227: March 2026 Q&A

 

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

 

  • using TV/movies for comp titles in your query letter 2:02

  • writing contests 4:43

  • what to do after finishing your first draft 10:11

  • the fear of people thinking your novel is about you 16:08

  • my favorite writing media (books + movies) 22:43

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march Q&A

 

.Hi friends, welcome back to Recreative Life Podcast. Thanks for being here and welcome to our March Q&A episode. We've got 6 questions this month to dive into. If you'd like to submit a question for the podcast, the link to do so is in the show notes. You just need to have your question submitted by like the third Tuesday of the month. And then I'll record the episode and it'll be released on the last Tuesday of the month. So, and you can ask questions. All questions are anonymous. You can ask questions about writing, editing, mindset, querying, my business, personal stuff about me, just whatever you want to know. I feel like I'm kind of rusty on the podcasts. I haven't recorded a podcast episode in a while, and I'm feeling a little frazzled because I rushed to get over here. I was having, oh, y'all, I was having lunch with a friend of mine who is my only writer friend that I have in Charleston, and she's moving, which is great. I'm so happy for her, but it was like sad to say goodbye. But she's, it's We're still going to keep in touch. Like, I know it's going to be fine, but I just was like, I don't know. So I went, we were talking about writing and she has an agent and is trying to get traditionally published as well. So we were talking about that experience and what it's like to be on submission and just like our whole, what a roller coaster it's been.

So yeah, this is, you know, the benefit of having writer friends. Yes, you can do writing sprints together and like sit down and write, but it's just fun to have someone to talk to about this stuff because so much of writing, so much of what we do is solo stuff that we do alone. We write alone. So it's nice to have friends that can kind of commiserate and know exactly what you're going through. All right. Let's dive in. First question for this month. For comp titles, is it bad for him to comp movies slash TV slash songs to your novel? Yes and no. So this person talking about querying. Part of a query letter is comp titles or comparable titles where you're essentially conveying to the agent like, hey, here's where my book would fit in on the shelf. The vibes of these books match mine. Readers who like these books will also like mine. So, but it also demonstrates to the agent that you're aware of your genre, you're aware of what's been published in the last few years. So for that purpose, you do need to pick actual books. Now, I'll talk about the books in a second, but what you can do, if you want to include a movie, a TV show that you think just fits perfectly, you can use it as kind of a pitch in the query letter. Like, this is Gilmore Girls meets Pirates of the Caribbean. And the agents will be like, cool, okay, that sounds intriguing. Like it sounds interesting. And then, but you're still gonna need to include comparable titles that are actually books.

So a lot of times the movies, the TV shows, the songs, all of that, that's more for marketing or like social media or just pitching the book. But for the actual portion of the query letter where you're including titles, like where you're including comp titles, you do need to have books. So how this, I've seen this work before where You can say, my title of my book is Gilmore Girls Meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Readers, you know, it's 100,000 words. Readers of this book by this author and this book by this author will also enjoy mine or something. So it's like you have a sentence where that's the pitch. where you include your movie or your TV show or whatever, and then you have your comparable titles. If you just, my concern, if you just do a movie or a TV show or whatever, you're not demonstrating to the agent that you've read in your genre. You're not demonstrating that you understand your genre, and you're not giving them anything to comp to in terms of writing style or voice or vibes, because the movie or the TV show, it's just a different media, you know, a different form of media. So you could do it in the pitch, Definitely do it on social media, but for the query letter in the comp title section, definitely pick books. And you want to pick books that are, ideally published in the last three years that are traditionally published and not like massive bestsellers.

So like don't comp to 4th wing if you're writing fantasy or, you know, any other bestsellers are probably too old anyways. So yeah, that's how I would approach that. Next question, tips on writing contests. Well, I can share a few things with you. It has been a lot of years since I've applied or I've entered a writing contest. I think I went through, when I first started to write, I was submitting to a lot of, I was writing some short stories and I was submitting to a lot of literary. journals and websites, and I entered a few contests as well. A few that were more broad, kind of national, like a publication would put on a contest. And then I also entered my local literary center when I was living in Nashville. They put on, they had a contest called the Porch Prize, and they would, it was for, they had different categories. I think it was like nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. And I'm pretty sure I entered the fiction one at least once, maybe I did it two years in a row, but since then I haven't done anything. And that was like 2019, 2020 was probably the last time that I entered a contest. So I can't share, if things have drastically changed in the writing contest world, I'm not the best person to talk about that, but I'll give you a few tips for how I thought about them and how I suggest writers think about them. I've also helped a few clients. with their first chapters who are doing like first chapter contests. I don't edit short stories. I'm not the best person to do those. I don't edit poetry. I don't edit essays.

