217: January 2026 Q&A

 

Welcome to our January 2026 Q&A episode! Topics discussed this month include:

 

  • tips for starting a YouTube channel 3:09

  • amount of editing done pre/post book deal + whether to invest in an editor before querying 8:48

  • whether to cut a long book in half or shorten it 14:49

  • tips to keep tension high and pacing fast 21:01 

------

- Click here for ways to work with me + a free character profile template: www.thekatiewolf.com/info

- The last Tuesday of the month is a Q&A episode! Submit your questions for me HERE.


- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@katiewolfwrites

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiewolfwrites

 

 

January Q&A

 

Hello, welcome back to your Big Creative Life podcast. Welcome to our January Q&A episode. If you are new to the podcast, this is a Q&A episode that we do the last Tuesday of every month. And it's a chance for y'all to just get some help, get your questions answered. You can submit questions related to writing, editing, mindset, creativity, brainstorming, querying, my job as an editor, any personal stuff about me, social media, just anything really. So there's a form that's linked in the show notes of this episode that you can go to and submit your question. You can put a name or it can be anonymous. I just realized I do have a name field on the form and say it's optional, but I don't think I've ever read out anyone's name. I've just kind of always kept them anonymous. But yes, you can ask your question and I will answer it on next month's podcast episode that again gets released the last Tuesday of the month. A quick little. note here before we begin that I do have, at the time that I'm recording this, one opening for my six-month coaching program to start in February. This is a six-month coaching program where you and I work together one-on-one for six months and I support you in the process of writing your book. This is ideal for anyone who is writing a novel in any genre, just not children's books or middle grade. But this can also work. Like if you're just, if you've got an idea for a book, but you haven't started writing yet, this can work. I've also, I just started working with a client recently who has like two-thirds of a book written, but really wants to focus on the remainder of it and editing the draft and everything. So that's what we're working on in the six months. There's 25 page reviews where I edit your work and I give you notes and feedback along the way as you're writing. We have coaching calls. There's an app you can use to check in with me to get help. outside of the coaching calls.

And then I do full round, a full round of editing on your draft. So there's a lot that's included. And in the show notes, there's a link of all the ways to work with me. And you can find out more information about that. And that is $4,500 for the six months. So it's six payments of $750. Okay, I think that was everything I wanted to talk touch on. Yeah. Openings for editing. I'm booking for the spring for April right now at the time that I'm recording this at least. And you can go to my editing page to find out more information about my services there, the manuscript evaluation or copy editing and when I'm booking. I always update that page with the month of when I'm booking. And that's just like the earliest opening. So you can book any time in 2026 that you would like. All right, let's get into our questions for this month. First up, Okay, hi, do you have any tips for starting my YouTube channel, particularly for a 16 year old? So it feels a little dicey for me to give advice to a 16 year old on social media because I'm just like, not really, that's not really my lane. And I also think like being under 18, I think there are like, I don't know, I just think about the process of me creating a YouTube video. I have to like check a box that says this content is not geared towards kids. And I know you're 16, you're not like a kid, but in the legal sense you are.

So I'm not really sure there. But what I can do is just give you like general advice. And anyone who wants to start a YouTube channel, regardless of your age, I don't think the age really matters. So The advice is going to differ a little bit if you are someone who's used to creating video content or someone who is not used to video content. And that's like a totally new medium for you. Because if you've been posting on TikTok or reels or whatever, like you're at least familiar with filming yourself and seeing yourself on camera, talking to camera, et cetera. I guess unless you're doing like faceless content or something. But so at least you've got like a level of comfort with that process of creating and recording yourself. But if that's new to you, it really, it helps to talk to one person anytime that you're creating video content. And I think that is really true for YouTube as well. It can feel overwhelming to think about like creating this long video and you're like, I'm just putting this out into the void. Like, I don't really know who I'm talking to. pick one person who you are talking to. So whatever the subject of your YouTube channel is going to be, who is the kind of person who would be interested in that content?

For me, I have two YouTube accounts. The one that's Katie Wolf Writes, it's tied to my business. That's where all the video episodes of the podcast go. And I also upload YouTube shorts that are related to writing and my business. And then I have the Katie Wolf, which is my personal one. And on that YouTube channel, I share like Day in the Life, share more behind the scenes of me writing a book, et cetera. And you have to think about who your ideal audience is, right? So like with the business one, my ideal audience for the person who's subscribing to my channel is a writer, a novelist, someone who's writing fiction, probably a new writer because I attract a lot of new writers. That's like my ideal subscriber. So you have to think about that with your channel overall. But then just when you're recording content, think about talking to that one person. And if you're not really sure, like it feels weird to talk about to talk to one person when you're not really sure who they are, pick someone in your life that you know. If that feels more comfortable, think of recording and talking to them. That can help make it feel more natural. Second, I would say this applies whether you are new to video content or not. Don't put a ton of pressure on yourself at the beginning to have everything nailed down and to feel like you have to stick to what you originally decided to do. Meaning, if you try three months of like day in the life content, it's not going anywhere, you don't enjoy making it, takes you hours to edit and film, don't be afraid to pivot and switch up to do something different. Test thumbnails, test like, you know, video, like the covers on a video, like test different video ideas.

There's really a trial and error process in the beginning. And don't be afraid to pivot and change if you feel like something isn't working and you're not enjoying it. But overall, one of the biggest lessons I can give for content is knowing your ideal subscriber, but then also just like having fun with it. Creating content because you enjoy it. There is such an energetic difference if you look at people who create content out of a sense of obligation and are like, I despise this. I have no confidence. I don't want to be here. Like you can tell that. So I think whatever you're talking about on your YouTube channel, just make sure it's something you're passionate about and that you can talk about for hours and that lights you up. Not because you see these group of people over here doing this thing and it feels like, oh, well, I should do that because it's been successful for them. YouTube is, I mean, there's a ton of people on YouTube and there's a ton of people creating very similar content. So anything you can do to make it stand out is gonna help. And I think your energy is one of those things that will make you stand out. Embracing like what makes you you. It sounds so cheesy, my God. But it's true. It's just, it's just the truth. There's such an energetic difference. So yeah, that's what I would say. I'm also not like an expert on YouTube, really. This has not been my primary focus the entire time that I've been creating content. I basically just repurpose my content to YouTube shorts and then put the podcast on YouTube. And I've grown to, I think I have like 11, no, 1000 followers. Subscribers, I guess. Maybe a little over 1000 subscribers on the Katy Wolf rights account. And I think I have like 75 subscribers on the Katy Wolf. So it is slow growth. Like that's another thing, I guess. This is turning into a YouTube episode. I promise I'll wrap it up quickly. But For most people, YouTube is difficult to grow on. So don't be discouraged if it takes you a while to find your footing. I've heard people say that and I definitely have noticed that that's true. I mean, I have 59,000 followers on my Katie Wolfred's TikTok and 1000 subscribers on YouTube, which is fine. Like again, I'm not prioritizing YouTube, so that's fine. But and 1000 people is still a lot of people. So that's great.

Okay, next question. I know agents don't expect perfection when you query, but how different are pre and post-trad editing? How different does pre and post-trad editing look? I am trying to judge how much to invest in pro editing at all. Well, this is a little difficult to answer in terms of specifics because it varies. And also I have not been traditionally published yet, so I can't answer like how much editing is involved post book deal. I know that just from experience of listening to like, traditionally published authors talk about it, that it does vary. But what you have to remember is there's also editing that you do with your agent before you send the book out on submission to publishers, which is the part that I'm on that I'm wrapping up now with my agent. So it's never like, oh, you just have to invest in an editor maybe before you query. And then like once you query, you get the book deal automatically and then there's editing. Another thing to say though, like I would be very careful of thinking like, oh, well, it doesn't need to be perfect because an editor is going to edit it after I get a book deal. Because you get an agent and you get a book deal based on the draft, like based on the book as it is. Yes, there might be, the agent might know that it's going to need some work, some polishing. The editor will know that it's going to need some work and some polishing, but it really has to be like 99% there. I'm making up that number. Don't quote me on that exactly. But I can just think about even when I was on submission before and I had an editor who was interested, the very first time that we, an editor at a Big 5 publisher, I mean, like when my novel was out on submission, we, before she was even able to like see if she could get it through acquisitions, she reached out to my agent and said she was interested and she wanted to chat with me. And she talked about a couple of changes on the phone call with me that she would want to see.

