This is a bit of a followup to Writing with Scrivener. You don’t need to read that before this one, but that cover a lot of different features, while this is only going to be on the compile feature — something I mentioned briefly in that letter but, for space and my own sanity, didn’t dig into.

Before you trust me too much, I want you to know I only sort of figured this out a few months ago, and I only figured out how to make it work for me. There are lots of options in compile that I don’t touch.

Okay?

I think it will help you to know upfront what, exactly, I was hoping to make work. This has to do with the kind of books I write and my own particular quirks.

• A few books ago, I noticed that my editor was adding an extra line break before and after text messages, notes, signs — stuff like that. She wanted, basically, a full blank line before and after those items (maybe for design purposes?), so to save a step, I just started adding the line breaks myself.
  Annoyingly, though, Scrivener saw those blank lines as a scene break, so it removed the indentation from the first line after it.1 This drove me crazy, and I was going through whole manuscripts in Pages/Word to indent those lines again.

• Similar to that, I was annoyed at all the pound signs (#) it was putting in every blank line.2 I desperately wanted it to stop, because I was manually taking those out, too. Wildly annoying in a book full of text messages!

• I wanted to have my chapter titles from the binder show up as chapter titles automatically, without me writing them in the documents. OR, I wanted it to ignore whatever was in the binder and insert chapter numbers on its own; I knew it could, but I didn’t know how.

• For mysterious reasons, I started having trouble with the header/footer. It was adding some of the information, but not all of it, which meant I needed to go through the Pages/Word document to add, like, my name to the compiled manuscript. What a pain.

Additionally, note that the only thing I’m doing here is getting the book into a Word document. I’m not trying to format it to publish as an ebook or paperback on my own. That’s an entirely different how-to guide.

But if you’re looking at just getting your manuscript into a fairly standard format — and you share or can work around some of my formatting-while-drafting quirks3 — you can just copy most of my settings and see if you get close to what you want.

All right, here’s what the main compile screen looks like (for Mac).

A few things to note upfront:

• Section types

• Checkboxes

• Formats

• That middle section with “Assign Section Layouts” at the bottom.

Section types: You can see that in this manuscript, I have a few different section types. “Front Matter,” which is the title page (and dedication/acknowledgements), “Section,” which is the prologue and something going by “seven years later,” and then “Chapter,” which is all my chapters. If you wrote a book with parts (Part One, Part Two, etc.), you could have those as their own documents and assign them a different section type, that way you could format them differently from your chapters.

To make the compile features work, you will need to assign types to all your documents in the project. You can do that in the metadata, or you can do it right there in the compile list by using the dropdown menu.

Checkboxes: These checkboxes next to all your documents signal what’s being included in the compile or not. You can see where my dedi isn’t included; it’s in my Scrivener project, but when I hit the compile button and look at the whole manuscript in Word, it won’t be there. When I’m ready to include it, I’ll just check that box and it will show up right there after the title.

Formats: Scrivener comes with formats already, which you can see at the bottom of that list. Then there’s My Formats, and Project Formats. You can see where I tried to make a custom format (The One and Only Compile) that I could just use across all my Scrivener projects, but I think I did something wrong. However, “Manuscript (Times) Copy” appears on all my Scrivener projects — and it’s under My Formats, not Project — so I guess that’s the real one and only compile.

Assign Section Layouts: It’ll become a little clearer in a moment, but if you have a section that doesn’t correspond with a layout, you’ll connect them here.

I hope your brain doesn’t hurt yet, because we’ve barely gotten started.

All right, so you’ve assigned section types to your documents, decided what you want to include in this compile, and you’re staring at me like “now what?”

I started with one of Scriv’s template formats: Manuscript (Times). This one automatically puts the whole manuscript into Times New Roman. If you choose (Courier), obviously it will compile the manuscript with Courier.

There are lots of other options — including the option of building a new format from scratch — but I haven’t tried them.

You might want to use a pre-loaded format, and if so, great, you’re done. You can stop reading here. For me, the manuscript format got close, but wasn’t quite what I needed, so I used Manuscript (Times) as a starting point and customized from there.

Either right click on Manuscript (Times) and choose "duplicate and edit format,” or double click; it will warn you that it’s going to create a copy. Say okay.

Once you’ve done that, you should be able to edit the format. If it doesn’t open a new window automatically, double click Manuscript (Times) Copy in My Formats.

You should see something like this next. Lots of different things to mess with on the left side, and options about those things on the right.

Here, in Section Layouts, you will decide how you want the different section types to compile.

Note that Chapter is assigned to Chapter. For me, Titled Section is actually assigned to Section. New Page is . . . Front Matter (the title page). (Not taking screenshots of all those because this is already long enough.)

So these three bolded sections — bold signals what’s in use — will affect the documents assigned chapter, section, and front matter. Whatever I adjust here, when I have those different options selected, will apply to those sections. Only worry about the bolded ones.

When you select the layout type (Chapter here), you’ll be able to choose what will be included in the compile: the title, metadata, synopsis (index card text), Notes (that section below the index card), and text.

Here’s why I chose what I chose here:

On Chapter, I unchecked title, because on this project, I don’t want Scrivener to use what I have listen in the binder. Remember, above, it’s just numerals all the way down. I want it to say Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc. More on that in a bit.

When I’m writing the Deer Hill books and I have chapter titles that are in the binder — you can go back to that previous post and see what that looks like — I check “title,” because I do want those to show up.4

Still in Chapter, I didn’t need metadata or any of that other stuff included. Just the text. Yep, “text” is all the text in the document. Everything you wrote. So you’ll want that checked. I’m assuming.

Now, Titled Section — this is Section, for me, so the prologue and “seven years later.” I checked title because I wanted it to use “prologue” when I compiled. Same for the other document in there. I just wanted the binder text to be the title.5

And, finally, New Page (Front Matter lol), I don’t have title checked because I didn’t want “title” to show up before the actual title. The title of that manuscript is in the text of the document, so “text” is checked.

At the bottom, you can see a lone checkbox with “override text and notes formatting.” I don’t remember if mine was checked by default or not, but obviously I have it unchecked.

Are you still with me? I feel like I’m trying to explain ancient rituals.

Anyway, there’s more.

We’re on Title Options now.

This is where I was talking about having Scrivener not use my numerals from the binder and instead fill in Chapter One and so on. This is also why I assigned a different section type to the prologue and other document: because I didn’t want Chapter One to start with the prologue.

Note: you can write “Chapter One,” “Chapter Two,” and so on in your documents. No problem! But if you add/remove/combine chapters, you’ll have to go in to fix those individually. If you let Scrivener do it when you compile, all those chapters will be there without you needing to fuss.

Okay, so how to make that happen? It’s just that bit in the title prefix box. The little bit of code there just turns into One, Two, Three, and so on. If you don’t want “Chapter” in there, just delete it.

And if you don’t want it to magically insert those chapter numbers, make sure that box is blank.

Next one! New Pages.

This affects the beginning of every document. So in this manuscript, with “pad top of page with,” my chapters start 14 lines down the page. If I clicked on New Page (front matter!), it would have 0 in that spot, because I don’t want those to begin partway down the page. (I think I actually manually added line breaks before the title so it kind of does fall in the middle of the page, but that doesn’t have anything to do with this setting.)

And hey, while this isn’t something I do, if you want the first word (or first few words) to be fancy small caps at the beginning of your chapter, this is where you’d put that.

I know some of you are looking for the first letter to be big and fancy, like you’d see in a finished book, and while I don’t think that’s here, where we’re formatting for a manuscript, it might be in one of the other templates Scrivener offers.

I don’t do anything with prefix and suffix, but I did use settings — and this is where I solved one of the problems I listed above! I said my indentions were getting removed after a line break following texts or notes.

“Do not change” was the answer to that problem.

HOWEVER, I have to tell you about one of my personal quirks:

Using the ruler, I manually remove my indentions at the beginning of chapters and scenes while I’m writing. This is one of the reasons the “override text and notes formatting” is unchecked for me. I do a lot of formatting in my books as I write. I just like to look at it like that.

So if the only line breaks you have are at the beginning of your chapters or between scenes (and you don’t have a # or something separating them), you can click whichever radio button is right for you (probably the second or third).

WHEW!!!

But not too much whew. We’re not done.

Back to the list on the left, we’re on to separators! We’re about to solve another one of my issues from the list above.

If you recall, I was annoyed that it kept inserting a pound sign in blank lines. This is where that goes away. The default had a check for “override separator after” and a # in the “Blank line separator.” I unchecked and deleted the pound sign.

But we’re back to one of my personal quirks: When I’m drafting, I add a # between my scenes on my own, as well as remove the indention following. So if you just leave a space but you do want Scrivener to drop a # in there for you, leave this as is.

ARE WE THERE YET??

Almost. Go down to Page settings. This is solving the last problem I had, with my name not showing up in the header for mysterious reasons.

This is the same window but I stretched it out so you could see all of the code in here.

There’s Page Settings, then go over to Header and Footer text, and down to Main Body. The boxes are in the positions on the page, so if you wanted something on the left, you could put it in that box. All my information is on the right side of the page: my name, the project title (which is the title of the book), and the page number. Those codes were already in there for me, but if they’re not in there for you, you can just copy that.

You can also adjust the font and text size for the header and foot here.

ALL RIGHT, WE DID IT.

We solved all my problems, and maybe we solved some of yours?

I know there’s a lot in the compile stuff, and it can be really, really overwhelming. I put off learning how to use it for over a decade! But I’m finally able to make it do what I want, without needing to do any additional formatting in Pages or Word.

I hope this was helpful! And even if setting everything up my way isn’t exactly right for you, I hope you feel capable of figuring out how to use this feature.

Obligatory cat photo that I think made this email too big.

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
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• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
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I just had a nice long weekend. My husband took a few days off work, because this last weekend was the annual fiber festival, which we always try to go to. There were a few years where I was working the weekend it happened, but for the last several years, we’ve been ab…

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That little pat on my arm isn’t her just being sweet; she’s asking me to pull up my sleeve so she can properly wash my arm.

Here she is taking advantage of short sleeves.

And if you’re asking, “Hey Jodi did you make those tops?” the answer is YES! Thank you for noticing. I’m especially pleased because they both turned out exactly the way I wanted.

Anyway:

Tove asked:

You know, I don’t think I have! So let’s do that.

For those of you who don’t know, Scrivener is a popular writing program designed for books. You can read more about it on the Literature and Latte website, but the short version is that Scrivener is very powerful and it has a ton of features you can use or not. There’s also no subscription. I’ve been using Scrivener since 2008, when I got my first Mac (I switched to Mac for Scrivener, because it was only available on MacOS at that point), and since then, I’ve paid for a couple of upgrades (not updates), and used my license across multiple computers. I think all in all I’ve probably given L&L about $100 for a product I’ve used almost daily for the last eighteen years.

This isn’t an ad for Scrivener. I’m just really enthusiastic and think the whole publishing industry should fully adopt it.

ANYWAY.

I’m not going to tell you how to use Scrivener. There’s a lot to it, and there are far better tutorials out there if you want to dig in. I’m just going to tell you how I use it.

A few things you need to know about Scrivener before we move forward:

Here’s a screenshot of the BYE FOREVER, I GUESS. On the left, you can see the Binder, which has lots and lots of documents inside it. The documents can nest inside other documents, so while I only have chapters sectioned out under the manuscript folder, you could break those chapters down into individual scenes if that’s fun for you. Below that, I have documents about the people and places, synopses and pitches, and even the editorial letters and critiques I got on this book.

In the middle is the Editor section, which is pretty self-explanatory. This is where you write. The Inspector is on the right; there are document-specific notecards (you could write what happens in that chapter in them if you wanted) and document-specific notes. There are also a few other tabs, but more about that later.

Okay, if you didn’t know what Scrivener looked like before, now you do. Onto how I use it for . . .

Organizing new ideas

This is actually something I just started doing this year, as I was sifting through different notes in my Notes app, folders and documents and Scrivener projects in my “new ideas” folder, and lists of random ideas. Boy do I wish I’d done it a long time ago.

I ended up making a new Scrivener project, titling it NEW IDEAS!, and then using the binder to organize everything into different age categories and genres.

So, for example, if I have an adult fantasy idea, it will look like this in the binder:

This way, all my ideas are categorized and I can make as many notes as I want about them before I actually need to give them their own Scrivener project.

In the two or so months since I started this, I’ve a) come across more ideas that needed to be put in there, and b) found myself much more likely to make notes about an idea than I was before. Previously, I’d either hunt down whatever document/note/Scriv project had that idea already and make the note, or . . . more likely . . . tell myself “I’ll remember it” and then promptly forget it.

But since everything is (I think) all together now, I’m much more likely to write it down. Hooray!

Newsletters

In a similar way, I use Scrivener to organize and keep my newsletters!

I started doing this a few years ago, when I’d been working on a newsletter on the Substack website, and there was some glitch behind the scenes that caused my draft to revert to a previous save. A friend lost everything on one of hers!

I immediately switched to keeping track of my newsletter ideas and drafts in Scrivener, with a similar binder setup to the above. The sections are broken into questions, writing advice, publishing advice, and so on, with ideas and notes nested inside them. Then I have “almost done,” “ready to post,” and “posted,” where I drag the documents as needed.

The paid subscriber letters are also stored in there, broken out by year and month, and there’s even a section where I can just copy and paste the book links I use at the end of newsletters with. You didn’t think I was typing that out every time, did you??

Books

Okay, now for the thing I think you’re really interested in: how I use Scrivener to write books.

Binder

Well, as you can see above, I make use of the binder for my chapters and chapter titles, when I have those. I don’t break mine down into scenes (at least, I haven’t so far, but maybe I will one day), but I know authors who do.

You can also change the little icons if you want, or change the colors of the icons, which is something I do when I’m writing multiple points of view. This gives me a quick visual of how often I’m using a character’s perspective or if it’s been a while, or if I have any weird patterns going on.

This is also where you can title chapters, or write a brief description of what the chapter/scene is. I do chapter titles in books where that applies. I don’t really do the descriptions, but I guess they could be something like “break-in scene” or “meeting with bad guy,” so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.

If you use the compile function,1 these document titles might be used, so you’ll either need to change them or figure out another way so your exported draft doesn’t look weird. I tend to keep them as I want them in the final, exported manuscript.

I use the lower sections to hold different documents, such as:

• notes on characters

• worldbuilding

• timelines

• random ideas that might be interesting to incorporate

• research

• critiques/edit letters

• notes from brainstorming sessions with friends/my agent

• interview notes

• different types of pitches

• entire, detailed proposals2

• cut stuff

• old drafts

How much of all that I actually have depends on the book.

A lot of that list is self-explanatory, but with “old drafts,” for example, on the adult romantasy I’ve been working on, I wrote a prologue last year. I didn’t end up keeping it3 in the draft, but I moved it down into the other documents so I could look at it/borrow from it if I needed.

I also have something like three “cut stuff” documents on that book, tied to different major drafts/versions.4 Sometimes I highlight stuff in those documents I really want to find another place for. (I do not highlight everything.)

And, of course, the binder area is a great place to organize all those notes and ideas I get from research.

Editor

The editor actually has three modes: outliner, index cards, and editing/writing.

The outline and index cards are filled in using whatever you write in the index card on the upper right side of the screen, so you can look at your story in several different ways if you want. (The outline mode shows other information as well, but to be honest, I don’t generally use it.)

One feature I use all the time in the editor . . . is the split panes. There’s a button in there that allows you to open two documents at once, either split vertically or horizontally. I really like looking at my documents side-by-side, and I use that in a few different ways:

• draft | synopsis or outline

• draft | another chapter I need to easily reference

• draft | critique or edit letter

• draft | cut stuff

• draft | research

• draft | same draft but a different spot

This is probably one of the features I use most, especially when I’m doing any sort of revision. And for those times when two documents aren’t enough? I open another one as a “quick reference” window. (Right click on the document in the binder > open > as quick reference.)

So sometimes I have my draft, edit notes, and cut stuff all open at the same time. I’ve had . . . lots of quick reference windows open before, all open to different chapters because I wanted to make sure something was consistent or be able to quickly see where I wrote about something. Was it a very busy screen? Yes. Did it prevent me from having to hop between ten different documents and try to find my place every time? Also yes!

I don’t usually keep a million little windows open, but I do quite often have the three when I’m doing a major revision (draft, edit letter, cut stuff), and I really can’t emphasize enough how useful it is for me to have all that available on the same screen, where I can just highlight and drag text from one document to another.

Inspector

The inspector is the section on the right side of the screen, with the index card and notes pane, and a bunch of tiny buttons at the top.

Sometimes I use the index cards to write what happens in individual chapters, but more often, I fill them in with what I think is going to happen (based on a synopsis or outline) and then I never update them. So a bunch of them are blank because I’ve added new chapters, or have old stuff that isn’t there anymore. Some authors really love those index cards, though.

I use the notes section a lot! I leave myself notes about which other characters are in scenes (especially if they’re background characters), or class schedules in the Deer Hill Anonymous books, or maybe the weather . . . stuff like that.

I also leave myself useful reminders about characters’ assumptions or motivations, especially non-POV characters, or what might be going on at the same time in a different location.

And finally, I use that pane to leave chapter-specific editorial notes to myself, like “give them something to do while they’re talking,” or “conversation too similar to a previous one?”

Also in the inspector side: bookmarks, metadata, snapshots, and comments. Those are all accessible in the buttons/tabs at the top of the pane.

I don’t really use the bookmarks, but I have used metadata in the past (you can add custom metadata if you’re really nerdy), and sometimes when I get line edits, I’ll add my editor’s comment/query to the comments section.5 Snapshots is a feature I use all the time, though. As you can see here.

This is chapter one of my romantasy. It’s a lot of chapter ones, going back more than two years. It’s very easy to take a snapshot — just hit the + at the top — which is what I do every time I start a new big revision. The text of every previous version is displayed below, in what’s normally the Notes section. (You can see a hint of it at the bottom in that screenshot.)

While I don’t usually need anything from those previous versions of my stories, aside from the comforting knowledge they’re there, I have gone back to retrieve something from an old draft that wasn’t actually in my cut stuff document. Once. But that once was enough to justify it all!

If you want to title your screenshots, you can. Obviously I haven’t bothered. But I guess you could do “edit with Friend’s notes” or “version where she turns into a narwhal” or something, depending how you think of your different drafts.

Annoyingly, because of the timeline we’re currently living in, it’s probably a good idea to take snapshots of your old drafts whether or not you feel like you actually need them, just so you’re creating a paper trail.

Related to that, every document in the binder has metadata that includes the date that particular document was created, as well as the last time it was modified.

Other

Holy moly, this is getting so long and I’m beginning to get dire warnings about nearing the email length (probably because of the screenshots). Okay, just a couple more features I always use.