So a lot of the time I'm just not the best person to work with those, you know, writers who are doing that for contests. But I have helped a few clients who are doing first chapter contests. And what I can say is you want to treat this like you are querying or submitting your first chapter or your short story or your personal essay, whatever it is. You want to treat it like you're submitting it to a press or for publication or querying, meaning you're not just finishing a draft of something and then entering it in the contest. You really, if you want to take this seriously and actually have a shot at winning, it needs to be edited multiple times, it needs to be super polished. You need to get outside perspective on it. doesn't have to be an editor. It can just be a beta reader, a critique partner, a friend. Let someone else read it, ideally, so that they can give you any, point out any things that you might need to fix, because we just can't see our own writing objectively. Right. So definitely go through all of those steps. It's very important. Follow the guidelines. I think this is one of those things that's similar to querying, where some people just don't follow the guidelines. So if they say that your submission for the contest needs to be under 2,000 words, do not send them something that is 2,100 words. And you're thinking like, well, 100 extra words is fine. Like it's pretty close. No, it has to be exactly the way that they want it, whatever it is. Even if the guidelines make no sense to you, it doesn't matter. You have to follow them. Also, really look at, how do I want to say this?

Look at I don't want to say make sure it's reputable, because like, if you're submitting your writing to a contest, it doesn't, I don't know. I don't think you have to do the same level of due diligence, but a lot of contests require an entry fee. And so if there is an entry fee that's required, you want to make sure that it's a worthwhile endeavor to be spending 20 bucks or whatever it is to submit your work to the contest. I submitted to probably 2 contests that required a fee before I realized, okay, wait a second. Like my odds of winning this are so low. And it was great because the winner won like $1,000 and they won, you know, some other cool stuff. But realistically speaking, the, I don't want to, I don't want to to say where it was from, but it was a publication who put it on. It was like 20 bucks to enter. I did it twice. And then I was like, I'm already out 40 bucks. There's no feedback that's included on this. Like, I kind of just feel like I'm sending my work into the void. Now, that's just my personal opinion. Other writers might be in different financial positions. They might not have an issue with it. So I'm not saying that like, oh, there needs to be some sort of feedback. There needs to be some sort of XYZ in order for it to be worth it. I'm just saying that if you're spending money, Naturally, you're going to have to decide if it's worth it to you to be submitting to certain contests or not, because it can add up quickly otherwise.

But it's good practice, right? It's good practice to just get in the, to practice submitting your work somewhere, to practice getting something ready for publication, especially if you're an author who doesn't have a book published yet. So think about it as practice, you know? That's kind of how I viewed it. I never won any of those contests. I think that probably will go without saying. Or I would have mentioned it earlier. But yeah, those are just some thoughts on it. I think they can be fun. I think they can be good ways to practice and for you to be putting your writing out there. But just be mindful of, you know, if there is a cost involved or like, I don't know. I think it, pinning all of your hopes and dreams on Winning a writing contest can be difficult if you're not prepared to deal with the rejection. Like if you're someone who is very, very, very sensitive to rejection, it can be hard. But again, that like gets you practice with rejection because there's just a lot of rejection, unfortunately, and critique that's included with writing and publishing. So it also gets you practice with that, which I guess is a good thing and a bad thing. So those are my thoughts. Next question, we have to, actually, okay, I'm going to read two questions that are almost the same thing, and I'll answer both of these together.

