Listen:
I first heard of Jessica Strawser when I learned about her work as Editorial Director and before that Editor-in-Chief of Writer’s Digest, where I teach and am now a Contributing Editor. We recently crossed paths at the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop where we both led sessions, but didn’t get a chance to spend quality time together. We’ve corrected that here. I felt like we were out for a coffee with each other, and Jessica spilled all her writing secrets!
Jessica is such a prolific writer and novelist and has written a plethora of amazing books, including her latest suspense novel The Last Caretaker. I was delighted to do a deep dive with Jessica into how she came up with the idea for her novel, how she structured and crafted it, and what personal experiences she imbued into her work. It is truly a Masterclass in writing novels. Enjoy
In This Episode
- How Jessica came up with the concept for her novel based on her life experiences
- Writing about domestic violence and underground networks in an empowering way
- Using nature as a setting
- Her decision making process for writing the POV of one character, when many are available
- Ending chapters with emotional beats
- How to keep raising the stakes in a book by bringing out the tension in relationships
- Dealing with the “muddle in the middle”
- Secrets of writing using dialogue, action and reflection
- Thinking of a book in terms of an arc, not an outline
- Using time as a device to create a sense of urgency and move the story forward
- Jessica’s role as Editor at Large at Writer’s Digest
Watch on YouTube
About Jessica
Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest and the USA Today bestselling author of suspenseful book club novels, including Almost Missed You; Not That I Could Tell (a Book of the Month pick); A Million Reasons Why; The Next Thing You Know (a People Magazine Pick), and her latest, The Last Caretaker, an instant USA Today bestseller. Her seventh novel, Catch You Later, is forthcoming October 22, 2024. She has written for The New York Times Modern Love, Publishers Weekly and other fine venues, and is a popular writing instructor and freelance editor specializing in helping writers with their submission packages. She lives with her husband and children in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was named 2019 Writer-in-Residence for the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County and awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2024.
Connect with Jessica
Buy The Last Caretaker on Estelle’s Bookshop
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