.webp)
.webp)
This holiday weekend, take 15 minutes for yourself to indulge in a writing podcast—the best way to work on your writing, without actually having to write. An excellent loophole, right?
At The Novelry, we suggest spending an hour per day writing. We call this the Golden Hour Method. The other 23 hours are equally important for a writer’s routine: this is where the work happens in your imagination. Whirring away in the background, your subconscious will fix problems in your plot, find new solutions, inspirations, and challenges for your characters, learn about craft, and develop the vision for your novel—ready for you to write onward the following day.
Feed your creative mind this Easter with the goodies shared on The Novelry on Writing, the podcast from the world’s best-loved writing school.
In this article, we’ve compiled seven of the shiniest pearls of wisdom for writers from Season 2 of The Novelry on Writing, the podcast hosted by our team of bestselling author coaches and experienced editors from across the publishing industry.
.webp)
Wherever you are in your writing process—in the early stages of drafting or well into your edits—you’ll find valuable advice to suit your unique journey. If a writing tip piques your interest, grab your headphones and tune into The Novelry on Writing on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you go for your podcast fix. You’ll also find the full transcripts right here on The Novelry’s blog, for those of you who prefer to read your creative writing advice.
Don’t just learn from The Novelry, write with The Novelry
Still summoning the courage to write your novel? Find out more about The Novelry’s warm and encouraging process, where we combine courses, coaching, and a community of fellow writers, or read our latest craft articles at The Novelry’s blog for writers.
Here are the top tips from Season 2 of The Novelry on Writing, the creative writing podcast for writers of all stages—available now!
1. You might not find your title straight away, but trust that it will become evident in time
Marking the beginning of Season 2 of our writing podcast, Gina Sorell and Tara Conklin hosted a discussion on helping writers find the right title for a novel. Both hosts have expertise in naming novels: Tara is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics, and Gina, previously a professional namer, is the author of The Wise Women and Mothers and Other Strangers. With evocative, eye-catching titles that communicate nostalgia, intrigue, and estrangement, these novels hook readers from the first glance. So, what if you haven’t found the right title for your novel yet, and self-doubt is creeping in?
Gina and Tara shared several tips for writers struggling to find their title, including knowing your novel’s theme; turning to great literature and poetry for quotes; and digging through your manuscript for lines or phrases that capture the heart of your book. Ultimately, though, Gina urged writers not to panic if the title hasn’t found them yet—trust that it will during the creative process.
You don’t always find it right away. And not to despair. There’s so many different avenues you can have in terms of exploring a name. So many things to draw upon.
Just make a list, and as you’re writing the book, as you’re reading through the book, you’ll be able to really focus on what is the best name, and that’ll become more evident. But I think sometimes people get too attached to their first choice. And then it’s hard to really move past that.
—Gina Sorell
As Gina suggests, keeping a list of titles as you write and edit your novel will help you remember that you don’t need to decide on your title straight away, and more importantly, you don’t need to stick to your first decision.
Need more inspiration? See our blog on the best book titles of all time.
2. Use dialogue to build sexual tension
Even if your novel doesn’t include explicit sex scenes, your characters might naturally experience some kind of sexual tension, perhaps due to forced proximity. There are handy tricks to conveying convincing sexual tension, as our hosts of this episode revealed.
Romance editor and romantasy author Georgia Summers joined bestselling romance and Up Lit author Libby Page to discuss the best ways to build sexual tension. Building sexual tension through dialogue is an effective way to raise the heat between characters, especially when you remember that we rarely say what we mean. When Libby asked Georgia what makes good dialogue versus not-so-good dialogue, Georgia replied:
I think when everybody has their heart out on their sleeve, that can be quite difficult to be convinced by, because the truth is, we never say what we’re really thinking. We’re always having those layers inside ourselves of: How is this person going to react to this? What do we want from this person? What are we accidentally revealing about ourselves?
—Georgia Summers
Whether you write dialogue in the back-and-forth tennis-match style found in Emily Henry’s characters, or keep it restrained and deliberate like a good slow-burn, think about the details that lurk behind dialogue. What are your characters accidentally revealing in their carefully crafted dialogue?
When you withhold heart-on-sleeve declarations, you keep the tension building steadily and convincingly.
.webp)
3. Lead up to conflict with a series of micro-conflicts
All novels include a central conflict. In crime and suspense fiction, especially, this central conflict needs to pack a serious punch, and a fantastic way to lead up to your macro-conflict is through a series of micro-conflicts.
In this podcast episode, writing coaches and published crime authors Emylia Hall and Urban Waite shared their thoughts on helping writers create juicy conflict. They discussed how conflict builds character, the layers needed to form conflict, and how conflict can help your readers empathize with your characters. Their final point covered this idea of micro-conflicts: the slightly less central (but essential) conflicts of a novel.
Emylia suggested that having micro-conflicts stitched into your narrative plays toward the complexity and necessity of conflict and keeps your reader gripped to the page, and Urban agreed:
You are leading the reader to all these tiny little moments of conflict, and some can be very major moments of conflict. And you lead them right to the edge of the cliff and don’t push them off... And there can be all kinds... Things that pile up against your character as they walk through this world.
—Urban Waite
Urban categorized micro-conflicts as:
- Character versus nature
- Character versus character
- Character versus self
These minor incidents—such as a terse word from a character’s mother that leads them to overthink all day—keep a reader engaged. Not only are they relatable, as Emylia says, but they create ripples of tension that lead all the way to your novel’s central conflict.
{{blog-banner-2="/blog-banners"}}
4. Don’t hold back your best ideas: put them at the front of your story
Here’s a gem from our podcast episode on screenwriting secrets for novelists: when it comes to your story, do not save your best idea until last—put it up front.
In this episode, writing coaches Amanda Reynolds and David Solomons share tips for aspiring authors who are thinking of turning a screenplay into a novel, as well as any writers looking to create a fast-paced story reminiscent of a television series. Amanda and David both have impressive credentials: Amanda’s bestselling novel Close to Me was adapted in 2021 into a major TV series starring Connie Nielsen and Christopher Eccleston, while David is a BAFTA-shortlisted screenwriter with credits including Five Children and It, starring Kenneth Branagh.
Do you have a fantastic idea for your novel—perhaps a grand reveal, a secret, or an otherwise climactic plot point—that you plan to write toward the end? While this is an understandable move for most writers, it might suggest that the story structure of your novel up to this point is ‘padding,’ as Amanda puts it. Your reader might grow frustrated at the delay. So, don’t hold it back.
DAVID: I’ve made the mistake where: Okay, I’ve got a great idea but I’m going to hold it back for the second half, or even the climax of this novel. I’m going to hold it back. Actually—no. Use it early and then figure it out, because that’s a brilliant idea.
AMANDA: And then have somewhere else to go.
DAVID: And then have somewhere else to go.
5. To avoid the ick when writing YA, engage with content that teenagers consume
If you write Young Adult fiction, you might be concerned about inadvertently giving your teenage readers the ick—that moment of cringe that arises when you haven’t quite got teenage-speak right. Luckily, our team of bestselling YA authors at The Novelry has some sparkling pearls of advice for aspiring authors looking to avoid this unfortunate reaction.
The hosts of this podcast episode were Ella McLeod, author of the Branford Boase-nominated YA novel Rapunzella, Or, Don’t Touch My Hair, and Alice Kuipers, the bestselling author of 15 books, including her YA debut Life on the Refrigerator Door, a Carnegie Medal nominee.
Their advice? Talk to teenagers, and make it a part of your creative practice to consume the content they do.
Talk to teenagers. Actually talk to teenagers. Whether it’s teenagers in your life, friends’ kids, cousins, or it’s engaging with the content that they are also engaging with—TikTok, TV shows, movies—and just making sure you are understanding the modern teen experience.
—Ella McLeod
What is so unique about this generation of teenagers? The content that is, and has always been, available to them at all times online. While it’s easy for older generations to cast judgments on this wired-in generation, Ella sees a developed sense of empathy:
As a result of being so online, teenagers are able to relate to people who live in drastically different circumstances on the other side of the world. There’s a real connectedness to this generation’s set of teens that is amazing to explore in stories.