So question number one is your best advice for how to handle revisions after the first draft. The next question is, what advice would you give someone for going into the second draft after a messy first draft? So I'm happy to answer both of these because they're basically asking like, how do you start revisions? How do you go into a second draft of a book. And my advice really will be true whether you write a messy first draft or not. Okay, I think taking a break, first of all, and celebrating the fact that you wrote a freaking book is really important. Now, a long break is not always feasible. If you're on a publication schedule, you might not have the ability to do it, or you might not really want to. That's fine. But if you can set the manuscript down for at least a week or two, I think it's good just to have some distance from it. Then I always recommend okay, there are two approaches that you could take for what's next, and it's going to depend. You can do a full read through of the draft. If it has been a while since you started writing it, or you're like, I just need to kind of assess what's here. I kind of, I don't really know what state this is in. It might be helpful for you to do a read through of the entire draft. that can be helpful. But why I say it's not always the best decision, some writers, it's better to just start editing. Some people read their draft after they've, they're like, yeah, I did it. They celebrate, they take a break, they come back to the manuscript, they read it and they get extremely discouraged and overwhelmed because it needs a lot of work. But what I want to just say to that, to those people, if you do feel that way, like it's very normal. That's why editing exists. No one writes a perfect first draft. I don't care how good of a writer you are.

So there's always going to be cleanup and work that's required in editing. So don't let that, if you write a messy first draft, great, that's fine. So do a lot of people. So yeah, you kind of have to get honest with yourself and just determine if you think that reading the full thing is going to be helpful for getting a bird's eye view of it, giving you some motivation. or if it's gonna derail you and just like bring up a lot of mindset stuff. You kind of have to see. And if you don't know, if this is your first book, maybe it's best to do a read through and see. And then you can kind of, if you get into it, you're like, oh God, no, this doesn't feel good. Oh my God, I feel so overwhelmed, then stop. Because after that, My first tip is always, always, always to do the big picture stuff first. Meaning, I do not want you, and oh, oh, real quick, let me jump back a step for when you're doing the read through. This is not an editing pass. You are only reading. If you think of something, you can leave a comment for yourself in the manuscript, or you could have like a separate Word doc open or a Google Docs, whatever you write in. A separate document open where you're just like writing notes to yourself of like, oh, go back and fix this. Oh, I need to figure this out, whatever. You can make notes as you go, But try to even minimally do that. Like you really are just reading. If it's been a while, this is helpful to kind of remind yourself of how the book started. It can be helpful for motivation.

So that's why you're doing the read through. You're not doing any editing yet. Okay, so that's important. Now, big picture edit. This is where any like big developmental type of stuff comes in. Meaning, if you need to rewrite your chapter one, because the original chapter one that you had planned for this book no longer makes sense because it in a different direction, rewrite chapter one. If you want to move chapters around, if you need to write new scenes that are longer than like a couple pages, if you need to rewrite your ending completely, if you want to add in a new chapter from a different point of view character, if you want to write an epilogue that you didn't write, that all comes first. It does not make sense to go line by line by line through your manuscript, cleaning up everything as you go. if some things are going to be removed or deleted or whatever later. Like you just need to do the big picture stuff first before you get really granular and go line by line by line. So big picture stuff. Or maybe you're like, oh wow, I know that chapter 14 is like totally unnecessary now, so I'm just going to cut that and kind of tweak the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 15 so that they fit together better because I removed that chapter. That's all great stuff to do on the first first round of editing. After that, it's good to focus on your main character and just do a main character edit.

And then you can kind of work your way down. I think of it like an upside down triangle, right? Starting big, working your way down to specific. I also have an editing training that's available at my link that covers my five draft editing method in detail so you know like what to focus on each round of editing. And it also just has some good tips and tricks for you about like, you know, things to make the editing process less overwhelming and just more effective and efficient as you do it. So you can check that out if you want. It's like 30 or 40 bucks. Yeah, so that's what I recommend. It's big picture stuff first, always after you do that read through if you want to do that. Some people, and just to normalize this for a second, I feel like I've talked about this a lot on the podcast recently, but I want to reiterate this here. Some people feel very overwhelmed by editing. And getting the first draft out is easier for them. And some people are the opposite. And however you feel about it, it's fine. It's normal. If you write a very messy first draft or you pantsed a lot of the book, you just were like a discovery writer kind of figuring out the story as you go, yeah, you might have to add some more things. You might have to shift things around. You might have to remove a chapter and add a chapter in. But that's okay. That's what editing is.

