varon (including a timeline of her writing, editing, and publishing journey) as well as a summary of her novel, Main Character Energy
[17:45] Jamie describes what it’s like working with her agent—including what it’s like receiving feedback and collaborating with her on changes to the manuscript
[30:00] Jamie talks about what it was like to hear some really tough feedback from her literary agent—and how this feedback led Jamie to seek representation elsewhere. Spoiler alert: she ended up landing her dream agent shortly after!
[59:30] What it’s like working with a screenwriter to turn her memoir/self-help book, Radically Content, into a movie (plus, our final thoughts on writing)
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Links mentioned in this episode:
- Jamie Varon’s website
- Jamie Varon on Instagram
- Main Character Energy by Jamie Varon (out September 2023)
- Radically Content by Jamie Varon
- Radically Content (The Journal) by Jamie Varon
- Root Literary Agency
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Real quick, my five-day live challenge called Unlock Your Story is about to begin. |
| 0:04.7 | We're about to shut down enrollment and get started on September 28th, |
| 0:08.5 | so I wanted to give you one last chance to head over to SavannahGilbo.com forward slash |
| 0:13.3 | challenge to save your seat before your chance is gone. If writing a novel has been a dream of yours |
| 0:18.0 | for a while or something on your to-do list that you'd really like to check off, |
| 0:22.2 | then join me inside the Unlock Your Story Challenge, where I'll help you develop the four |
| 0:26.4 | foundational elements of a working story idea. A plot that hooks interest at protagonists |
| 0:30.8 | with a compelling goal, conflict with high stakes, and a theme with heart in just five days. |
| 0:35.6 | It's only $47 to join, but the doors are closing very, very soon. You can either |
| 0:40.2 | head to savannagilbo.com forward slash challenge to sign up, or you can find me on Instagram |
| 0:45.1 | at savanna.gilbo and send me a DM with the word challenge. If you DM me the word challenge, |
| 0:50.1 | I will send you a link with all the details you need to join. Hope to see you there. |
| 0:54.4 | Writing is an act of self-belief, and just believe you have something worth saying, |
| 0:59.5 | there's always going to be so many books, so many people, so many things, so much art. |
| 1:04.6 | It's the process of believing in yourself and bringing something to fruition that's on your heart. |
| 1:11.0 | That matters the most. Let all the publishing and all of that worry go away and just believing |
| 1:18.1 | yourself because that's where confidence really comes from, is doing it for you first. |
| 1:24.1 | Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. My name is savannagilbo, and I'm here to help |
| 1:29.2 | you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be |
| 1:33.7 | overwhelming. So, each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, |
| 1:38.7 | and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So, whether you're |
| 1:43.3 | brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for |
... |
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