The Writership Podcast Editing Tips For Fiction Authors
On the Writership Podcast, professional book editor Leslie Watts critiques five pages of fiction from writers who are, or soon hope to be, traditionally or independently published. The submissions come from actual authors who understand they may need help seeing the flaws in their stories and are brave enough to share this experience so that you might improve your writing too.
- Update frequency
- every 8 days
- Average duration
- 40 minutes
- Episodes
- 136
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2019
Episode 17 - The Clone Rules Science Fiction Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages from a science fiction novel. They discuss choosing tense, rapid fire and commonplace dialogue, and well-executed backstory.
Episode 16 - Nightblade: Fantasy Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages from a fantasy novel. They discuss cadence and diction, dialogue, opening lines, and setting and maintaining reader expectations.
Episode 15 - Glamorous: Paranormal Thriller Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages from a paranormal thriller. They discuss character relationships, the “normal” world versus the supernatural world, incorporating specifi…
Episode 14 - Night School: Horror Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages from a horror novel. They discuss tightening the opening to get to the paranormal elements more quickly, the possible inclusion of humor,…
Episode 13 - Once Upon a Saturn Moon: Science Fiction Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages from a science fiction adventure story. They discuss oversharing and how it relates to showing versus telling, clusters of echoes, and th…
Episode 12 - High Flyer: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages from a paranormal/urban fantasy novel. They discuss grounding the reader in the genre, British vs. U.S. English, echoes, visceral details…
Episode 11 - Naked Montreal: Erotica Critique (NSFW)
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages from an erotica novel. They discuss different types of erotica, character development, tools for assessing complexity of language and rea…
Episode 10 - Ted Saves the World: YA Superhero Fantasy Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages from a YA superhero fantasy novel. They discuss: why this opening works so well for the sotry, strong opening lines, including visceral d…
Episode 9 - "The Bad Baby": Short Story Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages from a literary short story. They discuss omniscient viewpoint, deepening setting and characterization, and making good on the implicit p…
Episode 8 - Prophecy’s Queen: Fantasy Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages from a fantasy novella in progress. They discuss information dumps, delaying back story, and revisit elaborate dialogue tags. They go on …
Episode 7 - "It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You Later": Religious Inspirational Short Story Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique a religious inspirational short story. They discuss showing versus telling, creating an active and vivid setting, rapid fire dialogue, and strengthening …
Episode 6 - Looking in Shadows: Crime/Thriller Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique an excerpt from a crime/thriller novel in progress. They discuss what’s working for the unconventional opening, dive deeper into active openings, and ask f…
Episode 5 - Think Tank: Middle Grade Fantasy Short Story Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique an excerpt from a middle grade fantasy book. They discuss: point of view/head hopping, passive voice, streamlining language for impact, echoes, strengtheni…
Episode 3 - Last Search: Mystery Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie critique the opening pages of a mystery novel in progress. They discuss: tense, point of view, consistency in characterization, dialect in dialogue, permissions and…
Episode 2 - Grigory’s Gadget: Steampunk Critique
In this episode, Leslie and Alyssa critique the opening pages of a steampunk novel in progress. They discuss what was working for the story, how to improve the opening paragraphs, tension, and open-e…
Episode 1 - Mustang Summer: Romance Critique
In this episode, Alyssa and Leslie launched the podcast with the critique of an excerpt from a romance novel. They discuss some requirements of the romance genre, and what constitutes a love interest…