Obviously, the wordcount tracker. This is probably one of the greatest (and simplest!) tools in Scrivener. You can set your draft target, give yourself a deadline, and have it calculate how many words you need to write to meet your deadline. You can also tell it you’re only going to write certain days of the week, which is why this is telling me I have 67 days instead of — brb checking Time and Date . . . — 91. I’m pretending like I’ll take weekends off.

There’s an extremely powerful compile function, which allows you to export your project into a Word doc (or something else) . . . as long as you know how to use compile.

This actually took me a long time to learn how to use, but I really wanted to get it right because I found myself having to fix formatting issues in Pages/Word, and eventually — especially with the Deer Hill Anonymous books having so much formatting for the texts and screenshots — I buckled down and tried a bunch of different options until I got what I wanted.

Two days after I learned how to do it (sort of), a friend called to complain about it, so I got to teach her how to do it! Hopefully I’ll actually remember now.

Editing a manuscript with Scrivener

And because I know someone is going to ask how I deal with edits that come with Track Changes . . . Yeah, you can’t really do that in Scrivener, at least as far as I know.

I know some authors who just stop using Scrivener for the book at the line-edit stage. Not me! I do things the most annoying way possible: for line edits, I make the changes in Scrivener and export a whole new document to send back to my editor. No one has ever asked me about the track changes, not in all the books I’ve written. Presumably because I’d have accepted or rejected the suggested changes, so it really doesn’t matter. It’s also rarely a simple matter of accepting/rejecting a change for me, unless it’s something like a typo getting fixed.

And with copyedits and pass pages — something I can’t really export another document for — I make the changes in Scrivener anyway, just because I like to have the most up-to-date everything in there.

It’s a little tedious, but, to me, worth it to feel like I have backups of everything.

This turned out so much longer than I expected!

And still, I know I barely scratch the surface of what Scrivener can actually do. But that’s actually one of the things I like so much about it: you can use as many features as you want. It can be pretty straightforward, or you can dig in and have all sorts of things going on in the background. Or maybe you’re like me: just good enough at it to fool people into thinking you know what you’re doing.

Overall, I hope this gives you a good idea of how I use Scrivener — and maybe gives you some ideas for how you’d use it, too.

And if you have a Scrivener tip you really love that might be useful to others, please drop it in the comments! I’d love to know what’s working for you.

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

So far, they’ve cleared off most of the trees and brush, leaving only a thin line around the property. They’ve dug trenches to put in drainage tubes. And they’ve moved a ton of dirt around. They are still moving dirt around.

I’ve been seeing tons of truck…

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Most charmingly, a bunch of folks sent photos of their own too-big hats. Love it. We’re all friends now.

There were also folks asking if I’d checked my gauge, which . . . no. I didn’t, and you can’t make me! (I do for, like, tops and stuff. But generally not for accessories.)

And finally, there were a bunch of incredibly well-meaning pleas to save that hat: felt it, turn it into a purse, make it a cowl, find someone with a much bigger head.

I get it. It’s a lot of work to make something, and then to casually be like “I’m going to rip it out and start over from the beginning” seems callous toward the thing I just made (most of), maybe even wasteful, especially when there are other things I could have done with it.

But here’s the thing: I wanted a hat, and I wanted it for someone with a similar-to-my-sized head. That was the vision. I didn’t want one of those other options. They’re all valid! They’re just not the thing I wanted to make.

I understand the impulse to try to save it. You’re looking at lost time, actual physical labor, maybe getting behind on other projects . . .

But I don’t mind starting over to achieve the vision. Not in knitting, and not in writing.

Whew, I bet you were wondering if we were going to get around to writing, and here we are!

Earlier this year, a friend sent me something she’d written. We’d talked about the book a bunch. She’d told me about the vision. And when I read her pages, I could see it wasn’t what she’d intended. That didn’t mean there was anything wrong with it, but it did mean she was going to have to take some drastic steps to achieve the vision. Maybe even rip it out and start over.

We started small-ish: get the opening sorted. That led to her feeling freer to change something significant about the story — though she still believed she could essentially find and replace (but, like, the slow way) the exact situations the character was in. The same things could happen, but the context would change. She was fighting to keep what she had.

Eventually, though, after another conversation or two about how she was seeing the story and the work that needed to be done, she announced that she was going to start over.

She’d put a lot of work into what she’d had, and I know there are folks out there wondering why she didn’t turn it into a cowl or a purse, especially since she was willing to change at least one significant thing about the story — doesn’t that already change the vision?

But I think her case, the vision didn’t actually change; it was refined.

So the simplest thing to do was . . . start over.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had these thoughts while editing:

That sentence is so nice! I want to keep it!

I looove this moment between the characters, so how do I reorganize everything around it to make sure it stays?

I’m tired and this part is fine.

When you’re editing something already on the page, it can be really easy to decide something is good enough. And sometimes that’s true! Sometimes it is worth keeping! But sometimes, something really should be cut and that can hard to do if we’re looking right at it.

And how do you know the difference? Well, experience helps a lot, but if you’re starting over from a blank page, you know you need it if it’s what happens next. And it’s a good sign that you don’t need it if you’re writing along and oops that bit never made it back in.

Starting over can help you get past the friction of fighting to keep what should be cut.

Okay, so how do you start over, if that’s what you’ve decided you need to do?

Good question. I’m glad you asked! Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you’re writing in a word processor like Word or Pages or something, simply open a new document. Do not delete your old one! There’s no need!

   If you’re writing in Scrivener, you can move your old draft into a section in the bottom of the binder, out of the regular manuscript area, and start fresh within the same project.

2. Write a query-style description of your book to help you nail down the vision: Who is the main character and what do they want? What is preventing them from getting it? What happens if they don’t get it? (It doesn’t have to be a good pitch. Just get it on the page.)

3. Write a new synopsis without looking at any old material. (It doesn’t have to be a good synopsis. Just get it on the page.)

4. Make note of the scenes you’re excited to write/rewrite. (Again, without looking at the old draft!)

5. Freewrite about what you love about the story: what first inspired you, what made you decide this is the one, and how starting over is going to help you achieve the vision. What is the vision?

Now, not every revision needs you to completely start over. Obviously! But sometimes, drastic measures are needed in order to tell the best story possible.

You may be wondering if I’ve ever completely started over on a book, and the answer is . . .

Yes.

Multiple times.

Sometimes multiple times on the same book.

I started over from nothing on INFINITE, THE MIRROR KING (my first starred review!), two Lady Janies books (multiple stars, multiple awards), and BYE FOREVER, I GUESS1 (three stars, tons of awards). There might be more,2 but I’m not sure. Sometimes I block things out and my agent reminds me of how many times I said I’d never write another duology while I’m telling her I’m going to write another duology.

All that to say, I’ve done my share of starting over, and while it sounds like a huge pain, I’ve found that it allows for a lot of freedom and space for fresh ideas.

And okay, sometimes I cry a little,3 because starting over can be really overwhelming. But none of that old work is wasted. I’ve always found that those older drafts were necessary in order to help me get closer to the story I actually wanted to tell. They still count. They were just practice.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now! I’m off to run (ugh) and think about the new book I’m going to start very soon.

Actually, what’s more intimidating? Starting something completely new or starting over on something you already wrote once? It’s going to be an “it depends” for me, I think.

And if you’re wondering what happened with the hat? I ripped it out and started over on smaller needles. And no, I did not check my gauge this time. Stop asking!

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. Every time someone buys one of my books, my cats get a treat.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Wow, I just checked to see when the last time I sent a yarn newsletter was and . . . it’s been over two years. Heh.

Some of you are here just for the yarn. Hi! Some of you didn’t realize there was yarn at all. I hope you enjoy the extremely occasional yarn email, but just in case you don’t, you can adjust the emails you receive here. Just click the toggle by “knit night” to turn off these emails and you won’t receive them again.

I’ve actually been up to a lot when it comes to yarn: I’ve started processing fleeces on my own, I’ve been making batts on my drum carder, and I’ve been knitting sweaters!

I also backed the Kickstarter for the Electric Eel Wheel Fold from Dreaming Robots, and it arrived earlier this summer!

I’d never used an e-spinner before, but I’d heard lots of good things about EEWs from friends and other spinners, so when I saw this, I decided to jump on it. Because it folds up into a little box, it might make a nice travel wheel.

The setup was pretty easy. I had watched a video about how to do it, but I made it through through most of opening and assembly without looking at the instructions. And then I did look at the instructions just to be sure. (The hardest part, actually, was opening the case, because those magnets are strong and I didn’t realize how much force was needed. I’d thought there was some kind of latch I was at risk of breaking.)

It was a while before I had time to play with the wheel, thanks to overlapping deadlines, but here’s the wheel with Hush for scale.

Well, the other night, I finally had a chance to give the wheel a, uh, spin.

I used a braid of local, undyed wool I knew would be easy to spin, but first, I got the wheel plugged in (it’s electric!) and played around with the settings and speeds to make sure I understood it. Then I attached the wool.

So, at first, I was kind of nervous that I wouldn’t like it. Spinning is a whole-body experience for me; my other wheels have a treadle or treadles, which control the speed of the drive wheel and flyer, and I can change that speed just by changing what my feet are doing. This wheel has a knob to control the speed, and a small pedal (which I just tap with my hand) to start and stop the motor.

I really enjoyed using this wheel, though, and I spun up the entire braid of wool in two evenings. I haven’t plied it yet; that’s the next task.

Here’s what I like about the wheel:

• It’s portable! It fits in that little tote bag, even if I don’t take off the bobbin and fold it up, so it’s very easy to move around. It’s also very lightweight (2lbs, according to the website).

