What aspects of Young Adult writing do you like?
Mar 21, 2024 3:00 pm
Hey there!
I'm feeling pretty awesome this past couple weeks. Not only have I made great progress on writing, but I feel like I broke out with my writer's podcast a bit.
Since I've begun writing (back in early 2018), I've been listening to The Creative Penn podcast. It's been instrumental in keeping me positive and focused as I navigate my writing love and goals alongside my family, work, homestead and religious responsibilities. This past couple weeks, Joanna Penn (the host of that very podcast) was able to join me for an episode. It was not only positive, but extremely insightful and makes me feel a bit 'seen' when it comes to the work I've put into the podcast.
One thing about Joanna is that she is AI positive. Her perspective on AI is not completely trusting, but curious and positive about what it could mean for the future of creatives. That said, I agree with her on some fronts. I don't think AI will ever fully replace creatives, computers just can't do what humans can, but there is sometimes a place for it.
That said, I know many of you have been anxiously waiting audiobook versions of my books. I have every intention of working with a human audiobook narrator (in fact, I've already picked the narrator I want to work with), but saving the money to hire that person is going to take some time. In the meantime, I participated in Amazon's offered BETA of AI generated audiobooks for audible just so that, if you don't mind that voice, some of you can finally listen the way you've wanted to!
This is temporary until I can work with the narrator, but if you are interested in giving it a try, I've priced them relatively low (primarily since it's not human narrated yet).
My Progress This Week
Though I can't always write as quickly or as much as I sometimes would like to, I cherish the amount of progress I can make even if it's very little. That said, a majority of my writing time was focused on edits of my short story I'm calling Spiritwalkers. Writing these stories has been an incredible experience and I am looking forward to making something of them. That said, the intent is to package up four of these stories, commission are for each and publish them as a collective each year.
Here is a perfect example of how AI is not perfect, just a fun rendition of what the story of Spiritwalkers is about. (just a concept, I have no intention of using this as an actual cover in the book)
That said, I just heard back from Writers of the Future last week and discovered that they've awarded my last story another Honorable Mention! This puts my story in the top few percentage of the thousands that they received, so it tells me that I'm on the right track with my writing.
As for Dwarfblooded, I'm now at just under 20K words and the story is really unfolding before my eyes. Writing YA books is a fun experience, but it's very different from writing New Adult or Adult stories. That said, if you are here reading this and you like YA, what elements of Young Adult do you love the most? What things do you not like about YA writing?
New Episodes of The Casual Author!
Every author has a different approach to their writing, as well as to the business aspects of their strategy. Join Joanna Penn, host of The Creative Penn podcast, and me, as we discuss her learnings from over 15 years in the publishing industry and what changes you can make to mindset and strategy. We talk about prioritization, decision-making, and marketing ideas for new, or more established authors.
OR
Something we all could use more of as authors is the same thing that keeps us from doing more each day. Time. What if you could find more of it? Join JC Youngstrom and me as we talk about time maximization and prioritization strategies that will help you get more done each day and week.
OR
And now for the free books!
Another Great Book to Check Out!
warm regards,
Dan
