#89: Student Spotlight: How She Used Short Stories to Hone Her Craft (and Publish Her Debut Novel) with Pauline Yates

In today's episode, I’m sitting down with Pauline Yates to talk through how she used short stories to hone her craft and publish her debut novel. Here’s a preview of what’s included:

[03:05] An introduction to Pauline Yates and her story, Memories Don’t Lie.
[03:55] How she used short stories to hone her craft and practice submitting her work to publishers (and spoiler alert: she’s now published many of her short stories!)
[13:45] Pauline’s take on what it was like to work with me (and how there was one little thing I kept harping on—if you know me, you know it was scene structure)
[18:40] How she develops her characters and “spends time” with them until she knows exactly what they’d do and how they’d behave in any given scenario
[24:55] The aspect of writing Pauline struggles with the most—and spoiler alert: it’s worldbuilding—plus, what’s she learned about worldbuilding during revisions
[37:25] A behind-the-scenes look at her experience querying over 30 agents before finally finding her dream publisher in her own (Australian) backyard
[50:25] Final words of wisdom and advice from Pauline

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Visit Pauline’s website here
• Pauline’s debut novel, Memories Don’t Lie on Amazon
• Read Pauline’s short story, The Secret Keepers, in this edition of Metaphosis Magazine
• Check out other books published by Black Hare Press
• Want to learn more about my Notes to Novel course? Click here to sign up for my FREE TRAINING: The 5 Little-Known Mistakes Most Writers Make (& What to Do Instead)

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