Listeners' Roundup 5: Cultural Context, Secondary Characters, & When to Break (or Make) Rules

Today, we’ve got another special “Listeners’ Roundup” episode. This is when we get to hear from some of our listeners about they’ve learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. So today, we’ve got listeners Karen Gruzen, Stephen Dawley, and Nancy Crochiere talking with us about what they heard, what they loved, and how it speaks to their own work. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Karen Gruzen an avid 7am listener and graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Generator with Annie Hartnett, is writing a novel inspired by her time living in Japan, and joins us from Crested Butte, CO where she’s busily revising her Save the Cat 5-part finale.Stephen Dawley is a lawyer living in CT who several months ago finished (and have started querying) the novel it took him ten years to write, and he’s started another one.Nancy Crochiere is a former humor columnist whose comic debut novel, GRACELAND, published in May of 2023, was named a best book of summer by Parade, Woman’s World, and Deep South Magazines. Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com