And also, like me, if you signed with one agent and it wasn’t the right fit, you can do it again.

So, let that help you be brave, persistent, and revolutionary in your process as you write. If you wrote a great line, but this revision doesn’t support that line, realize that you can nail that moment or a similar moment again. If you wrote one chapter, you can write another chapter. If you wrote one book, you can write another book. The other thing I would say is to remember that if you did it once, you can do it again. And don’t get frustrated because you are participating in a very competitive field. It will ask more of you than other careers.

The first thing is to realize that if you want to write a story for other people to experience, not just for yourself or catharsis - you’re participating in an Olympic career. If you’re an aspiring author or a lover of the written word, then you need to listen to this interview!

I’ve known Kate for years (and, to my horror, have been pronouncing her name wrong this whole time!), but it’s no less an honor to be able to sit with such a titan in the book world and pick her brains about the craft. At 15, she decided she wanted someone to find her books by searching through the shelves of a library, and Kate has been writing ever since. An incurable love for seeing real life through story drew her to writing fiction. Her novels include How We Fall and The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell, and the short story “Godzilla Girls.”Īs a child, Kate spent a lot of her time at the local library, wandering the shelves and discovering all sorts of stories about all kinds of people. This week, I had the honor to sit down with my friend, Kate Brauning! Kate is one of the developmental editors at Dovetail Fiction, the creator of the Breakthrough Writers’ Boot Camp, and the author of several YA novels with a twist.

How We Fall by Kate Brauning