So that is always a part of it. I'm assuming. But yeah, I would be cautious about thinking that way because what you don't want to do is just send an agent a draft that you know still needs work. Querying is incredibly competitive and difficult. Exact numbers vary. It's hard to know what exactly the odds are, but they're incredibly low of getting an agent because it's just a numbers game. There are so many more authors who are trying to get an agent than there are agents who can take on those clients and represent them. So you have to make sure that your manuscript is as good as you can possibly get it because you really only have one chance to entice an agent, to impress an agent with your work and thinking like, oh, well, it doesn't have to be perfect. It's going to go through more editing later. Like, no, it's not going to be perfect. Of course, like that's, no book is ever going to be perfect. No draft is ever going to be perfect. Both times I signed with my agents, we always went through editing on the book. So yes, it doesn't have to be perfect. But again, you only get that one shot to impress an agent. And in terms of how much to invest in professional editing before you query. That's really an individual decision. I mean, part of it just comes down to finances, if it's financially possible for you or not. I will say that in 90% of cases, I don't think copy editing is required for querying because like a stray comma or an incorrect like ellipsis or something is not going to make an agent reject it. But if your grammar is really rocky to the point where you just don't feel confident about it, maybe it impacts readability, maybe it's not your strong suit, then sure.

But for most people, it's not essential. Developmental type of editing, though, like if you're going to invest in something before querying, that's where to do it. I offer something called a manuscript evaluation. That's my later form of a developmental edit. And like that, because that's what matters. You're getting feedback on your plot, characters, pacing, conflict, et cetera, all those things that an agent is going to be looking at. And that later down the road, an editor at a publisher is going to be looking at. So if you're going to invest in an editor for anything, that's 100% what I would recommend. You don't have to though. Like if you're listening to this and you're like, oh **** I can't afford an editor, what am I going to do? You don't have to hire an editor at all. And in fact, I've even heard people throw out this argument of like, well, I don't want to misrepresent my natural ability as a writer, because if I query something that's gone through editing, which maybe I don't know, I don't really totally buy that though, because like, you're getting feedback on your writing, the editor is not going in to write things for you. Like even when I give client editorial feedback and I say like, hey, these are my suggestions for improvement, I'm not going into the book to write those improvements for them. So it's still your work. Yeah, I guess that's just what I'll say is like, it is not at all required, but if it's financially possible for you, I really recommend it. I mean, I've even talked about my own experience. The very first time that I was querying in 2019, I did hire an editor and I, she helped me see issues in my manuscript that I just couldn't see, which is the power of getting someone outside of you to read your work. We can't be objective. We can't see our blind spots.

We can't see our issues always, especially if it's your first book. And I don't know if I would have gotten an agent without her pointing out things that needed improvement in my draft. So then I was able to go change those things, present a much more polished, you know, version of my draft and queried and got an agent. So And that's not to say, I don't want to misrepresent that and say like, oh, work with an editor and then you'll get an agent. Definitely not. That's not the case. It's so competitive. Editors are not agents. They can't control that. But yeah, so that's my two cents on that. Next question. Hi, Katie. Let's say my manuscript is 140,000 words and the story feels really solid, but 140K words feels too big to pitch to agents. Should I take the first 70-ish thousand words and just pitch that as book one, leaving the story on a sort of cliffhanger? Or should I try to edit down my word count to pitch the book as a completed work? How do you pitch books that end up becoming duologies, trilogies, or series to agents? I'm not sure if I should complete this storyline, even when it's getting to be too big or too long to be 1 novel. Obviously, having editors and beta readers could change a lot of the story, but just as a sort of general question, I don't want to scare off agents with a book that's too big, but I also want to do justice to the ideas for the plot. asking for a book that's a fantasy. Thank you so much.

Okay, so obviously it's difficult to give like specific advice in this case without knowing, but I can definitely answer this for you overall. And I will say that even for fantasy, so let me just step back for a second. If you're not like sure why this person is asking this or why 140,000 words might be an issue, word count really matters when you are querying. And it's going to vary by genre. If you're writing thriller, you have a lot more leeway to go shorter. Fantasy, you can go longer or any sort of speculative fiction just because there's world building. So 100,000, 110,000, like that's okay in fantasy, but 140,000, that's at that mark where you are going to have a lot of agents auto reject. So I'm really glad that you're asking this and thinking about how to approach this because yeah, 140,000 will scare away some agents. They'll just auto reject it because of that word count. So I will say in my experience as an editor, 90, I'm guessing here, 95% of the time when a fantasy novel is at the 140,000-ish word mark, there is stuff that can be cut. to tighten up the pacing, to remove unnecessary scenes or description, to speed up the pacing. There's just, there are opportunities to cut it down that don't require you to split it into two books. So you can still keep the essence of the story, still keep it one book, but it's just tighter. It doesn't. What happens with 90 to 95% of those really long fantasy manuscripts that I edit is they're just bloated. The pacing is slow, there's too much world building. There are unnecessary scenes, unnecessary prologues. There's just extra stuff that's not needed. And I'm not saying that's the case for you.

