March Bonus Episode

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing

Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra

Education, How To, Arts, Books, Fiction

4.8 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the first part of this month’s bonus episode, Carly Watters interviews Bailey Hannah, a Canadian romance author known for her ‘Wells Ranch’ series. They talk about Bailey’s experience with going from self-publishing to traditional publishing, the importance of quality editing, and the impact of social media platforms like BookTok on author success. Bailey shares insights into her writing process, the emotional connections she forms with readers at conventions, and her inspirations as a writer. Near the end of the interview, Bailey offers valuable advice for aspiring authors to simply write their stories.

The conversation shifts when Bianca interviews New York Times Bestselling author of the ‘Lady Julia Grey’, series Deanna Raybourn. Deanna is also a ‘USA Today’ bestseller and Edgar Award nominated ‘Veronica Speedwell’ mysteries and several standalone works. Deanna discusses her writing process, the challenges of crafting thrillers, and the importance of structure and causality in storytelling. She shares insights on balancing plotting and pantsing, trusting one's instincts in idea development, and the necessity of creative challenges to keep the writing process invigorating. The discussion culminates in a reflection on the art of writing and the responsibility of authors to engage their readers with compelling narratives.

Finally, Emilie Sommer from East City Bookshop answers all your burning comp title questions.

Note: Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe on this podcast are solely that of them as podcast co-hosts and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Beta reader matchup time is happening again. It's been so gratifying over the summer to be tagged in so many posts about beta readers who've become writing besties and who are still going strong many years after they were first matched. Some even travel to meet up and do writing weekends together, which sounds incredible. I can't guarantee
0:23.0	any of that. That's entirely up to you, but what I can guarantee is that you'll be matched with a
0:28.6	group of people working in your genre and or time zone who will critique 3,000 words of your work
0:35.0	as you critique theirs in return. You can sign up from now until the 31st of
0:40.2	August with the matchup emails going out on the 1st of September. Head to my website, Bianca Moray.com,
0:47.6	and look for the beta reader matchup tab. What's up, everyone? This is Cece. If you're a writer, then chances are you've wondered if your story is good enough. Maybe you're wondering that right now. I get it. Here's what I can tell you. As long as your story is making the reader curious, you're good. Now, I'm not saying you won't have to make edits when working with an agent or publisher. Sure,its are a part of the game, but I am saying that you will get ahead in your career if you know how to make the reader curious.
1:17.6	The best way to do that, infuse your story with plenty of tension, conflict, and stakes.
1:22.6	Which is why I'm so excited to invite you to join my four-day course, writing tension,
1:28.7	creating tension, conflict, and stakes in your story.
1:31.9	It starts on October 13.
1:34.2	My favorite part about this class is that there are formulas, yes, formulas, for tension,
1:40.9	for conflict, for stakes.
1:42.8	And for the first time ever, we're having two optional interactive components,
1:47.0	including a query letter studio and live critiques of select first pages.
1:53.0	I'm super excited about this new format because I've seen it yield results in writers' works.
1:59.0	And it works for writers of any genre as long as you're
2:02.4	serious about improving your work. So if you're ready to take your writing to the next level,
2:08.2	join me for this four-day course. Don't worry if you can't attend live. The sessions will be
2:15.0	recorded. For more information, check out my bio on Instagram or the podcast's website.
2:21.2	I'm looking forward to seeing you there.
2:29.8	Hi there and welcome to our show.
2:32.7	The shit no one tells you about writing. I'm Bianca Murray and I'm joined by Carly Waters and C.C. Lira from PS Literary Agency.
	...

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