Romance Writer's Therapy

Marty and Kate have a special episode for this season finale: reading ~1500 words of their current projects, and then giving critiques to each other. 

Warning: Kate says the phrase "lean in" about a hundred times. 

Enjoy this repost! Kate and Marty are feeling the pressure of time and they weren't able to record this week. BUT next week will be the season finale, where they share writing and give criticism. So this episode seemed appropriate. 

Come on a journey with Kate and Marty, through the ups and downs of giving and receiving criticism.

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "Hazel and Elijah Don't Get Caught" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

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Kate wrote a prompt for this episode about what it is to dissect the meaning of love over an over again as a romance author, Marty interprets it as a craft question, Kate interprets it as an introspective question. Neither feel like they full answered the prompt. 

Apologies for Sounds of Opening Mail in the first few minutes of the episode.

Kate and Marty discuss:

Progress by Wordcounts and Nanowrimo
Shelving Projects and Coming Back to them
How was Your Halloween?
Not Impressed with Past Selves
It Takes 200 Hrs for Marty to Write A Whole Book
Rest Is Productive
24 Hr Plays and Being Too Tired to Sleep
Understanding Where Your Genre's Market Is At
Marty Outlines Her 2024 Writing Plans
Niche Troubles
Kate Can't Conceptualize Time Further Out Than A Month

Summary of the Strategy:
Continue Building Backlist
Apologize to the Buisness Majors, It Is Actually Hard Stuff
Do Math
Figure Out How Much Writing You Get Done Every Year
Different Kinds of Sales

This was an idea for an episode we had a while back. Think of it as a demonstration of soundboarding, something we end up mentioning really late in the show. 

It's all in the title this episode, Marty and Kate talk about the myriad of different ways a character can grow, what growth can look like and how it can serve the plot, as well as a really long (still relevant) discussion about Pride & Prejudice. 

The girls are both a little sick in this episode so the pacing is slower, but this week Kate tells Marty things she realized she did wrong with her most recent book release only after the fact. They both compare things that they're currently doing with their books and strategize how to work around those obstacles for next time. 

This week Marty and Kate dissect the Second Chance Romance trope, since they realized they're both writing books with it at the same time.

We cover:

Why Are They Werewolves?
Giving Second Chances Another Try
Marty Verbally Wedgies Kate from 1000 Miles Away
Holding Suspense Throughout
Plotting A SCR is Extremely Weird
Getting Rid of the Mindset that All Chapters Need the Same Pacing
Differences Between First-Time and Second Chance Romance Beats
The Right Level of Emotionally Wounded
Required Reading: Gwen Hayes' Romancing the Beat
Mid-Pod Apology To Marty's Mom
Kate Rails Against the Best Friend Character
How Do It Right?
Adding a Plot After The Book is Written
Failing In Exactly the Same Direction
Write Faster, Think Less

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

This episode is mainly about building your author business without giving in to hustle culture, but we also go off on a number of tangents, such as:

Marty Is Eating Her Library Books
If You Don't Enjoy Reading A Genre, Why Would You Write In It?
There Are No Bears in Michigan
The Lunar Cycle Brain Curse
Kate Describes Writing Process Very Similar to ADHD Symptoms
Your Manuscript's Honeymoon Stage
Backlists Over Marketing
FOMO Never Goes Away
Get Out of My House, Off My To-Do List
Kate Wants to See ChatGPT Cry
Automating The Banal
Ads Aren't the Only Answer
Craft Books and The Bubonic Plague
Coercing People Into Doing Your Taxes
What's The Marketing For OnlyF*ns Look Like
Don't Demonize Yourself for Wanting to Be Paid
You're the Child of Our Divorce, Listener

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

This episode, Marty and Kate talk about:

• The Outside Is Attacking Us (Allergies)
• Marty Isn't DNFing Out of Spite
• Marty F's Around with Prequels and Finds Out She Should Write More 
• Sideboob Logistics
• Kate and Marty Are Really Having An Easy Time Writing Books for Once and Are Really Confused About It
• Marty Sets Some Really Wild Challenges for Herself
• Surprising No One, Marty is an Extrovert, Kate is an Introvert
• Making Friends Or Writing Books
• Reflecting On Ways Our Lives Have Changed Over The Last Couple Years
• 24 Minutes in We Get to the Point of the Episode
• Defining Success Outside of Captialism
• Nail Break
• Also You Can't Really Remove Capitalism from the Equation, Yet
• If You Really Knew What Your Dream Entailed, Would You Still Want It?
• Put Pressure On Yourself Like Everyone's Watching, Even If They Aren't
• Don't Love It When Things Happen to Me
• Leaving in the Ice Noises Specifically For You 
• Film Degrees Are Pretty Useless

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

This episode, we talk about:

