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Writing, Books, Pencils & Alida Winternheimer · WriterCon

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  This week on the writer Con podcast, Trust Your Gut. Welcome to writer
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  Con, a gathering place for writers to share their knowledge about writing and the
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  writing world. Your hosts are William Bernhardt, best selling novelist and author of
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  the Red Sneaker books on writing, and Laura Bernhardt. But we're going to
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  ask the one lens File book series. Hey writers. Due to some scheduling
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  conflicts, we're essentially taking a vacation from podcasting this week, but it's giving
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  us an opportunity to release this very special interview we did a while back with
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  Alita Winterenheimer. Alita is I call my first Substack friend. She's someone that
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  I became acquainted with after we started distributing writer Con magazine on Substack, which
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  by the way, you can still subscribe to. Just go to substack and
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  bunch in writer Con and it will come up, and you know what else
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  will come up? Alita. I think it's a blog called A Room Full
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  of Books and Pencils. Alita is an award winning writer and developmental editor.
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  She's a Best American Essays Notable. She is a three time Pushcart nominated author.
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  Like my wife Laura, when she is not writing or reading. She
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  says, you can find her kayaking or sailing or cycling rather or walking her
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  golden retriever. So sit back and enjoy this very special interview with the wonderful
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  Alita Windenheimer. Alita, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, I'm so
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  happy to be here. Well, we have a traditional first question, so
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  here it is, if you could offer writers one piece of advice, what
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  would it be? Well, probably changes day to day and depending on who
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  is asking, But today I'm going to say, trust your gut. You
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  know, I work with so many writers who say I heard this, I
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  got this piece of advice. They say, my writing group told me,
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  and then they go down the path of trying to fix their manuscript according to
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  that certain piece of advice, as though that piece of advice is gospel,
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  and usually there's a lot we need to unpack to those words of wisdom to
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  really understand them and make them work for us and for our stories. And
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  so my approach to storycraft begins with trusting that the story wants us to tell
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  it, and a story has demands it places on us as storytellers. So
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  trust your gut and then go do some more digging find out was that piece
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  of advice really warranted. Does it make sense? Should I follow it?
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  Should I maybe get some other advice or dick deeper so I understand it better
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  instead of just taking it at face value and running with it. That is
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  really good advice. I presented at a conference this past weekend, and I
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  had someone sit down with me and really had kind of come to a point
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  of near paralysis because they were receiving conflicting advice from varying sources. And that's
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  kind of what you said. I said something very similar to this writer that
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  not every piece of advice to be applied, So think about your book and
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  what's going to best service. So that's excellent think for that. Don't reject
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  anything out of hand. But that is the questions you have to do everything
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  hear either right exactly, Alita, you and I are kind of substack.
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  You may be at the first substack frame that I've had on the podcast,
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  but we met because of course we're doing the writer con magazine through substack now
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  and the newsletter, and you have a terrific writing newsletter or essay or callum
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  or whatever you want to call it. And that caught my attention to such
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  a degree that I asked you to write something for the magazine which will be
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  coming out soon. But anyway, tell us about what you're doing on substack.
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  Thank you. Yeah. So, my substack is called a Room full
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  of Books and Pencils, and it's at Books and Pencils dot substack dot com
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  and it is my home for reflections on life, writing and the writing life.
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  You know, before I phoned substack, I had a mailchimp and I
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  tried to do the newsletter thing and I just hated it because it felt like
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  a grind and like whistling in the wind and such, and I wanted to
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  I don't like marketing. I'm not comfortable with that. I do like self
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  expression and sharing and connecting with people. So yeah, so on substack,
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  I've got those three columns and I can reflect on things in life that matter
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  to me. I'm not going to tell you what kind of lunch I'm eating,
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  right, I might tell you no, you know, I'm not my
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  style. But you know, I have some posts about my father's dementia,
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  so that's in the life category, and then I write about what I'm doing
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  as an author in the writing life category, and my own thoughts what I'm
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  pursuing. And then I've got the writing category where I do story craft and
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  writing tips and share and connect with other writers. So that gets more into
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  the nuts and bolts of sharing what I do as a developmental editor and story
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  coach. And I mean, it really is a terrific substack and I recommended
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  everyone. But you just mentioned Coke. I think you do a lot of
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  coaching, and you've even got an event coming up relating to that, right,
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  correct, Yes, So I've got a it's so i call it fiction
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  group coaching, but I've got a memoirist in the group already, and it
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  is definitely open to novelists and memoirist but basically long form, book length narrative
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  projects. And it's a three month summer session beginning on May twenty ninth,
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  And so if people want more information, it's at word essential dot com slash
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  fiction Coaching, and it starts with a discovery call, so I just hop
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  on zoom with somebody and we would talk. I also do free office hours
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  through word essential dot com, which is my editing and coaching business, So
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  I'm really available to people for free to talk story craft, to just connect
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  and give back. Yeah. No, that's wonderful, and we'll put all
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  those links in the show notes so people don't have to race for their pencils
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  unless they just want to. You also, of course write books, and
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  I think you've got one coming up pretty soon. Can you talk about that?
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  Sure? So the book coming up is called A Stone's Throw and it
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  is women's fiction with magical realism. Let me see if I can recall the
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  takeline from memory here. But it's two women an ocean apart. I'm going
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  to flub it a little bit, but you'll get the gist. One is
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  a motherless child, the other is a childless mother, and they are brought
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  together through this magical painting coming to life to experience the real, true meaning
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  of creativity. So that was very poorly. Yeah, no, it sounds
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  tough. That sounds very intriguing. We have I love I love women's fiction,
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  so that sounds fantastic. We have a lot of aspiring writers in our
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  audience. Would you describe your path to publication? How did you get started?
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  Sure? So, oh gosh, my journey breath story. Yeah it
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  is. It is. Yeah. I want to say sadly, but maybe
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  it's not sad. It just happens to be long. I mean, I'm
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  one of those lifelong writers, one of those children who always had a book
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  or a pencil in her hand, and so as I mean, writing my
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  whole life. But then I got my MFA. I went to graduate school
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  in two thousand and six or so, got my first master's degree. Then
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  I went straight into an MFA and creative writing program, graduated that in twenty
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  twelve, and so all along the way, I was applying for artist grants,
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  residencies and workshops and having you know, some of your kind of typical
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  success and rejection stuff. In twenty twelve, after I got my MFA,
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  I started working professionally as a developmental editor and story coach. And that was
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  when I put out A Stone's Throw the first time. So this novel is
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  a relaunch, and I published. Indie published three novels and two craft books,
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  The Story Works Guide to Character and the Story Works Guide to Point of
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  View. Right, so five books Indie published. And then I have a
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  historical manuscript and a New York agent who I met through a pitch conference signed
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  me for the historical novel. So then he told me he wouldn't be able
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  to sell my book with my indie novels on the market, instructed me to
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  take them off the market and bury their digital footprint, which it turns out
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  is actually impossible. But yeah, you know, I spent plenty of time
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  and money trying to scrub them from search results and such, and you really,
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  you really can't and Amazon won't take the page down, and good Reads
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  won't take you know. It's a nightmare. So now that's far enough behind
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  me. I am relaunching those three novels, and then once they're out,
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  I'll get my historical novel into the world. I'm working on my third craft
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  book, the Plot Book, So I've got a lot of irons in the
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  fire and I'm hoping to, you know, bring multiple stories to readers.
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  I'm busy. Yes, I'm glad you are recouping and coming back from what
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  sounds like was a rough ish experience. I'm sorry you went through that.
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  Yeah, yeah, advice, but what were we just talking about at the
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  beginning? We have to sometimes but we don't know what we don't know,
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  So it's it's hard to know which advice when we're first starting out is going
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  to best service. That's right, Yeah, it is. It is hard
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  to know which advice serves us. And it's also hard. I think when
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  you've got a certain dream, you've got an idea what being a published author
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  looks like, and it's something you've fostered for me, at least from childhood.
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  I'm right there with you. I know exactly what you're describing. I
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  do a piece of me that remembers when that was the only way and the
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  only dream, and it it kind of festers. I understand, Yeah,
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  it does you so m hm right, And when somebody dangles that dream in
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  front of you and makes the promise of you know, this is going to
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  be big, it's going to be translated. I love it. You're like,
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  give me more, okay, tell me what to do, and yeah,
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  then it just didn't didn't play out. So well, what does it?
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  What does a typical writing day look like for you? What's your writing
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  process? Hmmm, yeah, so it you know, depends on the day
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  and on the projects I've got going on. Right now, I'm preparing for
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  the launch of A Stone's Throw, so that's taking up a lot of time
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  and energy. But ideally my day starts with the morning coffee and the work
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  in progress, with actual creative output and generating words toward the next manuscript,
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  you know, and if I'm not in drafting mode, I might be doing
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  research for it or revision. But it's that project. I like to place
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  that first in my day, and then by mid morning I usually start shifting
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  gears and focusing on work for clients. So that's a lot of mental energy
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  and creative output, but it's going into very different buckets. Yes, I
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  underesting. Yeah, and the task things like managing my website or formatting a
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  book, those things I kind of put at the end of the day.
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  So I focus on when my energy is most available to me. I want
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  to give that time of day to the biggest project. That's smart and figuring
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  out what that time is because it's not the same for everyone, right right,
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  right, very true? Yeah, Well, we I always ask I
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  always ask our guest if they are a panther or a planner. I would
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  guess just listening from you talk, I would guess you're a planner. But
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  is that correct planner? Yes, yeah, I would say planner. I
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  would not say plotters. So it's interest you chose the word planner. I
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  have a whole process I developed that I call storyboarding. Which is not a
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  unique word, and everybody develops similar processes for plotting their novels. But it's
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  it's a you know, a written, a verbal type of storyboarding like they
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  do in the films with the pictures on the wall. And it gives me
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  a narrative journey through the story I'm planning, but it doesn't feel rigid.
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  Just saying outlining feels constricting to me, you know. And then as I
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  go, I've got my plan in mind, but I let myself hear from
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  it as things happen during the drafting process. So I find myself creating a
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  tool and using it as I go, but I never let it restrict what
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  I do while I'm actually drafting. Absolutely, and I I think that that
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  is something I know, that's something I hear a lot, and we very
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  frequently will say, however, you're preparing for it, also be prepared that
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  the story will probably change, will very likely change as you're writing it.
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  That's how we do. We get better ideas as we're going, or get
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  to know the characters better. Things will change along the way. Absolutely definitely.
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  Yeah, Well, Alita, are already or you already told us about
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  a couple of things you've got coming up beyond that long term? Where are
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  you going with substack and your books? What should we look for from you
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  next? Well, long term, I feel like it's always evolving, but
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  definitely Yeah, So after a Stone's Throw the other books, I'm relaunching our
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  ghost story murder mysteries, so those will be the next relaunches to come,
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  and then plot the third craft book and my historical novels need to come out.
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  But also I'm always developing coaching and workshops and connecting with writers one on
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  one MANUSCIPT, manuscript critiques, group coaching classes. I have a lot of
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  offerings and I'm yeah, we'll see. I have some ideas that lean more
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  toward community than coaching, but they're too undeveloped to speak about yet sounds interesting,
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  and look for you in Writer Coon magazine of course as well. Of
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  course, Yeah, I'm excited for that piece to come out, and I
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  hope people will come back with questions and you know, I love follow up,
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  I love interacting, I love answering questions. Yes, that much is
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  evident. Alita, thanks so much for being on the podcast. Well,
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  thank you, it's really my pleasure. Well great, and if you want
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  to learn about the retreat or the conference or any of the other things we
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  do at writer Con, go to the website. It's writercon dot com.
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  All right, thanks for listening everybody, and hey, remember keep writing.
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  You cannot fail if you refuse to quit. See you next time.