Episode 75: Updates + How I Write Series, Pt 2: Am I Already Stuck?

Big thanks to AUDIO IN BLACK (my bad y'all I said Audio in color! Close but not the same site)  and my friends in the Diem’s Diamond mine for featuring the bookcast. I so appreciate the love and attention and pumping not only this podcast but the books as well. Love you, mean it! 

On Episode 75, we talk a little bit of reading and a LOT of writing! I share about the process of beginning AGAIN on The Pearl- I am officially writinggggguh. I'm also sharing tips on getting past that  place where you pounded out some words and don't know where to go. For this Pantser, it means planning.

Pick up full show notes, including the books and resources I discussed at Booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast.

Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. Follow me on the socials- I am author DL White in most places and shout me out a holler!
Don’t forget to share the podcast if you enjoyed this episode and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating! I’d really appreciate it. Do not forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases, by spreading the good word, or by throwing some coins in the hat at bookcast.buzzsprout.com. Every little bit helps.

I'll be back next week with a reading and writing update. Please enjoy this weekend, have a superlative week and we'll chat again soon...

Transcript

0:28

Good morning and happy to my new and returning listeners here at the BookCast. I wanna begin before I forget because I will forget. I wanna begin with a great big thank you to 2 groups that mean a lot to me. A big huge thanks to Audio in Color For featuring the book cast, I don't remember if they were featuring me in January or February, my brain of Swiss cheese. But recently, they featured me, and I wanna give a great big shout out to them. Also, my friends in the DM's diamond mine for featuring the book cast, this month, the DMs Diamond group is Jacobi DMs, support promotion group over on They're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, everywhere. Super great resource for finding an excellent, audiobook. Most of them are voiced by our good friend Jacoby Diem, so I just wanna give a huge shout out to both of those groups. Audio in Color, promotes Books in audio written by black authors, read by black narrators, thankful for them Showing the love and attention and pimping not only this podcast, but my books as well. Love you, mean it. Let's get rolling. Welcome back to the Bookcast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 75. I am DL White, author of contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels that center black love and relationships. I'm also a big fan of books, so we usually begin with the book report and then we talk about writing and topics of the day. I am currently writing The Pearl at Black Diamond, Black Diamond Romance number 3 and I'll talk about my writing process in the writing update, weaving it into part 2 of my How I Write series. I wanna reiterate that I am not an expert. I just sit down at this computer and I type words, I smash my fingers into the keyboard and I make words And, I then I make them sound good to me and then I send them to my illustrious editor and she makes them sound better. So I'm talking to me as much as I am talking to that new author, that author that hasn't been at the keyboard or the notepad in a long time, We'll get through this book writing process together. The Bookcast is a production of books by DL White Written, edited, produced, and supported by me. If you would love to back me up, I would be most grateful. My podcast website bookcast. Buzzsprout.com has opportunities to offer a one time or recurring monthly gift, whichever is most appropriate for your financial situation. I thank you so much to my monthly supporters for standing behind me to offer, to offset the cost of bringing this show to you all. The other way you can support is to buy my books. Booksbydielwhite.com/books has all of the good stuff in ebook or audio. As a reminder, I'm phasing out print copies here at home except for new releases. You can find print copies at most online retailers at resist booksellers or bookshop.org. As well, all my titles are available wherever ebooks and audiobooks are sold as well as Subscription sites like Everand and Kobo Plus and they're available to request at your local library through Libby or Hoopla. Today, we'll start with the book report as always and then we will talk some writing. I'm skipping the marketing report until the end of February so I have More data to look at but I had a really good week on the socials so I'm excited to see what the end of February looks like. I think I think I'm hitting my stride there so I'm just gonna keep at it and we'll see where I end up at the end of February. Today is February 9th, It is

8: 4:25

28 AM. I'm running way, way, way ahead of schedule. I'm very excited about that. I've been using this new, thing. It's a Notion Template, I don't know if you guys know Notion, but it's like, I I guess it's like a, like a cross between, like, Trello and Evernote. I'm I don't know. Anyway, I have this template for podcast production, and then I have one for publication Production where I'm going to use to manage, you know, my books, like if you ask me on an ISBN for a book is, I don't know, I have to look it up. I should I should I'm I'm I'm 14 books in. I should have that written down somewhere. Yeah? You know, like links for books. I don't have any of that written down. I have to look it up every It's so ridiculous. So I'm gonna I'm gonna get my life together. So I'm using Notion for that. I'm also using it to manage this podcast and so I've Gone through and planned out, really, like, all of the podcasts for February, so it means that it I spend less time writing a rundown and, I can just spend like maybe an hour on Friday night getting my life together and on Saturday morning I can get up, make some coffee, and sit here at the desk and plug in the mic, so Yes. So I'm way ahead of time.

It's 8:30. I usually sit down to record by 9, 9: 5:38

15 and, I'm feeling good about myself. It's overcast in the ATL and you know what that means coffee, a few Girl Scout cookies, a blanket, and a book. I already can't wait, But I gotta get this episode out of the way first, so let's kick it. I have a light and I am ready to dig in, but first, I'm gonna have some. Alright friends and lovers, let's get it going. We begin, as always, with the book report because I am a book head. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna read a book. I have read 15 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year. I'm 1 book behind on my Goodreads challenge and really come tomorrow I'm probably gonna be 2 books behind. I am not worried because I read books like I wash my face, I just I had a week where I put down 2 books so I would be ahead but I just had 2 books I just was not just not gonna deal with these anymore. So let's get into it. This week, I read 2 books. I read Summer on Sag Harbor by Sunny Hostin. This was a 3 star for me. It was it it was okay. It was not a bad book. I did not enjoy it as much as Summer on the Bluffs. I got a little inside baseball info on this one which kind of explains why the writing just seemed off to me. I feel like The characters in this book are I don't like when readers say the characters aren't fleshed out, but I just felt like they were very, like, surface people on the page. Like, there's a big there's a big secret That is revealed entirely too late in the story for it to, like, really make sense. Like, it didn't make sense For this secret to be held out for so long, like, the guy really had no reason for keeping this from Anderson is the, boyfriend's name and, Olivia is the female main character. Really no reason for Anderson to keep the secret from Olivia for so long. Like it he kept it for, like, drama's sake. You know, it's it's okay. It's more feel good. I don't know if this book was billed as a romance, but it really It's in it's really more like it's a it's a women's fiction, you know, summer beach read literary fiction type of book. So, but I did it was on my list to read. I did get it read and book 3 comes out, I believe later this year or early next year or something, so there's another one coming up. We'll see if it does any better. I probably won't read book 3, I think I'm just I think I'm tired. I also read, Red Zone a Dislike to Lovers Sports Romance by Rae Sean, this was really good. Now I don't know anything about sports, not a thing. So the chapters where we're deep into going play by play of, that's how much I don't know about sports. I believe he's a football player, but this couple is a couple that they claim to not like each other, but they be having a lot of sex for people who don't like each other. This is a thing I don't really understand. If there is a person I don't like, the very last thing that I want is to be close to them. Very, very last. So I don't understand the hate sex portion of the show. It's more that perhaps they like each other more than they want to, and it comes out in The physical manifestation in the lust and the sexual attraction, I have never been Seriously tempted to have sex with a person I don't like, like, you become unattractive to me if I just don't like who you are as a person, so that to me is I'm a very realistic, logical person, so that to me is hard to overcome. But when you read between the lines, you see the relationship that these 2 people have, and you see how stubborn they are. You see how there's there's there's feeling a relationship there that maybe they just don't want to bring to the forefront and they don't wanna own up too. That that I can understand. I wrote my own, you know, hate to happily ever after novel, but Preston and Angie were never in a bed together while they disliked each other. So Angie was not having any of Preston's Nonsense. Even though Preston was always kind of poking at her and floating flirting with her, she was just never not having any of his nonsense because She did not like him and it was not until the tide turned for her that she saw him as I take that back. She did see him as attractive because they used to date back in the past, so Preston is a good looking man As we know throughout the book, and she does recognize that he's a good looking man, and maybe that's the problem. Anyway, red zone was very good. I gave it 4 stars. It's book 3 in a series, but I didn't feel like I was missing anything. I wasn't lost, or anything. Rayshawn put her foot in this book. It's really, really very good. I blew through all of it yesterday because I was trying to catch up on my My Goodreads challenge, I knew I wasn't gonna get 2 books in, but I did wanna get this one and it just released. It's brand new, so go ahead and Snatch it up, it's Red Zone, a dislike to lover sports romance by Ray Shawn. I have a few books on my reading list. They are, Advanced reader copies that I need to get read this month before publication, Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Eliza Hartung, pubs, February 20th, The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin and The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen both published on the 27th. I'm not in a huge hurry to get these read. I am right now really trying to pad my reading with romance because I'm writing a romance. On that note, I put down The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and Where Butterflies Wander by Suzanne Redfern, Where Butterflies Wander Published on February 6th, and I, I didn't like it. I just didn't like it. I got, like, 12% in and I was bored, and I put it down because I have too many books I want to read to drag

