Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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As part of my own time/ energy management scheme, I sometimes need to rely on a rerun or a guest post in order to keep up with my other work while still ensuring that you get some useful writing advice each week.

The start of Summer is one of those annual pivot points, one of the artificial “new beginnings” scattered throughout the year that prompts people to set new goals or start new routines. When I was a teacher, Summer represented an annual lull — a chance for me to dive into projects (including writing) that I didn’t have the time or energy for the rest of the year. For folks with kids, summer often means a more fractured and distracted season, when school — that most reliable form of childcare — is closed.

That summer time energy made me think of this post that I originally ran in January 2025, about how to claw back time for your writing by learning to let other things go.

Enjoy!

- Sam

Decide in Advance What to Fail At

The title of this week’s post comes from Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. In addition to this book, here are some other resources that inspired my thinking in this post:

• How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis

• Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford

• Start More than You Can Finish by Becky Blades

• Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

In January, we are inundated with sleek marketing for tools, classes, planners, magic pens that are supposed to help us optimize the year ahead and become the version of ourselves we always wanted to be.

And it’s alluring – the idea that if you just got the right gel pens, the right calendar, and the right time management strategy that you could bend the universe to your will. You could finally have control.

Time management tools can be helpful when you recognize them for what they are: tools. Aspirations. But, I think too many of us give over to the illusion of control, the illusion of tidiness. And then, when the time management framework that was supposed to solve all our problems inevitably falls apart, we fall apart too.

The reality is this: life is messy and there isn’t enough time.

You will never be able to do everything or perform at “optimal” level for all things. Big expectations and big aspirations are wonderful, as long as they are motivating. But it is important to recognize that they are also unrealistic. If you keep applying maximum pressure for yourself to “optimize” and “achieve” you are going to burnout. There is a tricky balancing act between dreaming big dreams and also being realistic (and forgiving!) of how much time and energy you really have.

The Double-edged Sword of Time Management Tools

Routines, calendars, time-blocking. There are endless tools you can buy and seminars you can enroll in to maximize your efficiency. Some of them are really helpful and might actually improve your quality of life. But, endlessly organizing and blocking out your calendar into perfectly scheduled chunks can also be time consuming, can apply a lot of false pressure, and may ultimately be pointless if it doesn’t help you do what is important to you.

Consider this study.1 Students enrolled in a college course about study habits and time management. They were divided into three groups:

• Students who were prompted to set daily goals themselves

• Students who set monthly goals for themselves

• And a control group, who received no prompting and scheduled themselves however they liked.

At the end of the semester, who do you think had the highest achievement and the most consistent working hours?

It was the second group: the ones who set monthly rather than daily goals. Initially, the group setting daily goals spent roughly the same amount of time per week (about 20 hours) as the students who set monthly goals. As the semester progressed, however, the monthly goal setters continued to work about 20-25 hours a week, and saw improvement in their performance. Meanwhile, both the daily planners and control group gradually dropped off their effort to 10 hours per week and performance in class, as well as motivation, suffered too.

Why?

The monthly goal setting/ planning may have been the most effective because students were still being proactive - they knew what they wanted and had a plan for how to do it - but because they set targets by month rather than by day, their plans were able to be more flexible and more able to adapt to the messiness of daily life.

For the daily planners, the problem was that setting a daily goal/ plan was too time consuming to be sustainable, and it also wasn’t flexible enough. If something took longer than planned, or something unexpected happened (such as a surprise visit from a friend), students would fall behind on their plan and fall short of their goals. Which meant having to redo their plans and also feel like a failure because they fell short of their targets, day after day, after day. It was demotivating!

Let’s Talk About Laundry for a Second

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform according to external expectations rather than what is most functional for us personally or for our families. But, if we stop to take stock of what actually matters and experiment with more functional ways of doing things (rather than the “right” way), we can potentially save ourselves time, energy, and stress.

Here’s a parable about laundry.

I was about 9 when I started doing my own laundry. From that point forward in my life, I had an expectation of myself to do my laundry once a week. My idealized version of laundry meant that once a week, I would do all of my laundry: wash, dry, fold, and put away. Sometimes, I lived up to that expectation, and mostly I didn’t. Sometimes it would be more than a week between loads. Sometimes I would wash and dry my laundry, but my clean clothes would languish in a laundry basket, unfolded. I felt bad whenever I “failed” at my laundry goal.

Keeping up with laundry became harder when I got married because now there was laundry for two people. For a while, laundry was my job. When it became overwhelming for me, it became my wife’s job. Except, I was unsatisfied with the way my wife did the job. She would lose my socks. I didn’t like the way she folded t-shirts - and that was assuming she folded the laundry at all, since she was perfectly content to live out of a clean laundry basket, and folding laundry was the most consuming part of the job.

So, I eventually took the job back, but still resented how time consuming it was. Then, while I was folding our clothes one day, I was listening to an interview with KC Davis.

