From Big Idea To Book With Jessie Kwak

How can you turn one idea into a short story or expand it into a novel? How can you find a writing process that brings you joy for the long term? Jessie Kwak talks about writing craft tips in this interview.

In the intro, I comment on Andy Jassy's letter to shareholders and the importance of long-term thinking.

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Jessie Kwak is the author of gangster sci-fi supernatural thrillers and nonfiction for creatives. She's also a ghostwriter and freelance marketing copywriter. Her latest book is From Big Idea to Book: Create a Writing Practice That Brings You Joy.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.

Show Notes

* Planning, plotting, and discovery writing* Finding ideas, and turning them into short stories, or expanding them into novels * Tips for dealing with critical voice* Developing theme* The pros and cons of working with small press* Using Kickstarter as a pre-order* How to put the joy back into writing* Jessie was also on the show previously, talking about From Chaos to Creativity: Productivity for Writers.

You can find Jessie Kwak at JessieKwak.com and on Twitter @jkwak

Transcript of Interview with Jessie Kwak

Joanna: Jessie Kwak is the author of gangster sci-fi supernatural thrillers and nonfiction for creatives. She's also a ghostwriter and freelance marketing copywriter. Her latest book is From Big Idea to Book: Create a Writing Practice That Brings You Joy. Welcome back to the show, Jessie.

Jessie: Thank you for having me. This is super fun.

Joanna: Always good to talk to you. You've been on the show before. We talked a bit about your journey and how you manage everything. So we're just going to get straight into the topic today.

Now, I should say upfront, this is a really great book, there's so much in it and I found it very hard to choose the questions.

I want to start with the plotting versus discovery writing because there's this tension for both fiction and nonfiction. You say in the book that “every author plans, but the extent to which they plan differs.”

Talk about planning, and how we can find the best way for our writing style.

Jessie: I think there tends to be a lot of emphasis on what's the right way to write, should I outline, am I supposed to be doing this or that or the other thing. My very first piece of advice, as we get into talking about writing advice, is, don't really worry about what's right.