From “Am I Good Enough?” to “I Believe in My Work” with Book Coach Karmen Špiljak

Struggle to believe your work is good enough? Yeh. Me too. We all do. 

Ever wonder what it takes to write in a language that isn’t your first—and still sound like you?

In this episode, I sit down with writer and book coach Karmen Spiljak to talk about what it really means to write without borders. Karmen shares her journey from Slovenia to indie publishing in English, and the mindset shifts that helped her move past perfectionism, comparison, and imposter syndrome to find joy and freedom on the page.

We talk about giving yourself permission, learning to trust your gut as a writer, embracing the messy drafts that lead to growth, and practical ways to keep your creative fire alive—like writing a letter to yourself about why you write and keeping a “Nice Things” folder for those encouraging words we all need to revisit sometimes.

If you’ve ever doubted your voice or wrestled with the question, “Am I good enough?”—this conversation will remind you that progress matters more than perfection, and writing what you love is always worth it!

Timestamps: 

00:00 Starting the Journey: Writing Without Borders
14:59 Challenges of Writing in English
15:42 Mindset Shifts and Comparisons

18:49 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
21:26 Writing for Yourself and Reconnecting with Joy
24:31 Tools and Resources for Writers
28:40 Final Thoughts and Advice

How to Connect with Karmen

Short Story Blueprint (I've created it for the podcast listeners): https://storyallegiance.com/short/ 

author website https://karmenspiljak.com

Other Links Mentioned:
Karmen has also published articles on Jane Friedman’s blog, including how to use food as a character development tool and how to navigate writing in a second language.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

The biggest mind shift that I had to make was to allow my writing to be bad and to endure the phase of my writing really sucking, knowing that, you know, the more I do it, that it will probably get better. That was like really hard. Because I knew where I wanted to be, and I kept comparing myself or my writing to that of native speakers, which obviously didn't help.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacy Fraser. A formerly repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories: the one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Write It Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, writer. Welcome back to the Write It Scared podcast, where we talk about the brave and messy act of writing our novels so that we can do it with a little more confidence, more clarity, and not feel so alone. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, and today we're talking about what it means to write without borders, to cross languages, genres, and expectations and do it with courage. My guest is author and book coach Carmen Spiliak, whose journey from publishing in her home country of Slovenia to indie publishing in English is a story about reinvention and grit and believing in yourself and learning how to develop deep creative trust. Carmen and I talk about what it takes to write fiction in a language that is not your first and the unique strengths that exophonic writers bring to the table. We also talk about her amazing short story collection, her love for short stories, and she has created a short story writing guide, which is called the Short Story Blueprint. And I will include a link to that in the show notes. So if you're a writer who is writing in a language that is not your native tongue, and you struggle with imposter syndrome, with creative imperfection, or you just need a reminder that your voice matters no matter where you start or how you start, this podcast episode is for you. So I'm gonna give you Carmen's bio and then we'll go into our interview. Carmen Spiliak is an award-winning indie author of suspense, horror, and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in Lavarre, Burton Reads. Her thriller, No Such Thing as Goodbye, earned an honorable mention at the Black Spring Crime Fiction Prize. She is the author of two culinary noir collections, Add Cyanide to Taste and Pass the Cyanide, which may explain why she is rarely asked to host dinner parties. She currently lives in Belgrade with her husband and two cats working as a developmental editor and a book coach who helps emerging writers trust their voice and finish stories that linger. Hi Carmen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm so happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

It's such a pleasure to be on this podcast because I've listened to it so often. It feels great to be able to talk to you in person.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yes, I'm so excited to talk to you as well. You have just a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to share with us. We're going to talk about writing fiction in a language that is not your first language. We're going to cover some stuff on short stories and talk about your experience as a writer. But before we get into all of that, would you please share a bit more about your journey to becoming a writer and a book coach with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

So, yes, I it's a bit funny because I have been a writer and I didn't know I was a writer, if that makes sense. I've been writing for 40 years, but have never considered this to be a job. Just because at the time when I grew up, writers were, you know, being a writer meant you were basically saying yes to poverty, you know, self-self-medication and dying of tuberculosis somewhere. And that was not really something I, you know, felt was a profession. So even in my mind, it was never there as an option. It took me forever to one acknowledge that actually this is the only thing I really want to do in my life, and then the step further to invest my time in it. And that I think has happened around probably more than 15 years ago when I purposefully started investing time in my writing and giving basically myself a chance. I f I was writing in English at the time, and I thought, well, you know, maybe traditional publishing would be something for me. And long story short, I decided to go indie publishing for different reasons. And it's something I really love and enjoy even today. And there was like a bit of a mind shift I had to make from looking for an agent to admitting to myself why I wanted to have an agent to realizing it was because I wanted that stamp of approval, saying, you know, this is good enough. Because I actually didn't believe that it was good enough at the time. And then went from, wait, shouldn't I believe that it's good enough? And from there on, really, I just kind of decided to write what I liked, even though it was quirky and people told me it wouldn't sell, and have basically gotten a lot of positive feedback from the readers. So that's the writing part. And the book coaching part is in this writing process, I met many people who also wrote. One of them was Lydia Hilier, who we met on a pitching course years ago, and then she went on to become a book coach, and I had no idea what that was, and was kind of had it on my radar, and then realized actually that the only thing that brought me the most pleasure in life, the only consistent thing when I look back on my life, all the marketing and everything I was doing, the red thread was stories, and that was like what I wanted to do. And I was like, okay, so I mean it makes sense. I'm already writing, why not help other people write stories? And I was already reading tons of books on craft all the time. So why wouldn't I do that as a job? And it was such a long journey from you know, writer is somebody who writes, well, in Slovenian, about a cup of coffee his mother had to go and beg from the neighbors, and then you know, he didn't even want to drink it. To su to like writer is somebody who publishes stories they want, who is proud of them, and who helps other writers write the stories. And that was really quite a journey for me. But yeah, I'm glad I got there.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

That's amazing. Wow, what a journey of self-acceptance and empowerment. Like stepping into your own belief about your abilities. I'm sure that there were many, many challenges to overcome with that, especially because you decided to publish in English. So why don't you tell us a little bit about the types of stories that you that you're drawn to write and what you've put out in the world?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

So the types of stories that I like to read, maybe, is the kind of stories that linger, that you come back to them, that make you think about stuff, that make you question things, that make you want to change things, that kind of empower you, encourage you, that kind of give something new, bring something new into your life. In terms of writing, I like to write the books that I've published are short story collections, and there's a thriller. So the short story collections are the quirky stories I really wished I wanted to read them as a reader, but I didn't find any. And these are basically murder mysteries, but with the food twist. There's always some kind of culinary element there. And I have to say, like, the more I've wrote, the more ideas came. And people really seem to love them. Of course, they are terrified to come over to my place to dinner. And when I ask them about allergies, because I want to be considered host, I don't want to, you know, poison them by by accident, they're like, oh, why do you want to know about my allergies? And so after yeah, after reading my books, they are a bit skeptical. But what I wanted is to have like stories with strong culinary elements, which is not always poison, but where their food plays a role, important role in some way their character development or setting or a twist, and to also then be bold and offer uh food recipes, so to basically include recipes for some of the dishes that are in the stories. And I just thought that's the kind of book I would want to read. So that's what I wrote. And it was surprisingly to me a success because I didn't really expect anything. I was told short stories don't sell, you know, unless you're a famous author, which I wasn't. And I really wrote this for myself more than anything else, because it was during the pandemic, I was kind of not sure what's gonna happen, and I really wanted to just write a book that I want to write. And that was it, and that was Add Cyanide to Taste, which in the end was basically what turned into a series. Then um bloggers would ask for like a sequel, one of the stories was licensed for LeVar Burton Reads, which to me is still like a crazy achievement that I have, you know, dreamed about. And then I have a thriller which is about a mobster sister who fakes her own death and becomes a spy, basically. And that's more just because yeah, I I was inspired by, let's say, a real life person who had to also hide from her family and just thought what an interesting situation for storytelling this would be. And then I basically took it and ran with it.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

I love that. When you were talking about your short story collections, there was this movie that came to my mind that I recently watched, and it was about, I think, was it called The Restaurant or The Invitation or something? The menu. The menu. That was. Did you see that? I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I did love anything with food involved, like I want to read it, I want to watch it. It was it was great, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Uh yeah. So if you if you like horror, it's not it's not as supernatural or anyway, but if you like horror and you like it mixed with culinary elements, that's a great movie to watch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Really great, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Cool. Well, so what kind of stories do you help writers with? Are you more geared towards working with writers with short stories, or do you also work on novels?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

So, yeah, I do both because I love short stories. I know they are like a craft in itself, they are hard to write, and people who think they're easy usually find out when they try out that it's not as easy as it seems. Not very easy.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

I've been trying, it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yeah, so I love that, but I also love working on novels. Mostly I work with genre writers. So I would cover both genres. I love genre fiction, is the kind of fiction I love to read most. And again, like I like it when writers burn to tell a specific story, when they really have a wish or you know, kind of a personal reason. When I mostly work with writers who want to either self-publish or be traditionally published, so that they have a uh, let's say a goal or that you know they want to finish the book and then they want to make it available for readers. Other than that, any kind of stories that are again like lingering, unsetting expectations, questioning status quo, breaking stereotypes, a lot of stories that kind of have something to say or something to question. So that those are my favorite stories.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

And you, I saw that you have a short story guide out for writers. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, so because a fellow writer has asked me how to go about writing short stories, and I mean I've written them often, but have really considered how others would go about it. And she asked, like, could you make like some kind of a guide? So I made a blueprint, which is based on Jenny Nash's blueprint for a book method, which I love. And it is a series of questions that help kind of put together the basic, what I would call basic elements of short stories, and help them kind of map out the necessary ingredients if you want, and then you know, however they mix them and whichever they use and whichever is their main one is up to them. And that's what I love about short stories because it gives you freedom, but that also gives a bit of a structure. And yeah, you you can get it at well, the readers can get it at my website, and hopefully it will help them craft short stories. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I will make sure to put the link in the show notes for sure. Yeah, so do you think that there's uh you know, asking for a friend, just kidding, asking for myself. Do you think writing short stories has helped you when it comes to crafting your novels? What do you think? Do you think it's uh a benefit or because I know some writers are like, no, I never, never, never do it. It's short stories, it's like a territory I never enter. I know other writers who, and I'm kind of trying to be one, write a short story in between like my revision drafts, or in between, you know, between, you know, because I'm just testing the waters and playing with it. But what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah, I I love them and I love this question. For me, short stories have definitely helped. I I also use them as on one way as a palette cleanser, you know, be between writing one and the other story, I use them to test ideas or just sometimes characters. Because if I have an idea for a character, I just start writing and it very quickly I can see what kind of character is it, what do they have to say. For me personally, the things that I loved learning from short stories was one, it really helped me nail on one hand the beginnings and the endings, because you have such a limited time and space for the reader with a short story. So you really need to get kind of to the point very soon. And so, like on that note, it helped me also write linear fiction. Again, limited space. You have like 3,000, 5,000 words, and you need to every word needs to earn its keep. And that has helped me a lot when revising. So I cut mercilessly, maybe even too much. Yeah, it helped me also play with like different voices. Once I I used to write a lot in the first person point of view, and I wasn't sure how to do it in third, and then with short stories, I was able to practice that. So it definitely helps, but mostly I think it helped with the pacing. To to slow down the pacing in my case of storytelling. And I learned that by writing more short stories, I was able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I love what you said about a palette cleanser, and that's kind of like what my approach has been because I I also write in like I write in darker veins, and I just kind of get, I don't know, maybe a little I feel a little icked. So I need to go do something else. And so I've like dabbled over in writing a short story romance, and that was really fun. I actually submitted it. We'll see what happens with it. Submitted to an anthology, but I found it to be really uh really fun, and then it opened me up to to consider writing in a genre that I had never considered before, and I really loved it. So I think you know, I think it's a great thing. So I'd love to transition and talk a little bit more about writing fiction in a language that is not your first language. Tell us about that journey for you. When how did it start and how did it evolve to you writing and publishing in English?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah, so I'll try to be I try I try to remember, I don't know if I remember the exact moments, because like I my mother tongue is Slovenian, but I grew up bilingual. So my second language was Serbo-Croatian at the time, and English was my third language. And when we started learning in school, of course, we also wrote some stuff there, but that was not so much like creative writing. I think the first time I really attempted to write fiction was probably after I so I've written a novel in Slovenian, which I had translated, and then I re-edited it because I was adding chapters and so on. That was my first attempt of really creative writing in English, and this was just before I moved out of Slovenia, which was I think now. Well, around 2008, so it's it's it's a while ago. And I knew then at the time I was still before that exploring the option of publishing in Slovenia. And I mean it's a it's a very small market. Already knew I wanted to live abroad, so it didn't make so much sense for me to keep writing in Slovenian. Also, like I knew once I move my contact with the language is going to, you know, get worse. And simply I wanted to, at the time, my my idea was to have my stories available to a wider audience. And English was really, for me at the time, the easiest way to do it. So I kind of made a switch on purpose. I thought, well, I'm just gonna switch to writing in English. And of course, I'd been learning English for decades by that time. And I thought it was gonna be easy because I written blog posts, I've written articles and everything, but it was not. It was really, it was really quite challenging. And let's say the biggest mind shift that I had to make was to allow my writing to be bad and to endure the phase of my writing really sucking, knowing that you know, the more I do it, that it will probably get better. That was like really hard. Because I knew where I wanted to be, and I kept comparing myself or my writing to that of native speakers, which obviously didn't help. Then in the end, I mean, I lived abroad, and for different reasons, also like I met my husband, my now husband, and English is the language between us. So I spoke English a lot more, which helped. I also started thinking in English, and that was the thing that made the biggest difference for me this disabling the internal translation. Because before it was not that I was translating, but I was still thinking, oh, what's that word in English? So I would look for Slovenian words and then try to find an English equivalent. And then I just switched into writing more in English and just trying to describe the word or the feeling or the mood of that word. And also, like just the third step was still having my own authentic voice. And obviously, it's it's an ongoing process and I love learning. I collect words and tools and and everything. And I feel today, when looking back, that it has it's been, of course, a let's say, a learning curve, but it's also an advantage. Like basically not having this firm step, having to be creative with things. Like sometimes you don't know words, you don't know concepts, and then I just need to kind of find a creative way to describe it. So it has, I think, invited me to be more creative with my language and more playful with the language. But yeah, it's been it's been quite a journey.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

What did you find the most challenging for you on the technical side? And should really writers worry about that, or is this just part of the phase of letting it be bad and continuing to pursue it?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah, I think that the worst part for me, the most challenging part for me, well, one article, Slovenian language doesn't have any. So these is for me ongoing struggle. But luckily, these days you have tools for that, so it's quite easy. You know, books on crafts, commas. I'm terrible with commas. Like I always put too many because I'm thinking Slovenian commas. It's it's just these are minor things that you know, today you have tools, you can do all of that. I think the translation was the biggest thing, and also the expectations I put on myself. The trying to reach a standard of basically comparing myself to publish authors, published speakers didn't help. And in terms of what made the switch for me, I heard it on a podcast. I wish I I remembered which one to give them the credit. I think it was maybe even Joanna Penn's podcast about compar comparativities. So comparing ourselves to others. And I think she said that the only fair comparison is to make to where you were a year ago instead of where others are now, because then you can see the progress that you made. And so, like, I had to make that switch to kind of stop this external comparison and really just focus on. On just writing more, and that by writing more, it's gonna get better.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

So you mentioned that you had some mindset struggles as an exophonic writer. And I'm just curious if you could dig into those a little bit more. You mentioned the comparison with other writers, and I think I also heard imposter syndrome in there. So could you speak to that experience and help just to help normalize it for anybody else out there who might be going through something similar?

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah. I mean, I think the story at least that comes to mind, you know, regarding imposter syndrome was basically the shift, at least for me, that was the biggest that made the biggest difference in my, let's say, writing life, writing career, writing decisions, was the answer to the question, am I good enough? And that's the question I've been asking myself. Funny enough, you know, I've been writing for a long time, but when I was writing, just writing, when this was not something like a profession, it was like a hobby because you know, writing was not a career. I loved writing. I've been published in Slovenian since I was a teenager. You know, like I've got always great feedback and so on. I just never considered, I mean, it's not something, you know, you get paid, it's something like you do on the side. And at that point, I never doubted how to say myself. At least I don't remember that I doubted myself. And then at the point when I realized, wait, this is actually the one thing I want to do in my life. And this was, you know, quite hard admitting because I know is the thing that it's not, let's say, a lucrative career. You know, it's is is is like financially not gonna be, you know, it's gonna be a struggle as a writer. Like it was like not, let's say, financially sound decision, but it is what I really wanted to do. Then I think the stakes were high for me, and then I started all this doubting. And on top of that, learning, you know, basically switching to writing in English, added an island another layer on top of uh, you know, will I ever be, you know, good enough to be published in English? So that was like a lot of doubt. And then, like I said, for me, the way to go about it at the time was like, well, everybody wants to be traditionally published. So obviously that's the the right way forward. I didn't even think about it. I was just like, no, that sounds logical, I'll do that. I wrote a the thriller and I pitched the thriller, and at the time I got some rejections. I didn't really, I think I sent probably like 12 or 15 pitch letters, like the queries. It was not a whole lot, but it felt like a rejection of me. And of course, you always translate that no into the worst possible way, like, oh, they hated it, you know, this sucks, it will never get published. And then and then the pandemic hit. And this was like just before. Well, the timing was really not great. And then I started, this was the first time in my life that I started questioning whether I should continue writing. So far, I've questioned everything else, you know, could I do it? Am I good enough? But like, should I do it? And then I had to ask, because I had a lot of time on my hands, I had to ask, but why, you know, like why am I writing to begin with? Like, why, what, what's in it for me? And why do I want why why am I pursuing this traditional publishing? And then I had to admit to myself and be honest that it's because I wanted the answer to, am I good enough? I wanted somebody to say, yes, you're good enough. So we will, you know, kill some trees and publish your book. So that was like that was what I wanted. And then around the time I listened to many podcasts, a lot of alliance of independent authors, and I realized actually that the one person, you know, I'm looking for that person to believe in me, but that one person should be me. And that was, I think, the shift that happened where I was like, okay, but you know, if I don't think I'm good enough, how can I expect anybody else to believe in me? And this is where I decided, you know, screw it, I'm gonna write a book just for me because I don't know if I'm gonna get out of this pandemic alive with a lot of doom scrolling and things like that. If I can only write one book, you know, this is the book I want to write. I don't care if it doesn't sell. It's like something I write for fun, and I had a lot of fun writing it. It just kind of also took me mentally out of the pandemic, and I didn't, you know, question whether I was good enough. I was just like, nope, I'm just gonna tell these stories. I had a bunch of ideas and and basically just kind of rolled from there. And that was, I think, the book that changed things for me. And you can probably tell because from there on I stopped kind of asking this question. Of course, there are other doubts now. You know, will the second look uh book live up to the expectations? Will I have enough ideas and so on? But it really changed a lot knowing that I can just write what I love and what I like, and actually that there would there are readers who love these kind of stories, even though they're quirky and weird, and you know, will probably if you if you I think if you display one of my short story collection on your shelf, you get out of cooking duty for sure. But yeah, so that was that that was the main shift.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Thank you so much for being so honest and so vulnerable about your experience. And gosh, I hope we all get there to that place where we can answer the question for ourselves. I know I I want to be able to get there, you know. Am I good enough? Because it lingers every time I I write. Yeah. Doubt and creativity go hand in hand. And but what you choose to do about it, you know, that that's where you have control and have the reins. So, in that vein, what resources have you found that have been most helpful for you to continue on with your writing journey? So, back, you know, when you were in that moment of the 12 rejections or however many rejections you had and the pandemic was was upon us, what were some of the things that you pulled on to help you continue to move forward?

SPEAKER_00 28:10

One of the uh the tools that I've picked up somewhere, I wish I I could remember where was uh the letter where you write why you write, where you explain to yourself, it's a letter to yourself, you explain to yourself why you write. And for me, it was very clear, you know, in the moment of doubt, should I even do this? I picked that letter and I wrote it by hand, so it was not even digital and read it, and it reminded me of that creative fire that only comes alive when I write. And it's not about sales, it's not, in the end, it's not about you know publication, it's really about feeling alive as a creative person. And I knew in that moment that I have to, I mean, there's no way for me not to write. I know this is not how everybody feels, but like I need to write. That's for me just what I was born to do, if you want. So that was like in terms of knowing that's that I'm doing what I want to be doing, that really helped. Another useful tool that I picked up later on, which I really love and I share with all my clients, was nice things folder. And I found about that on a Hidden Brain podcast, which is also a really great resource. And basically, it's like just make a folder on your desktop and put nice things that people have said about your writing, whether these are emails or positive feedback, reviews, anything, just put it in there. And when you have this moment of doubt, or you know, like this little voice saying this is not good enough, or or things like that, just go there and look at what other people said about your writing. And this really helps getting out of this own mindset, seeing how other people see your writing. And I think it's a nice pickup for at any time when you're feeling down. And we know that in writing, there are many times when it's tough and we doubt and we're not sure, and so on. And so, in this in these cases, I also go to that folder and I look at the nice things that other people have said about my my books or my stories, and that really makes me feel nice.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

I love that, absolutely love that. It's like a positivity folder. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

That is so cool. What a good trick. Yeah, yeah. A way to just kind of reconnect you because I think it's hard to like we we, you know, in story, like when we're in story development, typically, I mean, most of us when we're I when we're in ideation, it's in we're in love, right? Like, oh, this is the best thing ever, and I'm gonna combine all of these things and it's gonna be epic, and I'm so excited. And then we get into the doing, but we tend to get bogged down. And and sometimes the more we know about story structure and craft and genre and all the things, I mean, sometimes that's a lot of noise in the background when we're just trying to tell ourselves the story. And I get distracted by all of that, and like, oh, but I'm not hitting this mark yet, and I'm not hitting that mark. And I get kind of almost a little spun out by the is it good enough? I mean, that's already creeping in there into my, you know, whatever stage I'm in. And then in revision, it's like, especially when I get down into the line levels and I'm like picking it apart, I have forgotten completely about the fire or whatever the heart of the story was. So that's a really good reminder and a powerful one to reconnect to why it is that this story or writing in general means something to you. What does it mean to you? I love that. Fantastic tips. Well, before we wrap up, I ask everybody who comes on the podcast these last couple of questions. What do you think the best creative or writing advice is that you've ever received? Something that you've held on to and that you just particularly love.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

So it's very simple and it's basically trust your gut. And I think that is difficult when you lack confidence as a writer. And obviously, it feels especially, you know, I read a lot of books on crafts, and always, always, even when I had a good story instincts, which I think most writers do because most writers are readers. In fact, I don't think you can be a writer, you know, you can write well if you don't read. You have this subconscious story instincts. So and your gut feeling tells you what kind of stories you're attracted to, and so on. But it's often this rational part, you know, we we read crafts book. Oh no, they say you should be doing this, you should be doing this. And sometimes, I mean, some advice fits everybody, but no advice fits uh all writers. So there are things that make sense, there are things that don't, and uh the trust in your gods, I feel like I still in the story is important because in a way you give your own voice as much weight as other people's, and I think is important because you are telling the story. So kind of at least listening to the gut feeling and knowing that, you know, when you feel there's something there, there's something there. And maybe you know you will find out later exactly what is there, but it's not it's not just because one book on craft says, you know, these are the only three principles that you should adhere to, that you need to forget about your own instincts. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

And what is your wish for your fellow writers out there?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

What would you like to impart to them? I'd love them to have fun when they're writing. And I know it's not always fun, and especially for some revision, it's not fun, but I'd love for them to find a space where they can have fun when they write.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Thank you so much for your time, for coming on the podcast, for just being a wonderful guest. Is there anything you're currently working on that you would like to share with our listeners? And then, of course, where can listeners find you?

SPEAKER_00 34:16

So, yeah, I'm currently working on another short story collection. This one will likely come out the beginning of next year. It's called Dark Chronicles, and it will be a collection of speculative dark fiction. Where can they find me? So I have one of those hard-to-pronounce names. I have two websites. One is Carmen with the K to make it complicated. Carmen and Shfiliack with the S-B-I-L-J-A-K dot com. That's my writing author website. And for book coaching, I have storyalegions.com. And I also have a blog there where they can find more useful tips and tricks for the writing.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Yeah, and most recently you had a blog post come out on the Jane Friedman site, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:03

About so there's uh I have a blog post there about exophonic writing, some tips for people writing in their non-mother tongue. And I've recently published a blog post also on Jane Friedman's blog on how to use food in character building.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Oh, that's good. That sounds really good. I totally want to read that. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Carmen. And I will make sure to put a link in for all the amazing resources that you shared with us, your short story development tool, as well as links to the Jane Friedman blog where people can read your amazing articles.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Thank you so much, Stacey. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new season of the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Thank you for listening to the Write It Scared podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.