My most important take away from KC Davis’s talk was this: I was living up to an external standard of what doing laundry looked like and spending time on extra tasks that didn’t improve function or anything else. What we needed were clean clothes, that were relatively unwrinkled, and easy to find in the morning.

In order to meet these needs, there were a number of articles of clothing (undergarments, socks, gym shorts, pajamas, leggings) that didn’t really need to be folded. Socks didn’t have to be perfectly matched. They could just be put into the right drawer or baskets. So, I stopped folding these items. I just put them away.

Our quality of life and the state of our clothing have not suffered because I no longer fold every piece of clothing. But it saves me a lot of time! It has also meant I’m more forgiving of myself when I get off schedule. Sometimes we get busy and I have to do the “good enough” load - just enough laundry to get us through the week, that often lives unfolded in the clean laundry basket. And we survive just fine. No one besides us knows. (Well…and I guess the whole internet now.)

Seriously, what’s the point of this laundry story?

My point is this. Sometimes we do things in a certain way because that’s what we are “supposed” to do, not necessarily because it is the most effective or the fastest way. Sometimes, in pursuit of this ideal, we end up spending too much time doing things that don’t really matter.

If you love folding laundry because it’s relaxing, you like having perfectly matched socks, or folding laundry is a time when you get to watch TV or listen to a podcast - by all means, continue to love your laundry routine. But if it’s stifling, liberate yourself! Figure out what you personally need in order to function. Maybe you are like my wife and you can happily live out of a clean laundry basket, never folding laundry again. You have met a basic and functional need of having clean clothes and can spend your time on the things that matter more to you.

How is this related to writing?

For many writers, one of the biggest hurdles to writing is having the time to write. As I’ve discussed in previous posts, you will never have enough time to do everything you want to do at the level or performance you think you should have. So, you will need to make choices, make sacrifices in order to have more time (and energy!) to write.

One way to accomplish that is to decide in advance what you will fail at. By giving yourself permission not to be optimal at everything, you can intentionally drop the ball on what matters less and spend more time and energy on what matters more.

• You could fail at having a perfectly tidy home.

• You could fail at having a perfectly organized calendar and/or desk.

• You could fail at having homemade dinner every night.

• You could fail at folding clean laundry.

What does it feel like when you sit with the idea of “failing” at these things? Would dropping any (or all) of these ideals give you more time and energy to write?

You might notice in several of these statements the dichotomy of “perfect” versus “fail.” Because we only truly fail if we are measuring ourselves against an ideal.

Perfectionism has the power to keep you from writing by focusing your energy and attention elsewhere. And when you do sit down to write, Perfectionism can also stop you cold.

Journal Time!

• What are some of the tasks related to work, chores, or other “must dos” that take a ton of time that you would like to spend less time on?

• If you could spend less time on these tasks, what would you do instead?

• For the tasks that feel too time-consuming, what is the minimum you need to accomplish in order for the task to be functional? (E.g. In my laundry story, I needed clothes that were clean, relatively wrinkle free, and easy to find. Clean and easy to find were more important than wrinkle free.)

• How can you do these tasks differently so they take less time but still meet your minimum functional requirements?

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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As with many things in writing, backstory is a tricky balancing act. Tip too far the other way and include too much backstory, and you run the risk of readers getting bored and closing the book, never to open it again.

The Sweet Spot

There isn’t a magical formula, alas. Getting the backstory just right depends a lot on your genre, age category, character personality, and your own personal preference. Consider these two examples of published books that fall on opposite extremes when it comes to the amount of backstory they include.

Example #1: Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang is an author whose personal style tends towards lots of backstory and detail. In Katabasis the main character, Alice, is literally unable to forget anything. The long tangents into Alice’s backstory immerse the reader in what it would feel like to be stuck in Alice’s anxious and overstuffed brain.

Example #2: Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

The main character in this YA dark fantasy, Vera, is a golem who has been made in the image of her creator’s murdered daughter, for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on the Nazis who killed her. The backstory in this book is super sparse because Vera has no backstory of her own, but gets flashes of other people’s memories from the materials that comprise her body.

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The opposite extremes of these books has partly to do with the experiences of the characters: one character who can’t forget, vs another character who has nothing to remember. It also has to do with genre and intended audience. Katabasis is written for an adult audience, and R.F. Kuang fans are likely to be onboard for her dense, academic deep dives. Wrath Becomes Her is written for the young adult market where word counts (and attention spans) tend to be shorter.

Although I don’t know either R.F. Kuang or Aden Polydoros personally, I would guess that author preference probably played somewhat of a role as well. Some authors love writing deep, richly detailed backstories. Others prefer to keep it spare. It is okay for your preferences to play a role in your stylistic choices! As the two examples hopefully demonstrate, there’s no single “correct” way to do this.

Rules of Thumb

The two examples I gave are extremes. Most books (including yours) will probably fall somewhere in the middle. As you are trying to figure out the balance of backstory in your novel, here are a few “rules of thumb” for you to follow.

1. The writer needs to know more than the reader does.

You as the writer need to know way, way, waaaay more about your character and your story than the reader does. In your early drafts, let it all hang out. If there’s a piece of backstory that seems interesting or important to you, write it down. Don’t worry yet if the backstory goes on too long or feels like an info dump. When you’re drafting, your job is to tell yourself the story first.

When you’re in revision mode, that’s when you can pull back on the backstory that isn’t strictly “need to know” for the reader.

2. Let relevance be your true North.

When figuring out which pieces of backstory to keep and which to cut, ask yourself,

• Why does the reader need to know this?

• Why does the reader need to know this now?

• Why would the POV character think about this memory now?

In order for a piece of backstory to feel natural and not info-dumpy to a reader, you’ll want to have clear, concrete answers to all three of those questions. If you can’t answer these questions, or the answer is that the memory isn’t relevant to either the character or the reader, cut it.

3. Get out your highlighter.

Are you ready to deface some books? Here’s an activity that can help you visualize the amount of backstory to include. Pick a book (or a couple) that is similar to yours, and specifically is similar to the reader experience you want people to have when they read your book. Re-read the book with a highlighter in hand, coloring anywhere the author uses backstory. Then, do the same thing to your manuscript. Do a side-by-side comparison. How does your use of backstory compare to your mentor text?

4. Ask for reader feedback.

You have both the gift and curse of too much knowledge about your own book. Because you get to enjoy a rich and nuanced relationship with your characters, you unfortunately can’t judge how well you have brought that character to life on the page. You’ll need feedback from critique partners and beta readers. You can straight up ask them for their opinion on whether you’ve struck the right balance for backstory. Or, you can ask questions like this:

• Do you understand and believe the choices my main character makes?

• Please identify spots where you got bored and/or confused.

Backstory has a bad rep because it’s something readers complain about when there’s too much of it. Taking out all of the backstory in anticipation of this complaint will most likely make your story confusing and make it hard for your reader to connect to the main character.

Ultimately, you’ll know you’ve gotten it right if no one aside from your writer friends even notices your backstory is there.

Done well, backstory becomes invisible.

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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Suzy is Calgary Bestselling Author of The Fountain Series (The Fountain, The West Woods, Wall of Wishes). This fantastical series has received three Aurora Nominations for Best Young Adult Novel. She is represented by Naomi Davis of Bookends Literary Agency.

Suzy is the founder of the Inspired Writing Community, a Resident Writing Coach for Writers Helping Writers, a touring member of the Young Alberta Book Society (YABS) and a former Program Manager for When Words Collide (WWC), a festival for readers and writers.

Suzy specializes in breaking down complex writing concepts for newer writers into manageable steps, to get the book idea exploding in their minds onto the page in a way that will make readers take notice.

You can learn more about Suzy’s books and coaching/ editorial work on her website:

https://suzyvadori.com/

She also hosts the fabulous Show, don’t Tell Writing Podcast which you can find here:

https://showdonttellwriting.buzzsprout.com/

If you would like to access a transcript of today’s episode, the best place to find it is by opening this episode in Substack on your web browser.

I’m doing the podcast a little differently this week. Today, I wanted to share an episode from a show I personally love and think you will too: The Show don’t Tell Writing Podcast.

Today, I’m sharing a recent episode where I joined host, Suzy Vadori for a deep dive into the science of teen brains, and how to write novels teenagers won’t be able to put down.

Not a YA writer? You still won’t want to skip this one. Teens read books published for adults, and the YA/ New Adult crossover market is growing. Whether you write middle grade, young adult, or adult novels, we’re talking about how you can write a book that taps into reader brain chemistry, making your novel irresistible.

Suzy is so smart, and so energetic. She is a delight to talk to, and has tons of great advice.

So, here is Show don’t Tell Writing Episode 105: How Brains of Different Ages Read. (And how to write for them.)

If you’d like to hear more episodes like this, remember to subscribe to the Show, don’t Tell Writing Podcast wherever you’re listening right now. Enjoy!

Check it Out

P.S. I’ll be back tomorrow with my regularly scheduled Truant Pen episode…which also features Suzy Vadori. We’ll be chatting all about that classic writing advice “Show, don’t tell” but in a totally “non-basic way” — as Suzy would say!

P.P.S. Substack’s transcriber was misbehaving, but Suzy generously provided me with a transcript of this episode, which you can access here.

Get Transcript

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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This June, I’m hosting a free webinar as part of Write with Pride: a free, month-long writing event from ProWritingAid celebrating LGBTQIA+ voices, stories, and writers.

I’d love for you to join me!

My session is called Special Considerations for LGBTQIA+ Romance.

Whether your romance features a same sex couple or a hero and love interest who are different genders, readers expect the same plot structure. However, there are some unique features that may challenge authors of LGBTQIA+ romance such as:

• Writing a romance for a triad or poly relationship

• Writing romantic scenes when the main character and their love interest have the same gendered pronouns

• Describing bodies or writing sex scenes for transgender, intersex, and/or gender non-conforming characters

• Writing for characters who use gender neutral pronouns

• Avoiding bisexual erasure for bi or pansexual characters

• Including Ace or demi-sexual characters

In this presentation, I’ll share some quick tips/ best practices as well as examples writers can study from published works.

It’s free to attend and open to all. Although my presentation won’t take place until June 23, I wanted to put this on your radar now, since there is an awesome lineup of events all month long.

When you sign up, you also get access to the full Write with Pride community space, including:

• Free workshops by LGBTQIA+ authors and educators

• Themed write-ins and daily prompts to keep you writing

• Book clubs spotlighting LGBTQIA+ authors

• Networking events and a supportive community of writers

It’s all free, and it’s for everyone: LGBTQIA+ writers, allies, and anyone who wants to write and be in community.

Join Write with Pride here: https://prowritingaid.com/write-with-pride/sign-up

Sign Up

See you in June,

Sam

But, by reading my diary, you will also see the strategies I use to pick myself back up again and keep writing anyway.

How I Got Unstuck

After many months of being stuck, I wrote a ton this month and finished a messy draft of a new book. I’ll share how I did it. But, I have two giant caveats before you try this at home or judge yourself for not writing as much as me this month.

Number 1: There is no magic bullet.

None of these factors in isolation transformed me from someone who was miserably pecking out a few paragraphs to someone who was quickly and happily churning out pages. Rather, it was the confluence of all of these factors that enabled me to write a lot very quickly.

Number 2: Writing this way is not for everyone.

What worked for me may be a one-way ticket to burnout for you. There were times in my writing life when this absolutely would not have worked for me either. So, exercise caution. If you decide to try these techniques and they don’t make you feel good, STOP.

What Finally Worked

1. I freed up time and energy.

In March, I reorganized my coaching business, moving most of my clients into a group. This change has enabled me to help more writers, while also freeing up significant time and energy for myself. I think it’s been a positive change for most of my writers too, who now get more frequent check-ins with me, as well as access to a whole community of other writers. (There’s one spot left, BTW if you want to join us.)

Prior to this change, I would not have been able to consistently carve out the time I needed to write 1500-2000 words per day, never mind the double writing days when I had both an AM and PM session. Even when I had the time, I wouldn’t have had the energy or focus.

2. I had a lot of support.

I have several wonderful sources of writing community. These folks were able to help me figure out a new routine that worked for me, holding me accountable to my plans, and also reminding me to be nice to myself and get plenty of rest. Because of these writing communities, I also have access to several group writing sessions every week, which help me focus during “extra” writing sessions that are outside of my normal writing time.

3. I wrote something that interested me.

I was taught as a baby writer that if you are pursuing trad publishing, it’s better not to write any sequels until you know you’ve been greenlit for a series because if you only sell the first book, then you’ve “wasted your time” or set yourself up for disappointment by writing a book no one will get to read. At the end of April, I had an honest conversation with myself about what I would be writing if I didn’t care about the market and was purely doing it for my own enjoyment and the answer was a sequel. So, I started writing it.

It felt like I had finally gotten out of my own way. For months, writing had felt like squeezing water out of a dried sponge, but now it felt like turning on the tap. Even if this book never gets in front of a single reader, it’s worth writing for how much better I feel. If nothing else, I’m got good writing practice. I also suspect that letting myself tell this story, even if it is just for me, will clear my mind so that later I’ll have space for the stories that might make more sense from a “career” perspective.

4. I did a lot of prep work.

Because I am still hopeful that someone will want to publish the sequel, I had already done quite a bit of prep work on my planned book 2 and 3. That meant I had already done my baseline character work, and, I had even written a completed, detailed synopsis of the book. I did the prep work last summer, and then put it away based on the aforementioned belief about not writing sequels.

In fairness to Past Sam, it actually was probably helpful that I took a break from the series instead of diving right in. For one thing, taking a break meant I was excited about returning to this world, and so, I probably prevented some level of burnout. If nothing else, my break gave me the chance to watch George Russell and Kimi Antonelli interact this season of Formula 1, which has been a useful source of inspiration.

Having done significant plot and character work, this meant every time I sat down for a writing session, I was tapping into a deep vein of knowledge, as opposed to the other project I’d been working on this past fall, where I still don’t know very much. No wonder I could draft this book so much more happily and easily!

5. I practiced writing fast.

My prep work wasn’t just for the story, it was also for the technique of fast drafting. Before I decided to fast draft this project, I practiced on some other ideas first. I used a half-drafting/ half-outlining model to messily draft the last 25% of a fantasy novel that I had never quite finished. I revisited Jessica Brody’s novel fast-drafting course on Writing Mastery Academy, to refresh myself on a method that I hadn’t used in several years. It was illuminating to see which of her techniques had stayed in my toolbox, even during the phase of my writing life when tracking word counts and setting high word count targets was not good for me. (BTW: If you aren’t a member of Writing Mastery Academy, Jessica Brody recently released a book about her fast-drafting method called Page One to Done.)

Because I spent some time practicing fast drafting, I already remembered what it felt like before I sat down and committed to a focused project.

6. I drafted without editing.

This is where I get in my own way the most. Because I am a great editor, it is hard to turn off my editor brain when I should be drafting. Many a very promising project has been derailed because I was focused too much on making it right that the project never got fully written.

7. I kept my work to myself.

When I revisited Jessica Brody’s fast drafting course, I realized there was a very important “rule” of fast drafting that I had broken the last time I tried it. Remember that fantasy novel I mentioned earlier where I’d never written the last 25%? I had been fast drafting that project, but was struggling to soothe my inner editor. For starters, I was anxious that the manuscript was going to end up being way too long, and so, before I even got to the end of the draft, I was looking for structural changes that would help me keep it at a more appropriate word count. The second issue is that I was receiving critiques of the opening chapters of the novel. So, instead of focusing on how to draft the end of the novel, where I was feeling a bit stuck, my brain was trying to figure out how to fix the beginning of the novel, as if this was somehow going to magically fix the ending. Needless to say, I made a bigger mess, got frustrated, and had to put this project away for a few years.

I’ve learned a couple of things since then. First, I don’t need to worry about the overall wordcount when I’m drafting. I’ve proven to myself that I can turn a 163k word draft into a 99k word manuscript – and figuring out those big structural changes is so much easier and more effective once I’ve got the whole draft laid out. Second, feedback is wonderful and important, but there are also times when you need to be alone with your work.

This was the crucial step I’d neglected the first time I tried fast drafting. Jessica Brody specifically states in the course that the vast majority of the time, she doesn’t show her first draft to anyone. Critique partners aren’t invited to the table until she’s ready to revise.

So, this time around, I decided not to seek feedback while I was drafting. Having permission not to show anyone my pages gave me permission to let it be messy, inconsistent, and full of placeholders, all of which allowed me to get words on the page and keep moving forward. In addition to not having to worry about what will so-and-so say when they read this? I also wasn’t caught up thinking about notes on previously drafted sections.

Feedback was helpful when I was in the planning stages of this project. And it will be helpful when I’m ready to revise. But in between? I needed some time alone with my characters.

8. I set a time limit.

I don’t think churning out massive word counts is sustainable long term. Personally, I wouldn’t want to do it for more than 12 weeks (which I would do if I was aiming for a 120k word draft). I was able to find the energy and focus in part because I knew I would only need to do it for a few weeks. I knew that I had a project coming up in June and July that would take over enough of my time and energy that I wouldn’t be able to keep fast drafting past the end of May.

9. I set a reasonable (for me) goal.

The book I just fast drafted is a contemporary sports rom com. Ordinarily, I would have set myself a target word count of 80 or 90k words. However, as previously stated, I knew that I’d have to stop and pivot to another project at the end of May. I also know that I can’t reasonably write 80-90k words in a month. I can however, write 50k. With my current schedule of writing six days a week, that amounted to 1500-2000 words per day, which, I knew from my practice sessions, was a very doable word count for me, and something I’d be able to knock out in the two hours I have each morning. With this extremely achievable (for me) word count, and the community writing sprints that helped me squeeze in extra writing sessions, I was often able to exceed my target word count, which allowed me to take off time for my wisdom tooth extraction and still hit my 50k goal a few days early.

I also knew there was no way this book would be complete at 50k words, and so, the truncated word count gave me even more permission to use placeholders on scenes that didn’t feel clear yet, so that I could skip ahead and draft the scenes I was more sure of.

What’s next?

I’m going to put this incomplete and messy draft aside for a little while. I expect I’ll be able to return to it in the late summer or the autumn. Because it is not yet a complete draft, I plan to do another stint of fast drafting where I write another 30-40k to flesh out the scenes I left as placeholders in this draft. In the meantime, I’ve learned a lot about myself as a writer, and I’m hoping I’ll retain these lessons the next time I sit down to draft a new project.

The first draft doesn’t have to be good. It’s job is to just be done.

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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Querying is an emotional roller coaster, and also, a giant mystery. While I can’t promise you an agent or a book deal (because no one can!), you’ll step into querying knowing that you’ve put your best foot forward.

In this self-paced course, you’ll learn techniques to polish your manuscript, develop your pitch package, and create your pitch strategy. The best part? You can reuse these tools for any manuscript you write and query!

It costs $25 for lifetime access.

Check It Out

Make it Pitchy

The bulk of your query letter should be taken up by your pitch. Think of the pitch as being like the blurb on the back of a book (also called the jacket copy). The job of this blurb is to give the reader a clear idea of what the story is about, and entice them to want to know more. This is a different job from your synopsis, which is supposed to reveal the entire story.

Here is what an agent should be able to identify from your pitch:

• Who is the main character

• What the main character wants

• What obstacles are keeping the main character from this goal

• What the main character stands to lose if they do not succeed

• A hint of how the conflict escalates over the course of the book

• A hint at how your main character will change as a result of the book

Start by jotting down the answers to each of these components. Now that you have the basic information identified, the next step is to make it sound pitchy. The best way to learn how to do that: imitation!

