Keely Brice

Top ten favorite titles...?

A speculative retelling of GREAT EXPECTATIONS set in a world hungry for truth but obsessed with image, UNMET follows an aspiring journalist who makes a supernatural pact with a shadowy fugitive—only to fall for the daughter of a billionaire whose buried secrets could cost her everything. #QuestPit

When a disillusioned former actress seeking an authentic life in a small town shoots an intruder only to discover he’s a young man she’s been mentoring, her life again spirals into dramatics as the community unravels its secrets to understand what really happened. #QuestPit #UpMarket #Suspense

TWC Live! Literary Agents on Publishing in a Time of Unrest TWC Live! returns November 13, and this time literary agents will be expanding on June’s Big Conversation in the magazine: “Publishing in a Time of Unrest.”

The next TWC Live! event premieres November 13. Three agents—@frecklywench.bsky.social, Danya Kukafka, and @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social—will discuss how publishing is responding, or not responding, to social, political, and economic changes in America.

#authors #agents Wondering about comp titles for literary fiction/upmarket. Authors aren't supposed to comp books that have won awards, but lit fic and upmarket are rare in the trad market, so when they break through, they win awards and/or international acclaim. Does this make them off limits?

5. Let them change — or fail to.
Growth (or refusal to grow) is what turns a character into a human being. By the end of the story, they should be different — even if that difference is heartbreakingly small.

4. Give them a past.
You don’t need to dump a backstory on the reader, but you should know it. The way someone walks into a room, reacts to rejection, or shows love — it all comes from somewhere.

3. Listen to their voice.
Dialogue is more than words; it’s rhythm, silence, and subtext. Pay attention to how your characters speak — their vocabulary, what they avoid saying, and what slips out when they’re tired or emotional.

2. Know what they want — and what they fear.
Every decision a person makes is a tug-of-war between desire and fear. A believable character has both, and those forces drive the story far more than external events do.

1. Start with contradictions. Real people are full of them — brave but insecure, generous but stubborn, kind yet selfish in moments that matter. A good character contains tensions that make them unpredictable but understandable.

Believable characters don’t have to be perfect; in fact, they shouldn’t be. They just have to feel real. #amwritingfiction

I have written 4 fab #books (3 of these books are in the hands of many great agents). I graduated from a 4 year MFA program, where I studied craft & got weekly ass-kickings in workshop to make me a better writer and learn to cope w/ the 1,000s of rejections that have come my way in #publishing 4/?

But what do they want and how do we get the books they want into their hands when so much of promotion is done on socials? How do we know what readers want when #TraditionalPublishing latches onto trends? Readers buy these books because they can't buy what doesn't make it to the "shelves"? 3/?

Specifically, they are done scrolling AI and paid content infested #SocialMedia. They are ready to read books again! Some are actually going back to hardcopy. I heard other people say they are even tired of the myriad choices of TV series and movies. Yay!
2/?

Thank you, Raquel! Very helpful.

Thank you ! Always a joy and learning experience to read your posts. Good luck with the winter weather. I grew up in WI, so I am very familiar with March and April snow storms. Now I live in the south and tell people here that it's not the Midwestern winters that lead to madness, it's the springs!

Last year I did sub to you, and there was one 10q's that sounded exactly like mine but wasn't. I still think about that and wonder about the MS and author...

Thanks. I was actually referring to after a client has already written a book. Do you make suggestions to make it trendier? For ex, I had an agent say he would take a second look if I changed a character's career from gymnastics to basketball because more people can connect.

Hi Natasha! Wondering if you give your client advice about trends (modes of storytelling, themes/settings/characters that the industry is hungry for), and what would that look like? Do you ever edit a really well written book that you know won't get a deal because it's ahead of/ behind its time?

Meh, just follow them. This is a community in a pretty public space. Follows don't mean much.

#RevPit #AskEditor
My favorite resources for writing and editing are:
The Emotion Thesaurus by Ackerman & Puglisi
Story Genius by Lisa Cron
Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron
Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes
Wonderbook by Jeff VanDerMeer
Writing Irristable Kidlit by Mary Kole

Aw, I love this! Feels like the good ol' days again!

Yay! I won this contest! So excited to hear Kesia's feedback for my dystopian retelling of GREAT EXPECTATIONS!🥳 I have so enjoyed learning from Kesia's posts on writing and publishing. Thanks to @writingdaywksp.bsky.social for hosting the contest.😊

This is my miniature coral reef. I like the thought that some art is small enough that our homes can become filled with art like museums, curated with the eye for what inspires us or brings joy #sculpture #art

logline: When a girl saves the life of a mysterious fugitive he promises her immortality if she writes a bestseller by 25, but when she sets out to build the largest platform by any means necessary, her best friend’s mother, a billionaire recluse, ensnares her in the plans for her daughter's legacy

GREAT EXPECTATIONS in an era of restless peace. After an AI-induced World War, human ingenuity and truth have never been more prized. Long life and legacy are paramount, but only billionaires can afford the treatments that significantly extend life as they obsess over immortality in all its forms.

Congrats! So happy to see good things happening for you!

So excited! I will be in surgery tomorrow (not major), but I won't be able to ask a question. Would you be interested in working with a speculative, dystopian retelling of a classic? Thanks and sorry for jumping in with a question early. I love #RevPit season, and I know you do too!

That's commitment!

Time to add color! #ThisIsMeCoping