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Freelance Writing Direct with Estelle

Freelance Writing Direct with Estelle

By: Estelle Erasmus
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Winner of the 2026 American Writing Award for Podcast of the Year (Business), Freelance Writing Direct with Estelle is an award-winning podcast featuring candid conversations with bestselling authors, literary agents, editors, and publishing insiders about writing craft, memoir, publishing, platform-building, and getting noticed. Hosted and curated by Estelle Erasmus, TEDx speaker, NYU writing professor, former magazine editor-in-chief, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed, the show delivers practical strategies, publishing insight, and creative inspiration for writers at every stage. Whether you're pitching essays, shaping a memoir, building your platform, or pursuing a book deal, you'll find actionable advice, coaching insights, and behind-the-scenes industry conversations to help move your writing career forward. Learn more at EstelleErasmus.com and subscribe to Estelle's newsletter at Estelle's Substack: https://estelleserasmus.substack.com2022 Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • #209 Encore: The Pitching Secrets That Get Editors' Attention

    #209 Encore: The Pitching Secrets That Get Editors' Attention
    Sep 17 2026
    In this solo episode from the Freelance Writing Direct archives, Estelle Erasmus breaks down real pitches to show what works, what doesn't, and how to make your ideas more compelling to editors. You'll learn how to sharpen your hook, add the right details and research, show editors your access and expertise, and structure a pitch so they can immediately see how the story will come together. Estelle also shares examples from her own successful pitches and explains how small changes can make a big difference. Get more pitching advice and a Pitch Clinic chapter in her book Writing That Gets Noticed. In this episode: How to find and strengthen the hook in your pitchWhy specificity, research, and expert access matterWhat to include when you don't have perfectly matched clipsHow to structure a pitch so an editor can quickly see the storyWays to bring your voice and perspective onto the page Get More From Estelle Erasmus Latest Substack post: Detail with a Pulse to Make Your Writing Sing. A great detail doesn't just describe a scene. It carries emotion, tension, character, or meaning. Here's how to find the one detail that makes a scene come alive. Plus, paid subscribers can send me up to three paragraphs for feedback.https://estelleserasmus.substack.com/p/detail-with-a-pulse-to-make-your. Upcoming Writer's Digest Webinar Join me on October 29 for The First Five Pages: Making Your Memoir Impossible to Put Down, a live Writer's Digest webinar about creating an opening that captures readers, agents, and editors from the start. Register here: https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/the-first-five-pages Meet Estelle at An Event AALA's People of Publishing (NYC), September 30, 2026 (attending as press)Women's Media Group panel (NYC), Memoir Plus: When Personal Stories Contain Multitudes, October 21, 2026 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) ( Chicago), March 17-20, 2027 WatchEstelle's TEDx Talk: How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond Order My BookWriting That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." Listen/WatchFreelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2026 Podcast of the Year, Business (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast About EstelleEstelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct, an adjunct professor at NYU, and the former editor-in-chief of five national magazines with a combined reach of 10 million readers. Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. Follow Estelle Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus Twitter/X: @EstelleSErasmus Bluesky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review Freelance Writing Direct, and share it with the writers in your life.
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    24 mins
  • #208 Layering Memory, Meaning, and Motifs in Memoir with Cinelle Barnes