• It’s pretty quiet. While I can definitely hear the motor going, it’s a pleasant hum, not obnoxious. (I’d say I’m on the sensitive side of being sensitive to noises. Please stop chewing. I can’t take it.)

• It only took a minute to set up and get going, and it was basically ready to use right out of the box.

• The brake band (that white string on the back) needed to be let out a little so it would fit over the bobbin, but somehow — magically?? — just eyeballing it provided the perfect amount of take-up for me.

• The stop/go switch is really easy to tap; I can hit it with the back of my hand while I’m spinning (or with my foot, if I want it on the floor) and it takes next to no force.

• Lots of extra parts were included: drive belts, flyer hooks, some o-rings. It’s also really easy to find extra parts of things that weren’t included, just in case; they’re listed on the website, and many are just off the shelf, so you can get them at a local store if you want.

• While the wheel didn’t come with a battery (that would have increased the price, and it’s not something everyone wants), there are a few compatible batteries listed on the website to make finding a good fit easy. I’m definitely thinking about getting one; it’s not a bad idea to have a decent power bank around, anyway.

• The included bobbins (it comes with six flat-pack bobbins!) really do hold 4oz of wool. They look so small (they are slightly smaller than the standard bobbins on my Majacraft Rose), but that whole braid of combed top went on with a little room to spare.

Here’s what I wasn’t as thrilled with:

• When I tap the switch to get the wheel going, there’s a bit of a surge as the motor gets going; so if I’m spinning at 500rpms, it might jump to 700, then slow to 200 before working back up to the speed I intended. I expected the slow start — that makes sense — but that surge of speed was unexpected.

• The power supply comes in two parts: a cord and a brick. While the brick is really lightweight (that’s nice!), I was worried about damaging it while I tried to get the cord plugged into it. It didn’t seem to fit well (very snug) and I was concerned I was going to bend the prongs somehow. Now that I have the cord and brick connected, I might never unplug them!

  • I might look for another (smaller?) power supply to replace this; I suspect this brick and cord were selected to keep the overall price low (and it is a very good price!!). Maybe Maurice (the guy who owns Dreaming Robots) will have suggestions now that the wheels are out there and others might be asking for alternatives.

• While the wheel is overall portable, the bobbins, power supply, and switch do not fit inside the case when the wheel is folded. Of course, the folded wheel would be huge if everything went inside! So you definitely need a bag, because those pieces are needed to actually use the wheel.

  The tote bag (sold separately) will accommodate everything, but it’s all just going to bump around unless you make/buy sleeves or pouches to protect the parts. I wish the tote bag had come with sections/pockets for the specific parts of the wheel, just to increase the portability and keep everything tidy.

• At least one of the bobbins was a little annoying to put together. I love that they’re flat-pack — that really saves a lot of space — but one of the ends took a bit of doing to screw in, like perhaps the threads weren’t sharp enough or aligned quite right. I’m not sure. I haven’t messed with all the bobbins yet, and maybe it’ll sort itself out now that I’ve gotten it together once.

Overall!! I’m happy with this wheel and I’m glad I bought it. The aspects I don’t like aren’t a big deal, at least so far, and I enjoyed using it much more than I expected. I can definitely see myself taking this with me on trips. If you’ve ever seen me knitting at an event, well . . . you may see me spinning one day.

Now I just need to figure out what its name is. Any suggestions?

Will I send another Knit Night newsletter this year? Or next year? Maybe! Maybe not. But I really do want to show you some of the sweaters and shirts I’ve been knitting, and share what I’ve been doing with fleeces. So we’ll see.

And remember, if this isn’t your kind of content, it’s easy to just toggle off Knit Night section. (That’s why it’s separate from the authoring and writing content.) You don’t have to unsubscribe from the whole thing if other stuff is useful to you — just toggle the on/off switch. (I mention this because I think the page can be a little confusing when people think they have to confirm; you don’t.)

Anyway, for when I eventually do get another yarn post written, what are you most interested in? We have:

• Sweaters/tops

• Blending board/drum carder

• Fleece

• Random other knitting things

• Just a bunch of photos

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I actually do find it a little alarming how often I think I’m going to have a slow period and then it’s . . . not slow. That’s not a complaint. I love this job. I love that I get to tell stories. But i…

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Don’t worry. It won’t happen again for quite a while, I’m sure.

Anyway, last month, I had a big list of things that needed to be done. Let’s see how I’m doing!

1. Finish this draft of THIEF and give it back to my agent ← done!

2. Read a book for an in-conversation event and come up with some interesting questi…

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But that means I have a few hours to write a newsletter.1

This question came a bit ago and I’ve been mulling over it ever since:

How do you make your characters seem real? I’m writing a book right now and keep messing up on the smart, clever, prideful, manipulator antagonist. How do I make her lies sound real and not just something you made up on a sunday afternoon?
Love, Sophie

Sophie, this is THE question, isn’t it?! One of the constant struggles, as an author, is to write characters who feel real and consistent (and occasionally realistically inconsistent), characters who readers love to hate and hate to love, characters who — when they step on the page — you and the readers both get excited because you know this is going to be good.

Whole books could be written about how to create believable characters, but let’s go over a few things to get you started.

Since you specifically said you’re working on your antagonist, I’m going to share these tips for writing about someone who is not a point-of-view character. This could be your antagonist, yes, but also your main character’s best friend, the shopkeeper they interact with regularly, their parents . . . anyone like that.

So the first thing first . . .

Know your character

Duh, right? But I mean it. The more you know about your character, the easier the rest will be. You’ll naturally include more of this person on the page because there’s just more to draw from.

So take some time and write about their backstory. How did they get this way? What are some of the defining events of their childhood? Did they have a good relationship with their parents? What do they love or hate?

You already know what their defining characteristics are from your main character’s point of view, but do you know what their defining characteristics are from their own point of view? If your main character thinks of someone as prideful, ask yourself: are they really prideful, or is that a front to hide some inner wound? But perhaps they really believe they’re that great because when they were a child, no one ever told them they had room for improvement. What have they experienced that reinforces their behavior and attitude?

Work to understand their goals and motivations from their side. Go all therapist on them and really dig in to find out what drives them. Get to know them as well as you know your protagonist.

Related to that . . .

Research

You specifically mentioned a character who lies a lot. Maybe you aren’t a great liar yourself. That’s okay! (That’s probably good . . .) But you can learn how liars work, just like you can learn about other character traits and occupations.

Check out psychology articles and videos. (Double check credentials and get multiple sources; remember, people lie online, too.) Watch documentaries and read biographies or memoirs about famous liars. (They’re probably famous for something else, but lying might be a big part of how they got where they are/were.) Read other books about characters like yours and make notes about how the authors convinced you. If you can interview an expert/someone with experience, do that!

One thing a lot of us find out about research: we usually get more than we asked for. By that, I mean you’ll not only find the answer you needed, but lots of other interesting information that can help you round out your character and world.2 Like, you probably knew that sheep have to get sheared once or twice a year, but did you know they have to get sheared because we made them that way? That says something interesting about humans’ relationship with nature and livestock, doesn’t it? And could inform a character’s sense of responsibility to their flock, or perhaps more complicated feelings about how they view . . . people. Yikes?

All that to say: good research is going to give you a lot more than a simple yes or no. Learn how to use that.

Give them likes and dislikes

By now, you’ve probably figured out a lot of what your secondary character likes and dislikes, but take a moment to consider how that works for/against your main character . . . and other characters!

What does this secondary character like or admire about others in the story? What do they hate about them? How do they interact with various characters in the book? It can be really interesting when an antagonist truly admires something about the protagonist, you know?

Of course, we don’t have to stop with relationships. Are they a foodie? Do they have a secret collection of stuffed animals? Any hobbies or passions they’re always engaged in?

A mustache-twirling villain is classic, obviously, but a villain who dearly loves that mustache and spends every morning doing whatever it is that people with facial hair do to maintain it . . . well, that’s kind of sweet, isn’t it? Human, even.

Let their attitude inform everything

Okay, so we’ve talked about understanding the character and why they are the way they are, but how do you get that on the page?

VERBS.

Okay, not just verbs, but truly, some good verbs are going to do a lot of heavy lifting here. Someone very confident may saunter or stroll, while someone more timid may creep or scuttle or sidle.

How does their posture reflect who they are (or who they’re pretending to be)? What about their environment reveals something intriguing? Can their wardrobe show something about their character?

You can be subtle here. You don’t need your POV character to identify everything and tie it to a particular character trait for your reader. Just think about the difference between a filthy evil lair with, idk, guano and trash all over — and an evil lair that’s tidy, a place for everything and everything in its place. Those are very different villains.

Maybe your character wants to be liked! So the way they interact with others is going to be in service of that goal. Maybe they want to dominate. Again, that’s going to change how they move through the world. Their conversations and actions should reflect those desires.

How does your POV character view them?

Remember, everything your readers know about your non-POV characters will be filtered through your POV character, so obviously there are going to be some limitations about what makes it onto the page. If your POV character likes the other person, they’ll probably describe that character in a kinder, more flattering way. If they hate the other character, it’s going to be the opposite — waaaay less forgiving and flattering!

If you’re trying to figure out how to believably make your antagonist manipulate your main character, figure out why your main character has to believes the lies. What about their relationship so far has created that kind of trust? Or is it fear? Does the POV character believe the antagonist will follow through on threats? (That is a kind of trust, isn’t it?)

Consider their relationship so far. Again, spend some time thinking about how their backstories intersect. Consider how your POV character’s separate backstory may affect how they view this other person. What about their relationship and history with other people affects their relationship and present with this one?