Look up books that are comparable to yours and read their jacket copies. Choose 3 in a variety of structures, and imitate the structure of each one, plugging in the relevant details from your book. Get a feedback partner to weigh in on which version works best. Feel free to borrow snazzy sentences from the two you won’t be using. Get another round of feedback and you’ll be ready to insert your pitch into the rest of your query.

Dissecting Book Jackets

Here are some examples to get you started. In each example, I have started with the jacket copy for the sample book from Goodreads. I then briefly explain why each one works, followed by some thoughts about what might be added/ changed if this appeared in a pitch instead of on the back of a published book.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it’s okay -- Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.

But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz’s plans come crashing down . . . until she’s reminded of her school’s scholarship for prom king and queen. There’s nothing Liz wants to do less than endure a gauntlet of social media trolls, catty competitors, and humiliating public events, but despite her devastating fear of the spotlight she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to Pennington.

The only thing that makes it halfway bearable is the new girl in school, Mack. She’s smart, funny, and just as much of an outsider as Liz. But Mack is also in the running for queen. Will falling for the competition keep Liz from her dreams . . . or make them come true?

Why it works:

• It’s only 171 words!

• In the first sentence, we learn what Liz misbelieves about herself and her place in the world.

• In the second sentence, we learn what Liz wants and why she wants it.

• In the third sentence we learn of the conflict (no financial aid) and the solution that Liz is going to spend the book pursuing (Prom Queen).

• In the fourth sentence, we learn that Liz is going to endure a series of trials that will challenge her misbelief in pursuit of her goal.

• In the final paragraph, we learn of a complication, and get a teaser that this complication might change the way Liz sees herself, therefore telegraphing her character arc, without spoiling it. (In the synopsis, you’d include the resolution, but you don’t need to do that in the query or pitch.)

• While it isn’t included here, if this was a pitch, the author might include something like, “This coming-of-age story features a protagonist who learns to take up space and embrace her authentic identity.” That’s also a good way to include some reference to the character arc within the pitch.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different plans: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.

Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.

With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love―as both will learn―is quite another.

Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry, Foz Meadows’ A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you turn the last page.

Why it works:

• Word count: 175 words

• This is a good example of writing a dual POV pitch. We start with Vel, because his initial goal/ conflict sets the stage for the rest of the story. In the first paragraph, we learn Vel’s problem, and the unexpected solution that causes his path to cross with Cae’s.

• We get one sentence about how the plot affects Cae, and then another sentence establishing how Cae and Vel have a plot adhesive (the murderous unknown faction) that will bring them together. This sentence also makes it clear that this story is primarily a romance by highlighting how the plot relates to the two men falling in love with each other.

• The last paragraph speaks more broadly about the themes and vibes in the book. You can definitely include something like this in the pitch, and it would be a great place to identify your comp titles.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Why it works:

• Word count: 151 words

• The first sentence makes it clear this is science fiction.

• The second sentence tells us there are some high stakes!

• The author quickly summarizes the specific obstacles that stand in the way of Mark’s survival

• We also learn of Mark’s skills/ personality traits that make him up for the challenge of surviving on Mars

• I’ve heard many agents say they don’t love a rhetorical question. In this case, I think it works, but this could be replaced with a statement that introduces a ticking clock. E.g. Despite his resourcefulness, there is only so much Mark can do in the face of such impossible odds, and in X time/ after Y obstacle, his luck could run out.

Want more help developing your query?

For fill-in-the-blank query templates, techniques for writing a (mostly painless) synopsis, and a spreadsheet to help your organize your agent research, head over to Query Confidence. You don’t need to face the query trenches alone!

I want query confidence!

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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If Music Be the Food of Love…

If I’m doing anything verbal – like reading or writing – I normally can’t listen to music. Even instrumental music, or vocals in another language can be too distracting. But, last spring, I really needed some bops to keep myself motivated through grading a stack of essays.

When The Struts Could Have Been Me came on, I started singing along. For several weeks, I had been struggling with a character arc for Viola in my Twelfth Night retelling. I must have been puzzling through it in the back of my mind while I graded that day, because as I heard myself sing the words, I realized, This is Viola’s theme song. And then a second, bigger epiphany hit. It wasn’t just Viola’s theme, it was the theme of the whole book.

(The androgyny of the band also matches my story perfectly…)

I don’t intentionally choose theme songs for my stories, but sometimes I’ll hear a piece of music that so perfectly captures a story, a character, or a relationship that I adopt it. Thereafter, hearing that song can help me sink in to the story it goes with.

After this epiphany, I created a whole playlist for This Happy Wreck — a queer retelling of Twelfth Night set in the high speed world of Formula 1. (Think She’s the Man with gay racecar drivers.) My playlist is kind of like a soundtrack. In 45 minutes of listening, you get the basic arc of the whole story. Neat, huh?

I can’t go into a ton of detail about what each song represents (because, spoilers) but if you want the full playlist with my annotations, you can get it by subscribing to my brand new author newsletter.

