Drawing from my experiences as both an editor and a writer, in this episode, I share insights on why giving your work time to breathe can lead to more profound, polished pieces. We'll explore how slowing down can actually accelerate your growth as a writer, and I'll offer practical tips on how to embrace a more patient approach to your craft. Whether you're working on a novel, short story, or personal essay, this episode will encourage you to find value in the journey, not just the destination.

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In this episode, I dive into the art of crafting compelling writing from start to finish. We'll explore why it's crucial to maintain engagement throughout your piece, not just in the opening. I'll share strategies for keeping momentum in the middle of your work, tips for crafting effective endings, and emphasize the importance of revision in creating impactful writing. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting, this episode will provide valuable insights to help you elevate your craft and create work that resonates with readers. Join me as we uncover the secrets to crafting compelling everything!

Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing: rachelthompson.co/letters

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In this season-ending episode, I'm talking about returning.

Sometimes a draft changes when you look again. Sometimes the draft hasn't changed at all—you have.

In this episode, I reflect on my own return to writing sixteen years after publishing Galaxy, what editing has taught me about attention, why returning to the same material is not failure, and how form often reveals itself through repetition, echo, and looking again.

I also share a simple three-part practice for returning to a draft with your ear, your body, and the place where the writing still holds a little pressure.

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In this episode of Write, Publish, and Shine, I speak with Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos, founder and editor of Raw Lit, an online, issue-based literary magazine that publishes curated lineups of prose, poetry, artwork, and hybrids.

We talk about what Raw Lit is actually looking for (ahem, not shock, not unprocessed rage), why “fit” is often a voice question more than a theme question, and the small, unglamorous guidelines details that quietly make an editor’s day.

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In this episode, I’m sharing one of my Draft & Redraft sessions, The Garden Draft, recorded from a place of feeling really overfull with thoughts and feelings. Grab your writing implements before pressing play.

Find more of these guided sessions on Substack at litmaglove.substack.com

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In this solo episode, I’m talking about short forms (flash memoir, prose poetry, and other tiny pieces) as the most genuinely doable way back to the page in a busy season. If summer looks spacious from far away but fills up fast once you’re in it, this is a small plan you can keep, plus one image-based practice you can try today.

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All of the notes for this episode are up at rachelthompson.co/119

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In episode 118 of Write, Publish, and Shine, I talk with Room Magazine’s managing editor Chimedum Ohaegbu (a three-time Hugo Award–winning editor, as part of the editorial team at Uncanny Magazine) about speculative writing, revision, and what it means to read for chemistry.

We talk about what speculative writing can do that realism sometimes can’t, how a story can start with an ordinary fear (like missing your stop on a bus) and then turn strange on purpose, and how emotional truth can find a different kind of realism through transformation.

We also get into submissions and editorial discernment, including what “not for us” can mean behind the scenes, and how to hold rejection as information about fit and space, not as a verdict on your work.

I hope this episode helps you protect the weirdness in your draft, revise without sanding off what’s alive, and keep sending your work out with self-assurance.

Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing: rachelthompson.co/letters

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In episode 117 of Write, Publish, and Shine, I talk with writer Tamara Jong, author of Worldly Girls, about the long, real arc of making a book, and the stamina it takes to bring it to the finish line.

We talk about the season after a debut, about learning to say no so you can make space for the work, and about the formal decisions that helped Tamara unlock the book, including “containers,” braided structure, and the kind of metaphor that can hold what’s too loaded to say straight out.

Tamara also offers a beautiful prompt about family lore and what you might write if no one were reading over your shoulder, and reads a luminous excerpt from her memoir.

I hope this episode invites you to stay in the long game and protect what you need in order to tell the truth on the page.

Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing: rachelthompson.co/letters

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In episode 116 of Write, Publish, and Shine, I talk to the unpublished writer part of you. This may be the part that really wants to send your writing out in the world, but gets a little cagey the moment before you press submit.

I move you through what I’ve been calling a soft-steadfast submission practice: a way of staying tender and steady, so submitting doesn’t require you to feel impermeable. I share three anchors I return to when rejection starts to feel like final judgement (rejection as data, “not right for us” as a routing problem, and fit as learnable), plus a simple, repeatable rhythm to help you decide your pace, choose your container, keep your list small, and build in aftercare. All so you (and your nervous system) learn: I can do brave things and stay soft.

I hope this episode invites you to choose one brave thing and share your writing with the world.

Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing:rachelthompson.co/letters

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In episode 115 of Write, Publish, and Shine, I talk with writer and educator Rayya Liebich about what it means to keep making art in a time of unrest.

We also talked about how she came to be the commissioned author for Room 48.3: Rest/Unrest, where I was issue editor. Our conversation circled on the idea of radical softness alongside rage as a way of refusing numbness and staying human-hearted. And Rayya shared her thoughts on how grief resists tidy arcs, and how to find structure when you’re working in lyric, collage, braided, or hermit crab forms, with grounded, oh-so-practical approaches and a luminous writing prompt titled “Dear Grief.”

I hope this episode invites you to make something and let the making be part of how you keep going.

Get my Writerly Love Letters, sent Wednesdays and filled with ideas and care for you and your writing:rachelthompson.co/letters

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