Overall, antagonists (and all secondary characters!) are people, too. I mean, they’re fictional people when we’re writing about them in a fiction book. But you know what I mean. Taking the time to understand them with the same depth and empathy as you do with your point of view characters.

If you take one thing from all my rambling, I hope it’s this: BE CURIOUS.

I checked my archives to see if I’d written about character creation before, but . . . not really! This letter about writing details might be useful, though, if you haven’t seen it already, and then there’s this one about writing group dynamics.

Okay, that’s all for now. I need to finish packing and be on my way. But I hope this is helpful, Sophie. Thanks for the fantastic question.

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. They’re cozy.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

When the month started, my goals were:

1. Finish this draft of THIEF and give it back to my agent

2. Read a book for an in-conversation event and come up with some interesting questions for the author

3. Avoid embarrassing myself at that event

4. Read (at least skim) the final manuscript of a client’s book befor…

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I’ve been haaard at work these last few weeks, but since I have a couple of events coming up, I thought I should probably, you know, tell people! I do actually want to see you!

First up, I will be in conversation (so fancyyyy) with the awesome Autumn England! (You may know them as MK England!) Their newest book, called FIELD GUIDE FOR THE FORMERLY VILLAINOUS, is out now, and we’ll be chatting all about it at the Harrisonburg, VA Barnes and Noble on June 7, at 3pm!

And gosh, just look how cute this book is!

And on June 13, I’ll be in North East, Maryland for the Cecil County Children’s Book Festival!

As usual for festivals, I’ll have a few knit coffee cup sleeves to give away (actually, I think I’d better make a few more . . .), and this time, I’ll be doing an interactive dramatic reading of some of the text messages from BYE FOREVER, I GUESS. That means someone from the audience is going to read one of the parts. Will that be you?? (Seriously, if it’s you, tell me.)

If you’re in the area, definitely come by. The event is free aaaand I hear there will be some book giveaways!

And if you bring any of my books from home, I’d love to sign them for you.

Okay, I’m going to throw myself at my manuscript again, but IN SUMMARY . . .

Here’s where I’ll be:

• June 7 — 3pm — talking up the amazing Autumn England! — Barnes and Noble — Harrisonburg, VA

• June 13 — 10am-2pm — Cecil County Children’s Book Festival — North East, MD

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

<3

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As someone who gets both — real and fake requests — let me help you spot the difference. It’s easier than you think.

Here’s one I instantly deleted (and had to dig through my trash folder to retrieve for you) when it came in:

Hello Jodi,

I just came across Nightrender on Amazon, and I have to say, I am completely captivated. Your ability to craft a world where reality bends, kingdoms clash, and mortal stakes intertwine with the mystical is breathtaking. The story is thrilling, complex, and imaginative, yet the universal themes of love, friendship, and hope make it deeply relatable. Nightrender is the kind of fantasy that sweeps readers off their feet while making them care profoundly about the people and immortal warriors within its pages.

I specialize in connecting extraordinary books like yours with over 10,000 active book clubs, both online and in-person. Many of these groups focus on young adult and adult fantasy, adventure, and epic storytelling. Your book would resonate beautifully with readers roughly aged 18 to 75, particularly those who love immersive worlds, morally complex characters, and action that keeps hearts racing while minds engaged.

When book clubs take on a story like Nightrender, the discussions can become electric. Members analyze the magic systems, debate alliances, and explore the character arcs, creating lively engagement that often results in dozens of thoughtful reviews and sometimes up to 100 within just a couple of weeks. This approach can dramatically increase visibility, boost sales, and build a long-term audience that is deeply invested in your work.

I would be thrilled to help more readers discover the breathtaking adventure of Nightrender. If this sounds like something you would love to explore, just reply with “Interested.” That one word will genuinely make my day because I love seeing book club members help authors increase visibility while celebrating their extraordinary stories.

Your world is dazzling, your characters unforgettable, and your story has the potential to reach far more readers than you might expect. I would love to help it happen.

Good. Freaking. Lord.

First of all, why is it so long? I grew three new gray hairs while reading this!

But look at the language. It’s overly flattering, and for some reason, it’s giving me a review of my own book. In fact, some of the stuff in here actually seems to be pulled from reviews or marketing materials.

Most of the scammy requests I get look like this. To me, this looks like it was generated by a LLM. I won’t go over every single red flag in here — I already wrote a letter about red flags and most of those apply to this as well — but a few other things to note:

1. Teeth-grindingly flattering. It feels insincere because it is.

2. No real ask except that I engage — and use their keyword “interested.” Hmm. I suppose if I wrote back, they’d give me their rates?

3. A lot of big . . . not really promises, but suggestions of things that could happen. It’s wildly unrealistic.

4. Nightrender would appeal to readers from 18-75? It's . . . a YA book. Yes, adults can (and should — go ahead!) read it, but why that enormous age range that doesn’t even include my target audience? loling forever.

Also, if someone wants to tell everyone they know about my book, they don’t need my permission. Book clubs can pick it if they want.

In fact, that’s exactly what they do. Most real requests sound like this:2

Hi! I am a teacher/librarian/bookseller at [specific school/public library/bookstore]. My class/book club is reading Bye Forever, I Guess, and we would love to Zoom with you! Would it be possible to set this up? We’re hoping for [date] or [date] at [time].

Gosh, what a short, to-the-point message! I know exactly who this person is, why they’re contacting me, and what they want. They don’t need to butter me up. They didn’t need my permission to have Bye Forever be their book club book. If they say something nice about my books, it’s that the kids love it, or it’s up for an award (I can double check that these are legitimate) in their state, or they’re teaching it with an SEL someone made.

None of them are trying to sell me anything.

But Jodi, you may be saying, that first email didn’t say they were trying to sell you anything!

Not yet!

Give it a few replies. Eventually, that “if this sounds like something you would love to explore” turns into a “for the discounted price of $” and gosh that sounds like a good deal, especially considering all the things that could happen!

A lot of them won’t ask for money upfront, or be clear about their pricing, because they know that comes across as scammy. So they wait until you’ve “engaged” with this person3 for a few rounds and you feel like they’re being genuine . . . and maybe you owe it to them to go ahead and pay, since they’ve already spent so much time with you. (That’s sunk-cost fallacy, and it can apply to time as well as money.)

So that’s it.

That’s the difference.

Look, I know it can be tempting to engage with these emails, either because they’re so flattering and we authors are often starving for validation, or because it seems funny to hassle the sender.

But honestly, just delete them. Block the email addresses.

Real requests are kind but straightforward. The people writing them have a thousand other things to do, and they assume you do, too, so they’re not going to waste time with hyperbolic flattery. If they want you to do a book club visit, you can assume they think your book is good and worth discussing.

Also, when it comes to replying to the scammy emails: don’t bother. People have already done this and you can find their experiences if you really want to know how that went. It’s not going to be any different for you.

And please understand this: you’re not wasting a real person’s time. You’re talking to a bot. You’re wasting your own time.4

Bonus content, since this happened recently, too:

It wasn’t a book club request, but an email from a “film agent” saying they’d read my book and wanted to help me get it on screen. There were several tells on this one:

1. They said “your book,” but I have eighteen books. A real agent would be more specific about which book.

2. The message was clearly generated by a LLM.

3. The email address was a gmail address, not an agency address. So it went like [agent.name][agency]@gmail.com But the agency they were claiming to be from definitely has its own email thingie. It should have been something like [agent.name]@[agency].com

4. The agent they were impersonating is a real agent at a real agency (a big one), but she represents books, not film, and that was easy to find by going to the agency website (I searched; I didn’t click on any of the links in the email) and finding her page.

5. A real film agent would probably have reached out to my literary agent, since that contact information is easy to find. They would also see that I already have film agents, both for the Lady Janies books and for my solo books.5

That scammer was barely trying, I swear.

Anyway, I forwarded the email to my agent, so she could let the other agent — the one being impersonated — know that this was going on.

Stay safe out there, folks!

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. They’re cozy.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Here’s how to decode that.

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The case for finishing

One of the best, most confidence-boosting things any new writer can do is finish the draft.

Look, if you can finish a first draft, you can finish a second one. You can start new manuscripts and finish them, too. They don’t even have to be good. They just have to be finished. They only need to exist.

If you can finish it, you can fix it.

When you hear established authors say to finish the draft, we’re often thinking about all the people who come up to us and say they started writing a book three years ago, but haven’t finished it yet.

Maybe they’re afraid of moving forward because they don’t want to mess it up. Or maybe they’re in an endless cycle of circling back to the beginning to start over. So many people begin but don’t finish, which means that if you can finish a draft, you’re already doing more than most.

Aside from the immense confidence boost, finishing your first draft gives you a better understanding of the story you wanted to write.

By that I mean: unless you’re a sneaky genius (lucky you; most of us aren’t!), it can be hard to see the overall story until it’s on the page. Then you can read the whole thing within a few days or a week, like a reader might, and actually begin to see what’s working and what’s . . . not.

Most writers learn a lot about their story, characters, and themes as they draft. For many writers, this is the stage where they really get to know the characters and figure out what parts of the story interest them. By reaching the end, you’ll have a more complete view of the story, which will give you a ton of insight as to how you might want to revise the beginning.

When you have a destination, you know how to plan the journey.

The case for revising as you go

Revising as you go is, of course, a spectrum of intensity and thoroughness. Maybe you’re going back to fix typos or shiny up the prose from the day before. Sometimes you realize you forgot to include something, so you go back to do that.

And sometimes the story’s just not working.