myself through books, and I think that's probably my last: 12:30

Suzanne Redfern, Warth of Other Suns is a good book, but it's there's so much In it, I can't read that book while I'm writing a romance. I I can't. I just I've already read a couple of stories that have put me down in the dumps and I can't I no. I need happiness. I need joy. So, phew lord. This week, no idea what I'm writing, but I'm definitely gonna find some romance and put it into my face. I need it. I need it, need it, need it. So I have no QTNA this week, so let's pop right into the writing update. I have officially begun writing The Pearl. Full disclosure, I started this some time ago, So, not like Never List and Hey, Lover, and I mean most of my full length novels. I started then stopped and I'm pulling it back out to Finish it, now cross your fingers because I have tried to finish this novel a couple of times before and this might not go again, all I can do is push it With, like, you know, at least 27 people listening to this podcast, now the spotlight is on and I have I have booked time with my editor, so let's hope and pray that this goes. All I can do is push it. So my goal for this book is 70,000 words. 75,000 at the most. It might end up shorter than that. I'm trying to remember. I think Elysium ended up around 65,000 words. Beach thing is only 47,000 words, so I I really wanna keep them around the same same length, so I don't wanna go Over 70 really, it might end up shorter than that, but I don't wanna lie to myself and say this is a 45,000 word novella because it's not and then be Dressed because it turns out way longer than a novella and then I get, I get frustrated and then I try to cut the story off instead of just Giving it lots of room and letting it grow and then cutting it back as needed. The story that I have in mind for Kari, I wanna take my time to tell it. I want it to be full and, you know, being honest, I know I want it to end. I know how I want it to end, but the middle is Still quite murky for me. Also, I need my grand gesture, my gesture from Davis to Kari that shows her that he's in it to win it. I really, really need to map that out, so I just have to wait for my characters to tell me the story and I gotta be patient with that. I have about 27,000 words and I have, as I said, set time with my editor that I need to have it to her No later than the 1st week in May. I was aiming for April, so that takes a little bit of pressure off me, and that gives me some time to write and not be stressed about it. I'd I'd really like to be done by April, maybe mid April as a stretch, but I have some time if I need it. And for people freaking out about that Timeline, yes, I know it's February, it's mid February at that. I'm not writing War and Peace, it's a steamy beach set workplace romance that should give you a warm hug. It's not that deep. I mean, I'm just gonna try to be full, tell the whole story, Not shrink away from things, just fluff the story out, and then firm it up as I need, draft 2 of the writing process. So Dabble gives me a goal of 1600 words a day when I tell it that I wanna be done by the end of April, But I tell Dabble what days I wanna write, so I've already cut out my busy days during the week, my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I typically don't write on those days. If I write, it's mostly weekends between now and the end of April, and if I stick to that schedule, in theory, I'll be done on time, in theory. So The goal this week is to keep working through the chapters that I have written, pair them down, rewrite, restructure them, move things around, that's a huge reason why I I use dabble because I can move scenes around, I can, you know, oh, this needs to come before this and then let's put this at the end, let's Shove that, you know, in the in the hopper, we'll use that later, so my word count might drop before it grows and that's Fine, no one ever accused me of writing short because I can't, I also need to work through my planning worksheets and dig in deep with Davis and Kari. So I wanna tell you a little bit about Davis and Kari without spoiling too much of the book. So Davis Scott is general manager at The Pearl, and The Pearl is a resort on Black Diamond, which is a fictional, 23 mile man made island off the coast of Texas. Think San Juan Islands, think Galveston, Sort of a meld between the 2 but also completely fictional. Don't go looking for it, but if you find it, let me know because I'm moving there aseptually. So Davis is the general manager. He is best friends with Vance who is in Elysium, which is book 2, And, Vance has been kinda helping Davis try to get people to the island, get people to the resort by putting together some packages and, like, Davis is just really struggling because The Pearl is a big property And the owner of the property has, like, Caribbean Resort Dreams with Hilton hotel budget, So he's kind of under the gun, the hotel owner, the resort owner has his foot on Davis's neck and he's under a lot of pressure to fill up the hotel, get some events running, you occupy every single room on on every single floor, So he's feeling the pressure and he's talking to his boss about it, and his boss is, like, Bette, I hired you somebody, she'll be here today, Roll out the red carpet. Give her a condo. Let's roll. And so now Davis is at this point where he has a new employee that he hasn't even met yet, and she is supposed to help him turn, I guess, turn it up, turn the hotel up, not so much around because the pearl is Not really failing, but it's not doing as well as it should, it is it's not a Caribbean destination, it's, you know, a hotel off the coast of Texas, So that's the goal there. Kari Savoy is, I'm I'm really still working through Kari's character. I originally wrote her in her mid twenties, but I think I said a couple episodes ago, if Davis and Vance are the same age and Vance is about to to turn 50, Davis is about to turn 50, and, mid Fifties and mid twenties is creepy to me, I just, I can't, I I can't. So I'm gonna have to age Kari up which means giving her more life and giving Davis a little bit more life experience and needs to make sense that he is in his fifties and he's a single man about his business, so still working through that, but Kari has been raising her little brother and sister. Her parents, Died in a car accident more than 10 years ago, and, she was I believe I have written it that she was in her sophomore year At, Southern Methodist University and got the call that her parents had died in a car accident And instead of letting her brother and sister go into foster care, she came home to take care of them and finish raising them. Well, now Moses and, I have completely forgotten her little sister's name, Reyna r e y n a wow why couldn't I remember that? So she's been raising Moses and Reyna since they were kids like 10 and 12, let's say. Moses is now off to college, premed, Reyna has been, difficult, we'll say, and she has really the most difficulty connecting with her little sister. Reina did not adjust to the loss of her parents well and as she has grown older has just really become, more vocal, more rebellious, but she has decided that she is going to go to college and has Has been accepted to has been accepted to college and is going to college and now Kari feels like she can live for her, and she was currently Working in Austin, at a a golf resort. It's like the Fairmont Golf Resort and Spa as their marketing and events manager. Here's about this opportunity at the Pearl and, has applied for it and she's almost got the job, but, the hiring agency want her to go out to the Pearl, take a look, take a tour, and meet Davis, etcetera. They've and they figure, you know, if they roll out the red carpet to her, that she'll probably take it. No doubt about it. Kari's kind kinda being suckered because the resort hotel the resort owner is is really very much a cheapskate. Car is definitely being suckered, but she also wants this opportunity Because her best friend already lives on the island. Her best friend is Dion, who runs TIKIS and Cream, While Amina from Beach Thing, Black Diamond Romance Book 1 is up in New York Helping her parents run the restaurant group and living with Wade. Do you see why this can't be a 45,000 word Novella? This is not a novella. So Kari is, like, kind of reinventing herself. This is a familiar theme in my books, reinventing herself, Living her life, putting, you know, putting herself in a position to do better, live better, be better while Still supporting her little brother and her little sister. Of course, Reyna is gonna throw an absolute wrench in the whole situation. Moses is gonna be the, you know, the steady hand that he has always been through this relationship, kind of the glue that keeps the family together. Kari is gonna move to Black Diamond to help Davis keep this hotel afloat, and so that's kinda where we begin. That is my my premise and that's where I am in the book, and here is where I always get stuck because what now? This week's topic on how I write is, am I already stuck? So I get to a certain point and, like, I don't know where to go from here. Like, what what now? Am I already stuck? And how do I get out of this? My solution? Actually plan, like a genius idea actually plan. So I'm a pantser, meaning I write by the seat of my pants and I prefer to be a discovery writer. I like for the tale to unfold as I write it, not plan it out and then write it. If I plan the whole thing out, then I feel like I already wrote it, and then I'm not interested in rewriting it. So I have an idea of how I want it to begin and and other than that I'm like the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness I am a preacher's kid, so you should have expected that analogy, So tips for getting unstuck. The Gotham Writers Workshop offers 12 tips for getting unstuck. Number 1, go back to the beginning. Often, a story stalls because you haven't given your protagonist enough to do. Make an adjustment at the beginning can vault you forward to the middle. Number 2, look at your protagonist's backstory. Your characters' histories offer rich veins of material. The more you know about your character, the more you have to write. And for me, that's like digging deep into your character worksheets, into your character interviews, You're romancing the beat sheet, your goal motivation conflict, all of those things that you use to dig into your characters, You need to know them forward and back, their entire history. I read or not read, but I heard, Michael b Jordan say One thing that he does when he gets a role is he develops that character's backstory by journaling from the character's point of view for, like, 3 to 6 months before he begins filming. Like, he needs to build up emotion and that character needs a history, That character needs something that he's reacting to and something that's driving that emotion. You can't just pull those emotions out of the air. It has to come from somewhere and that has to be ingrained in inside of you as you push your story forward. Tip number 3, throw obstacles in your in your character's path. Ask yourself what is the absolute worst thing that could happen to my character right now and then have it happen. So I've got an idea of what I wanna do with the pearl. We'll see if I can pull it off, but this tactic helped me immensely with Brunch at Rubies. I had So much to dig those woman those women out of that I couldn't type the words fast enough. Tip number 4, introduce something new, and I would honestly be Super careful with this one. If you don't do it well, introducing someone well into the story, at say, like, a 140 pages in, I think is awkward. I think it creates too many points of view and too many characters and also Especially if you're writing a mystery, it will seem like the character conveniently popped up and it's too much of a flag to your reader. I feel like it's just big red arrows pointing right at that character, like, mhmm, that's it, that's it. And then there's a twist if it's not that character, but then what was the sense in having that character pop up, you know what I'm saying? Number 5, unsettle your character. We all, characters included, Have a particular way of seeing ourselves in the world. The quote from The Wire comes to mind. You want it to be one way, but it's the other way. You think your character is x, But maybe your character zags to y. Unsettle your character and then move your character through that Unsettled state. Tip 6, jump ahead if you can and not get distracted. Write the scene you're excited about and then work up to it, when I do this, I feel like I have scenes, but not a story. They don't seem the scenes don't seem cohesive, and so I feel like I have to work harder To tie the scenes together, I don't do so well with writing out of order, but if it works for you, by all means do it. Tip 7, consider the weather. Weather has a huge effect on our lives, it really does for me and I'll add this consider the season, A seasonal affective disorder or the winter blues sits on me heavy from October to March. I am just not myself, I just don't. I'm, like I'm tired, I'm lethargic, I don't have any energy, I don't like anything, I don't care about anything, I push myself to do things because I have commitments and it's thing that I have to do not because I'm just super excited to do them. I don't feel like myself until at least March. I do the best I can until the sun comes back out, So daylight savings soon come. Tip 8, don't forget holidays like Valentine's Day is coming or Christmas or Thanksgiving. These are occasions that bring expectations and especially for romance a great reason and a catalyst to write. Give yourself a deadline is Tip Number 9, full disclosure, a deadline usually makes me lock up, but I have to get my butt in gear so I reached out to my editor to see when I would have to get my book to her for it to publish in summer and not only for this book but for the next 2, so now I have deadlines. I'm not sweating yet, but I am writing. Tip 10 is look inward. Many of us write about topics that are painful, loss, heartbreak, mental illness, Family breakdowns, often we're drawing on our own experiences as we write, which can mean reliving painful associations. We can get stuck Not because we have nothing to say, but because we have too much to say and we don't want to say it. I can't really add anything to that. It's perfect as is and it could be a great reason you don't wanna dip into that project. I will say a thing that I think about a lot that keeps me from writing is not Not wanting to get it wrong and the perception of what I'm writing. Like I've said before, I wanted to write Davis on the autism spectrum, drum, but I feel like I'm never gonna get that right, and I don't wanna fight with people, so I don't write it, in the never list. I did not want to write a character that was bipolar directly, I wanted to write Trey's reaction to his sister being bipolar and sort of like an outside looking in situation, but I also wanted to give His sister Melissa, a voice and I was really worried about doing that wrong and being insensitive. I really lightly skirted across that and I didn't dig too deep into it and I could have, but I just felt like I was just gonna do that wrong. And so It's not it's not my story to tell and so I will let other people who are bipolar or who have so much more experience Writing mental, mental illness, mental imbalance, that sort of thing, I will let them tell that story. Tip 11 is step away from the desk. Sometimes trying to force words is the worst thing you can do. Take a break, Watch a movie, read a book, knit something, color something, talk it out. My non writer friends are really good for tossing around a what if scenario, because they're not trying to write the book for me, they're just literally pulling from real life. What if she did this? What if he did