The Writing Coach

By Kevin T. JohnsEducation Arts Books How To

The Writing Coach episodes

October 30 Lyrics First, Melody Second: Linda L. Garnett on Music, Playlists and Writing Red Falls – The Writing Coach Ep. 244
Red Falls author Linda L. Garnett returns to talk music: writing lyrics and fan fiction at fourteen, trading mixtapes with pen pals, building Spotify playlists for her characters, and why indie musicians and indie authors ride the same train.
32 min
October 26 A Ten-Year Journey to The Call to Witchery: Lorraine Johnston on Contemporary Fantasy, Story Structure, and Marketing a Debut – The Writing Coach Ep. 243
Lorraine Johnston's debut contemporary fantasy, The Call to Witchery, began in a morning journal in 2016. She talks about the ten-year journey to publication, building a world where witches are celebrities, writing a 35-year-old heroine who buried her magic, and how she's marketing the book one reader at a time.
43 min
October 22 Writer’s Block, Recovery, and Hope: David Deane Haskell on The Solarian Deep and Wounded Angels – The Writing Coach Ep. 242
Sci-fi and nonfiction author David Deane Haskell talks about the five-year writer's block that followed his sobriety, the floodgates that opened with The Solarian Deep and his memoir Wounded Angels, how he uses AI as a writer, and the message of hope at the heart of his work.
47 min
October 17 Twenty Drafts, Three Books, One Character: Sherilyn Decter on Writing The Promise Trilogy – The Writing Coach Ep. 241
Sherilyn Decter spent two years and over twenty drafts turning a minor character from her Moonshiner Mysteries series into The Promise Trilogy. Here's how a single book became three, why she writes all of them at once, and what her revision process actually looks like.
1 hr 5 min
October 12 A Writing Coach and Her Client: Ellen Baker and Terence Sullivan on Alice of Oz, Summerland Cove, and Two Paths to Publishing – The Writing Coach Ep. 240
Novelist and writing coach Ellen Baker joins her longtime client Terence Sullivan, whose viral TikTok series became the novel Alice of Oz, to talk about seven rounds of developmental edits, 75 agent queries, and why Terence self-publishing turned out to be the right call.
46 min
October 06 Writing is Rewriting: Steven Puri Returns to Talk Flow States and Hollywood Screenwriting – The Writing Coach Ep. 239
Steven Puri, founder of Sukha and a former Hollywood visual-effects producer, returns to talk about the neuroscience of flow states, what separates writers who make it from those who don't, and why writing is rewriting.
49 min
September 30 Pre-Made vs. Custom Book Covers, Explained | Usama Munir, Design Dusk – The Writing Coach Ep. 238
Usama Munir of Design Dusk on pre-made vs. custom book covers, genre conventions, and how AI is (and isn't) changing cover design for authors.
42 min
September 13 Writing Transgressive Fiction: Ron Black on Bleu and the Character No One Has to Like – The Writing Coach Ep. 237
Ron Black's debut novel Bleu: A Transgressive Tale takes a hard look at addiction, the art world, and domestic violence — with the abuse running in a direction fiction rarely shows. Here's how a night-shift prompt became a book, and why an unlikable character just needs to be an understandable one.
35 min
September 09 Marketing Your Book Without Losing the Time to Write It: Marvin Wey of AuthorScale on AI, TikTok, and Selling More Books – The Writing Coach Ep. 236
Marvin Wey, co-founder of AuthorScale, on the two proven social media formats selling books right now, how to find the scenes in your own manuscript worth promoting, and why he thinks marketing and writing should stay two different jobs.
39 min
September 03 The Spiritual Side of Beating Writer’s Burnout: Charlotte Donlon on Rituals, Rest, and Writing – The Writing Coach Ep. 235
Spiritual director Charlotte Donlon on the rituals, permission, and belonging that keep writers out of burnout and the two-minute practice she uses daily.
44 min

About The Writing Coach

From the publisher's feed

Author and writing coach Kevin T. Johns interviews the instructors, editors, coaches, and mentors that help writers and authors create their art, build their audience, and sell their work.