#AmWriting

KJ and Jennie truly go head-to-head in this one, because KJ loves a book Jennie loathes. Can she talk her around?In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.This week, we’re upping our games with The Practice versus The Bestseller Code. In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 4 HERE.And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator. Author Accelerator hand-matches writers with book coaches who have been rigorously trained to provide motivation and inspiration and give writers the support we need to stop making excuses and get the job done. Find out more, and get book coach Jennie Nash’s weeklong find-your-foundation writing challenge at authoraccelerator.com/amwriting. Author Accelerator also trains book coaches to build their own successful coaching businesses. For more on becoming a coach, go to https://www.bookcoaches.com/. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Who doesn’t want to write more faster and better? And who doesn’t get stuck spinning the old wheels once in a while? In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.This week, we take on Productivity with Deep Work versus From 2K to 10K. In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 3 HERE.And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator, where you can become as a book coach to build a side gig, or a full time career. Author Accelerator’s book coaches come from all backgrounds. They’re talented editors who’ve learned through rigorous training and ongoing education to coach writers through every step of the process, providing feedback, encouragement and tough love. Learn more about becoming a coach at https://www.bookcoaches.com/. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

You CAN write a book without a plot (check out Anne Tyler’s Redhead By the Side of the Road if you doubt me, I swear to you that the most plotty thing that happens in it is the protagonist making a sandwich and yet you still want to keep reading). But if you’re not Anne Tyler (and I’m not), you ‘re going to need a nice plot arc to keep your pages turning—but not at the expense of your character’s emotional journey. How to get to both? How about a little help from a nice book? In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.This week, it’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel versus The Situation and the Story. In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 2 HERE.And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator. Author Accelerator hand-matches writers with book coaches who have been rigorously trained to provide motivation and inspiration and give writers the support we need to stop making excuses and get the job done. Find out more, and get book coach Jennie Nash’s weeklong find-your-foundation writing challenge at authoraccelerator.com/amwriting. Author Accelerator also trains book coaches to build their own successful coaching businesses. For more on becoming a coach, go to https://www.bookcoaches.com/. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Cage match! KJ’s favorite book on finding writerly inspiration versus Jennie Nash’s favorite of same. In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.This week, it’s Big Magic versus The Creative Habit. In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 1 HERE.And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.1. Inspiration2. Plotting3. Productivity4. Up Your Game5. When You're Stuck6. Getting Published7. Writing While White8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This9. Writer Comfort Reads 10. Editing This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator, where you can become as a book coach to build a side gig, or a full time career. Author Accelerator’s book coaches come from all backgrounds. They’re talented editors who’ve learned through rigorous training and ongoing education to coach writers through every step of the process, providing feedback, encouragement and tough love. Learn more about becoming a coach at https://www.bookcoaches.com/. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Whose summer #TBR looks like yours? Call it a game, a competition or just an excuse to talk about books: this week we’re doing something new. Each of us will share 6 summer reading recommendations—some we’ve read, some we’re stockpiling for when our own vacations arrive. Your job is to pick whose list looks most like yours—which of us would you let choose the books for YOUR next vacation? (Fellow fans of the Bookriot podcast, yes, this is absolutely blatant theft—ahem, homage. Love you Jeff and Rebecca!)The Lists:KJWho Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford  JessA Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter The Weight of Air by David PosesNew Girl in Little Cove by Damhnait Monaghan (pronounced Downith), Dear Ann by Bobbie Ann Mason Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Fox and I by Catherine RavenSarinaMalibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid Finlay Donovan is Killing it by Elle Cosimano Life is Too Short by Abby JimenezRosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert Valedictorians at the Gate by Becky Munsterer Sabky Also mentionedDial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto Bookriot Podcast Episode 447: Summer Draft Results and Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley FordWhere the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzles) on TwitterVOTING: If you receive the shownotes by email, vote by replying. Otherwise, send your picks to amwriting@substack.comNEXT WEEK Our summer series, The Working Bookshelf, starts! Every week, KJ and Jennie Nash choose two beloved writing books on a variety of topics, from productivity to editing, and debate: which is better? Which helps more? Which should be on your shelf? Jess and Sarina will be back in the fall, and we have a great new series up our sleeves. Sign up for our weekly emails HERE so you won’t miss it.#AmWriting is, as always, sponsored by Author Accelerator. Our advice this week: Follow founder Jennie Nash on Instagram for her breakdowns on book coaching lessons learned from We Should All Be Millionaires. No matter where you are in your writing journey, there’s something there for you. Find out more about getting a book coach HERE or learn more about becoming one HERE. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Summer is… here? Nigh? Here and nigh? The sun is frequently shining, the end-of-year festivities are doing their kinda-post-pandemic-kinda-not thing and soon, if you’re a family type, you’ll have kids home for the duration—and if you’re not, the great outdoors will still be calling, making it harder to work than when you’re hunkered down during a snowstorm.We talk summer writing goals and the challenges of meeting them, share summer podcast plans and get generally excited for changing it up and taking some breaks.Jess shouts out the Spotify Deep Focus Playlist, and KJ vague-reviews a book that didn’t stick the landing. (If you’re dying of curiosity, send an email and we’ll share the title, but we decided long ago that we’re a podcast for literary love, not lit crit.)#AmReadingJess: The Soulmate Equation by Christina LaurenSarina: Annabeth AlbertRachel LaceyEli EastonGarrett LeighAutoboyography by Christina LaurenKJ: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai As always we’re sponsored by Author Accelerator—THE place to find a book coach or become one! KJ here, and I think I’m a book coach addict. I have an editor waiting for this revision and an agent who’s always happy to read and I’m STILL tempted to call up a coach and say, please, hold my hand! I’m resisting (because I’ve ALREADY DONE THAT for this book, twice) but you shouldn’t. A book coach could help you set the right kind of goals for the summer, or be ready and waiting when you get back into gear in the fall—or, spend some time this summer setting up your book coaching side gig. New seasons, fresh starts, love them all. Find a book coach HERE or learn more about becoming one HERE. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Hey all, Jess here. When I agreed to read and blurb Jordan Shapiro’s new book, Father Figure: How to Be a Feminist Dad, I was struck by the attention he paid to inclusivity and the language he used to describe it. When I mentioned it to him, he told me he’d used a sensitivity reader named Jazz to ensure he got the language right. Sensitivity readers are becoming more of a norm in publishing. Jodi Picoult has tweeted about how much she depends on hers to get her descriptions, language, and representation right in her books articles like this one in the Guardian and this one in Vulture are great primers on the topic. We asked Jordan and Jazz to join us to talk about the experience of working together to create Father Figure.#AmReadingJazz: What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He and She by Dennis BaronJordan: Interior Chinatown by Charles YuKlara and the Sun by Kazuo IshiguroKJ: Conjure Women by Afia AtakoraJess: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert As always we’re sponsored by Author Accelerator—THE place to find a book coach or become one! KJ here, and I think I’m a book coach addict. I have an editor waiting for this revision and an agent who’s always happy to read and I’m STILL tempted to call up a coach and say, please, hold my hand! I’m resisting (because I’ve ALREADY DONE THAT for this book, twice) but you shouldn’t. A book coach could help you set the right kind of goals for the summer, or be ready and waiting when you get back into gear in the fall—or, spend some time this summer setting up your book coaching side gig. New seasons, fresh starts, love them all. Find a book coach HERE or learn more about becoming one HERE. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Stacy Kim is a freelance writer who’s beginning to see some real success in her career, with bylines in Real Simple, The Washington Post, Wired and more. We talked to her about getting started as a writer, finding her topic and her expertise, and learning that it’s not enough to have a story—you have to give the editor a reason to want you to share it, and the reader a reason to want to read it. Links from the Pod: Sue Shapiro’s classes (highly recommended)Stacy’s essays and other work:Lighthouse Method in Real Simplehoarding in WashPoI found Korean culture sexist and stifling. Then my kid fell in love with K-pop:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/07/korean-culture-teenager-fan/A visit to Seoul during Covid changed my opinion of a country I once despisedhttps://www.independent.co.uk/voices/seoul-korea-covid-pandemic-america-b1816535.htmlwired Got Done List#AmReadingStacy: If I had Your Face by Frances ChaMiracle Creek by Angie KimEthan Cross, Jeffrey SelingoKJ: Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren WeisbergerSarina: Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigalAnd check out Stacy’s website www.lifejunctions.comIn this episode, we talk—indirectly—about owning your expertise. It’s a challenge for many of us to admit we know things, that we’re good at things, that we have experience to offer. If your experience is as a reader and editor, maybe it’s time for you to turn what you have to offer into a real business by becoming a book coach. Just imagine enrolling in the classes, meeting a cohort, learning all the ways coaches are editorial and emotional support for writers and then starting to line up your first clients. Students working with Author Accelerator say they begin to book authors before they’re even done with the course, and often end up being booked months in advance. Sound like fun? AGREED. Go to bookcoaches.com to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

We love being edited. We love editors. But truth: sometimes being edited is hard. Sometimes you need to interpret things differently, ask questions or push back. In this episode, we talk about how to do that, what makes a good editor and how to find one, how to be edited in your freelance work and—my favorite—why you can’t say your editor is wrong. #AmReadingJess: Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself by Chloe AngyalPunch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome Sarina: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia HibbertKJ: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins ReidIf you reply to this email I’ll tell you what book Jess didn’t like :). Thinking about hiring an editor—aka a book coach? I’ve worked with two from Author Accelerator now (and I PAID THEM, it’s not a perk of being sponsored :)) and they were wonderful. As we say in the episode, the best editors represent your readers, and they know what those readers are here for and how you can give it to them. Author Accelerator book coaches are those editors. Find them here—or, if you know you’ve got exactly that editor within you, head here to find out more about becoming a book coach yourself. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Emma Gannon is a best-selling author, a podcaster, a journalist, writer of fiction and non-fiction and just general woman-about-town, as known for her writing about the new world of work as she soon will be for her fiction. Her debut novel, Olive, centers on a journalist who loves her career and the many other things that fill her world, friends, fun, family—and is in the process of owning her sense that children won’t be one of those things. Emma, like her protagonist, is happily without spawn—and that’s what we’re talking about on the pod. No, not deciding whether to have kids, you know us better than that—but turning your personal life into fiction—advantages, disadvantages, and what comes next. #AmReadingEmma: Animal by Lisa TaddeoThe Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self by Martha BeckJess: High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda RipleyKJ: Would I lie to you by Judi KettelerFind our guest, Emma Gannon, on Twitter at @emmagannon, her website www.emmagannon.co.uk, and check out her podcast—Ctrl Alt Dlt. Hello, your dream job is calling! Click here to revel in some success stories from Author Accelerator’s book coach certification program and imagine where you could be next year—if you sign up now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe