Shows
Your Next DraftHow Great First Lines Make Readers Pay Attention (with Abigail K. Perry)It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fiction writer in possession of a brilliant story must craft a captivating opening line.No pressure, right?Your opening line is your story’s first impression. Agents, editors, and even readers decide fast whether they want to keep reading or drop the book altogether. And yes, they can make that judgment in as little as the very first sentence.So your opening line is doing some heavy, heavy lifting.But what, exactly, do great first lines do?What sets an unputdownable fi...2025-07-2248 minYour Next DraftWhere Progressive Complications Go WRONG (and How to Fix Them)Are your readers bored? Disappointed? Confused? Here's what that tells you about your story's middle.You’re stuck in the messy middle. Languishing in the doldrums of your story. The inciting incident is long past, the climax is so far ahead you can’t see it over the horizon, and you’re drifting, lost at sea.What is actually supposed to happen here?Where did your plot momentum go?Why do your pages feel full of stuff, and yet nothing ever happens?The answers to all those questions lie in you...2025-07-0831 minYour Next DraftMake Sense of Your Messy Middle With the Most Underrated Story ElementYou don’t need more filler. You need better progressive complications.Your inciting incident hooks your readers and promises them a story they’ll love.And then comes the middle.The messy middle. The quiet doldrums of your story, where plot momentum goes to die.Where your characters wander, your conflict blurs, and you start to wonder if any of it is working.So what do you do? Add some “stuff that happens” and hope it holds your readers’ interest? Toss in a random subplot? Describe your character’s breakfast in...2025-06-2429 minYour Next DraftHow Great First Chapters Make Readers Care (with Abigail K. Perry)Your first chapter has a monumental task: to make potential readers care about your book right away and hook them to keep reading.Every sentence is a chance to earn your reader’s attention—or lose their fragile, baby-fresh interest before your story even begins.And that’s assuming that your book makes it to the bookstore shelves. If you’re traditionally publishing, the first chapter’s burdened with even more responsibility. It’s your first impression with agents and editors, who will judge whether to consider the full manuscript based on the first five or ten pages...2025-06-101h 14Your Next DraftInciting Incident: How to Revise an Unputdownable BeginningYour inciting incident sets the stage for everything that follows. Here's what to revise so it can carry the story.A great inciting incident does a lot of heavy lifting.→ It hooks your readers, pulling them into the story.→ And it sets up everything to come, laying the foundation for a brilliant climax your readers will love.The beginning matters. Which means there’s a lot of pressure to get it right.But what does right actually mean? How do you start a story well?That’s what I’m...2025-05-2727 min
The Author Next DoorEpisode 021 – Choosing the Right Editor w/ Guest Alice SudlowIn this episode, Cassie Newell and Angela Haas discuss the intricacies of editing with Alice Sudlow, a developmental editor and book coach. They explore how writers can find the right editor, the importance of understanding one's own values and needs, and the various communication styles that can impact the editing process. The conversation also delves into the challenges of receiving feedback, the authority of the author, and the role of AI in editing. Listeners gain insights into navigating the editing landscape and making informed decisions about their writing journey.📣 Do you have a editor you love? Give the...2025-05-2154 minYour Next DraftWhat If You Do Everything Right and the Book Launch Still Goes Wrong? with A.S. King“It really broke my heart, actually. . . . For the rest of my life, it will break my heart.” A.S. King gets honest about what happened when the publishing industry failed her book.What happens after you edit your book?What happens after you’ve bared the story of your heart, crafted it into an excellent novel, and presented it to the world?What happens when you get traditionally published, when you receive awards and accolades, and when it looks like you’ve won the author career lottery?Last month, I brought author A...2025-05-1352 minYour Next DraftThink You Need a Line Editor? Try This FirstDo you need to hire a line editor? Or should you line edit your manuscript yourself?After all, you want to write an excellent novel. You know that great writing takes shape in revision, and you don’t want to skimp on any layers of editing.Nor do you want to overestimate your writing skills and leave your book littered with clunky sentences that a wordsmithing line editor could polish into shining brilliance.On the other hand, you also don’t want to mess up your editing process or your manuscript by getting the...2025-04-2929 minYour Next DraftHow Surrealist Pantser A.S. King Revises Award-Winning Novels“Revising is about making sure that you're saying what you want to say in the way you want to say it. . . . To me, revision is the sport. It's the impact. It's the reason we're writers.”Have you ever read a book and thought, Holy cow, this is amazing. How did this author DO this?Or, maybe you’ve read a book and thought, Wow, I wish I could write (or in my case, edit) a book like this, but this is incredible and it might be beyond me?Well, that’s how I feel whe...2025-04-151h 31Your Next DraftThe Editor Life: 5 Days Behind the Scenes with AliceEver wondered what an editor actually does all day?What it looks like to spend all day supporting writers in their stories?Or what your editor’s doing in all that time when they’re not sharing their feedback with you?If those questions pique your curiosity, you’re in luck. I’m pulling back the curtain to share a week in my life as a developmental editor and book coach.You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at what I do with writers and what I’m working on when I’m not on calls...2025-04-0148 minYour Next DraftHow to Use Revision Tools Like the Story Authority You Already Are with Brannan SirrattWhen to use frameworks to solve your story problems—and when to trust yourself and lean on your own story authority. You’ve heard of Save the Cat! Story Grid. Blueprint for a Book.These are all frameworks designed to help you edit a novel. If you don’t know these names, I bet you know others—Hero’s Journey, Freytag’s Pyramid, 7 Point Story Structure, Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, there are dozens more.Each one promises that if you use it, you’ll be able to craft better stories. And because we want to write...2025-03-1859 minYour Next DraftAsk This Question When You’re Overwhelmed by Your StoryEscape analysis paralysis with one powerful question. It’s deceptively simple—and yet it unlocks everything.If you’re like most of the writers I work with, you’re pretty savvy about story structure. You know your Story Grid, your Save the Cat!, your Hero’s Journey. You’ve probably analyzed your story six ways to Sunday, and you’ve got the spreadsheets and outlines and diagrams and graphs to prove it.And all that analysis has leveled up your story significantly. You’ve solved major structural problems by applying your extensive knowledge of story theory.Bu...2025-03-0424 minYour Next DraftHow Multiple Layers of Editing Combine to Perfect Your Story (with Cathryn deVries and Kim Kessler)The best novels combine rock-solid story structure with scenes that are unputdownable on every page. Here’s how one writer and two editors polished a story at every level.If you want to move your reader in every moment, keep them hooked on every page, you need to refine your scenes until each one is unputdownable.And that refinement? It’s SUCH a joy. It’s my favorite thing to do and it will transform your entire story.But in order to make every scene matter, you first need to make sure you have a...2025-02-181h 33Your Next DraftWhat Is a Manuscript Evaluation? (And Do You Need One?)It’s the most common developmental editing service you’ll see. Know what to look for and when (or if) you need one.If you google “developmental editor” and start looking through editors’ websites, you’ll see a common service appear again and again:A manuscript evaluation.(Or assessment, or diagnostic, or critique. A rose by any other name, etc.)Typically, in a manuscript evaluation, an editor will offer to read your manuscript and tell you what’s working and what to focus on next to make it even better.It sounds li...2025-02-0434 minYour Next DraftScene Workshop: Hook Your Readers in Chapter One with Cathryn deVriesYou get one shot to grab their attention. Don’t waste it with characters staring off into space.You've put all this work into uncovering your character's internal arc. You know them SO WELL.When you step into a scene, you're giving your absolute all to uncovering the deep meaning and purpose behind it, the profound arc of character transformation that's happening in even the smallest moments.Yet in doing all that . . . you've lost the plot. You've crafted complex inner worlds for your characters, but all they're literally doing is staring off into sp...2025-01-211h 40Your Next DraftThe Unskippable Process to Create Unputdownable BooksIt’s unpopular, but essential if you’re aiming to craft your best work.Picture this: one year from now, you’re holding your book in your hands. You see the gorgeous cover art, feel the slight resistance when you open the cover for the first time, run your hands over the soft, smooth paper, flip the pages and smell that delicious new book smell.Does that sound amazing? Holding your book in your hands just one year from now?Being done soon is so tempting. But just being done soon won’t lead to...2025-01-0727 minYour Next DraftHow to Edit Your Novel When Disaster StrikesYour book is important. But sometimes, worthy interruptions will delay it for a while.For the last few months, this podcast feed has been quiet. It went dark with no notice in mid-June.I didn’t mean to disappear on you. In fact, I didn’t plan to pause the podcast at all.But a family emergency struck, and all my best-laid plans for summer 2024 changed in a matter of hours.This summer, I learned what it takes to edit when your world is in crisis.Happily, for me and...2024-08-2718 minYour Next DraftHow Taylor Jenkins Reid Crafts an Exceptional Opening SceneYour reader experiences your story one scene at a time. Make every scene un-put-down-able.Great stories are made of great scenes.Sure, your novel has a clever plot with twists and turns from the first page to the last. But the way your readers will experience that plot is . . .. . . one scene at a time.Which means if you want your readers to fall in love with your novel, you need to captivate them with scenes they can’t put down.How do you do it?I’ll show...2024-06-1831 minYour Next Draft2 “Showing” and "Telling" Ways to Convey Time Passing in Your NovelShow and tell your readers why time matters to your characters.Time matters.When you look up and it’s dark outside, time matters to you.When your characters look around and summer is turning into fall, time matters to them.When your readers are reading a novel and they can’t figure out how time is passing? Well, time matters to them, too—mostly because they’re confused.In this episode, I’m sharing two ways to make time matter to your readers the way it matters to your chara...2024-06-0418 minYour Next Draft3 “Telling” Ways to Convey Time Passing in Your NovelDon’t lose your readers. Just tell them what time it is.The passage of time seems intuitive. It just happens, right? (Like, whether you want it to or not. Time and tide wait for no man, etc.)Here’s the thing, though. If you don’t tell your readers that time is passing in your novel . . .. . . they won’t know.It seems wild, I know. It feels like time passing should be obvious. But I promise you, it’s not.Luckily, conveying the passage of time to your readers is...2024-05-2128 minYour Next DraftWhy You Must Show Time Passing in Your NovelThis is often overlooked, but it’s essential for great stories.How do you make time pass?Well, when you’re living your regular life in the real world, you don’t have to do anything.Time is constantly passing, no matter what you do. And when a timer goes off, or you look outside and see the sun’s gone down, or you feel your stomach growl with hunger, you notice time has passed.You hardly have to think about it. It’s just happening, all around you, all the time....2024-05-0717 minYour Next DraftWhen Should You Practice, and When Should You Publish?Write your best stories—and know when to let go and publish them.In order to write great books, you first have to learn how to write great books.But when it comes to writing, there’s always something more to learn.So how do you know when to practice your writing skills—and more importantly, when to publish the stories you’re creating?That’s what I’m talking about in this episode.In it, you’ll learn:2 benefits and 1 danger of spending focused time learning new writing skills...2024-04-2319 minYour Next DraftYou Can't Skip Learning How to Write a Novel. Here's WhyBefore you can master writing great stories, you have to learn to craft great stories. When I was fifteen, I got my learner’s permit and began learning how to drive a car.This made me very unhappy.See, I wanted to know how to drive a car. I didn’t want to learn to drive a car.Knowing how to drive a car was fun, freeing, and exciting. Learning to drive a car was dangerous, tedious, dangerous, difficult, and also dangerous.Writers, I find, feel the same way abou...2024-04-0922 minYour Next Draft4 Tips for Your First Time Working With an EditorBecause working with an editor should be delightful, not scary.Let's be honest. When you start working with an editor for the first time, it can feel a little scary.You’re sharing your manuscript, the project you’ve worked so hard on, with a stranger on the internet. You’re inviting another person into a process that up until now has been entirely solo.And you’re entering an industry of professionals that’s probably entirely new to you. What should you expect? And what’s expected of you?In this episode...2024-03-2621 minYour Next Draft4 Tips to Find the Right Editor for Your NovelWhat you need to know BEFORE you start working with an editor—and how to tell if they’re the right fit for your novel.Working with a developmental editor can be the most rewarding part of your editing process.But if you’ve never worked with an editor before, it can also be . . . intimidating. Confusing. Scary.After all, you’ve got to hand your manuscript that you’ve worked so hard on to a stranger on the internet and hope their feedback will be helpful and not soul-crushing.If you’ve ever wond...2024-03-1214 minYour Next DraftWhy Writers Resist Measuring Their Craft (And Why You Shouldn’t)What we get wrong about creativity—and the truth that will make your writing and editing so much more effective.Do you know how great stories work?Scratch that. Let’s start with an easier question. Do you know how your stories work?Not all writers do. Even published authors often struggle to articulate how they created the books their readers love. They rely on intuition, following gut feelings to shape their stories.But while your intuition can guide you to create a commercially successful novel . . .. . . I believe there’s a be...2024-02-2725 minYour Next DraftThe Pros and Cons of Group Coaching for WritersWhy group coaching might be the perfect way to get feedback on your writing.When I was first getting started, I pictured editing like this:A writer writes a manuscript and sends it to their editor. The editor writes feedback and sends it back. The writer takes that feedback and uses it to edit their manuscript.That’s the classic form of editing. But it’s far from the only form of editing.Editing doesn’t even have to be one-on-one. In fact, sometimes group coaching can be exactly what you need!2024-02-1322 minYour Next Draft5 Steps to Edit the Second Draft of a NovelThe simple editing process to turn your messy first draft into a second draft you love.“I’ve written first drafts before, but I’ve never edited a second draft. How do you actually do it?”A writer asked me this a few days ago. And they’re not alone—it’s a question I hear a lot.How do you actually edit a novel? Is there a process? A system? A strategy? Something, anything, to guide you after you finish the first draft?Yes. Yes, there’s a process to edit a novel.2024-01-3021 minYour Next DraftWhy a Page One Rewrite Is Actually Worth CelebratingIt sounds scary, but it’s actually MAJOR editing progress.What if the best way to make progress on your novel . . .. . . is to go back to the beginning?Sometimes, the most effective editing strategy is a page one rewrite.Yes, that means exactly what it sounds like. You open a blank document and begin writing an entirely fresh manuscript.It might feel like you’re moving backwards. But you’re not. And in this episode, I’m going to prove it to you.You’ll learn:Why I CELE...2024-01-1618 min