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All Episodes

The Fiction Lounge — 78 episodes

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Title
1

Favorite Books of 2026: Q1

2

An Exciting Announcement

3

How to Navigate the Messy Middle of Your Novel

4

Writing a Series and Lessons from the Publishing Industry with Carmela Dutra

5

When, How, and Where to End Your Novel

6

How to Write Strong, Effective Openings

7

The Journey to Debut Author with Michelle Maryk

8

Writing Beautiful and Effective Prose

9

How to Write Strong Character Arcs

10

Making Setting a Character with Leigh Shalloway

11

Q&A Episode

12

Villains and Antagonists

13

Guest Interview with Molly Donlan

14

Character Relationships

15

Guest Interview with Jennifer van der Kleut

16

Building Character Backstory

17

From Self-Publishing to Traditional Publishing: What to Know

18

Easy Tips to Improve Your Manuscript

19

Favorite Books of 2025: Q4

20

Guest Interview with Jade Gonzalez

21

A Conversation on AI

22

Guest Interview with Literary Agent Jessica Berg

23

Hannah and Jess at the Texas Book Festival

24

Guest Interview with Emily Soderberg

25

Let's Talk Tropes

26

Your Book Pitch

27

The Ins and Outs of Hybrid Publishing

28

Q&A Episode

29

Punctuation Breakdown

30

Guest Interview with Vicki Delany

31

Coffee Chat with Hannah and Jess

32

Point of View

33

Pub Day Interview with Carmela Dutra

34

How to Find a Writing Community

35

Jess and Hannah's Favorite Books of 2025: Q2

36

Hack Your Writing Process

37

Guest Interview with Stacy Frazer of Write it Scared

38

Hannah and Jess's Writing Styles

39

The Challenges of the Writing Industry

40

Q&A Episode

41

Invoking Curiosity and Suspense in Your Story

42

Resilience as a Writer

43

Guest Interview with Jasmine Carolina

44

Writing from the Wound

45

Intentionality in Writing

46

A Breakdown of Genre

47

Author Platforms: Interview with BookWorks

48

Jess and Hannah's Favorite Books of 2025: Q1

49

Comp Titles

50

Guest Interview with Carmela Dutra

51

The Querying Process

52

Writing Your Query Letter

53

Q&A Episode

54

Loglines and Elevator Pitches

55

Hannah and Jess Get Interviewed!

56

Finding Your Authorial Voice

57

Editing: How Do You Know When You're Done?

58

Editing: Feedback (Alpha Readers, Beta Readers, and Editors)

59

Editing: The Second Pass (Reading Like a Writer)

60

Editing: The First Pass (Reading Like a Reader)

61

Editing: How to Pre-Edit

62

Guest Interview with Aubrey Reverie

63

Fix Your Draft: Symbolism and Themes

64

"Fix Your Draft" Series: Fixing Pace, Dialogue, and Repetition in Plot

65

"Fix Your Draft" Series: Show vs. Tell

66

Story Structure: A Deep Dive

67

Scene Work

68

Neurodivergent Writing Tips

69

Bonus Episode: Hannah and Jess's 2024 Reads

70

The Power of Writing Rituals

71

Tips to Improve Your Writing

72

Book Activism

73

Editing

74

Drafting

75

Interiority

76

Plotting and Story Structure

77

Characters

78

The Fiction Lounge: The Trailer