Writing Break

This week in the Writing Break cafe, we're digging into QueryTracker's live data to map the real supply and demand of the slush pile. Two genres are topping agents' wish lists while barely showing up in submissions, and five genres are facing the opposite problem. Then we head to the querying trenches for a reality check: current response timelines, why silence is the new rejection, the brutal mat...

This week we kick things off with a publishing conundrum: a major publisher is now offering editors optional disclosure of AI use by writers after contracts are already signed. What's the point? We want your thoughts. Then we settle onto the Overthinking Couch for a deep dive into multiple points of view. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: What multi-POV actually is Three reasons to use multi-POV The d...

This week, we open the cafe with a toast to Dolly Parton and the 332-million-book literacy legacy she built with the Imagination Library. In publishing news: the Anthropic settlement disbursement timeline; HarperCollins's appetite for more AI payouts; Audible's AI voice expansion; and why the "godfather of AI" still needed a human writer. Then we settle onto the Overthinking Couch for a deep dive...

When you choose a narrator, you're choosing whose personality the reader will inhabit for an entire book. Get it wrong, and you might find yourself rewriting 80,000 words. (I've seen it happen.) We're using Vivian the Professional Mourner as our case study to explore what first-person narrators can and can't tell us, why filter words create distance, and how to leverage your character's unique kno...

Last week we established that voice is the narrator's personality. This week, we look at all five elements that make up voice and see if your narrator is a real person or just you in disguise. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Amazon KDP finally does something self-publishers want. Eight million books lost in Ukraine. Arkansas criminalizes bookshelves. How to write a narrator that sounds unique. Next...

Welcome to Season 10 of Writing Break! This season is all about voice, which is the thing literary agents, publishers, and readers fall in love with. In this premiere, we're setting up our makeshift Overthinking Conference Room to nail down the vocabulary that will guide us through the entire season. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Why a whole season about voice? Trying to sound like Hemingway is a...

Season 10 is on hold because the rules for literary agents just changed, and not necessarily in the author's favor. This episode tells you exactly what questions to ask before you sign (or pay for) anything. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: The New Literary Agent Ethics Rules What the Association of American Literary Agents changed and why. Which paid services literary agents may now offer. Why edito...

We're closing the book on genre, two seasons, dozens of subgenres, and a lot of overthinking later. This week we revisit some highlights: novel architecture and the dreaded middle-of-the-book slump, why cross-genre mashups can backfire if you get too ambitious, the tension between writing what you love and writing what sells, adaptation lessons from film and video games, and how genres evolve to m...

Genres and subgenres are ever-evolving. This week, we trace one horror lineage from a crumbling 1764 castle all the way to today's femgore boom, dig into a detective fiction metamorphosis that spans three centuries and two continents, and sit with a publishing story that should unsettle every working writer, one where AI hijacked a fired journalist's own byline to keep publishing under his name. P...

How much can you really accomplish in two minutes? This week on Writing Break , I share a simple exercise I call The Two-Minute Wait, which can help you better understand your relationship with time and improve the way you manage it. We also discuss this year's International Booker Prize news before exploring storytelling traditions from around the world, including Nordic noir, magical realism, Go...

Everyone in your life thinks your book would make a great movie, play, or video game. But adaptation isn't a copy-paste job because every medium solves storytelling problems differently. This week, we put one scene through four different mediums to see what each one reveals about craft, whether or not you ever plan on adapting anything. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Why "the book was better" misse...

AI continues reshaping publishing, and writers cannot afford to ignore what's happening. In this week's news episode, we explore the growing legal, ethical, and professional questions surrounding AI, authorship, copyright, and creative ownership. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Publishing CEOs warning against an AI "witch hunt" The increasingly complicated question of what counts as authorship Copyr...

Should you write what you love or write what sells? Is it possible to do both? In this episode of Writing Break , we explore how writers can stop chasing trends and, instead, find the overlap between personal passion and commercial viability. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: The Biggest Mistake Writers Make - Writing Break Identifying Your Ideal Reader - Writing Break Home : America's Editor - Let's...

Cross-genre fiction is thriving, but blending genres successfully requires more than adding a dragon to a murder mystery (sad, but true). If you're writing a cross-genre novel, planning to write one, or wondering whether your manuscript accidentally became one, this episode will help you blend genres without confusing your readers. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Combining genres intentionally What...

What keeps a novel interesting after the premise stops being new? In this episode, I share the most important question to ask yourself while writing, no matter what genre you're writing. I also analyze why some novels start out strong but struggle to sustain themselves to the end. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: novel architecture unnecessary subplots repetitive scenes the infamous middle-of-a-book...

This week’s episode is a Writing Break clip show packed with writing advice across multiple genres and storytelling forms. If you’ve missed part of the recent genre series or just want a concentrated episode full of practical writing insight, this one pulls together some of the strongest segments from recent episodes. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: paranormal fiction romantic suspense cozy mysterie...

Some novels should have been novellas. In this episode, we get into the latest publishing and book trend news, and we talk about why shorter forms can create stronger stories. If you’ve ever wondered whether your manuscript is actually a novella in disguise, this episode is for you. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Why many novels lose focus when stretched too far How novellas balance emotional immer...

Short stories don’t give you less to do, just fewer places to hide. They are often seen as a stepping stone for writers, but they demand a level of precision many writers underestimate. In this episode, we look at what short stories are actually designed to do. We explore how strong short fiction is built around a single emotional movement, why focus and constraint matter, and how detail selection...

What happens when you break the rules of storytelling? In this episode, we explore how to experiment with intention. We look at nonlinear structure, fragmented narratives, and hybrid forms and why they only work when the writer maintains control over meaning, pacing, and emotion. Key takeaway: You can break structure, but you cannot abandon it. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: What defines experiment...

In this episode, we break down the publishing developments editors and agents are talking about right now and what they mean for working writers. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: Why audiobooks are now a primary format, not a secondary rights stream The continued dominance of celebrity books and what it signals about the market The “hollowing out” of the midlist and what it means for author careers H...

Comics, manga, and graphic novels combine image and word to tell stories in a way prose cannot. In this episode, we examine what actually changes when storytelling moves into panels, and why many writers struggle when they approach the form with prose habits. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: What defines a graphic narrative? How do readers construct meaning across panels? What changes in dialogue whe...

Elements of Western novels are infiltrating other genres and modernizing the mythology of the Wild West. In this episode, we head out to the frontier to explore how classic Western storytelling transformed into the modern neo-Western. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: • What are the core tropes that define a classic Western? • How are neo-Westerns reinterpreting these elements in modern settings? • Wh...

Want to write a cozy mystery? This episodes explores the way cozy mystery blends charming communities, amateur sleuths, and clever puzzles to create crime stories that feel suspenseful without becoming dark or graphic. From Murder, She Wrote to modern bookstore-and-bakery mysteries, cozy stories invite readers into tight-knit communities where secrets simmer beneath the surface and clever sleuths...

What’s the difference between Young Adult and New Adult fiction? We explore the life stages, voice, and themes that define each genre, plus publishing news on AI copyright, contracts, and book bans. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: What defines Young Adult fiction What defines New Adult fiction The key differences between identity formation and life-building How voice changes between YA and NA Why au...

Romantic suspense blends love and danger. Learn how to balance emotional tension with high-stakes conflict, build trust between characters under pressure, and deliver satisfying dual resolutions that keep readers turning pages. 🛋️ Overthinking Couch Topics: The latest publishing news What defines the romantic suspense genre What readers expect from romantic suspense novels Common pitfalls writers...