Some authors are auto-buys. This author is one of mine.

In this season finale, I talk with Stephen Graham Jones, the author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and his latest book, Off the Reservation, about the strange, wonderful machinery behind his work. He tells us his writing origin story, which sounds like it could have come straight out of one of his own books, and from there, we get into the nuts and bolts. Stephen writes short stories, novels, novellas, and flash fiction (his favorite form) and shares how each serves a different purpose in his science lab of crafting stories.

He talks about why he genuinely loves getting stuck- because being stuck means he has reached the edge of what he currently knows how to do, and the only way forward is to become a better version of himself. We also talk about writing quickly, disappearing into a book, and how he “writes his way back to the real world” as quickly as he can.

He also shares a few stories of his own, including one involving a hand grinder, a temporary magical ability, an uncanny gift, and a single very strange day. And, naturally, we learn about the exciting role fried zucchini plays in his life.

One of my favorite conversations of the season, and a fittingly wonderful way to end it.

I’ve spent thirteen years inside this trilogy. Jenna has questions.

For this episode, producer Jenna takes the reins. Jenna is the closest thing I have to a sister, my bestie, and the person who has been watching me make these books for a very long time. So, naturally, she has some questions.

With Victorious arriving the day before this episode does, we dive into the strange, sprawling business of writing a trilogy, from knowing when a story is actually a trilogy to figuring out what the middle book is supposed to do. We get into the little things too, like what happens when I get stuck, whether I actually get stuck, and how you carry an entire world around in your head when you’ve been living with it for thirteen years.

We talk about the strange experience of watching a story change as you move through it, how characters and worlds accumulate history, and what it means to finally write the last book in a series that has been part of your life for more than a decade.

It’s a very Jenna-and-me conversation, which means we wander into the weeds, get extremely specific about the writing process, and laugh a lot along the way.

Links:

Follow No Write Way on Instagram

Credits:

Host: V.E. Schwab

Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

This week, I’m joined by Jasmine Guillory, bestselling author of The Wedding Date and her latest novel, It’s Only Dancing, for a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of how she actually makes a book.

Jasmine walks me through her “messy first draft,” where she lets herself put every idea on the page, knowing she’ll come back later to chip away at it, reshape it, and figure out what the story actually needs. During the pandemic, that process even led her to handwrite an entire novel because, at the time, that was the way of writing that felt least scary.

We talk about how she learned to write dialogue, which, spoiler alert, was not simply a magical gift she was born with. We dig into what happens when you give yourself permission to write badly, how finishing a first draft is also a way of getting to know your characters, and why sometimes you have to write your way into understanding what a story is really about.

Links

Follow No Write Way on Instagram

Credits

Host: V.E. Schwab

Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice