The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Today was just me and Emma again, doing a very unconventional “coffee hour recording” at 11am instead of our usual end-of-Friday because this was the only time that we (but not our readers, unfortunately) were able to record at all. We apologize for our lack of alcohol.

* Instead of hitting many topics, we stayed pretty story-geeky today and talked about the pacing and purpose and payoffs of three-act structure, as well as the need for a story to “breathe.” It’s something we both feel intuitively as we write (though Emma’s workflow is different from mine) more than plan meticulously and rigorously in advance.

* This entire discussion was gold to us, and we both really like talking about it … but we’re not sure if you, the listeners, like it or not. So please do let us know — you can leave a comment on this post at johnnybtruant.substack.com, or you can just email me (see below).

* In addition to contacting me with feedback and questions at [email protected], Emma encouraged listeners to follow up with her at EmmaLeeJayne.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnnybtruant.substack.com