There are lots of reasons why a writer might want to go back and revise a little before moving forward; I know lots of people who like to do a light revision on yesterday’s work to get some momentum for today!

Honestly, some of that, I barely count as revising as you go. I mean, I guess technically it is, but if you think of something you want to add earlier and you know exactly where to do it, why not go back and add it? Why not take a peek at yesterday’s chapter to give you a little more runway on today’s?

If you’re not going to let it suck you into an endless loop, and you know exactly what you need to do, sometimes it’s easier to just get that little task out of your head.

And when it comes to big changes . . . while some writers might be able to continue writing as though those changes are already in place, plenty of writers cannot move on until they’ve got at least the foundations of character and plot on the page, and if something is wrong there . . . well, they hit a wall.

Sometimes, you really just need to go back and fix it.

How do you know what to do?

That depends.

Sometimes, knowing what you need to do comes down to experience.

Are you the kind of writer who gets trapped in revision cycles without finishing something? Finish your book.

Or do you know, bone deep, that you made a wrong turn two chapters ago, and until you get that straightened out, nothing is going to lay right? Go fix it.

Only you can decide what the right answer is here, but I do have a few tips, having done . . . both things recently, actually: I wrote a book straight through before going back to fix anything big, and I wrote another that demanded a couple hefty revisions at 15k, a couple more at 30k, several major rewrites at 40k — like, everything I had — and then after that I still had to go back every 10-15k words and do some revision or outright rewriting.1 Is it a first draft? Eightieth draft? I don’t even know what to call it.2

ANYWAY. Tips:

1. Keep a list of things you want to go back and fix. Do not rely on your memory for this! My last one included things like “Rename X family,” and “Seed in more [worldbuilding thing] throughout,” and “Figure out what people look like,”3 and “Find a place to include that characters did [something important but not important enough for a whole scene].”

2. If you find yourself fussing with sentences, and that’s going to take up all your writing time . . . it’s probably okay to leave it and just move forward. Fussing isn’t going to finish your book.

3. If you think you made a wrong turn but you’re not sure where, think back to the last place you were certain about the story and judge every decision from there. Could a character be acting out of character? Did you forget something happening off screen? Did the tension drop for some reason?

4. If, like I was recently, you’re restarting again and again, write a synopsis or outline; this might help you see the story more fully. Where do things look weak? Where are your protagonists not being proactive enough? Do you actually know where you’re going with this story?4

5. If you’re tinkering with the beginning because you’re afraid of messing up the rest of the book, good news: all first drafts are messed up. You’ll fit right in. Now finish your book.

6. If you’re tinkering (or even full-on rewriting) because you’re not actually sure where the book goes, write a synopsis. Figure out five or six big moments you’re excited to write that will get you to the end. What do your characters want, and what are they willing to do to get it? What’s stopping them? You might just need to spend more time developing the story. And then go finish your book.

Ultimately, only you can decide what you need to do — go back and fix things, or charge forward and fix ‘em later — and I actually feel pretty confident in saying that this process will evolve for you over time. Experience helps a lot here. And so does the kind of book you’re writing.

My book I was able to write straight through? Well, I did have to stop in the middle of it and think until my brain hurt, but aside from jumping back to add a couple details and whatever as I thought of them (I knew this would not derail me), I just saved any big edits for the next pass. It helped that it wasn’t a complex book with lots of moving parts!

But the book I rewrote a bunch? Many moving parts! And way more complex than I was originally anticipating. I also had not spent enough time letting the story simmer before I dove in to start writing. Mistakes were made. But it’s fine now. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.5

Okay, good luck!

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. They’re cozy.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Some pretty good things happened. Some pretty scary things happened. Some kind of annoying things happened. Let’s focus on the good things today. I need to, and maybe you do, too. <3

I’ve mentioned before (I think) how much I love doing school visits. It’s a great opportunity to see my young readers face to face (ev…

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Yeah, this is what happens when there’s a gap in my deadlines. I mope around for a little while, and then I find ways to create more work for myself.

Plus, I got this great question from Addi:

Hello jodi meadows! I dont wanna bother you again so soon but I was wondering how do you keep motivation when writing? I have so much trouble on keeping writing. How do you keep motivation?

Love addi

This is such a good question, and something I think about all the time. Writing can be wonderful, but it can also feel like a job a lot of the time, especially when you’re in the middle of a draft and it seems like you’ve been working on it forever, but you still have so far to go.

You can ask a dozen authors this question and you’ll get a dozen different answers. Everyone has their own methods for staying motivated, and even those methods can change from book to book. But here are a few things that almost always work for me whenever writing starts feeling like something I have to do.

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Tricking myself

I give myself a tiny, achievable goal. If I do that — and if I honestly give it my best — then I can stop for the day.

I first ran across this years and years ago, called the 100-word challenge. (A quick search tells me that there are a lot of things called the 100 word challenge now, so I don’t know the origin of this — sorry!) Basically, the concept was that if you sit down and write 100 words, a. you’ll have accomplished something, and b. you’ll probably keep writing after that.

It’s a lot like the trick I use to get myself running the full thirty minutes. Well, I’m already in my running clothes, and Okay, I’m downstairs, so I might as well, followed by Just five minutes and then I can quit.

And then I’m tricked into going the full time because I want to finish listening to that song, or I’m almost to the twenty-minute mark or whatever.

Basically, on those days it seems like work, I give myself a bunch of little milestones to write toward, and when I get there, I decide if I want to keep going.

I usually do.

If you can write 100 words, you can write 200. If you can write 200, you can probably make it up to 300. But even if you don’t get to 300, or 3,000, you hit your goal of 100. Good job.

The other thing to keep in mind: those 100 words don’t even have to be good. They can just exist!

And hey, if you write your 100 words and think you can do better, go for it. Fix them. Sometimes, just having something to fix can help.

Reminding myself why I’m doing this

Sometimes, in the middle of a project, I lose track of my emotional connection to it. That’s just something that can happen when you’re working on something for months and months (or even years and years!), and it doesn’t make the project any less meaningful or important. But it does mean you need to find a good way to reconnect with it in order to feel emotionally invested in writing the next part.

So there are a few things you can do to get there:

1. Write a back-cover copy for it.

This is like a query letter description or something. It’s just a few paragraphs about the book, no more than 250 words, and it tells the reader (or, in this case, you!) why the story is worth reading — or worth writing. Here’s a letter about how to write a query letter. There’s a template in there, but don’t be afraid to try your own thing.

Bonus: if you’re planning to query agents with this manuscript eventually, you’ll already have something to start with.

2. Reread what you have.

Sometimes we need to go back and give ourselves a little runway into writing the next part of the story. Maybe that’s a few chapters. Maybe that’s everything there is so far.

One thing you can do, especially if you think you’re not motivated because you’re stuck, is to make note of all the interesting parts of your story as you read through. Highlight lines you like. Circle story threads you want to make sure you come back to. Look for places your characters surprised you and figure out how to bring that back.

Sometimes, you can find the answer to what happens next by looking back and seeing what’s unresolved or even what you wanted to include earlier, but forgot or didn’t have space for.

3. Journal about why you started this project.

This doesn’t have to be in an actual journal, though it can be. But if you want to just open up a new document on your computer and write about all the things that drew you to telling this story, you’ll probably find yourself writing about the characters’ relationships, cool things about the world they live in, and something about the initial seed for the story — the thing that made you want to write it in the first place.

This journaling doesn’t have to be good. It’s not for anyone else. It’s just for you. So you can be as raw and honest as you want. You can leave sentences unfinished. It doesn’t matter. Just spend ten minutes thinking about why you wanted to write the story to begin with.

4. Daydream.

Give yourself five minutes to just think about your book. Or ten minutes. Whatever. Choose a part to think about, and allow yourself to just vividly imagine it. Maybe it’s a part you’re excited to write, or something you’ve already written. Maybe it’s backstory that won’t actually make it into the book.

Let yourself daydream about the characters, their motivations, the goals that drive them, the painful parts of their backstories that hold them back.

You can also imagine different ways scenes would go. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll come up with something you like even better.

Practice

I know this one might stink to hear, but . . . practice. If you want to write as a job (even a part-time one!), you need to practice treating it like one. That means sitting down to do it every day/weekend/whatever your schedule is.

The unfortunate truth is that you have to be the one to prioritize your writing. No one else can do it for you.

So if you have limited writing time (like a lot of writers do!), you need to guard it and make the most of it every session. Don’t let that time get taken up with other things. Doomscrolling? No way. Phone games? Nuh-uh. That writing time is for writing. Even if you write a bunch of stuff you’ll probably cut later. You sit there and you write 100 words. It’s not a punishment; it’s something you get to do.1

Eventually, you’ll make a habit of it.

If you need help getting distractions out of the way, look for focus settings on your phone or computer. Turn off notifications during your writing session. You can get an app like Forest, Focus Friend, or Freedom to keep you off your phone for a set period of time. (My Focus Friend bean is living pretty darn well at this point!) And you can also make your writing program full screen to block out other apps.

There are lots of little tools out there to help you out if you just need help getting started.

The treat method

I don’t usually use this one, but I do know writers who reward themselves with little treats along the way. That might be for reaching wordcount milestones — 50,000 words is a big one! — or just finishing the book, period.

Only you can decide what these prizes should be. You know what motivates you! But, of course, there are a few things you might want to consider along the way:

1. Budget. If you’re going to buy something, make sure it’s within your budget. Remember, it doesn’t have to be expensive. It just needs to be special.

