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Up until now, I've wanted the seasons of this podcast to be evergreen and act as a resource on how to write a particular element of a story. My desire to create short, evergreen episodes focused on a single topic is the reason this podcast tends to be free of interviews. However, throughout season three, I will share short interviews with other writers discussing how they write stories, and in particular, I will try to interview as many writers who "pants" novels. 

In light of that, in this bonus episode, I chat with Michaelbrent Collings on how he writes his fiction novels. Before we dive into the interview, here is a brief introduction to Michaebrent Collings.


About Michaelbrent Collings
While he is best known for horror (and is one of the most successful indie horror authors in the world), Michaelbrent Collings has also written internationally-bestselling thriller, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, humour, young adult, and middle-grade works, and romance. In addition to being a bestselling novelist, Michaelbrent has also received critical acclaim: he is the only person who has ever been a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award, a Dragon Award, and a RONE Award, and he and his work have been reviewed and/or featured on everything from Publishers Weekly to Scream Magazine to NPR. An engaging and entertaining speaker, he is also a frequent guest at comic cons and on writing podcasts like Six Figure Authors, The Creative Penn, Writing Excuses, and others.


What to Expect From this Episode
In this episode, I chat with Michaelbrent about the following topics:

• Where Michaelbrent gets ideas for his books.
• How to know whether a horror novel is scar enough for the reader.
• Characters in horror movies that are too stupid to live.
• Transitioning from having that initial idea to feeling ready to write the first draft.
• How much detail Michaelbrent includes in his outlines.
• The trick of becoming a professional author.
• Tips on how to tackle writer's block when you're writing the first draft.
• The trap most authors fall into when writing and measuring success.
• Dealing with negative reviews.
• Stores weighing low rating reviews over higher ratings.
• Writing is quite emotionally taxing.
• The value of a supportive partner or friends.

Thanks for listening, and happy reading and writing, everybody.


Podcasts, Books, and Tools Mentioned
Check Out the Show Notes
Genre Tropes Cheat Sheet
Michaelbrent Collings Website

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