21. Q&A with Suzy: NaNoWriMo, AI, Author Platforms, and More!

In this Q&A episode of Show Don’t Tell Writing, Suzy tackles timely questions about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the writing industry, how to start building an author platform, and how to know if your writing is ready for readers.

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Transcript

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Welcome to Show Don't Tell Writing with me, Suzy Vadori, where I teach you the tried and true secrets to writing fiction, nonfiction, that are going to wow your readers broken down step by step. We're going to explore writing techniques. I'm going to show you a glimpse behind the scenes of successful writers careers that you wouldn't have access to otherwise. And I'm also going to coach writers live on their pages so that you can learn and transform your own storytelling. Whether you're just starting out, you're drafting your first book, you're editing, or you're currently rewriting that book, or maybe even your 10th book, this show is going to help you unlock the writing skills that you didn't even know you needed. But you definitely do. I'm so excited. I'm so looking forward to helping you get your amazing ideas from your mind onto your pages in an exciting way for both you and your readers, so that you can achieve your wildest writing dreams. And you're going to also have some fun doing it. Let's dive in. It is time for another Q& A, and there are so many discussions and questions from writers coming up this month, and I'm super excited to dive in. First, I want to say congratulations to each and every one of you writers out there listening. Because you're working on your book and listening to this podcast to level up your writing, and that means that you have something to say. To the world and someday soon your voice is going to be out in the world and having a conversation with people that you haven't met yet. That's really exciting. So take a moment to think about that impact that your book is going to have on your community and way beyond stretching across the entire world. If you take the time to learn these writing skills that will make sure that your big idea gets out of your head and onto your pages. And then leaps into your reader's minds intact. That doesn't happen by magic. So you're doing the right thing by figuring this thing out, right? Because the world needs your story now more than ever. And I'm here to support you as you get yours written. So keep the questions coming. It lets me have. impact when I create these Q& A sessions, because they're the questions that are coming from you. This month, I want to address a few topics that are coming up in so many discussions I'm having with the industry, with writers, in forums. I'm going to address the concerns that writers are expressing surrounding National Novel Writing NaNoWriMo. I'm going to talk a little bit about artificial intelligence, or AI. I'm going to talk a little bit about I don't want to get boring about this, but there's things you should know about it as a writer, and we don't need to be afraid, we need to understand. I'll also answer a writer's question about what to do after finishing the first draft of her book, as well as give some pointers to writers on building an author platform. How do you get out there to promote your books? This is a question that comes up over and over again. Today I'm going to give you some really concrete ideas. And guess what? The time to start that is now, so listen up. We're going to go all these places today in my signature open way, letting you in on what's happening in the world of writing, so that you can make the best decisions for that book you're writing. Are you ready? Let's dive in. Okay, so it's November, and historically, November has been National Novel Writing Month, which sounds really amazing. There's an organization nicknamed NaNoWriMo for National Novel Writing Month, And it's an organization that makes this fun challenge for writers to write a novel in 30 days with a minimum of 50, 000 words. Now, writing a novel in 30 days is a huge undertaking and not one that I would necessarily recommend. And I will tell you why. It's a terrific goal, but it has a lot of positives to it. Which, you know, is really about getting out of your head and just writing and not stressing about it. Just getting the words down, which is. It's really, really amazing when you first start writing, especially. It also gets you into the habit of writing every day or finding every spare moment. It like gamifies the writing to show you that you might have space for your writing in your life that you didn't know that you had. These are all awesome things. And if you've participated in NaNoWriMo in the past, you'll know what I'm talking about.

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TheBusinessProfessor. com Where I've seen writers be successful with this approach is if they've taken the time to plan their novel before undertaking the challenge. So that when they sit down and write, and write, and write, and write, and write, and write, you don't end up with an unwieldy mess that goes in all directions and is really hard to fix. Because when this happens, more often than not, that finished draft needs so much work. It's actually overwhelming. And you can't send it to an editor like that, because there's so much more that you need to do, and that you know that you need to do already, and so you don't want to waste your money getting them to wade through your draft when it's in that shape, and it's, it's hard to decide, you get stuck in that overwhelm of, oh my goodness, There's a thousand things wrong with this. And guess what? People put them in a drawer. I talk to writers all the time that are finally wanting to plan a novel and they're like, Oh, I've done a few nano drafts before and I never finished them and I don't know what to do with them, right? It's really hard to come back from that. So if you're looking at an approach like that, it's kind of a catch 22. Maybe, I mean, you can get 50, 000 words down in a month, which is a novel, by the way, it can be in certain genres. Most genres are looking for a little bit more, like sort of 70 to 80, 000 words. But 50, 000 can be a short novel. Some romance genres allow it. Some mystery, especially cozy mystery, allow it. If you're writing a middle grade novel, that might be an appropriate length. But the point is, when you actually put in all that time in advance to think about it and everything else, it's not actually 30 days. I know very few writers who can write a novel in 30 days. Those who can, some of my colleagues who are writing their 10th or their 30th novel, they do a lot of planning beforehand. And so don't compare yourself. To people who say that they're writing that quickly, I think that, you know, that sort of write a novel in 30 days is one of the most harmful marketing messages out there in the writing industry. It's not a thing, right? It's, it's not a thing. So don't compare yourself. It takes a lot of work before and then especially a lot of work after to get that novel in shape. So you can draft it if that's your issue and that's what, you know, you get stuck on is that sort of blank page, then definitely use a challenge like that. But don't think that that's all the work that there is to do. So that's my word of caution. I want to talk about NaNoWriMo specifically because there's been a ton of controversy surrounding it. A couple of years ago, they got into hot water because there was some things happening within the organization with their volunteers and they were abusing their power and. We're not looking out for the best interests of the people that were in the NaNoWriMo participants. And some things happened, and writers weren't really happy with how the organization dealt with that. And so they, they lost a lot of their really strong volunteers, and they lost a lot of support. This year, fast forward to 2024, it was announced this fall that it still counted. If you used AI, and what I mean by that, and it was tried to clarify, but, but what they mean by that is that now when you do National Novel Writing Month and you put your information in and they track it and you get like, you win, quote unquote, win National Novel Writing Month if you complete your 50, 000 words in 30 days. And just think about this for a second, because it starts on November the 1st, sometimes on Halloween, October 31st, people start at midnight. It's kind of a fun thing, get a head start on NaNoWriMo. But all I could say is, hey, write me a novel with this topic and I could get ChatGPT to write it. I could be done in 30 minutes or less, right? And so the word on the street was, this is okay now. And there was a huge backlash for that. I'm going to talk about AI in a minute and what you need to know as a writer. But just think about that for a minute. And the answer there was that from the organization, some people need those supports in order to write a novel, novel. And so it's ableist to not allow them to use AI to write a novel. And I just talk about that for a few minutes because it's As this world is changing, there are things that are evolving. And this is, you know, people feel really hotly about it one side or the other. I'm going to talk specifically about NaNoWriMo and then I'm going to talk about AI and what you need to know as a writer right now as it's evolving, without getting too into the weeds. Because it kind of takes the fun out of a contest where it's you against the page if you can let a computer write your book for you. NaNoWriMo. com I can also tell you that whatever gets generated, yes, you might get your 50, 000 words. It will not be your voice. It will not be your story. It will not be you. And so a computer can't actually replicate your voice. It can't do that work for you. What it can't do, I'm going to talk about in a minute, because there are definitely ways that you can use AI to support your writing. And especially if you need those supports, and to make it easier for more and more people to get their voices out there, there are some things that you can do. But asking it to write a novel for you isn't one of them. There are some great tools there. There are a lot of fun things, but it is losing support in the writing industry. I've never been a huge fan of the program unless you have a novel that you just need to knock out that you already have planned, as I said at the beginning, but now it's, it's losing more and more support. There's other