A Story That Works

We’re back—well, I’m back—for season 2 of A Story That Works, the podcast that gets you writing by showing you examples of what it looks like to figure out your own process and just do the work already. In case you forgot, I’m Rebecca a Story Grid certified editor and writer who does everything I can to not write, even though I love to do it.

Last season, Katelyn and I talked you through the process of writing a story three times. We shared our very different processes for prewriting, writing, and editing a story and shared those stories with you along the way. We asked you to do the work and weren’t shy about how much we struggled.

This season, Katelyn is in Prague teaching English (and now that the world is going crazy, she’s under a country-wide quarantine). Don’t worry, she’s safe and still working via video-conferencing. However, knowing her schedule ahead of time, we already knew we weren’t going to be recording together again this year.

That left me the chance to reimagine what this podcast could be and how I could get creative in helping writers do their work by continuing to show them it’s possible. Since we covered what it looks like to finish a first draft in season 1, I thought this time around we might dive deeper into editing by tearing apart some of my work and building it up to be better.

I’m lucky enough to have access to some amazing editors via Story Grid and so thought we could all help each other out by having these discussions (which, fair warning are longer than the chats Katelyn and I had).

I’m still going to read you my first drafts and I’m still going to be wholeheartedly vulnerable in this process. I welcome feedback from all of you and I’m not taking this criticism to heart because I understand that my writing, though an extension of me, is separate from who I am and can always be torn apart and made better.

The goal of writing for me is to always be improving what’s on the page and to never forget that the readers are part of writing in general. You have to have readers if you want to be successful (though, that depends on your definition of success and I only say this from a place of wanting to eventually write things other people get to read/see/listen to).

If you remember from last season, my stories needed a lot of work to get better and to be considered for publication. Not that I’ve published any of them yet, but I still struggle greatly with getting the work done, with under-writing, and with how to do this thing that I love when I care about the outcome so much.

That’s why I’m creating resources like this to help other people who might be struggling to let their egos go and to fall in love with the act of writing again. Because when we love what we’re doing, the rest (book deals, money, whatever) doesn’t matter as much and taking that pressure off yourself is the only way I’ve found I can do this thing I love in a way that might eventually lead to some semblance of success.

I hope you’re still here for this journey and can’t wait to share what we’ve come up with for this season.

Editors:

Lori Puma: loripuma.com

Shelley Sperry: sperryeditorial.com

Julia Blair: ragstowritten.com

Kimberly Kessler: www.kimberkessler.com

Griffin Gartner: gartnerediting.com

Leslie Watts: Writership.com

Abigail Perry: abigailkperry.com

My website: creativitythroughconstraints.com