195: August 2025 Q&A

 

Welcome to the August Q&A episode! Topics discussed include:

  • whether to edit a plot point/twist when writing the rough draft or to wait until editing 5:08

  • if I recommend copyediting or a manuscript evaluation for indie authors 8:28

  • if you need to build a social media following before querying 12:22

  • what to do if you used ChatGPT in writing and want to query or submit to publishers 14:32

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AUGUST Q&A

Hi, friend. Welcome back to your big Creative Life podcast. I'm recording at my coworking space today and it is freezing. Oh, my gosh. The AC's blasting. It feels like it's like 60° in here and it's sweltering outside. So I'm wearing a sweatshirt, little cardigan thing, which is insane. I need to be drinking something hot. It gets to warm me up, but oh, I don't want to go out and get it. I hate this. I read this about summer when I worked in the corporate office. I had like a little blanket because it would always be so cold in the summer, and I hated it. Umm, that's something I don't miss about going in for a job. I don't miss a lot of things about having a corporate 9:00 to 5:00. But that's one… I just hated that. So anyways, we're going to have our August Q&A episode this month. Just a reminder that the last Tuesday of every month is when our Q&A podcast episode is released, and if you would like to submit a question for me to answer next month, you can do so at the link in the show notes. You can ask a question about editing, writing, brainstorming, mindset, my business, personal life, querying, whatever you want to ask about, basically, and I'll answer it next month.

We have three questions this month, and then I also have a question. I have some version of this question that I've been getting so many times on social media that I wanted to just read out one example and then answer it on the podcast. In case anyone here is wondering like a similar thing. So technically there's four questions. All right, so I think this might be a little bit of a shorter episode for this month. Oh, actually I wanted to announce something that just released today before we get into the questions. So I just launched something very exciting, a new offer, which I've not done in a while. It's the first chapter review. So what this review entails is I will look at your first chapter of your novel I will leave comments in the margins of your manuscript and then I will record a 5 minute video for you that summarizes my recommendations for improving. And gives you feedback on things like plot, character introductions, any world building information that if you're writing in a speculative fiction genre, pacing, conflict, et cetera. So like the basically just the opening components of your story up to 5000, words are included in this. So if your first chapter is maybe only two or 3000. Words. That's fine. You can include more.

So maybe that means for you I would look at a bit of your second chapter as well. If you're first chapter is very long and it's over 5000 words and it's just the first five. 1000 words and how it works. There's a link in the description in the show notes of this episode on ways to work with me, and you can just click the 1st Chapter Review button and then after you purchase the 1st Chapter review you will get a confirmation e-mail that has a link on how you submit your pages to me. And then once I have the pages… once I receive them I will complete the 1st Chapter review in seven days and I'll e-mail it to you. So this is perfect for you if you are maybe not ready to invest in a full round of editing or maybe it's just outside of your budget to do that, you can do this for a $99.00 and you get all my recommendations and the comments and then the video. And this is a good way to just get a taste of what editing feedback might be like, and also if you decide down the road that you do want to get a full editing pass or you want to work with me in a coaching capacity, you can take that $99.00 and apply it towards the cost of editing or coaching.

So it's basically like you would get this for free then and then you're able to get the full coaching and editing whatever you would like to do. So and this is ideal, like if you're going to query your novel really recommend getting this because it's going to help you spot any issues or inconsistencies or things that you need to be aware of in your opening pages, but honestly, this is good for anyone because if you're self-publishing readers are going to have you know your first pages are important for readers, so this can be a good thing to to do in that case as well. So if you have specific questions once you click on to the first chapter review page, there are some questions and there's some more information about this service, but if you have questions that aren't addressed on that page, you can e-mail me at hello@katiewolfe.com and I'll answer your questions if you just want to like do a little check 1st to see if this is the right service for you, I'm happy to talk it out with you. So that's exciting. I have a limited number of these available every month that I will do and basically I'll just update the link and say like it's all full for this month, check back next month so that way I have enough capacity to be working on it. So if you click on the link and it's not available that's why.

All right, let's get into our questions for this month. First question. How do you keep track of plot points that change as you write the first draft? And if you come up with a new twist or crucial detail that occurs prior to where you are in drafting, should you go back and write in the new twist slash idea or just write down the detail and update the draft in the first round of edits? This is a great question, and there's not a wrong way to do it. And I am going to tell you my recommendation just based on working with so many writers over time. The way that I recommend new writers approach the first draft is to just power through the rough draft out quickly. Let it be messy, don't go back and edit it. Just focus on moving forward before, like just don't, don't edit it as you go. Basically get the rough draft out quickly. Not wrong to do it the other way, but that's just my recommendation for new writers especially so given that if this is a bigger. If it's a crucial detail, meaning it's something that is going to impact a lot of things in the plot, and it's something that you need to get on the page in order to wrap your head around it and then be able to write everything that comes after it, then it might be a good idea to go back and adjust it if it's going to be helpful for you. To again just like wrap your head around everything that comes after it, if it's a significant change, if it's just something small.

