A Podcast Listener's Success Story

In today’s Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe each look at two query letters, and in the process discuss making sure interiority adds up—showing not just what a character thinks, but how they think; ensuring the line-level writing and unfolding of tension is allowing the reader to actively put the pieces of the puzzle together; ensuring there is specificity and the story climax in the query letter; making the first scene dynamic by giving the character a story-forward goal and a clear obstacle with power imbalance and sharp specifics; showing on the pages what a camera could capture and having interiority elevate that; using comps instead of themes in a query letter; using a selling type of language instead of a synopsis type of language in a query letter; and ensuring your hook can wow agents and editors, even in areas of a genre that are “soft” in the market right now.

After which, Bianca chats with Roxana Trabulsi, author of Of Mud & Honey about deciding on writing fiction instead of memoir; research vs personal experience; what constitutes ‘bloody good writing’; bringing a place alive that readers are not even remotely familiar with; reaching out to experts on the subject you’re writing about; publishing with an indie press; and including foreign words within the text.

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Websites: www.theshitaboutwriting, www.biancamarais.com and www.carlywatters.com

Roxana can be found at www.roxanatrabulsi.com and on Instagram at @roxanatrabulsiwrites

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