2. Be healthy. Sometimes people can be like, “I can eat lunch when I’m finished with this chapter!” Uhh, no. You can eat lunch at lunchtime. Food is actually necessary for life — and writing. Withholding food is not a good strategy!

3. Your reward should reflect the milestone. So if you want a prize for 50k words (hooray, you rock star!), it wouldn’t be the same prize you’d get for actually finishing the book.

4. It probably should be something you wouldn’t get/do otherwise. Make it special for the progress. (So again, food and sleep are not rewards. You should have those things regardless.) For me, I . . . probably wouldn’t use starting a new knitting project as a reward for writing the end of my book, because let’s be for real: I’m starting a new knitting project anyway. But I might buy a unique skein of yarn to mark the milestone.

5. Remember, this is about what you can control. If you do the work, you get the prize. You can also give yourself rewards for cool things happening, like finding an agent or getting published,2 but right now, we’re focusing on what you can achieve on your own.

There are probably lots of other things to consider here. Someone who uses the treat method might have more to add!

Accountability

Sometimes, it helps to be accountable to someone. Consider finding a writing buddy to check in with.

A lot of writers like to do writing sprints in group chats. Those are when everyone sets a timer and writes for, say, twenty minutes, then comes back to report their progress. It can be really motivating!

When I was writing with the Lady Janies, our goal was to write a chapter a day,3 and no one wanted to be the loser who didn’t finish her chapter.

Having someone to report to can really help, though. You don’t want them thinking you’re slacking off. . . .

I know I’ve really stressed the importance of just sitting down to do it, even when you don’t feel like it, but let’s be honest: some days, you just can’t. Maybe you don’t feel good, something happened, or you have an opportunity to visit someone/do something you just don’t want to miss.

That’s okay.

You can take days off.

Heck, you can take weeks off.

But you asked about staying motivated, so that’s what I tried to answer today — how to write even when you don’t feel like it.

Writing a book is a long project. It’s not easy! You don’t have to start on hard mode. Let yourself work up to your goals.

And while you will definitely have days you’re not feeling motivated and you just don’t wanna, you’ll also have days where the words flow and you feel like you’re in the story. You’re in the zone. Enjoy those days. Remember what they feel like!

When you think about it, it’s really cool that we get to do this. We get to have neat ideas and imagine all these different lives. We get to think about fictional people going on big adventures, having quiet moments together, or epic romances. Being able to write a story is really special.

You’ve got this, Addi.

Does anyone else have suggestions to add? How do you stay motivated to write?

Okay, I need to run. Literally, unfortunately. Just five minutes. Or maybe ten. Probably thirty. UGH.4 At least I have a great playlist.

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. They’re cozy.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

From Amara:

How do you approach critiques/beta reads? Do you do them at all, or maybe send the draft straight to your agent and/or editor? How much do you tend to polish on your own before you do this?

Those are great questions. And allow me to deliver the answer everyone hates most: it depends.

But seriously, it does. If you have a lot of people in your professional life who expect the manuscript in their inbox, it can get a little complicated! So here’s how I decide what to do with mine.

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When I have no deadlines for that manuscript:

The most time I have with any manuscript is when I write it before I sell it. In that case, there are no deadlines, no expectations — just my own goals.1

So when I have all this time, I make sure I take advantage of it. I approach a handful of author friends I think might have time coming up and ask if they can read for me, and I make sure to include a date I’d appreciate having feedback by.2 Sometimes I send to my agent at the same time, but I try to ask her what she wants. (Communication!)

As for how polished this is:

It’s really readable. That’s my goal. I’ve usually gone over the story multiple times at the point when I’m ready to share it with friends. I’ve worked on the overall structure, hammered out character arcs, and done my best to make every individual scene matter. I also make sure I’ve done some light line editing. The story should have voice, interesting writing, etc.

Basically, I’ve already edited my own book to the best of my ability. You can see how I do that here and here.

But I know, at this point, it’s not supposed to be perfect, and if I find myself fussing too much with little things, I will leave a note to myself for the future and let it go. Frankly, I don’t see a reason to do an in-depth copyedit of my own book if there’s a chance I’m going to have to do a bigger revision.

I want it to be good. I want it to be readable. But there’s probably some word repetition in there, missing or duplicate words,3 and descriptions someone’s going to be like “Are . . . you sure about this, you weirdo?”

The last time I sent a manuscript to friends, I included this note: “Overall, I’m looking for top-level feedback — characters, pacing, worldbuilding, etc. — but all notes are appreciated. Does it make sense? Does the romance work? Do you enjoy both points of view? I think the last few chapters might be a little thin (please feel free to confirm or contradict), but hopefully it’s on the right track.”

Specific requests might change depending how I feel about the manuscript and how much it put me through. No two projects have the same process!

When I’ve revised the book based on that feedback, I give it to my agent again. That’s when I usually get feedback from her.

By then, it should be in really good shape and ready for submission.

When I do have deadlines on that manuscript:

Sometimes, books don’t get written until deadlines have been assigned. This is usually when I sell a book on proposal, or it’s part of an existing contract. Think sequels or companion books.

Time is always a bit tighter here, especially if I want to make the season the book is scheduled to come out.4

How far out the deadline is makes a difference in what I do. If I have time, I usually try to send it to a couple of friends. Sometimes, though, there’s simply no space for that, and the book goes directly to my editor.

But as before, I’ve done as much editing on it as I can. I don’t want to embarrass myself!

There have only been a few times in my career when I’ve sent something I wasn’t more or less satisfied with — at least for the stage it was at — and it’s always been because I knew something was wrong but didn’t know how to fix it on my own. In those cases, I’ve just told my editor what the problem is and she figures out how to help me, or offers to give me more time.

Any time I send a manuscript to my editor, my agent gets it as well.

After I’ve received my edit letter and revised the manuscript, sometimes there’s time to send it to a few friends. This isn’t common for me, but it can happen.

At that point, the requested turnaround time for friends is usually a bit tighter, and the questions I’m asking are more like “Is this book a trash fire?” and “Will you pet my hair and tell me my book is pretty?” You don’t want to be that friend all the time, of course, but everyone has emergencies.

Other considerations:

• Try not to ask the same people to read the same book multiple times. They might be willing to do it, and maybe they are great every single time, but they’ll probably start to lose track of the different drafts, just like you. So try to get some fresh eyes on it.

  • On that note, it might be useful to send to critique partners in rounds. If you have five folks willing to read for you, and you know basically what their strengths are, you can send to the two who are best at top-level stuff to start with, and then save the others for scene- and line-level work. That way, you have someone checking on your revision, which will hopefully help you feel more confident when you query/send to your agent/editor.

• If someone doesn’t have time to read the entire manuscript, they might have time for a brainstorming session. Recently, when I needed help with the end of a story, but didn’t want to ask a friend to read the whole thing right then (especially since I knew it needed more work!), I shared the synopsis I’d already written, as well as some of my other materials, and we had a call that was just as useful as an entire edit letter.

  • Before that, a different friend read the first half of the manuscript for me, and we had a long brainstorm about my plans for a major revision and where I saw the end going. At that point, I’d been through so many rounds of rewriting the beginning5 I just needed a sounding board for my new plan and someone to help hype me up for yet another complete rewrite. She delivered.6

• I do, sometimes, ask friends to read a partial for a gut check, and I’m always very clear what stage the story is at!

  • My agent also gets partials sometimes, especially when I want to submit something as a proposal. There’s other work behind all that, but that’s for another letter. But again, I’m very clear about what it is. “I literally just started this yesterday, what do you think?” or “I have been working on this day and night, please sell it for me because my basement has a crack in the wall.”

• If friends are reading for you, make sure you’re reading for them, too. It doesn’t always have to be a 1:1 — I don’t keep track with any of my friends — but just like I know they’re there for me if I need help, they know I will make time for them, too.

• I am so serious about making sure your manuscript is as good as possible before sending it to anyone.

It’s important to keep in mind that this is just how I decide when to send things. Your needs may be different than mine! And you may figure out a system that works better for you and your critique partners. Experiment!

And that’s it for now! Hopefully that was helpful to you! If it was, please consider doing the button things:

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In addition to long newsletters, I also write books. Here are my latest. They’re cozy.

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• All my books on:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

But for now . . .

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So something that constantly surprises me: BYE FOREVER, I GUESS has been getting a lot of lovely recognition from state reading lists, including the Lone Star Reading List, which is extra special to me because I grew up in Texas.

And just . . . my school librarians did so much to shape me as a reader, which makes my book being recognized and shared via so many schools and libraries extra super amazing.

When I say I wrote this book and had zero expectations for it, I mean it. I had no idea that anyone — besides me, my agent, and a few friends — would ever care about it, let alone nominate it for awards. But I wrote it because I loved it. I wrote it because it felt like a me book — one of those rare book of the heart books.1 It felt important, even if it was only going to be important to me.

But it turns out, other people see themselves in this book, too. I get heartfelt emails from readers and book clubs, thoughtful zoom calls with classes, and charming letters (physical letters in the mail!) from kids. Sometimes they even send art!

Once, someone emailed to say they saw a kid in a parking lot with her face in a book, completely relying on her parent to steer her into the store, because she refused to stop reading. The book was BYE FOREVER, I GUESS.

Having been that kid mumble mumble years ago, I know what an immense compliment that is.

Just the other day, Emma Straub (yes, that Emma Straub!) shared that her son’s favorite novel of the last few years is BYE FOREVER, I GUESS. In a, uh, cooking newsletter.2

So all that to say: I am indescribably grateful for everyone who’s read BYE FOREVER, I GUESS, everyone who’s recommended it, everyone who’s written to me about it. I am so deeply honored.

Thank you.

CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT has been finding her readers, too!

Over the last couple months, folks who get the Junior Library Guild box might have seen her included in there! This is so, so very cool. Only one other book of mine has made the Junior Library Guild before (that would be MY LADY JANE), so I’m thrilled that CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT has received that honor.

She was also one of Kirkus’s best books of 2025 and one of the American Booksellers Association best books for young readers in 2025! School Library Journal and Shelf Awareness gave starred reviews! And I got to write a guest post for Teen Librarian Toolbox about making space to make mistakes.

I’ve been seeing book clubs for her, plus hearing from teachers when the inevitable happens in their school — the group chat leaks and they start passing out this book. (Thank you!)

Order the Deer Hill Anonymous books:

• CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

• BYE FOREVER, I GUESS:
  Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Okay, I think I’m about to get in trouble for email length, so I’ll wrap it up with a little writing update:

Over the last few months, I’ve been (re)writing a manuscript (and then rewriting it again, holy moly) and I finally finished a couple weeks ago. After some revision, I sent it off to a handful of friends, and since then I’ve been reading! I’ve had the chance to read a friend’s manuscript, which was fun, and then I read a book by someone I don’t know, and then started another book by someone I do know, but all I have to do is enjoy it.

It’s pretty great, tbh.

I do tend to get a little wallowy when I don’t have enough work to keep me just shy of stressed, though, so after I complained about being bored so bored to a friend this morning, I decided to write out some newsletters (including this one!), so look for a few writing/publishing letters coming up. And if you have any special topic requests, feel free to let me know.

In the meantime, here are a few I’ve been dragging out for people recently:

• How to edit your own book (part one)

• How to edit your own book (part two)

• It’s okay to be bad at writing

• How to completely control your writing career

• Can anyone actually tell if the book is good in the first few pages

• Understanding author money — royalty statement season is nearly upon many of us!

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Yeah.

I don’t have anything for you on that. Sometimes it’s important to just…

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But we persevere!

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So lately, I’ve heard some questions about authors and money and how to spend it in a way that will actually give you a decent return.

I can only speak as a traditionally published author in the upper-MG to upper-YA range, and someone who’s been monitoring the New Adult and adult romantasy/romantic fantasy space, so my advice won’t apply to everyone.

The usual disclaimers apply: take what works for you and ignore the rest. Also, I’m not the boss of you; your money is your money, so spend it how you want. I’m also not a financial person, just an author who’s made some mistakes, so maybe you don’t have to.

In traditional publishing, we like to think it shouldn’t be necessary to spend money on your own book. After all, that’s why one of the reasons we go trad: someone else takes on the financial risk. And while it’s true we don’t need to worry about hiring editors and cover designers and so on, there are a couple of things I usually recommend new authors set aside some money for . . . and a lot of things I’d suggest not worrying about.

First of all, figure out your budget. There used to be a rule of thumb suggesting you put a certain percentage of your advance into the promotion of your book. I’m not sure that’s a thing anymore. And let’s be so for real: people are doing grocery debt right now, so take care of yourself before you worry about other stuff.

What I almost always suggest:

Your author website.

This doesn’t have to be fancy, but I do think it should exist. It’s a landing place for any publishing people or readers searching your name, and it doesn’t change when social media trends move on.

A P.O. Box.

This is for privacy reasons. You need an address for the whois on your website. Newsletters often want a physical address. When you receive1 and reply to reader mail, you’ll need an address.

Don’t tell everyone where you live.

An author-focused business card or bookmark.

One newbie mistake I made again (and again) was to style my bookmarks after my book covers, which was nice for readers who wanted something for a specific book, but pretty expensive for me. Plus, now I have leftovers and it feels wasteful to toss them, so they’re just taking up space.

So if you have limited funds, I’d suggest making these a bit more generic. Include your name, website, book/s, and perhaps some simple (commercial commons) art or coloring that reflects how you want people to remember you. If you have a newsletter, you can add that. Same for socials.

Don’t print as many as you’re about to print. I know the bulk discounts kick in right there, but be honest: do you really need 500?

What I sometimes suggest:

Author branding

Related to the website and business card stuff — things that will work for your entire career — if you have a bit of extra cash and want to do something a little fancy, maybe think about author branding.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t do this until . . . 2023 or 2024? I don’t remember exactly when. (I could look, but I don’t feel like it. Also, time is a tangled Slinky.) Suffice to say, I was well into my career before I decided to hire Erin Bowman to design something for me.

Look how pretty!

The goal was to create something that reflected my work, my personality, and could ideally encompass everything I will ever want to write. It may one day need to be updated, as trends change, but I think it’s pretty timeless, honestly. It’s on my business cards, website, speaking fees sheet, etc. While it was a bit of an upfront cost, it was definitely worth it because I use it for everything.

I should note: Having something like this done is definitely more expensive than hiring someone to design a book-themed bookmark (or designing your own in Canva), so definitely keep that in mind. The main reason this is so high on the list is because it’s (ideally) something you can use for years and years (and again, on everything), while an item focused on an individual book will have more limited use. But if it’s too much right now, don’t go in debt for it. Do the less expensive thing, if you want something.

Shipping ARCs or giveaway prizes.

You’ll see a lot of suggestions to do a couple giveaways (up to you), and there might be people you want to send ARCs and finished copies to, if you have extras.

You can do this if you want! Just remember, packaging and postage aren’t free, so set some money aside for that.

Book-related swag (design and printing).

Remember when I said an author-centered bookmark or something above? Well, if you want book-related swag, consider that here. A bookmark, sticker, art print — something. But seriously, I’d keep it limited to one item that is inexpensive to have made — so something paper that can be slipped into a book.

Please also remember what I said about printing too many.

It’s okay if you run out. The people will survive.

What I only occasionally suggest:

Travel.

I know a lot of folks think you have to do events and festivals and show your face everywhere, and that’s cool if you want to. But don’t break the bank for it, because if you math out how many books you’ll need to sell to recoup the cost of your travel and lodging, it will probably make you sad.

That said, these things can be good networking and community-building events, so if you’re on a limited budget but it’s important to you, choose something within driving distance that’s going to be worth it and don’t worry too much about the rest. I know FOMO is real, but you’ll recover.

Canva Pro.

This is a subscription, so keep that in mind. But if you’re already using Canva and you want access to the pro features and you have the funds for it, go for it. It is nicer.

Why are authors so obsessed with Canva, you might ask? It’s pretty easy to use and we love (hate?) to make graphics for everything: deal announcements, book quotes, pull quotes from reviews, BN’s preorder sales2, and so on.

It’s plenty usable free, though, so that’s why I’ve put pro so far down the list.

Things I only suggest if you know they’re basically a treat for you:

Character art.

This definitely seems to be the trend right now in romance and romantasy spaces, and I love to see authors supporting artists. But I want to stress so much that commissioning art is unlikely to be the determining factor for your book’s success. If you want to do it, and you have the cash to spare, amazing. Love that for you and the artist.

Good art is expensive, though, and if you plan to use it to promote your book, make sure you buy the appropriate licensing for it.

Additionally, consider how you plan to use it. Are you making prints and giving them away at book festivals? Are you using it on social media? If you’re going to get it for promotional purposes, make sure people actually see it!

More swag, especially non-paper swag.

If you want more than one or two pieces of swag for your book, cool. You do you. You don’t need to, though. It’s neat, and there are some readers who are going to love it so much. But very few people are going to buy your book just because you gave them a pin. A lot of times, they’ll take the pin and not buy the book.

Now, that’s fine when it’s something that costs a nickel per item3, like a bookmark or business card. But when you’re giving away tons of stuff, and some of those things are more expensive, like pins or keychains or whatever the current trend is . . . that starts to add up.

How much are your royalties on one book? Is the pile of swag you just gave away the same or more?

Again, if you’re okay with that math, and it’s worth it to you on some emotional level, run with it. But I do think it’s important to do this with your eyes wide open, especially if you’re worried about budget.

So there’s an incomplete list.

Basically, my advice boils down to this: focus on things that support your entire career. I know it can seem like everyone is doing everything, and it stinks to feel left out, but I assure you that plenty of authors aren’t doing all the events or commissioning ice sculptures of their covers,4 and they’re doing just fine.

Truthfully, a lot of stuff just isn’t going to move the needle, especially when it reaches the point where it seems like everyone is doing it.

Here’s an example: Way back in 2015, an author could do her own preorder campaign and get some decent traction,5 but that was over ten years ago. Timing wise, I was lucky that I decided to jump into it when I did. It went well for me!6 But I think I might have been early on that trend, possibly for the first time in my life.

Now, though? It’s much harder to tip someone into hitting the preorder button for a pretty piece of paper. Or even a pin (which can’t be shipped flat). So I don’t worry about it anymore.7

I want to be clear that I’m not telling you not to do something! I’ve commissioned character art. (Robert Lettrick is the artist for these Nightrender portraits;8 I had prints made and gave them away at events and festivals.) And I’ve done pins. And plenty of other things. I have absolutely put some money into the promotion of my own books, but sometimes it was worth it and sometimes . . . it really wasn’t.

Honestly, it’s a lot of fun to have things like this, and you’ll find readers who appreciate it. And let’s be real, especially when it’s your debut, you want to do all the things to celebrate. That’s valid.

But if you needed permission to not do something you weren’t sure would be worth it — here’s your permission. And if you’re like, “But Jodi, I want to do the thing anyway!” go for it. You deserve happiness.

And now I’m off to squeeze my brain cells over my book again.

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