neat programs popping up, so definitely if that motivation and that gamification of it is something that you enjoy and motivates you to write, do it. Do it with friends, do it with colleagues. Do it in that organization if you like, but just be aware, be aware of what's happening right now. Here's what you need to know about AI and your writing. There's a lot of fear for writers surrounding AI right now, and a lot of discussions, and the questions that people seem to be asking is, Will it replace me as a writer? Will I still have a place in this world? And what if we can't tell the difference between something written by a human and something generated by a computer? These are the questions that I'm hearing from writers over and over again, but they aren't necessarily the right questions to ask, so let me explain. Here's my hot take on this changing landscape. Some types of AI have actually been around in writing for a long time, without any controversy, really, at all. They can be a great tools for you to level up your writing. So some examples of this might be spellcheck or a grammar check, which is a step above spellcheck. These programs make suggestions. Or what about predictive text that we use when we're text messaging? Or if you're in Gmail and it sort of can predict what the phrase might be, there's some shortcuts, right? These things are making suggestions, but here's the distinction. You as the writer are making a decision. Do you want to do this or not? Is this what you meant or not, right? This is the same thing that happens when you work with an editor. So when I work with a writer, I like to say you are the God of your own story. I can make suggestions. But guess what, as an editor, I gotta be a little bit brave sometimes, if I don't know what's going on in a scene, because it happens. You know those scenes that you've written, where you're, you know, you forgot to tell me what's going on, or show me, or anything? You just forgot to put it on the page, and me as the editor, and if it gets to your reader like that, and you don't have a strong editor, and they miss it, they won't know what's happening. So me as an editor, I gotta guess, and so when I'm providing suggestions, When I do a developmental edit and I make a correction, it's, it's not, you know, I would never make it on your actual page. You need to accept it. I use the editing tools, I make a suggestion, you need to accept it. And I never, never, never just say, hey, this is wrong, fix it. I'll be like, hey! This isn't working for these reasons, and this is the information that, as a reader, I'm missing. Here's a suggestion. And then, sometimes I write little snippets or whatever. I don't write it in there, I'll put it in a comment and be like, something like this. And guess what? If you love it as the writer, if you love what I've written, cool. It's yours. Take it. But sometimes it's even better if you hate what I wrote. Or you're like, Susie, you're out to lunch? Because I'm totally guessing blind. If I have no idea what's happening in the scene, I'm gonna make something up that makes sense, to me, but it might not be where you wanted to take it at all. And that's totally, totally fine, because then you're like, Susie, you're out to lunch, and you can have a good giggle, and, and say, I hate that suggestion, my character would never do that, but then you know what they would do, and you can fix it, right? That's that dance between an editor and a writer where we push you, but you are still making that decision. The same thing happens when you are working with those types of grammar tools, right? They can make a suggestion, but you can't just take everything they say and do a find or like replace all or something because you know they're gonna introduce garbage because those tools just are not a substitution for the human eye, and they are not a substitution for your brain and your thoughts. And, especially in fiction, they get it wrong. There are some norms or rules that aren't necessarily incorrect, right? Or they're actually correct. If you're writing an academic paper, that's the way you do it, but in novels, we edit that out or we simplify it. So, for example. It might be perfectly correct, and you can go through and make it that way, but it's going to drive your reader nuts. It's not what we want when we sit down to read a novel. So there are things that we do that might be different than the strict grammar rules, especially in fiction. So, These types of AI can be very supportive, right? It's kind of like getting an editor suggestions and then you make the decisions. Some of my favorite tools for grammar tracks are Autocrit, ProWritingAid, Grammarly. If you want to check these tools out, I'll leave some links in the show notes for you to find them easily, but use these tools to make your writing as accessible as possible so that your ideas are clear and concise. But don't use them blindly. As I said, these tools have been around for decades, and they are not what the controversy is about. So don't get confused. This newest wave of AI tools is called Generative AI. This isn't taking what you've already written and making predictive suggestions for you to make the decisions. The most commonly talked about one right now is ChatGBT. These generative AI tools can be used in a lot of different ways. They are more powerful than you can actually imagine if you haven't played with it yet. You could feed your text in that you've written and have it make all the corrections for you versus going through and making those yourself. ChatGBT I wouldn't suggest this for a lot of reasons, because again, it's not a substitution for the human eye or the human brain. And in my experience, doing this introduces more errors than it fixes. But the second reason not to do this is more important. You're actually sharing what you've written with the tool, which can take that information with your permission since you shared it and use it to learn from. What that means is that it can use your writing to spit out similar, or in some cases, the same phrases for others who ask it to write something for them. We can literally use your work. Let that sink in for a moment. Because a question that I get from writers coming from outside the industry all the time is how do I protect my work from being pirated? Their biggest fear is that somebody is going to take their work and claim it as their own. By the way, that doesn't happen very often. If you write that book on your own and do not use generative AI, Your work is actually copyright just by virtue of you writing it. The moment that you write it, it is copyrighted. You don't actually need to register for copyright on your own, although you may choose to do so if you've got like a complex legal situation or you're writing with a partner. Instead, it's actually automatic. But when you use generative AI, this copyright area and whether or not you own it is getting really fuzzy. And for now, the assumption being made by many in the industry is that any work where you use generative AI is actually not copyrightable at all, because you've actually stolen or borrowed it from other writers that the tool learned from, which means you may have no legal protection for your work. In addition, when you go to publish, whether you want to publish with a traditional, hybrid, You're going to self or independently publish or, heaven forbid, you sign with a vanity publisher, you must declare that you used partial or full AI. Again, this has major copyright implications, but it's also going to limit your ability to publish it at all because most publishers won't touch it. So what's the difference between this kind of help and the grammar checker help that I talked about? Here's the thing. You, the writer, when you're using generative AI are no longer making the decisions about the work. You're actually letting a computer do that. So the writing and all of the decisions are no longer yours. Decision making, word choice, what to highlight in your book, what to cut. All of these decisions are what we talk about on this podcast because they're decisions that a writer makes along the way. And that is the skill that you need to hone. That is what separates. A first draft, or barfing an idea on the page from something that's readable. The decisions that you make along the way Are what will make your story stand out and the decisions that you make as you're writing are going to determine the quality of the book. So do your research and understand what you're doing before you use generative AI tools. They are having far reaching implications for publishing, but maybe not for the reasons that you think. It's actually changing the industry a lot. The issue, remember I said that the, at the beginning of this rant about AI, that we were asking the wrong questions, right? The issue has not been that these generated stories or books are so good that they're indistinguishable from stories written by humans. That is not the problem yet. AI generated content tends to be really bland and repetitive and so devoid of a writer's voice. That they aren't a threat at all. They may be one day, but they are not yet. But they are a huge problem, instead generating so much garbage for agents and publishers to wade through from people who are trying to skip the learning curve and get AI to do the work for them and just throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Let me be clear. The issue isn't that the publishers can't tell, they can, but I've spoken with acquisitions editors at small presses especially who've seen their submissions explode. Sometimes they're getting ten times what they used to get in a month and somebody still has to look at the submission and kick it out. They will kick it out and they will know. I'm not saying that things are getting by and this is a problem. It's just creating a huge logistical nightmare. And what a waste of time. So many of those publishers have actually closed to submissions for this reason, meaning that you now have less places to submit your legitimate work for consideration. So that's super frustrating. It's inevitable. Change is coming with these tools, but there are actually ways to use them. that are legit. You can use them for brainstorming or for planning. They can give you some great ideas and be a partner to you as you get ready to write, but keep the decision making for yourself to make sure that your book truly reflects your views. That is what's going to keep your integrity. That is what's going to keep your book being something fantastic and something that readers really, really need to hear. Okay, I'm going to switch gears for a minute because another question or something that I've been working on with quite a number of writers this month is building an author platform. Now this comes up a lot. And, you know, there's a lot of in depth ways, but I want to give you some just ideas about what that even means because people say, Well, publishers are saying I don't have a strong enough platform. So what can I do? It seems really daunting. It kind of feels nebulous. So I'm going to give you some straight goods on this thing called an author platform. All it means Is that you're out there and you have a way to market your book and yourself, right? People don't buy what we wrote. They buy why we wrote it. Remember that. They want to know you. And so this is one of the reasons, too, why it's really hard, especially if you're trying to hide behind a pseudonym. Or a pen name. There's lots of really good reasons to use a pen name. Hiding behind it because you don't want anybody to know that you wrote the book is a really poor decision. Because you can't create this author platform, right? It's really difficult if you're hiding and you don't want anybody to know. How do you get out there and talk about your book? It's like an oxymoron. So, here's my suggestions. This is slightly different if you're writing fiction than if you're writing nonfiction. So I'm gonna give you a couple of tips for each. If you're writing fiction, this author platform isn't as important, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The publishers, especially if you want to go traditional, sometimes it's even better if you are a debut author. They would rather take a chance on a debut author true story than somebody who's kind of done something mediocre ish. Because they have faith that you're gonna make it happen. Now, what does an author platform look like? They will Google you. They will, they will look you up and see what's out there. If your social media accounts are spewing hatred or something else, you're probably dead in the water. So be careful, right? Be careful about your image. Be careful that what you are sharing out there in the world is something that's going to support your book and not hurt it. So social media is one place, but give yourself credit. For what you have done already. Okay, this is something that we forget about. So if you are thinking about author platform, whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, think about this. Where do you have influence? What groups are you in front of? Are you part of a large organization? So it's not just about, okay, you need 10, 000 followers. 10, 000 is kind of a number on your newsletter or on your podcast or on your, on your social media accounts in order to say that you have influence. What if you speak in front of an audience or you write for an audience that has 10, 000 people? You can borrow other people's audiences and get in front of those as well. So, think about that now, right? Whatever stage you are, if you are writing a book, if it's already out there, if you're just thinking about it, it doesn't matter. The time to start is today, right? Time to start is today. Make a list of all the places that you have influence, whether that be in your community, whether that be online, whether you're writing for something, whether you show up in a certain way, whether you are part of a visible minority or an invisible minority, right? Whether you are part of any type of group, think about the ways that you could extend that reach. I could list on this podcast probably hundreds of ways because I've helped hundreds and thousands actually of writers talk to them about their platforms and help them build it and seeing what works and what doesn't. Here's what I will say. There is no one cookie cutter way to do this. Figure out what lights you up, because you have to do something that is sustainable and consistent, right? You cannot do it all. Don't try. Don't compare yourself to that author out there. Do get inspired by the authors that you admire. Notice what they do, and if that lights you up, also try it. See if you can be consistent. For me, there's a million things I want to do. People that I work with are always like, Oh, you know, Susie just thinks of something and then she does it. And sometimes that's true. But the things that I do consistently, this podcast, my weekly newsletter, if you don't get my weekly newsletter, go get it. Because I show up every single week in your inbox with tips, with tricks, supporting you. I answer every single email that comes in to me. I'm sometimes slow, I must admit, but I answer them and I talk to you about your book and that's what I do. That's how I show up. That is my platform. For you, it's going to be something different, right? So find something that lights you up. If you are writing a non fiction book, This author platform will make or break your publishing options and it will make or break your ability to get that book out there. So publishers in that case will ask for your platform. In fact, to even query that type of book, like a self help book or sometimes even a memoir, I suggest that you do a full proposal. So a proposal can be like 20 to 50 pages and it's basically a marketing document. And if you can't complete that, then they know that you're not ready to poke that book out in the world. So start it as early as you can and think about it. Again, what are your spheres of influence? Don't forget, it's not bragging if you've done it. If you are part of a community that is huge, somewhere, something that you have influence or that you could ask to speak at, Or to write for? Do it. Do it now. Because here's the thing, when you're talking about your author platform, I could send out a proposal that says, if and when you buy my book, I am going to start a podcast. I'm gonna make it huge, right? Anybody can say that, but it's way stronger. When I go to pitch my book to you and I say, start at a podcast. My podcast is in the top 10% of podcasts worldwide. We've had over 3, 000 downloads this month. Those are actual stats that I can share that are way more predictive of whether or not I am ready to promote that book. So the time to start is now and chip away at it. You're not going to do that overnight. But if a publisher can see that you are taking strides to get out there and that what you are saying has influence, start doing it now. If you already have a blog, let's say, or you already write articles or something, or you post on LinkedIn, or you have somewhere that you're sharing your ideas. And you're writing a book on a specific topic, start writing things