Hello, Protagonists!
In this post, you’ll find:
🎥 The video replay of our December Book Club meeting
List of my Favorite Craft Books and Resources
List of Writing Conferences Recommended by our Community Members
My go-to holiday cookie recipes
🤓 January Invitation + Book Club Discussion Questions: DEEP WORK
🎥 The video replay of our December Book Club meeting
If you missed our book club meeting, you can watch the replay now.
We had such a fantastic discussion of No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister and talked about:
Tying short stories together into a cohesive novel
How to tie so many different points of view together
Did you connect with all of the POVs? Why or why not?
There is a book within the book, but we don’t actually get many details about the internal book (Theo, written by the main character).
Does that make it less impactful to you as a reader or not?
Why did the author make the choice not to tell us more about Theo?
The author’s voice and how it’s used to set the mood/tone of the story
The “secret” book design element that we hadn’t noticed before
Sales and marketing angle: the appeal of novels about writers and books
During the writers’ hangout portion, we talked about:
Close reading — how to use sticky tabs to study novels
“Zero draft”— what is it?
When in your career should you attend writing conferences?
Setting intentions for our writing practices in 2025:
My silly professional goal for the end of this year and 2025, and how I’ve already failed 😂
What is a realistic, kind way to approach your writing?
What creative goals do you have for yourself? Is there anything you’d like to change about your writing practice in 2025 from how you’ve approached it in the past?
Here are some of the writing resources discussed during the meeting:
Craft Resources:
Save the Cat and Save the Cat Writes a Novel - general plotting/pacing
Romancing the Beat - plotting/pacing for love stories and romances
Hooked - first sentences, first paragraphs, first pages and first chapters
Nathan Bransford’s Writing Advice Database and Publishing Advice Database
Writing Conferences recommended by our community members (If there are others that you like, please add them in the Comments section):
🍪 Recipes for the cookies I mentioned in the meeting
Mint chocolate chip cookies that taste like the ice cream
Raspberry Rugelach - (this year, I used blackberry jam and swapped in raisins instead of dried apricots)
»To keep our members’ conversations private from the general internet, the Book Club replay is behind a paywall.
The Book Club is the only part of the community that is behind a paywall; everything else is free.
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Get a complimentary paid subscription when your friends subscribe:
1 referral = one-month paid subscription, comped
2 referrals = three-month paid subscription, comped
3 referrals = one-year paid subscription, comped
🤓 January Invitation + Book Club Discussion Questions: DEEP WORK
Who is invited?
Writers who love reading and want to examine stories more closely, and
Readers who are curious about why they feel the way they do about a book.
When is the next meeting?
Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT
🥰 Introverts, you are welcome to keep your cameras off.
What is our next Book Pick?
A few years ago, I was unable to sit still and focus for long periods of time. My brain had become accustomed to flitting here and there. I’d check social media and the news constantly, when I should have been writing.
Then I found Deep Work, and it’s not hyperbole to say this book completely changed my career. I learned how to shut out distractions and how to work deeply. Suddenly, I was writing more in 2 hours than I used to in an entire day, and not only that, but the quality of my prose and my thinking skyrocketed.
If you’re trying to figure out how to fit creative work into a busy, distracted world, this is a great way to kick off the new year!
During the book discussion, we’ll chat about:
Techniques for re-training our brains from a culture of distraction
Embracing “boredom” in order to spur creativity
How non-fiction is structured to be maximally persuasive, balancing evidence and inspiration
During the writers’ hangout portion, we will talk about:
How has the first month of 2025 gone for your writing (or reading)?
Did you stick with your creative intentions?
What roadblocks did you hit, if any? Or were there pleasant surprises?
Do writers need to be on social media?
Does it conflict with what we just learned in Deep Work?
How do we balance writing and building an author platform?
I think this is going to be a wonderful conversation!
RSVP link is below!
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the RSVP (and Zoom link) is below the paywall.
This also allows us to keep our members’ book discussions private from the general internet; it’s nice to have a cozy, totally private space for just us!
The Book Club is the only part of the community that is behind a paywall; everything else is free.
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Get a complimentary paid subscription when your friends subscribe:
1 referral = one-month paid subscription, comped
2 referrals = three-month paid subscription, comped
3 referrals = one-year paid subscription, comped
💛💛💛💛💛