However, like if you realize that you had a setting detail wrong or you need to update a twist to be this person instead of this person, and it's just like a detail that can be easily changed, then I would say wait like that's always the kind of thing where you can just make a comment to yourself in the margins of the manuscript and then on your editing pass. And you, once you get the first draft done, you can go through and adjust it. I mean it almost that might almost sound backwards because you might be like, well, Katie, if it's a tiny thing that's going to take 2 seconds to do, why not just change? And you can. You don't have to follow my advice, but I just feel like if you have momentum and you're moving forward in the draft, those kinds of little things, those can be addressed in editing like it's not worth. The possibility of getting derailed because I have seen this happen and I've had this happen to me in the past where you go back to make a small change and then realize oh wait, but that's also gonna affect this thing. And then this thing what about? Ohh this sentence is terrible. I need to just while I'm here let me clean this up really quick and then. Of a sudden you've spent two weeks making edits and you're like, wait, I've lost all momentum in the story so. That's partly why I think just make a note of it. Come back to it when you're editing.

So again, you can put a little comment in the margins of the manuscript or you can just have a running list of things that you know you have to address, like create a separate word doc, create a separate Google doc, whatever you're using. Make a bullet point to yourself about something to fix later. That's totally a fine way to handle it. So yeah, I think this just comes down to is this something that will prevent you from moving forward because it's the kind of thing where it's going to alter the scenes that come after and it would be helpful for you to change it then. I think there's an argument to making that change. Otherwise you can just fix it later. Next question, do you recommend any authors get copy editing or developmental editing if they can only afford one service? This is a good question and the answer is just that it depends, which I know is not helpful and it's not really answering the question, but I want to talk this and explain my thoughts.

Some indie authors have a very good grasp of f=grammar. They understand how to write a complete sentence. They understand, like punctuation, they understand verb tense and subject, verb agreement. All of those things that a copy editor would do. And yeah, there might be a couple of typos, like a couple stray I don't know commas that should be periods or a couple of minor tense issues, but overall 99% of the manuscript is correct. Then I would say you don't need copy editing like don't worry about it. I think for any authors what you have to remember is that you are presenting a professional product to readers to potential buyers, right. And if you have a manuscript that is chock full of errors and typos to the point where it affects readability, then readers are going to be put off by that. You're probably gonna get some negative reviews, so it really is worth it to invest in the copy editor if you feel like you're kind of shaky on the grammar and you really want someone to polish it and clean it up for you. But if you feel like you're solid on that, then I would much rather you focus on getting the manuscript evaluation because again, going back to that polished finished good product that you are presenting to readers to potential buyers, you want to present your best work. And if you have some lingering concerns about this story, you had some questions about how things are going to be received, whether it's something related to characters, plot pacing, world building, whatever. Then a manuscript evaluation might be your best bet because again, you only have one. With a book like you are putting out a product, and if there are inconsistencies or the story is just not passed correctly or the characters are flat like that. Is going to. Negatively impact you.

So yeah, I think it just is, it comes down to where do you feel like you could benefit from some help, what would you be looking for an editor to do? And so given that I think it, then you can determine what's going to be the best option for you and if you have specific questions beyond that, you can always reach out to an editor like I have. People reach out to me occasionally and are like, hey, this is my publishing plan, this is what I want to do. I'm not sure what do you think? How do you what would you recommend and if happy to talk it out with people or if you're emailing another editor or like I'm sure they would be happy to talk it out with you. Yeah. So it just depends a bit, but I would think about what's most important to you and what are you concerned about ultimately and and with the manuscript evaluation or the developmental editing, sometimes people have a team of beta readers, they feel really confident about the. Sorry, so they don't feel like they need an editor, so yeah, it just varies. And it's not required.

I'll just say that explicitly you do not have to hire an editor. If you are going to self publish if you're going to query it, is not required to hire an editor. It's not like you are only going to be successful if you hire an editor. It's just that going back to what I said a couple of minutes ago, you only get one shot to present your best work. And so I think if it's financially possible for you, it is a really, really good investment to get an editor that you trust and can help you make your book the best it can possibly be. Whether that is in a grammar or verb tense, punctuation capacity, or feedback on the story itself. Next question, is it a good idea to build a social media following before you query? I'm worried agents won't look twice if I don't have a social media presence. If you are writing fiction, do not worry about this. I think sure at minimum, if an agent is interested in you and they've read your full manuscript. And they are they want to offer you representation, then they probably will go check out your social media just to make sure that you're not crazy and like posting really unhinged, weird stuff. You know, they're probably going to do some due diligence there.

And you think at minimum it's nice to show that you know how to post on social media so that if they do sign you and you do get a deal. You're at least able to promote your book a little bit yourself on social media and connect with readers. I think that's beneficial, probably. But beyond that, you don't need to have a platform. You don't need to have a large social media following before querying. It's not like there's some metric you need to hit because that's not how it works for fiction. There are debut authors who are given who sign with agents and then get book deals all the time who do not have big social media followings so. Yeah, I think a presence, yes, definitely a good thing to have, but you don't need a big following. So I would spend your efforts focusing on the book because that ok, honestly, I'm not an agent, just reminder to anyone who's new listening to the podcast. I'm not a literary agent, so I don't know the exact steps that they take, but it wouldn't make any sense for an agent to go and search you out on social media before they've read the full manuscript. And like before, they or even any sample pages because they have to know if the book's good, and if it's something they would want to represent, and they think they can sell first.

So that always comes first before they go check out your social media. So just that's where your priority needs to be and anyone who's telling you anything different on social media is lying. Maybe trying to sell you something. Who knows. The process is different for nonfiction, but for fiction, that's not how it works. OK. So those are the questions that we had submitted for this month and like I said at the beginning I do have another question that I want to just talk about here. I can't remember. I know I've talked about this on the podcast, but I honestly can't remember if I've done this on a previous Q&A episode. I don't think I have. Anytime I talk about generative AI on social media and share the reasons that I'm against Generative AI like ChatGPT in helping you write the book or writing the book for you, I get a flood of comments and messages from people who are wondering like or is this OK? Is this OK? And they want me to validate it or give them permission and I never do that. I push it back on them. So I wanted to just share a question that I got an example. I get so many like this. I just picked 1. And what my response is in case it's helpful. Are you listening?

OK, so this person says I wanted to ask your opinion on something. I had a book idea about a month and a half ago. When I put it in ChatGPT to see if there was any other authors that had similar ideas. And then I continue to build my story within chatGBT to keep it all aligned, and then I didn't think much of it. And then I came across your video. I completely freaked out because I did not know that would even be a problem. You'd said that most publishers won't even touch books that have used ChatGPT in the process. As soon as I watched it, I haven't even opened ChatGPT and haven't even written anything at that point I don't know if I shot myself in the foot, if it's even worth continuing to write my book then now, if nobody will even publish it, I would just love your opinion because I don't want to pour myself into writing this book for it to go nowhere.

So my answer to this person was, you know, hi. Thanks for messaging me. This isn't something that I can answer for you if this is a concern you have because you're going to query or because you're going to submit your work to small presses, you have to go do the work yourself. You have to go research those guidelines to what their guidelines are, what they say about AI assisted work. Even if your work is an AI generated like this person didn't say hey ChatGPT, write my book and then it spit out a book but this person is using ChatGPT to assist them in writing. So it's an AI assisted work so you have to go look and see what the guidelines are on how they talk about this to see if you can submit to them or not. That was my answer. The questions that I get are varied. Again, some of them are much more like combative or much more like I use ChatGPT to edit my book or I use ChatGPT to brainstorm and now I want to know like is this OK? And I again I'm always like. I don't know. I don't know why you're asking my permission. You need to go search out that information for yourself. You can't. No one else can answer that for you, like you have to look at the guidelines.

So yeah that's what I would say if anyone is listening it in is similar boat. Right now. I mean, personally, my opinion would be like to this person. Let me just pull up the question again. Because this person built their story within ChatGPT and like. I don't know. I mean I'm assuming ChatGPT gave this person feedback or like had some role in the process that is now an AI assisted work. So if it were me like I wouldn't feel comfortable going forward with the book idea but that's something that people individually have to decide once they look at the guidelines for wherever they want to submit their work to or query their work. Yeah, that's what I'll say. OK. Again, if you have questions about anything that you want to submit for next month, you can do so with the link in the description of the episode, and you can also check out that first chapter review if you're interested, as well as editing and coaching and any other way that you would like to work with me. And yeah, thanks you all for listening. I hope this was insightful and helpful and I will see you.

 

Katie Wolf