Helen | Writes ✍️

Writer | Book Lover 📚 | Creative Director | Currently editing my YA speculative novel ✍️

[Helen | Writes ✍️ @helenlsayers]

Love cuts the deepest
when it’s the hand you trust most
that holds the blade 🗡️ 💔

Follow along for a love story, ancient curses, and the haunting beauty of what should’ve stayed buried 🌒📖✨

#booktrailer #writerslife #originalart #amediting
#writingcommunity #comingsoon

[Vicky Weber - Agent, Author, Educator @vickyweberbooks]

Did you know: The book that gets you an agent is rarely the first one you write. And the book that gets you an agent? It’s rarely the first to sell to a publisher. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself and just...write.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Words to your mother.

[Helen | Writes ✍️ @helenlsayers]

@ArienSkyeWrites @EvernightTeen This cover is just beautiful 😍

[Heather Cashman @HeatherCashman]

Advice from me as a literary agent who’s also a writer:

If your CP or agent or editor is telling you to remove things from your own writing (that you know you wrote) because it sounds like AI, you might politely tell them to go pound sand.

AI is trained to sound like us, and it’s only getting better at it. But you are the only one with your voice. Treasure it. Keep it sacred (with all the em dashes and metaphors), no matter what anyone tells you to do.

[Sienna Delayne @sienna_delayne]

Nobody tells you the loneliest part of being a writer.

It's not the rejection. It's not the self-doubt.

It's finishing a chapter at 2 AM… crying… shaking…
and having no one to tell.

Because no one in your life understands why a story that isn't even real… broke you.

But it is real. To us, it's real.

[Helen | Writes ✍️ @helenlsayers]

@ArienSkyeWrites Sent you a dm! 🤩

[Helen | Writes ✍️ @helenlsayers]

@elizanane Would love to join!

[Vicky Weber - Agent, Author, Educator @vickyweberbooks]

The amount of unpaid emotional labor expected of creatives right now is unsustainable, actually.

[Alyssa Matesic @AlyssaMatesic]

My top piece of advice for writers who want to level up their prose? Read.

It'll help you develop your craft in ways you may never have imagined.

You'll:
👉 naturally absorb techniques for rhythm, cadence, and flow
👉 discover different ways to structure stories (multi-POV, multi-timeline, etc.)
👉 understand the types of characters that resonate with you — and which don't

Here are my tips for getting the most out of everything you read — and becoming a better writer in the process. 📚🤓

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

The 'kin' of ‘napkin’ means "little."

‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”

So a napkin is a little tablecloth.

10/10, no notes.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Jane Austen used 'however' at the beginning of a sentence, and so can you.

[Rowan Brighton Brown @RowanBrightonB]

Do you want to pick up a book about "weighing family ties against survival" or a book where "Katniss's younger sister is drafted into a fight to the death so she must volunteer in her place and fight for not only her own survival, but for the survival of everyone she loves?"

[Helen | Writes ✍️ @helenlsayers]

Keep going! ✍️

[Kate Halena @KateHalena]

You’re allowed to write slowly.
You’re allowed to rewrite.
You’re allowed to change everything.
The only rule: don’t abandon it.

[Alyssa Matesic @AlyssaMatesic]

What do you NEED to be a writer? 🤨

Let the truth set you free: there are NO specific qualifications you have to meet.

You can be any age. You can come from any background. You can have a college degree—or not.

Becoming a successful writer requires just one simple thing: writing over and over and over again.

[Kate Halena @KateHalena]

The only bad writing is the writing that doesn’t happen. Start now. Fix it later.

[Esty @estywrites]

Cannot emphasize enough: what I’m looking for in queries are *stakes*.
Why is this happening?
What if it goes off the rails?
Why care?
What’s at risk?
Everyone’s queries have themes. Themes alone don’t sell agents, editors, publishers, or the reading public. 1/2

[Vicky Weber - Agent, Author, Educator @vickyweberbooks]

Dialogue hack: let one line hang awkwardly. People interrupt, trail off, repeat. Real speech is messy.

[Allie Nguyen 🌞🌙 Preorder BLOOD OF SILVER @alliewritesalot]

Stop crashing out about your word count. My YA fantasy got me an agent at 110k words, then a book deal at 97k, and after editing with my editors, the final word count is 120k.

[Pippa📽️💙. @pippawestauthor]

"No from one agent is a no from all" has to be the most stressful choice ever as a querying writer😭