that? What if this happened? What if that happened? Really excellent for giving me ideas and like Pulling me out of my my my panic and anxiety about what if I can't write this book and just, like, giving me real life examples. Last tip number 12, when all else fails, try to remember why you started to write this in the 1st place. What drew you to that story? What makes you excited about writing it, about people reading it? Write it down if you have to. Look at it before your next writing session, and I hope it gives you The push you need. I will post a link to this list in the show notes. There's way more detail than I shared and I want you to have this resource if you need it. As for me and Al, I plan to get unstuck. For me, if I'm stuck, either I don't know my story or I don't know my characters enough, So it's time to get out those planning worksheets to read those writing books. I like Goal, Motivation And Conflict, forget the author but I'll link it in the show notes and Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes. I feel like I read Romancing the Beat Before I write every romance for just for the refresher, it's super short. It's like maybe hour and a half long. There is a work sheet that goes with it, and I gotta fill out a romancing the beat sheet before every romance. Otherwise, I don't know what I'm doing. I run through these and as often as possible until a concrete idea of where I need to go begins to form. And usually when I start to think I'm some hot stuff author that just plants her butt in the chair and pounds out a 65,000 word story without knowing my people, my setting, my story arc. I have to have Lo come to the deities meeting and I am reminded of who I am. That's not that's not how I write. So I pull out my character workbooks and my worksheets and I do the interviews and I read the books and I dig in. Internet research. I love a day in the life. Love it. A blog article, a YouTube video, a movie, talking to people. For this book, I interviewed a person that worked at a high end resort, and I got so many ideas of what a day in the life should be like for a beleaguered general manager, the correct Terminology, what would be irritating to them, to their staff. I am big on input, so I eat this stuff up and then I have to put it to good use. So a nice day in the life gives me ideas of what my characters need to be doing at any point during the day, it also like really helps me push the story Along with what should they be doing at this point during the day, what would prevent them from doing that? Because that's probably very annoying. Also, this is a romance, so I need to be thinking about the nooks and crannies of the resort where they might be caught alone, where he might watch her, where she might watch him, where they might connect, etcetera and so on. I'm also thinking about relationship dynamics. What are the norms for the trope I'm working with and how can I use them to my advantage in this story? One of the reasons I read, read, read so dang much is because reading gives me ideas. I don't be like being like other people, So I don't feel tempted to take other people's ideas. I hear something and I have already immediately spun it into something that's Nothing like what I just heard. I just get ideas. I might like how an author says things and then turn to my manuscript and remember why I like how the author Said something. Is it more vivid? Is it more succinct? Is it more revealing or more mysterious? Does it push my story forward? My alarm just went off. Got you. Turn that off. Alright. I'm way ahead of schedule, like I said. Remember why I like how they offer author said things? Does it push my story forward where I was stuck before? And speaking of that, sometimes I just need to start over. Sometimes what I have just won't work and I'm afraid I'll have that coming up, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. This is like my 3rd time trying to write this book, so I'm not afraid of starting over, but my fear always is okay, I've started over now for, like, the 3rd time, let's pray that 3rd time is the charm. So inevitably, Diving into my setting, the world of my characters, letting these acts play out in my mind, feeding it new stories, new thoughts, new juice will bring me out of a rut. When we talk next, let's talk about that saggy, soggy, boring middle that we keep dragging readers through. It doesn't have to be that way. That brings us to the end of today's episode. You can't see me, but I'm dancing because I'm gonna edit this and I'm gonna get it up and I'm gonna set up all my stuff and then me and my coffee and some girl scout cookies are gonna get into a book and I am ultra excited about it. Don't forget to follow me on the socials. I am author DL White in most places. Shout me out a holler, don't forget to share the podcast if you enjoy this episode, and if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating. I'd really appreciate it. Do not forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases by spreading the good word or by throwing some coins in the hat at bookcast dotbussprout.com, every little bit helps. I'll be back next week with a reading update, a writing update, and part 3 in my how I write series. Please enjoy this weekend. Happy superlative week. We'll chat again soon. Bye bye.