• When the ADHD Hyperfixation Wears Off / Burnout
• Is Self Publishing Actually Democratizing the Industry? Or Are we Creating Micro-Class Barriers
• You Should Strong Arm Your Way Into Situations
• 16 Minutes In And Kate Still Hasn't Explained Episode's Conceit
• When It's Ok To Not Accept Criticism
• TikToks Take FOREVER to Make
• Quizilla and LinkedIn are the Only Valid Social Medias
• Kate Realizes In Real Time The Thing She Wanted To Talk About Is Possibly Not That Relatable
• This Episode Was About Receiving Edits, It's Now About Cleaning
• Our Conversation Circumnavigates A Really Great Point About Pay-to-Win Video Game Dynamics and the Earlier Point About Micro-Class Barriers BUT IT'S FINE
• Picking Up Hobbies And Immediately Dropping Them
• Learning To Enjoy Not Being Good At A Thing

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

The podcast starts off talking about Shoshana's new book, The Desert Heiress, when the conversation immediately takes a turn into video games. We talk about the ways this book differed from her first series, romantasy books vs fantasy books with romance arcs, balancing worldbuilding/plot vs relationships in romance/fantasy, the importance of building a backlist, the spectrum of writing to market vs the book of your heart.

Today's episode is at least partly about writing while life is happening, but also:
BEEFY chapters and Amazing Critique Group Dynamics
The Glorification of Overwriting and Writing Speeds
Book Launches During Family Events (TW: death mention, funerals)
Emailing You From My Sickbed
Washing the Dishes But It's a Character Moment
What It Means to Learn Your Writing Process
Books/Authors We're Currently Reading
Good Books with Bad Summaries
It's Ok To Be A Little Judgey
Marty's Nutrition of Analysing
Don't Follow Her Advice, Follow Mine

Apologies for how utterly terribly Kate's audio is, she keeps messing with her mic settings and has not learned to stop.

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

Enjoy this repost:

They're back! In this episode, Kate and Marty discuss the age-old advice of "throwing out" the first book you write. They talk about their first attempts at writing books: everything that makes them want to forget that first manuscript, and all the things keeping it on the shelf. And about a dozen tangents in between.

Get Marty's debut novella Truth or Daire.

Get Love, Laugh, Lich, Kate Prior's novella.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get You and Me in Quarantine for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

Kate and Marty chat about writing rules; and why there are no laws while using loosely accurate examples and saying the wrong term. Enjoy their new use for the semi-colon; and the revival of an olden-times dialogue tag. (IYKYK)

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

If the girls sound a little low energy, it's because we're talking about Burnout.

We talk about:

The Sims and Melting Computers
Taking Time Away from A Project
Feeling Off Balance After A Project
Forgetting Your Characters' Names
A Milkshake as the Ultimate Romantic Gesture
Marty's Love of Emily Henry
Actionable Items for Your Bitching
Gaslighting Your Readers Is Always An Option
Sequels Are Hard Part 2
Peaking Young Is Bad
Manually Lowering The Bar for Yourself

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

We Discuss:
Checking the Pulse of Your Book
Titling your Book AND your Fictional Towns
Kate Struggles against the Idea of Fictional National Parks Bone Town and its Many Mile Markers
Reading Only the First and Last Sentences of Paragraphs
One-Sentence Emails
It's Weird to Have an Epilogue, It's Also Weird When You Don't
Kate Rambles about Tessa Dare Books Intermittently
Being Expirianced In Reading Endings

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

Marty talks about twists with Darcy Monroe. As well as being the nerdiest little nerds in their hometown, their love of cinnamon roll heroes, and reading "steamy" romance at a young age.

Find Darcy at https://darcymonroewriter.wordpress.com/ or her book The Hall of Art and Pleasure

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

Hey listeners, this week, Kate dug this episode from the back of the fridge, under the bed, behind the dishwasher, and some forgotten corner of her hard drive to bring you this mystery meet of an episode from JANUARY. Hopefully this year.

Have fun, who knows what this one is about.

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.

This episode, Marty and Kate tell you they're on a time crunch. Don't believe their lies-- buckle in for an hour and a half of them talking about the nitty gritty of Things You Could Theoretically Spend Money on, as An Author, mostly in terms of planning your release. Real technical stuff, y'know.

The Orc from the Office is Kate Prior's latest novella. Or check out her website at www.kate-prior.com.

Get Marty's latest novel Just Fake Married.

Sign up for Marty's newsletter at her website to get "You and Me in Quarantine" for free!

You can find Kate on Twitter @bykateprior, and Instagram @bykateprior, and Tiktok @bykateprior. Marty can be found on TikTok @martyveeauthor and Instagram @martyveeauthor and Twitter @martyveeauthor.

Please subscribe and rate our podcast, it helps us reach new listeners.