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All Episodes

The Novel Writing Podcast — 227 episodes

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Title
1

Agents, Queries, Pitching: All about Traditional, with Mark Gottlieb

2

Reading In Your Genre vs. Reading Widely

3

Thomas Umstattd Jr. on Marketing Without Losing Your Mind

4

The Importance of a Writing Group

5

Phil Marshall on Affordable Multi-Cast Audiobooks

6

Caitlin Shetterly on Writing with Chronic Illness

7

Don’t Publish Your First Book

8

3rd Person POVs: Omniscient, Deep, or Head Hopping?

9

Cathryn deVries on the Writer Identity

10

The Value of Short-Cycle Feedback

11

What I Learned from Dictating 70,000 Words

12

Publisher Rocket Deep Dive with Dave Chesson

13

Do I Need to Write Every Day?

14

Publishing Myth #4: You HAVE to Be On Social Media

15

Becca Syme on Strengths and Skill Chains

16

What “Show Don’t Tell” Really Means

17

How to Avoid the Research Rabbit Holes

18

Publishing Industry Changes, with Greg Keogh

19

How to Write a Killer Blurb

20

What’s New With Curios, with Greg Keogh

21

Seth Ring on Author Business Practices, Part 2

22

Dave Chesson on Kindlepreneur's Tools for Authors

23

What Does a Proofreader Do?

24

Seth Ring on Author Business Practices, Part 1

25

What Does a Copyeditor Do?

26

What Does a Developmental Editor Do?

27

Author Nation 2025 Takeaways

28

Let’s Rock 2026: An Update from Last Year

29

Seth Ring on Dictating Your Books

30

Killer Organic Marketing, with Z.S. Diamanti

31

Case Study: Age of Scorpius, by Audra Winter

32

Protecting Your Copyright, with Samantha Bradshaw

33

What the Heck are Tropes?

34

Amy Lynn McConahy on Clean Fiction Magazine

35

Common Mistakes When Naming Characters

36

Collin Smith on Reputable Freelancers

37

Lessons from the Realm Makers Conference

38

Why You Should Start an Author Newsletter Now

39

Self Publishing Options: Direct vs. Indirect Sales

40

Self Publishing Options: eBook & Digital

41

Self Publishing Options: Print on Demand

42

Curios Cofounder Greg Keogh on Direct eBook Sales

43

Dialogue Tags vs. Action Tags

44

What is Story Structure?

45

Literary Sins: Not Enough “GMC”

46

JD Barker on Standing Out as an Author

47

Exciting News from Tally Ink!

48

Publishing Myth #3: You Don’t Need to Market

49

The Pros & Cons of DIY in Self-Publishing

50

Mastering the Outline, with E.A. Winters

51

Literary Sins: DIY-ing EVERYTHING

52

3 Tips to Confidently Approach Your First Draft

53

Literary Sins: Improper Research

54

How to Avoid Flat, Static, Mary Sues

55

Do You Need a Pen Name?

56

How to Know Your Book’s Age Group

57

How to Write Fight Scenes, with Carla Hoch

58

3 Ways to Strengthen Your Plot

59

Publishing Myth #2: Indie = Success

60

How Many Books Should Be in Your Series?

61

What Makes Characters Memorable?

62

How to Actually Finish Your First Draft

63

Publishing Myth #1: Traditional = Success

64

Literary Sins: Infodumping in the Published Book

65

What is an Unreliable Narrator?

66

Literary Sins: Random Character to the Rescue

67

10 Productivity Tips for Writers, PART 2

68

10 Productivity Tips for Writers, PART 1

69

How to Achieve Your Writing Goals in 2025

70

Reasons to Write the Blurb Early

71

Recommended Writing Craft Books

72

Literary Sins: Too Many Characters

73

Thoughts from Author Nation

74

The College Analogy for Avoiding Overwhelm

75

Switching from Writing to Editing

76

If You are a Creative Powerhouse

77

When You Have More Than One Story Idea

78

If You Have Difficulty Prioritizing

79

This or That: Outliner or Discovery Writer

80

If Distractions Abound for You

81

Literary Sins 1: Head-Hopping

82

If You Have Limiting Beliefs

83

The Writer’s Block Quiz

84

This or That: 3rd Person or 1st Person

85

If You Are an Inspired Introvert…

86

Pareto’s Principle (80/20 Rule for Writing)

87

If You Are a Chaotic Creative…

88

To Prologue or Not to Prologue

89

If You Are a Community Creator…

90

To Epilogue or Not to Epilogue

91

If You Are a Skeptical Scribe…

92

Writing as Healing, with Caitlin Shetterly

93

If You Are a Diligent Drafter…

94

The Writing Persona Quiz

95

How to Handle Negative Reviews

96

The Parkinson’s Law Paradox

97

Release the Pressure

98

Author Entrepreneurship with Dave Moreno

99

Who Reviews are Really For

100

What Drives You to Write?

101

From Romance to Domestic Thriller, with Christina Rozeline

102

How to Write Physicalities of Emotion

103

Have High Expectations and Low Attachment

104

Don’t Fear Failure, with Caleb Palmquist

105

Procrastiplotting

106

Stop Task Switching While Writing

107

Writing Tradeoffs

108

3 Ways to Write Better Relationships

109

What are ARC Readers?

110

Sunk Cost Fallacy in Writing

111

How to Recruit Alphas, Betas, & Critters

112

Alphas and Betas and Critters, Oh My!

113

Decision Pivots

114

The Power of Writing Rituals

115

The 4 Primary Temperaments

116

Two Truths and a Lie with Shanna P. Lowe

117

What Are Your Writing Engines?

118

How to Make it Past Quitter’s Day

119

Different Publishing Avenues

120

Top Tips from Writers, Part 1

121

Writing Resolutions

122

What’s the Second Draft if the First Draft is Garbage?

123

Kickstarter Crash Course

124

When Characters Come to Life, with Beth Savoie

125

The Truth About Giving Up

126

Never Skip the Editor

127

Social Media Series: What Works for You…

128

Why You Should Question Everything

129

Difference Between Temperament & Personality

130

Social Media Series: Be Persistent

131

The “Writer” Identity

132

3 Things That Keep Readers from DNF’ing

133

Social Media Series: How BookTok Creates Bestsellers

134

Make Writing Decisions Faster

135

Interest vs. Commitment

136

Redefining Consistency for Authors

137

Social Media Series: Which Platform is “Best”?

138

When Can I Call Myself an Author?

139

The Truth About Infodumping

140

Social Media Series: Extrovert vs. Introvert

141

Identify Author Gains

142

Social Media Series: Marketing for Authors

143

My Self-Publishing Process

144

Letting Ideas Percolate

145

When You Have More Than One Project

146

Other People’s Opinions

147

When the Characters Yank the Story Away

148

Developmental Editing vs. Copyediting

149

Tools I Use to Write Novels

150

Break Writer’s Block with ColdTurkeyWriter

151

Self-Editing AFTER the First Draft

152

Your Writing Sucks, but YOU Don’t

153

Don’t Self-Edit While Writing the First Draft

154

What to Remember During the First Draft

155

How to Make Time for Writing

156

Expectations vs. Reality & Priorities

157

What to Do When Writing is Hard

158

Accepting Critique

159

How to Give Good Critique

160

Mindset in Idea Generation & Writing Phases

161

Break Writer’s Block with 4thewords

162

The Garbage First Draft

163

Professional Premium

164

DAY 60 VICTORY & What To Do Next

165

DAY 59 Powering Through to the End

166

DAY 58 Satisfying Endings

167

DAY 57 Active Descriptions

168

DAY 56 Commas, Commas, Commas!

169

DAY 55 Authentic Coincidence

170

DAY 54 Creating Book Titles

171

DAY 53 Writing Tense and POV

172

DAY 52 Story Timelines

173

DAY 51 Commonly Confused Words

174

DAY 50 Sagging Middle Syndrome

175

DAY 49 Writing Toxic Relationships

176

DAY 48 Portraying Affection

177

DAY 47 Using Fewer Words

178

DAY 46 Character Flaws

179

DAY 45 Staying Motivated to Write

180

DAY 44 More Grammar Rules

181

DAY 43 Items Carried

182

DAY 42 Channeling Emotion

183

DAY 41 Writing Villains

184

DAY 40 Lay, Lie, Laid, Lain

185

DAY 39 Writing Animals

186

DAY 38 Word Count in Perspective

187

DAY 37 Writing Dialogue

188

DAY 36 Phrases to Never Use Again

189

DAY 35 Friendships vs. Romances

190

DAY 34 Writer’s Block

191

DAY 33 Show, AND Tell

192

DAY 32 Introducing Characters

193

DAY 31 Writing Sprints

194

DAY 30 Novel Writing Prep

195

DAY 29 If You’re Stumped

196

DAY 28 Proactive Characters

197

DAY 27 Writing a Series

198

DAY 26 Hints, Clues, & Foreshadowing

199

DAY 25 Starting the Story

200

DAY 24 Chapter Transitions

201

DAY 23 Separating into Chapters

202

DAY 22 Deleting & Condensing

203

DAY 21 Filling in the Holes

204

DAY 20 Resolving Conflicting Ideas

205

DAY 19 Overcoming the Info Dump

206

DAY 18 Adding While Organizing

207

DAY 17 Turning Ideas into Scenes

208

DAY 16 Organizing Scenes

209

DAY 15 Suspense & Anticipation

210

DAY 14 Character Growth

211

DAY 13 Fights, Battles, & Arguments

212

DAY 12 Character Occupations

213

DAY 11 Climax & Resolution

214

DAY 10 Impactful Emotions

215

DAY 9 Story Obstacles

216

DAY 8 Plots & Subplots

217

DAY 7 Creating Maps

218

DAY 6 Ethics & Morality

219

DAY 5 Conflict & Plot

220

DAY 4 Scenery & Imagery

221

DAY 3 Character Relationships

222

DAY 2 World Building

223

DAY 1 Character Development

224

The 60-Day Novel Writing Challenge

225

The Top 3 Obstacles Holding Writers Back

226

Why Writing is Important

227

Introduction to The Novel Writing Podcast