And again, I'm not saying 100%. Like I think of a client who have edited probably three or four of her books. Now she's an indie author, so her case is different. But I think her last book was like 135,000 words. And I didn't have any suggestions for her to cut anything because it was great. That's just what she needed to tell that story. But so keep that in mind. I would recommend going the route of cutting it down and tightening the pacing and looking at unnecessary scenes, conversations that stretch on too long, et cetera, to see if you can remove some of that and get it closer to like 110, 115 even, like that would be a better place to land versus splitting it up. And the other reason that I recommend that is I have, obviously I'm not an agent. I always want to remind people of that when I give advice like this, but I follow a lot of agents on social media. I consume a lot of content around this because I want to make sure that I'm aware of how things are changing because I last queried, I found my current agent in 2022. So it wasn't that long ago, but things are always changing, you know. And A lot of agents just talk about like how pitching A duology or a trilogy or a massive series is difficult. And it's difficult for the publisher. That's a big risk for them to take on to say, yeah, we don't want to just buy this book, but we want to buy three books or even two. Let's just say it's a duology. Yeah, we're going to go ahead and sign and do a two book deal for two books in this series because they don't have proof yet that the first one is even going to be successful. So what if the first one is a flop and then they're committed to doing another one, they could lose money. So publishers are wary. I've just heard agents say like, it can be kind of a tough, a tough sell for a duology or trilogy. Not always, of course. I just was scrolling on TikTok earlier this morning and I saw someone talk about their debut like trilogy. They got a three book deal. So of course it happens. But that's another reason where I'm like, It might be better to just have it in one. And you can always say in your query letter, like if you truly believe there is, even if you cut it down to 115,000, let's say, if you believe that there's room for a series there, you could say in your query letter, standalone with series potential.

But yeah. Let me make sure I got all of the. Yeah, I think that's everything. I think that's everything. I think I hit all, like in general, what I would advise. With the note, again, I'll just reiterate that it is difficult to know without seeing your book specifically, but in most cases, that's going to be the right path for people versus splitting it up. Now I did, oh, I'll share another. I had a client who I'm trying to think the when I did the manuscript evaluation, I want to say it was like 140,000 words or somewhere around there. I can't remember exactly. And then she ended up revising it and it ended up being closer to like 200,000 words. And so in that case, the suggestion was like, split this into two books. Like this is very ambitious to try to do all of this. And the thing is, like the book was incredible. She was an incredible writer. She created an incredible world, incredible characters. But it was just a lot. And, she ended up making the decision to self-publish, which you have a lot more freedom, obviously, to do what you want and publish the book at the word count you want. But my advice to her in that situation, because it was so long, was if you want to query this, I'd recommend just splitting it in half. And of course, she'd have to, like, she'd have to adjust, you know, the ending of it. But yeah, anyways, okay, next question, our last question for this episode. In tight settings with few characters in limited locations, how do you keep the pacing and tension high? So this is a very good question. And the person who asked this question I saw on Instagram is a thriller author.

So I want to talk about this with like thriller specifically, but really this can apply to any genre because tension and pacing are all things that are going to come in at various, to various degrees, no matter what genre you're working with, especially pacing. That's going to be be something that's important to look at. And pacing is just the speed at which things happen, right? So thrillers, there's quick pacing, right? We're moving along. That's why thrillers are a bit shorter on the word count end. We talked about fantasy word count a second ago. Thrillers are shorter. So, okay, one thing to remember, I made a couple of notes for this just as I was thinking about it before I hit record. Okay, so play with the reveal of information and how it's being told or conveyed to the reader. Something that creates a lot of tension naturally in a scene is if on the surface one thing is happening, but underneath something else is happening. So think about, for example, you have a character in a scene, your point of view character. So the reader is in their head. They're seeing out through this character's eyes, right? If your point of view character is deliberately withholding information from other characters in a scene, through dialogue, through whatever else, if they are hiding their true feelings about something, if they're hiding their true motives about something, that is all naturally going to create some dissonance and some tension because the point of view character is experiencing all these things, They're having all these thoughts.

