How A Veteran CNN Editor Built A Writing Career

In this episode, I sat down with John DeDakis, a journalist with 45 years in the newsroom and 25 years at CNN, to get  honest about the upsides and downsides of artificial intelligence in writing, publishing, and education, and where he draws the line. John walked me through his pivot from journalism to mystery and suspense fiction, including what reporters have to unlearn when they move from “just the facts” to character emotion, interiority, and voice. We talked about persistence through rejection, why small independent publishers can be a great home, and how self-publishing changes the workload by making marketing and management your responsibility. If you want grounded advice on writing craft, author marketing, and the future of AI for writers, listen through and take notes.Send us Fan MailSupport the show📬 JOIN THE NEWSLETTERThe Storyteller Quest is  a weekly letter on writing,publishing, and the business of books.Subscribe, and I'll send you Traditional, Self, or Hybrid? —11 pages on what each publishing path really costs, plus a7-question worksheet that tells you which one is yours.Subscribe here.