Hello friend, 👋🏾
While doom scrolling on Instagram the other day, I saw a shirt that I’ve, so far, held myself back from buying. It said, “Life has its ups and downs, we call them squats.” As a squat enthusiast, I really want it in my life. But as a “been burned by IG purchases far too many times” consumer, I’m wary.
Writing has so many parallels to weight training, including all of the ups and downs. Last week, I had an up when my newest novel, Daughter of the Merciful Deep, received a starred review from trade magazine Publishers Weekly. (Keep reading if you’re interested in winning an ARC).
The journey of taking a book from inspiration to final product is one I’ve taken many times, but it doesn’t get easier. Or maybe it does get a little easier, but it’s never easy, a fact which can be super frustrating. To quote Mary Robinette Kowal, “The place where the difficult lives is different every time I sit down to write.”
With Daughter, some of the difficulty lay in finding the right tone to strike in a book that includes a backstory of incredible tragedy, but that I wanted to be infused with hope and joy. It was also quite hard to write this novel as my marriage fell apart. Ultimately, writing through such a period of emotional upheaval helped me push through it, but much like a heavy squat, there’s always that moment when you’re not sure you can move the weight.
Now, I’m writing a new book and hitting ups and downs each and every day. And this evening I plan to go to the gym and deadlift, so, just like an opening chapter often mirrors the final chapter, my day should be bookended nicely with both frustration and reward.
If you find this weekly email useful, please hit the ❤️ button, share it with a friend, and consider becoming a paid subscriber!
📝 What is Your Brand?
Romance author Skye Warren has a great newsletter for writers with tips from her experiences as a highly successful indie author. Her issue entitled “The Branding Myth” was an epic post that many authors I know were talking about mere hours after it had come out.
She reinforces that author branding isn’t about taglines or logos, though those can be fun to create. According to Warren:
Your brand is what you write.
It does mean subgenre. It also means so much more than that. It means the word choices you use. Are you direct? Poetic? Do you spend more time on internal thoughts or dialogue? When your characters come to a cross road, how do they make decisions? How do you convey that thought process to readers?
…Your brand is not something you're going to invent with a designer. It goes to the heart of how people experience you.
When I think of my author brand, it’s centered around rich worldbuilding with imaginative stories that have something to say about the real world and our social and political struggles. Even when I’m writing romance, I think those things come through.
How do you think about your author brand? What do readers expect (and get) from your writing?
📝 Need a Beta Reader?
Finding a writing community was one of the top 3 things I did that helped me become a published author, and keeps me sane along the way. Community takes lots of forms, but when you need feedback on your work—and we all do—then having a beta reader to give you their notes on your finished draft is invaluable. But where do you find such mythical people?
K.M. Weiland’s list of “12 Places to Find a Beta Reader” is a great place to start. If you have other beta reader finding resources, please let us know in the comments!
💡Leslye’s Upcoming Events
The Authorpreneur Path workshop - March 26, 2024
Poconos Writers' Conference - Apr 20, 2024 - Deadline to sign up for a critique with me is April 1!
🎁 ARC Giveaway!
I’m giving away 3 paperback advanced reader copies of Daughter of the Merciful Deep. Enter here!
Loneliness is a kind of tax you have to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind. The weirder you are, the fewer people are like you, the fewer people will “get” you. This is fine.
— Chris Williamson
🎙️ My Imaginary Friends: Episode 236 - Choosing the Right POV for Your Novel
The My Imaginary Friends podcast is a behind the scenes look at the journey of a working author navigating traditional and self-publishing, where I share insights on the writing life, creativity, inspiration, and this week’s best thing.
Mentioned:
Daughter of the Merciful Deep - preorder:
Brutal Fortress
Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland
Write Your Novel from the Middle by James Scott Bell
Plot vs. Character by Jeff Gerke
Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
The Negative Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Events:
- The Authorpreneur Path workshop - 3/26/34
- Poconos Writers' Conference - 4/20/24
- My calendar - https://lpenelope.com/calendar/
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