on that topic and show the publisher this has legs, this has traction. Because the time to start that is right now, not after the book is out. We often ask for a runway of about four months and start promoting your book about four months in advance. And whether you're writing a fiction or non fiction, deciding on a publication date and getting things shored up, even, some people are disappointed when, especially if you're going to work with traditional, they're like, what do you mean my book isn't going to be out for two more years? I've been writing it forever. It took me forever to get an agent. It took me forever to get this deal. And now you're saying two more years? What I want to say is, unless your topic is super timely and is going to expire and won't make sense in two years, it doesn't matter. Because you can start promoting it now. If you know the date and you know that your book is coming out, it's a game changer for being able to create your platform. To be like, My book blah blah blah is coming out in two years. That's a powerful statement You can get all the hype behind it, right? And so and if you're not a hype person, don't let that scare you I know some of these people are like, but Susie, I don't want to do all the things that you do to promote And that's fine, because as writers, you can write, you can do it quietly, you can be supportive, you can join communities, you can be a voice. You can do all the things that will make people intrigued about what you're going to write because people want to buy why you wrote it, not what you wrote, right? So let them know why you wrote it. Start talking about it. Start sharing it. Pick one or two things. Do not try to do all the things. And when you start your new social media channel or your new podcast, Or you write for something, send me a note, I'll go support it. Ask your friends to go comment on it, right? Go comment on it, because then the algorithm will love it more, right? They will love it more, and then if, if you know, the first people that do it are your supporters, that's great. That means that it's going to get in front of more people. And if you've nailed what you want to say, then they're going to love it too, and they're going to help you, and it's all just going to feed it. Make sure that it's what lights you up. I can't wait to see what you all do. Drop me a note. Let me know what you're going to do this week to help your author platform. Start now. Okay. And last but not least, I know I can go on a rant on some of these topics, so hopefully you guys find this helpful. When you have questions, drop us a line. We will answer them on the podcast and I will give you the straight goods. What's happening in the industry. The one that I'm getting the most this month in my inbox is I have finished a draft and I don't know what to do next. And can I tell you that this question is the entire reason that I started the inspired writing community and the show don't tell podcast because I was in that position where I wrote a novel draft and I had no idea where to go next and you can go all over the internet and it's hard to tell who to trust, where to go, what to do. And sometimes I forget to circle back to this for new people who've just joined this community. I feel like I've talked about it so much over the years, but go take my quiz at suzyvidori. com forward slash quiz. It will tell you where you're at and whether or not your writing is ready for readers based on the steps that you've done so far. It's also got, when you answer that, it will send you a PDF that has some next steps for you to do. So go take advantage of that quiz. Even if you've taken it before, when you first joined the community, it's the way that a lot of people come into this community, go take it again, because chances are you've moved yourself along that path and there's different to do's at this stage. So go check it out, right? You don't want to be publishing too early. None of us want to do that. And your first draft, I can tell you without reading it, it's not ready. There are things that you can do to level up. Remember I talked about when AI earlier in this podcast episode. I talked about the fact that the decisions that you make now are going to affect the quality of the book that you produce, right? So there are a bunch of decisions that you get to make as the writer. Don't outsource it to AI and ask it how to make those decisions. Make them yourself because that's what's going to make your book unique. That's what's going to attract people to your writing. That's what's going to actually change your life when this book gets published. I can't wait to see what you do. Make sure you send me a note and let me know all your burning questions and I'll answer them on the next Q& A. Thanks for tuning in to Show Don't Tell Writing with me, Suzy Vidori. I'll be continuing to bring you the straight goods for that book you're writing or planning to write. Please consider subscribing to this podcast and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you're listening. Also visit suzybedore. com forward slash newsletter to hop on my weekly inspired writing newsletter list where you'll stay inspired and be the first to know about upcoming training, events, and writing courses that happen in my community. If you're feeling brave, check the show notes and send us a page of your writing that isn't quite where you want it to be yet for our show to tell page for you every week. Remember, that book and your writing is going to open doors that you haven't even thought of yet. And I can't wait to help you make it the absolute best. If you're feeling called to write that book, keep going and I'm going to be right here cheering you on. See you again next week.