    #208 Layering Memory, Meaning, and Motifs in Memoir with Cinelle Barnes
    Sep 10 2026
    In this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, award-winning author and memoirist Cinelle Barnes joins me to talk about how A Way Home evolved from a Philippines travel memoir into a layered story of travel, family, identity, recovery, and finding home after she suffered, and recovered from a brain aneurysm. We discuss how she braided different threads and timelines together, found connections between seemingly disparate parts of her story, and shaped a memoir that became more expansive than the book she originally planned to write, plus: • Shaping a hybrid travel and medical memoir • Using emotion and sensory details to deepen scenes • Working with motifs, refrains, and circling back • A writing exercise that everyone can use to find connections in seemingly disparate elements in memoir • Moving from "I have to" to "I get to" Watch on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PlHxkTjzY1s&pp=0gcJCf4LAYcqIYzv About Cinelle Barnes Cinelle Barnes is the Philippine-born author of Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, Malaya: Essays on Freedom, and A Way Home: A Memoir of Losing Yourself and the Beauty of Returning. She is also the editor of the New York Times "New and Noteworthy" A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South. Cinelle is a survivor of a brain aneurysm rupture and sits on the Brain Injury Leadership Council of South Carolina and the Hub City Press National Council, and is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Fund, the Authors League Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, the SC State Arts Commission, and the North American Travel Journalists Association, among others. She has served on the jury panels for several literary awards, including the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Memoir. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Coastal Living, Travel + Leisure, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, Southern Living, and Memoir Land, among others. Cinelle lives in Charleston, SC, with her husband, daughter, and cat. Links For information, visit www.cinellebarnes.com Get More From Estelle Erasmus Latest Substack post: Detail with a Pulse to Make Your Writing Sing. A great detail doesn't just describe a scene. It carries emotion, tension, character, or meaning. Here's how to find the one detail that makes a scene come alive. Plus, paid subscribers can send me up to three paragraphs for feedback.https://estelleserasmus.substack.com/p/detail-with-a-pulse-to-make-your. Meet Estelle at An Event Editor-on-Call event with NYU, Electric Literature, September 16, 12:30-1:30 pm ET (virtual)AALA's People of Publishing (NYC), September 30, 2026 (attending as press)Women's Media Group panel (NYC), Memoir Plus: When Personal Stories Contain Multitudes, October 21, 2026 Writer's Digest Webinar, The First Five Pages: Making Your Memoir Impossible to Put Down, October 29, 2026 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) ( Chicago), March 17-20, 2027 WatchEstelle's TEDx Talk: How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond BookWriting That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." Listen/WatchFreelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2026 Podcast of the Year, Business (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast About EstelleEstelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct, an adjunct professor at NYU, and the former editor-in-chief of five national magazines with a combined reach of 10 million readers. Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. Follow Estelle Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus Twitter/X: @EstelleSErasmus Bluesky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review Freelance Writing Direct, and share it with the writers in your life.
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    42 mins
  • #207 Writing Humor, Character, and Love That Lasts with Steven Rowley

    #207 Writing Humor, Character, and Love That Lasts with Steven Rowley
    Sep 3 2026
    What makes humor work on the page? And how do you write about love after the meet-cute, when a relationship has lasted for decades? In this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, I talk with New York Times bestselling author Steven Rowley about his new novel, Take Me With You, a love story with a touch of science fiction that asks a fascinating question: If you had the chance to leave everything behind and explore the unknown, would you go? We talk about how Steven builds a novel around an organizing question, why he prefers writing without a detailed outline, how he creates humor from character rather than jokes, and what writers can learn from using humor to explore serious subjects. We also discuss writing relationships that evolve over time and why life experience can be an asset for writers. In this episode: How to find the central question that drives a novelWhy Steven writes toward an ending without heavily outliningHow humor can help writers get closer to emotional truthWhy character-based humor has staying powerHow to differentiate characters and show them changing over timeWhy writers shouldn't worry if publishing success comes later in life Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJietLH7PfE About Steven Rowley Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post notable book; The Editor, named one of NPR's best books of 2019; The Guncle, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor; and the instant USA Today bestsellers The Guncle Abroad and The Dogs of Venice. His fiction has been published in twenty languages. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and lives in Palm Springs with his husband, writer Byron Lane, and their three rescue dogs. Link Website: https://www.stevenrowley.com Get More From Estelle Erasmus My latest Substack post is the Substack Live I did with Aliza Licht on DKNY PR GIRL, the magazine world we both knew, branding and reinvention, and her Substack serial novel Off the Record, which brings that era vividly back to life. Private Small-Group Memoir/Essay Class My next six-week session beginning in September 2026 is sold out. Please email me to be added to the waiting list for the next session. Contact freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details. Meet Estelle at An Event Editor-on-Call event with NYU, Electric Literature, September 16, 12;30-1:30 pm ET (virtual)AALA's, People of Publishing (NYC), September 30, 2026 (attending as press)Women's Media Group panel (NYC), Memoir Plus: When Personal Stories Contain Multitudes, October 21, 2026 Writer's Digest Webinar, The First Five Pages: Making Your Memoir Impossible to Put Down, October 29, 2026 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) ( Chicago), March 17-20, 2027 WatchEstelle's TEDx Talk: How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond BookWriting That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." Listen/WatchFreelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2026 Podcast of the Year, Business (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast About EstelleEstelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct, an adjunct professor at NYU, and the former editor-in-chief of five national magazines with a combined reach of 10 million readers. Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. Follow Estelle Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus Twitter/X: @EstelleSErasmus Bluesky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review Freelance Writing Direct, and share it with the writers in your life.
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    25 mins
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