How to Stop Talking to Ourselves and Start Talking to Our Readers

In today's Books with Hooks , we're joined by guest agent, Emmy Nordstrom-Higdon from Westwood Creative Artists who looks at four submissions. During the segment, Emmy discusses executing the world-building in a way that’s accessible to readers, and ensuring you’re also covering your characters' conflicts, goals, stakes, etc. in a query; keeping your query letter under a page; ensuring something happens plot-wise and that there’s voicey-ness in the writing sample; having wonderful line-level writing but focusing on the wrong things on a scene level; an efficient query letter formula; differentiating the voices of the characters; including enough voice in the query, but not as much as what’s in the pages; and a fantastic example of an MG query letter and opening pages. After which, Bianca chats with J ohn Galligan , author of Bad Day Breaking , about following and then breaking the “rules” of writing; the 'show, don’t tell' lightbulb moments; how to stop talking to ourselves and start talking to our readers; getting into the psyche of your characters; what genre has the most effective prologues and how to know you’re doing it right; using adjectives and adverbs the right way; creating character voice in third person; and tips for crossing gender, race, etc. boundaries to create empathy in characters and in readers—without crossing lines. Find us on our socials: Twitter: @TSNOTYAW @BiancaM_author @carlywatters @ceciliaclyra Instagram: @biancamarais_author @carlywatters @cece_lyra_agent @ the_shit_about_writing Facebook: @tsnotyaw Website: www.biancamarais.c om and www.theshitaboutwriting.com John can be found at www.johngalligan.com Our Sponsors: * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/tsnotyaw * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com * Check out Wayfair: https://www.wayfair.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands