In this episode we dissect Dakota's Chapter 5 - The Duality of Rest that follows the aftermath of Alora's true identity being revealed to the crew. We discuss cuts, character progression, whether or not quiet chapters work, and tackle a problem spot to ensure payoff for readers. One of the best parts of having a writing critique partner is being able to bounce ideas off someone and untangle those stubborn story elements that you'd otherwise be left sweating and swearing over!

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Maybe? Someday?

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

Things are a little crazy so our deepest apologies for an out of order bonus episode, but hey, it works out because in this bonus we talk mainly about word count expectations for genres and making big cuts and next episode (on Dakota's Chapter 5 to no one's surprise) will also center around that! It's aaaalll coming together. We also talk about pacing in storytelling, generating diamond-hard sparkling vampire skin after critiques, and some of our latest reads and watches!

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Maybe? Someday?

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

MERMAIDS! There's mermaids guys! In this episode we dissect Lianna's chapter 5 when things start to heat up for our FMC Olivia as she takes matters into her own hands to go track down and question the one lead she has. This is another deep dive critique where we discuss character continuity, writing emotional impact, getting readers to resonate with off page characters, backstory, and prose!

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Maybe? Someday?

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

In this meaty episode (in more ways than one) we dive into Chapter 4 of Dakota's WIP. The first Nasir POV chapter! And Lianna is a little scared of Dakota's brain creations in this one! We talk gore, writing horrific character actions, ensuring it has a purpose, and matching genre tone across chapters. We also get into a deep critique where we discuss making cuts, tightening up narrative description, showing not telling, analyzing character dynamics, writer intent vs reader perception, and overall cutting down word count, which is the never ending story!

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Stay tuned!

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

Today's episode covers Chapter 4 of Lianna's WIP and in it we get a little distracted up front talking about potential comps for our books and different inspirations that have come into play in our writing, along with the funny differences between what we read and watch vs what ends up getting put on the page. But we also get into the meat and potatoes of it guys, we swear we're serious writers! We wear suits and ties and everything while we record and stare wistfully out of fogged up windows onto cobblestones streets............We also talk about a really important and challenging aspect of writing: building tension and keeping it up even during quieter chapters. We also talk about giving our book dogs a purpose to advance plot or characters, and more!

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Stay tuned!

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

Oops, we got carried away in this bonus episode and almost ran out of time (yes we use free Zoom calls because we're cheap) so that's how you know it's jam packed!

Today we're talking all things doubt and anxiety related to writing, including aiming for quantity over quality in first drafts and accepting bad first drafts. We also get into our fears of public perception and reader interpretation and the monster that is social media. AND we also dive into a much deeper discussion than we anticipated about stories and authors with spicy takes and baggage and how we engage ethically or not with them.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Stay tuned!

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

In this episode we cover chapter 3 of Dakota's WIP, get more of an introduction to Nasir (Lianna is already a big fan as you can probably tell from the title of this episode), talk about writing in secrets into the plot and the pay off needed for reveals, clear up character ages, and talk about how to reflect or not reflect real-world patriarchy in fantasy.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Stay tuned!

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!

In this episode we're diving into Lianna's Ch 3 and talking all things characters from Lianna's deep frustration with naming vs Dakota's alignment with Team Name Sluts (and that's the tea!) to character deep dives where we analyze actions and dialogue.

Follow the podcast on Instagram @thebestsellers_beginning or tag along for the ride with Lianna and Dakota on Instagram and Threads @lifeng.stories and @locodakoko.writes.

Patreon in progress! Stay tuned!

Co-hosted, edited, and produced by: Lianna Feng and Dakota S.

Artwork by: Rachel Mehus

Music by: Dakota via the magic of GarageBand

Disclaimer: Concepts and writing shared on this podcast are our own. While we hope to inspire our fellow writers, please don’t be a dick and plagiarize lol!