They know what's going on, but they're not revealing that to other characters. They're keeping their cards close to the chest. That's just one example. But yeah, be thinking about like when to reveal information to the reader, because that's like a dial that you can turn up in terms of tension. Because if you hit the reader with the reveal, you know, it's like a big moment. And when it comes to pacing, If you have, okay, so I'm thinking of even my book that I wrote that my agent is finishing up edits on, it takes place over like 3 days. It's a very tight timeline and a lot of the events happen on day one of this conference. So there's not a lot of time that is lapsing. And in fact, there are like multiple chapters that take place within like an hour. of chronological time, right? So the characters are in one location, there's multiple characters, tensions are high. So I've done this. And one thing to remember with pacing is that yes, even if things are intense and there's quick pacing, you don't want to have breakneck pacing or breathless speed for an entire book. That is not sustainable. There are, I shouldn't say it's never sustainable because there are like 1% of authors and books that can do this, just like maintain this breathless pacing. But for most people, it's just too much. We need that tension to ebb and flow, right? Think of a roller coaster going up and down. So you cannot have Most people cannot sustain a 10 out of 10 on the tension, a 10 out of 10, like fast pacing for an entire book. It just doesn't work.

There need to be moments of like, where it comes down a little bit. Yes, there's still suspense. Yes, there's still this sense that like, there's more going on than what the reader knows or what the character knows, but it's just not so like, oh, being hit with this reveal and this twist and this happens in the plot, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And it's like, what's happening? We need those moments where the tension releases slightly, like think of a release valve, in order to then ramp back up and have that payoff be there for that tension and that moment of like fast pacing. Another way to keep this in mind, or to keep like tension and pacing in mind is cliffhangers at the ends of chapters. So even if you have six chapters that cover a 10 minute span of your book, you can still play around with leaving off at tense moments at the end of a chapter. That's a good way to play with it. Also look at your character's, your point of view character, but also other characters. Look at their mannerisms and their body language. This is an example of like showing, not telling, kind of, I guess. But oftentimes tension isn't just created through the point of view character telling us the room was tense. everybody was tense, right? Like, that's not, okay, sure, but how, show us, like, how are people tense? How is the point of view character tense?

So looking at body language, looking at ways that like the setting can influence things and make things feel tense, looking at all these other tools in your like narrative toolkit to set the stage for this, that can be a way to play with it and make it show the reader how things are tense and like what's going on. And then finally, this is a recommendation that I always give for writers in terms of craft, things like this, is to look at examples, not for copying, obviously, we never want to do that, but just for inspiration to see and analyze it like a writer, right? Pretend you're taking an English lit class. and you are asked to determine how is this author keeping the tension high in this, even if it's not a thriller, even if it's another genre where you've got some romantic suspense or romantic tension, you know, like a fast-paced contemporary romance. Look at examples to see how authors are doing this, how they're keeping the tension high, how they're letting it ebb and flow, how they're slowing down the pacing, only for it to ramp back up and oh my gosh, things happening. And then we kind of recover a bit and we slow down and then it ramps back up. Oh my God, it's so crazy. This tense thing's happening. Like that is what is good to look at examples of just to see how different people are structuring this and doing this because it can help to see specific examples of this. Also, like this is something where actually, I think movies can help too. I'm thinking of, okay, just when I was sharing with y'all about the pacing and how it can't be at a 10 out of 10 and it can't be like 10 out of 10 tense at all moments of the movie or the book, I was thinking about a movie, it was the Safdie Brothers, what? Sorry, y'all, I'm gonna have to Google and see what the movie was called. Is it Uncut Gems? No. Shoot, I honestly can't remember if it was Uncut Gems or Good Time.

One of those movies, and it might not have been for the entire movie, it might not have been literally every moment, but those, one of those movies was so tense. I felt like I was just gripped by this feeling and it didn't let up. It was relentless. I wish I could remember. maybe it was maybe it was good time. Anyways, like you can look at examples of movies like this too, particularly in the kind of genre that you're writing. So if you're writing a thriller, look at movies or TV shows that are like thriller-ish and like to see how they do this and how they play with this because there's a lot to learn from movies in terms of pacing, in terms of tension. Obviously the tools that they're using are a bit different, but some of the same principles still apply. So All right, I hope that was helpful. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions this month. Reminder, you can submit if you want me to answer your questions for next month. And thank you for listening. Thank you so much for listening. For more tips, advice, and motivation, check out at Your Big Creative Life on Instagram, or you can follow me at Katie Wolf Writes on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. If you enjoyed this episode, the best way to show your support is to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help other people discover the show. See you next week.

 

 

Katie Wolf