A Novel Ending
Writing a novel is hard. Revising a novel can be an even bigger challenge. But don't fret! We have your back. Join us, authors Joanna Mercer and Kat Abbott, as we chat about the highs, lows, and trickeries of taking your first draft to a final, polished manuscript. We hope each episode gives you more tools, inspiration, and motivation to tackle your own revisions. If you love learning about the craft of writing, then this podcast is for you!
Episodes
43 episodes
When Your Writing Priorities Change
It’s the final episode of A Novel Ending podcast! In the finale, Kat and Joanna chat about the importance of reassessing your writing goals and priorities throughout your career and how it’s important to make changes when needed.
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18:50
Why It’s Good To Change Up When And Where You Write
Throughout your writing career (and especially after big life moments), it’s important to step back and assess how, when, and where you write. In this episode, we share different ways we’ve shaken up our writing lifestyle to help us get unstuck...
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28:26
Chat With Authors Mel And Teghan Hammond On Working And Revising With A Co-writer
In this episode, Kat interviews sisters and co-writers of the YA novel Lucy, Uncensored. Mel and Teghan Hammond share the ups and downs of their co-writing process, their thoughts on having an outline, and discuss how their communication change...
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Season 2
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Episode 40
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30:01
Chat With Two Librarians On What Makes Great Page Turns In Picture Books
Kat interviews librarians Amanda Bosky and Mary Ostrander about what makes for an engaging and page-turning children’s story - what captures the audience when a book is read out loud? Between the two of them, Amanda and Mary have read thousands...
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Season 2
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Episode 39
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37:12
Chat With Author Liza Wiemer On Utilizing Sensitivity Readers
Joanna interviews young adult and picture book writer Liza Wiemer on the importance of doing your homework before you even start writing a project, especially if your project is based off of a real-life event, not to mention real people! Liza s...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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39:29
All About Copy Edits
One of the final passes you (or an editor) will do on a manuscript is a copy edit. It’s important for your grammar, punctuation, and sentences to be correct, clear, and accessible for your readers. But what if you don’t know all the rules or ev...
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Season 2
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Episode 37
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26:43
Revising To Cut Or Increase Your Word Count
Are you the kind of writer who drafts a lot of words, or the kind who drafts short? Particularly with debut novels, agents match genres to preferred word counts in order to gauge if a story is underedited or sparse. These expectations can be a ...
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Season 2
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Episode 36
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33:05
Revising For Clarity: On Descriptions
Clunky descriptions can confuse your reader, going on too long can bog down your scene, and too little can fail to immerse your reader into your character’s world. How then, do you find the right balance? In this continuation of our Revising fo...
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Season 2
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Episode 35
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21:27
Revising For Clarity: On Order
In the third episode of our series “Revising for Clarity” we look at the importance of order. Without a very careful and steady hand, messing with the linear way you relay information and tell a story can easily lead to confusion on a sentence,...
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Season 2
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Episode 34
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14:45
Beware of These While Revising Part 2
In the second episode of our Revising for Clarity series, we chat about fluff chapters–what they are, how to identify them in your manuscripts, and what you can try to give them more substance. We also talk about stage direction - when too much...
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Season 2
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Episode 33
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14:32
Beware of These While Revising Part 1
In this first episode of our Revising For Clarity series, we discuss three things writers should be aware of as they go: author intrusion, your main POV not driving the story, and unneeded or confusing head hopping. In case you might be slippin...
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Season 2
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Episode 32
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29:04
Planning Your Year Ahead
It’s almost the end of the year, which for a lot of us means reassessing goals and making plans for the fresh new year ahead. In this episode, we chat about different kinds of writing goals as well as various ways you can break them down to mak...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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23:28
Holiday Gifts for Writers
It’s that time of year where you’re hunting for that perfect gift for your friend or favorite person. What if they’re a writer and you’re not? Or what if you need ideas to put on your own list? Tune in for a variety of writerly gift ideas for a...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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12:42
Chat With Author Bayley Mae on Writing With Scrivener
We all know there are a ton of different ways to go about writing a novel, and this also includes which program you use. In this episode, Kat interviews Bayley Mae on how Scrivener has helped her writing process. Bayley shares her favorite Scri...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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19:05
Things You Can Vision Board
Vision boards can help you draw inspiration for your stories, keep you motivated while writing, and help you craft dynamic descriptions and sensory details as you draft. In this episode, we chat about two different ways to approach vision board...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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25:18
How to Come Up With an Idea
What if you want to write a novel, but don’t have any ideas in mind? Join us in this episode as we share different techniques to help you brainstorm project ideas. Assuming this will help you make a short - or long - list, we then offer tips on...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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13:58
Narrowing Down Your Ideas
In this episode, we chat about what to do if you have multiple story ideas and don’t know which one to work on next. We share ways to organize all of your ideas, practical writing exercises to narrow down your focus, and some things to keep in ...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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19:04
Fiction Books to Read for Craft
There are many non-fiction books on writing to help you dig deep into the craft of story, but there’s nothing like seeing it done masterfully in an actual novel. In this episode, we share fiction book titles that we think are strong in various ...
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Episode 25
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23:18
When to Revise vs When to Quit
There are multiple stages to writing a book, from ideation to plotting to first draft and beyond. At any stage, it can be hard to know if you should continue to revise and work on your story or if you should set aside your project in pursuit of...
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Episode 24
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21:50
Chat With Historian Jenn Van Haaften on Nailing Historical Details in Your Stories
Joanna and Kat interview history maven and writer, Jenn Van Haaften, on creating accurate and immersive historical fiction. As a historian with 30+ years of experience, Jenn notices all the little details that make or break effective world buil...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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36:17
Revising Voice and Dialogue
What is this ever elusive thing called voice? We give our best definitions of what we think voice is, as well as tips on how you can revise to strengthen the voice in your story without making it too in your face. We also do a deep dive on dial...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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33:36
Revising Your World’s Culture
While some writers may not immediately think of culture as a part of your story’s setting, it plays a huge role in making your world unique and feel like it’s fully fleshed out. We chat about different aspects of culture, from religion to polit...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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27:19
Revising Your Setting
Regardless if your setting is made up, based on a real place, or something in between, it should be richly layered and vivid while also being concise and smooth so as not to mess with your story’s pacing. In this episode, we share strategies to...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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29:19
Chat with Author J Mercer on Revising Dual Character Timelines
Kat turns the mic on her co-host Joanna (who writes YA and women’s fiction under the pen name J Mercer). Joanna talks all about her newest YA release (In One Life and Out Another) and the challenges she faced with writing dual timelines. She sh...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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23:24
Chat With Author-Illustrator Sophie Li on Changing Age Category and POV
Kat welcomes author-illustrator Sophie Li back to the podcast! In this interview, Sophie explains why she chose to change one of her manuscripts from YA to MG and another from 3rd person to 1st person, as well as offers practical insight into w...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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20:42