—Ella McLeod
To understand this, you need to be speaking to teenagers and understanding them. As Alice emphasized:
It’s about talking with teenagers. Understanding what their world is like. Really hearing them. And if you can’t talk to teenagers because your teenagers won’t talk to you, the ones you have, then that can be done in an online space. There’s plenty of room for us to learn what teenagers are into.
—Alice Kuipers
6. Subvert your setting for increased suspense
In crime and suspense fiction, we know that the setting is often an antagonistic force in the story. But what if you subverted the classic setting for something more surprising?
This podcast episode revealed how your setting can put pressure on your hero. Hosted by Lesley Kara, the Sunday Times Top Ten and internationally bestselling author of psychological thrillers, and Andrea Stewart, the award-winning author of the Drowning Empire trilogy, this podcast episode explored using unfamiliar locations, making the most of natural elements, linking the setting to your theme, and subverting settings for a satisfying surprise.
LESLEY: We’ve been talking about using a scary old house or an island that’s cut off from the mainland, but what if it’s a very normal setting, a very benign setting? A domestic situation or a cozy day, a sunny day? How can we bring suspense and tension from a setting that seems so ordinary?
ANDREA: Right. I feel like it can lull the reader into a false sense of security. I did that in my first book, The Bone Shard Daughter, where I have an island sinking on a sunny day. And it seems like everything is going along as normal, but there are a couple of hints that it’s not going to be a normal day. And the character’s thinking to himself: I didn’t think the world was going to end on this beautiful, sunny day...
Using the written word to describe benign or comfortable settings can provide a satisfying contrast to a build-up of suspense and tension. What does your setting look like? Can you subvert it?
.webp)
7. Consider the emotional stakes as much as the story stakes
A term you’ll often hear in writer communities is stakes. We always emphasize the importance of stakes in fiction: without stakes, there’s nothing for readers to care about.
Josie Humber, an experienced editor and Head of Upmarket and Book Club Fiction at The Novelry, defines stakes as the consequences if your character doesn’t achieve their goals. This podcast episode was co-hosted by both Josie and Kate Riordan, the bestselling author of seven novels, including The Heatwave, a Richard and Judy Book Club thriller pick and Apple Fiction Chart No.1. Expert advice from both sides of the publishing world!
This discussion is valuable to all writers, especially this piece of wisdom: to consider the emotional stakes as much as the story’s stakes. A character’s stakes don’t need to be life-threatening or extreme—they can be internal.
Josie suggested that writers:
...work out what within that character specifically is going to pull them through and make them the perfect person for this story, and also mean that it’s not just about the collateral damage within the story—it’s about the personal stakes for them.
—Josie Humber
Developing this point, Kate continued:
As humans and as readers, I think it’s really difficult to not have a personal story. I think it’s very difficult to identify with something when it isn’t at that emotional, human individual level. We want our readers to walk in our main character’s shoes and empathize. And it’s very difficult to do that when it’s very large, external sort of stakes. We need to put ourselves in that position—if it was our child...
—Kate Riordan
Zooming into your character’s unique emotional perspective tethers your reader to your story more intimately. Kate used the example of stories we see on the news: they often highlight an individual’s experience to hone in on the emotion of the circumstances, rather than focusing solely on the overarching story.
This podcast episode is worth a listen for fiction writers of all genres—you’ll find relevant pieces of wisdom here that will be a great addition to any creative writer’s toolbelt. For more on this subject, see this blog on raising the stakes written by Kate (with input from Josie).
Get even more from our writing tips podcast
While we’ve compiled seven top tips from Season 2 of our weekly podcast, there are still wonderful pieces of wisdom shared in our other episodes, for everyone from the aspiring writer to the published author. Put an episode on in the background when you’re driving, walking, doing the dishes—or when you want to get in the right mindset for your daily Golden Hour.
Want even more from The Novelry on Writing podcast? See our blog on the best pieces of advice from Season 1 and find the perfect episode for wherever you are on your writing journey. You’ll find all the podcast transcripts right here on our blog, plus more specific craft articles written by successful authors and experienced editors to help you achieve a whole host of writing goals.
Welcome home, writers. Join us on the world’s best creative writing courses to create, write, and complete your book. Sign up and start today.
.avif)