Again, no one writes a perfect first draft. So that's, yeah, just something to keep in mind as you're thinking about editing. So yeah, those are my tips on handling revisions and like starting the process after you get your first draft done. Okay, next question is a little bit longer, but I'm going to read the full thing because I think it's important and I'm sure other people can relate to this. Regarding being afraid, there's another fear that I noticed, and I wonder if you address this in a future podcast. I am afraid that people will recognize me in the book, people who know me, whether or not the book is self-referential. I'm going to skip a little bit of this. There are plenty of places that aren't my story at all that people might attribute to me. One seasoned writer said to me that the first draft of your first book is sometimes more personal about yourself than the other books that you were writing later. And in the editing process, some of those personal things become more general. That concept resonated with me, but I might not be representing it properly because I'm so new to the concept itself. Okay, so basically, like, this person's worried that people in her life will think that the book is about her or that the main character is based off of her or is her or something. And I will agree 100% with what someone shared with her about like your first novel is often, maybe deals more with you and your life experiences.

And that's true if you are writing any, like it doesn't, even if you're writing fantasy, I think a lot of, A lot of times people will infuse their personality or their backstory or some concept that they are familiar with in their life into fiction. Sometimes this is conscious and sometimes it's subconscious. I can just say that I've worked with a number of writers where I get to know them because we're working together in coaching or editing where we have calls or something and I get to know them and it's apparent that they're infusing some things from their life into fiction, which is fine. That's not a bad thing. It's fine to draw from your own experiences. And again, I think a lot of this is subconscious, so we might not even be aware that we're doing it. I mean, my first book, God, I thought I was, I didn't really fully realize that I was doing this, but my first book was, my main character was heavily based on my own experience. And of course, a lot of details were different about her life, but there was still a lot of overlap. And looking back now, I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe I did just... And I think for me, because I was coming up with a character for the first time, it was all new. I was figuring out how to write a book. It felt easier to write a character who was somewhat close to me, as opposed to someone who was like vastly different. Everything was new. I was having to figure out all these new pieces. I don't know, maybe that's where I subconsciously why I did it.

But anyways, I will agree that I just think that's true. Not always, for sure, but it does happen. So as far as the concern that people might think that your protagonist is you or that you're writing about your own life, I have two thoughts about this. Number one, this is not something I really, this is my personal answer. This is not like an overall answer. piece of advice that I think holds true for everyone. But I can just share that for me as a reader, like before I started writing, I never really thought that a novel was heavily pulled from the author's life. It just didn't really occur to me because it's fiction. And it really wasn't until I started editing professionally that I realized that this is something that happens sometimes. So people who aren't writers might just not ever really think about this. And the second thing I want to say is like, this kind of goes back to... this idea of once you release something out into the world, you kind of lose control of it, which sounds scary, but all it means is that you can't control how people respond to anything that you create and put out in the world, whether it's a book, whether it's a song, whether it's a social media post, right? You, it becomes something for the public, for public consumption. And people are going to bring their own assumptions and experiences and preferences and beliefs to that work.

And you can't control any of that. So I think at a certain point, you just have to realize, like, if someone does think that, if someone reads this and thinks that this is about me or my life, maybe that has says more about them than it does me. And it really is just kind of something you have to let roll off of you. And I know this is easier said than done for me because I don't have a published book out there yet and I haven't had to deal with this. But I just think, yeah, I just think it's kind of like the public's reaction to your book, reviews of your book that come in. Like at a certain point, you just can't control how people react. what people's response is, what they think of it. So you kind of just have to accept that people might think that way, or they might not. At this point, it's all hypothetical anyways. And so people who read fiction, again, I think a lot of people are in the boat that I was in where I don't really assume that people are writing about their own life and putting it in fictional form. unless I happen to know maybe if there's a ton of overlap. But anyways, it might be something that people in your life think it might not. So there's really no way to guard against that because what would you do in that scenario?

I mean, you would have to like publish the book and say to all of your family and friends, like, hey, my book's out. I'm so excited. Here's where you can buy it. Release date's this. And just so you know, this is not based on my experience. It's all fictional. Like you would have to issue a disclaimer to people in your life, which I suppose you could do. But That feels more like it's just coming from a place of insecurity. And I don't know, I would just try to steer clear of shaping how people view it and, issuing disclaimers for people before they read. It really is just like, once you release it, you have to kind of give your like release control. It's out of your hula hoop. And that's kind of what you have to accept with publishing. Okay. Last question that we have. Favorite writing media, books, film, or TV show? Mine is Little Women, the 1994 movie. A 1000%. Even if you hadn't put that, whoever submitted this question or this prompt, like if you hadn't put Little Women in your answer, I would have 1000% picked that as my favorite. I love Little Women, the 1994 version. I watch it every year. I always think of it as a Christmas movie. I don't know why, but I watch it every Christmas.

And Jo's struggle, I mean, I related so much when I was younger and even now to Jo. And I will say I did like the Greta Gerwig remake, the adaptation that came out a few years ago, or I don't even know when that was, maybe like five years ago now. It was good. I really enjoyed it. I even remember, oh, 2019. Okay. I even remember getting emotional in the theater because I went to see it in the theaters with a writer friend of mine, the one that came out in 2019. We went together. And I remember tearing up when Jo was watching something be printed or she was having a conversation with a publisher. There's some scene that's writing related in that movie. And it just I got tears in my eyes because I was thinking about my own journey. So at 2019, God, I probably just signed with my first agent. I'm so new to all of this. And it just, yeah, it stirred something in me. So anyways, definitely Little Women. As far as otherwise, though, there's a, what's the, girl in the, there's a book that came, or a, sorry, a movie that came out about 10 years ago called The Girl in the Book. that stuck with me because the main character of that movie works at a literary agency or a publisher. I can't remember if she's on the agent side of things or the editor side of things. I can't remember. But it was, I... for me personally, that was the first time I'd seen like a little bit of behind the scenes, behind the curtain in a, to have a fictionalized version of publishing in a movie form.

So I loved that and I loved her journey. There is some, you know, abuse. It's kind of a tough story, but the movie's very good and it, because she's a writer, it just feels, yeah, I could relate to a lot of what she was experiencing. And in terms of, let's see, books, really, I try to stay away from a lot of instruction books about writing at this point in my life because I create a lot of content around writing tips. And I'm sort of wary of that. I just got gifted a copy of Anne Lamott's, so Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott is fantastic. And I just got gifted, the publisher sent me a copy of her new book. Of course, blanking on the name. I just posted about it on Instagram like a couple days ago. God, what's it called? Anne Lamont book. Good writing, that's what it's called. 36 ways to improve your sentences. And I actually, I think I am going to read that. I haven't cracked it open yet, but I think I am going to read that because it's more line level writing. And it's Anne Lamont and Neil Allen. So I'm going to check that out. But…

Before I started editing, really when I was first starting to write, Stephen King's On Writing had a profound impact on me. I'm not really a Stephen King fan, but something about that book, I think it was just the time in my life where I was really getting honest with myself, like, all right, Katie, you've been feeling like you're a writer for years. You've been saying you're going to write a book someday. Like, why don't you just ******* sit down and do it? It's now or never. And I read that book and it really just, it stuck with me. So definitely that was a big one. And then Behind the Book Deal, is that what it's called? Behind the Book Deal by Courtney Mom, or After the Book Deal, sorry, that's what it's called, After the Book Deal. She wrote a book about like traditional publishing and kind of what happens before and after the book deal. Sorry, y'all, I'm Googling this as I'm, yeah, Before and After the Book Deal, Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book. That was incredibly helpful and it pulled the curtain back. And it came out in 2020. And I feel like even since 2020, there's been a bit of a shift in social media where people are sharing a lot more behind the scenes about traditional publishing.

But even in 2020, because this was like pre-TikTok, I think TikTok's had a big impact on the writing community and what people are talking about when it comes to querying and being on submission and book deals and all that stuff. But it was revolutionary to me. Like she wrote in the book about like what happens if your book dies on submission. And I'd never heard that. I didn't know that was a thing that happened. And then, surprise, surprise, it happened to me. And I was like, oh, okay, turns out this is a lot more common than I thought. So I just appreciated her transparency. And then finally, the last one I'll mention is a novel, Book Lovers. Emily Henry. Y'all, I love that book so much. It just, if you haven't read it, please go read it. I loved it. My first Emily Henry was a different book, one of her other ones that I read a couple chapters and I was like, I don't think this is quite for me. And I reluctantly picked up Book Lovers and I'm so glad I did because I just, yeah, I love it. So that's another one I'll mention. Okay, those are all of the questions that we have for this month. Again, if you want to submit a question for next month, you can do so at the link in the show notes. Thank you all for listening.

Katie Wolf