Sam, you might be wondering, why should I subscribe to your author newsletter when I already subscribe to Truant Pen?

I’m so glad you asked! Book news will eventually trickle into Truant Pen, but, it will always go out to my author newsletter first. In addition to book news, I’ll also share bonus content (like this playlist) that will be super enjoyable for people who like reading queer rom coms, but that will be less interesting for those of you who are here because you want writing advice.

If that sounds like your jam, join me in my author newsletter for an extra dose of Sam Cam every other week.

What follows are some exercises for using music to connect with your story.

These exercises fit in the category of “creative procrastination.” Are any of these the one thing you “MUST do” to write your story? No. They might not even translate to words on the page. But, sometimes approaching your story through another medium – such as drawing or music – might help unlock your creativity if you’re stuck, help you feel inspired if you’re blocked, or might help you find a puzzle piece you’d been missing.

Plus, they’re fun!

And sometimes, fun is the point.

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Choose a theme song for your book/ a character.

A piece of music is a much shorter way to capture an emotion or tell a story compared to a novel. I find that knowing the theme song of a character or story can help me have a clearer sense of how I want the reader to feel/ what I'm trying to say.

So, browse your music collection and look for a song that either captures your whole story, or the journey of a particular character.

Then – here’s the magic part – write a few sentences explaining why this felt like the right theme song. How does it represent the character or the story you are trying to tell?

Create a playlist for your book/ a character/ a particular plotline.

You can take the first exercise a step further by creating a whole playlist to represent the book (like I did), the internal arc of a particular character, or a particular plotline in your story, such as the romantic relationship between two characters. I had some students once who created a playlist to represent the 20^th Century history of Iran and it was amazing how much of a story they told just with a list of songs!

If you don’t enjoy plotting or outlining, this might be a fun way for you to map the major turning points and ups and downs of your story.

Create a playlist of what your character is listening to.

Another way to approach the playlist assignment is to make a playlist of what your character is listening to – a great way for you to trace the emotional ups and downs for a particular character over the course of the story. As a bonus, depending on your genre, you might be able to actually mention what your character is listening to in the text. If nothing else, your readers might enjoy your playlist as bonus content.

Coincidentally, as I was planning the original run of this essay, one of my friends made a playlist for a character in my book. While reading the first half of my draft, he said he got a strong image of my Sebastian character listening to “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” – and then felt inspired to make the rest of that playlist. And it perfectly captures Sebastian’s first half of the book! (You can listen to Sebastian’s Sad Boy Playlist here!)

Create mood playlists.

This next one isn’t story specific, but more of a way to get you in the mood for writing. As I mentioned, I usually can’t listen to music while I’m writing but lots of people prefer it.

If you’re a writer who likes listening to music while you create, make some playlists for yourself to capture the “moods” you need for different parts of writing. Such as a high adventure playlist for action scenes, an angsty one for when your characters are feeling blue, or a snuggly playlist for cute romantic scenes. When you sit down to write, put on the playlist that will help you capture the right vibes for the moment.

The other way: choose a song and write the story.

Most of my ideas have been about fitting music retroactively to story a idea you already have – but you can also do the opposite! If you’re looking to generate new story ideas, start with songs you find compelling and write stories to go with them. This can be an especially useful exercise if you want to dabble in short stories, or if you know you want to write a novel but don’t know what it should be about yet.

Share your music recs!

Do you listen to music when you’re writing, or do you prefer silence (like me)? Tell us about your preferences in the comments.

Have a favorite writing playlist? Share your recs in the comments!

As always, if you try out any of these exercises, I’d love to hear how it goes. Happy writing, everyone!

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

My title this week comes from the opening line of one of my favorite Shakespeare plays Twelfth Night. Music and visual arts can be the food of creativity for those of us using words as our primary medium. So, I think it’s always worth visiting the art from other media that speak to you, and try to tap into the same emotional vein.

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Whether you are working with an agent/ editor, untangling a revise & resubmit request, or processing feedback from critique partners, we hope you will find this conversation helpful!

Note: If you’d like an imperfect transcript of this episode, the best way to access it is by opening this substack post in your web browser.

Emily Golden, aka EB Golden, is the epic romantasy author of The Crimson Curtain duology, as well as a developmental editor and book coach with Golden May. Since she could hold a pen, she’s used speculative fiction to make sense of a nonsensical world, and when she’s not writing you’ll probably find her in the mountains of southwest Colorado with her husband, daughter, and sometimes their cats.

For more on her books visit:

https://www.ebgoldenbooks.com/

And for her work as a book coach:

https://goldenmayediting.com/

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

This week’s prompt is about a pair of paintings I have at home. These two paintings are clearly meant to go next to each other, but, one of the things I love about this pairing is that the mood of the paintings and the story of the two people in them changes dramatically depending on which painting is on the left, and which one is on the right.

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Normally, this is the point in the month where I send out The TP Diaries, my monthly report of how my writing is going. But, there’s a couple of reasons I’m not doing that this month.

Reason 1: My writing process is even more of a gooey mess than usual.

Last week, I thought I was finally getting somewhere (maybe?) as my March and April experiments started to coalesce into a blob of something… only to have my plans wildly derailed. Being vague makes it sound like something bad happened, so, I want to reassure you all that everything is fine, but, I can’t blog about it yet.

Reason 2: I’ve been busy!

In addition to writing, I’ve been:

• Welcoming writers into my Writing Collective. (There’s 3 spots left!)

• Creating a self-paced course called Query Confidence. Check it out!

• Recording podcast episodes!

Also, I’m headed to the Washington Writers Conference this week.

I had a blast last year — and not just because I landed an agent during the pitch sessions. So, in lieu of a writing update, I decided to re-post this story about my experience tabling at the conference last year.

P.S. If you’re going to be at this conference, stop by to say hi!

I’ll have a Truant Pen sponsor table where I’ll be giving out free Hello, I’m a writer! stickers. Attendees will also get a special discount code for my Query Hub services in their folders.

If you aren’t going to this conference, you’ll have other opportunities for stickers and discounts later this summer. So, stay tuned!

Now, without further ado, here’s the story I wrote last year…

Hello, I’m a writer!

The Power of Claiming a Label

I hadn’t planned on the stickers.

I was on Vista Print, ordering postcards and table signage I needed for the Washington Writers Conference and I was so close to the free shipping threshold I thought it was worthwhile to order something else I could hand out and pay less than I would have on shipping.

After a bit of messing around, I came up with these faux name tag stickers that say Hello, I’m a writer!

This simple statement is surprisingly radical, because so many writers struggle to claim this label for ourselves. (I know I did.) We think, well, I’m not really a writer until I finish something, publishing something, quit my day job, insert metric here.

Sure enough, as I sat at my conference table offering stickers to people passing by, many writers were excited but hesitant to take one. “I don’t know if I’m really a writer,” many said.

My response, “You’re here, aren’t you? You write, don’t you?”

If you write – anything, any time, any place – you’re a writer, dammit, no matter how often, how “good” or how published.

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From my table, I watched conference attendees walk by all day, but also, hotel staff who passed back and forth to set up or break down the food and drink stations. I noticed a very young-looking hotel employee who, every time she passed through sponsor alley, seemed to be taking much more interest in our tables than the rest of the staff. She walked slowly any time she passed through, trying to read posted material as she walked. Her glances were furtive, like she wasn’t sure she was supposed to interact with us or the conference attendees outside the confines of her duties.

I noticed her eyes lingering on the Hello, I’m a writer! stickers littering my table.

At the end of lunch, this hotel employee and one of her colleagues stopped at my table to collect dishes from sponsors who had been eating at our stations.

I saw my opportunity.

“Would you like one?” I offered her a sticker.

Her face split into a grin. “How did you know?” she asked, accepting the sticker with delight.

I shrugged. “Just sensed it.”

I loved giving out those stickers all day and will bring this impromptu swag to every other conference I attend. But this exchange, this moment of watching someone claim this label for herself, was my favorite of the day.

For the rest of the day as she carried out her duties, this writer wore the sticker on her uniform, next to her name tag.

Over her heart.

Every Saturday, I share a writing prompt for paid subscribers. If you’d like to join the fun, you can upgrade your subscription. Otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday with some free writing advice.

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My friend and fellow book coach Dani Abernathy is offering a free workshop this Saturday!

This workshop is for you if you’re tired of advice that doesn’t see you, and don’t worry! All the tools you’ve learned and podcasts you’ve binged aren’t wasted. They’ll actually serve you more once you understand the Story Tree Method.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The Story Tree Method Workshop: Solve Your Novel’s Biggest Problems with One Simple Shift

• Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 11:00 AM CST

• Totally Free

• Replay available

Register for the Workshop

Your story matters, your voice matters, and the world needs the book only you can write.

This Episode is A Little Different

In addition to being the second episode this month, this episode is a little different.

Compared to other episodes, this one is less about offering cohesive advice, and more about Dani and I getting the chance to think out loud about issues we both care about related to diversity, access, and inclusion in the publishing and writing world. So, it’s a bit philosophical and nebulous, but if you too have circuitous conversations with yourself about systemic and individual actions that could make publishing more accessible, then hopefully listening to me and Dani try to tease apart these issues will help you feel less alone!

Also, if the issues we are talking about speak to you, you should definitely check out Dani’s free workshop on April 25th: https://www.daniabernathy.com/storytree

Dani Abernathy (she/they) is an Enneagram Teacher and Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. They help deep thinkers and feelers, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, write the stories they need to tell so their readers can feel seen and can see others. Specializing in fantasy, soft sci-fi, YA, and heart-centered fiction, Dani merges how story works with how people work, creating books that help readers have more empathy for themselves and others. Dani is an Enneagram Type 4, Capricorn, INFP, and Manifesting Generator who believes that stories can change the world, one reader at a time.