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Amy Suto
Hello! 👋 I’m Amy Suto, a published author and freelance memoir ghostwriter. Subscribe to my newsletter & writing job board here!
3 Steps: How to Write a Book Outline for Your Memoir or Nonfiction Book
Want to write a great memoir or nonfiction book? Everything starts with a great outline! Here are the 3 steps you need to follow to outline your book effectively, and why an outline is a critical part of your book writing process.
My Process: How I Ghostwrite Books as a Memoir Ghostwriter
Here’s my process for how I ghostwrite memoirs and nonfiction books as a memoir ghostwriter! If you’re looking for a freelance ghostwriter or editor for your book, read on to learn about my story-based approach.
Why Great Writing is Good for Business
Great writing grows businesses and changes careers. That’s why some of the most successful people invest heavily in blogs, books, email newsletters, and social media feeds. They don’t underestimate how great writing can transform their life and careers and open doors they never knew existed.
How to Write a Memoir: Be a Detective in Your Own Life
I've written in the past about my overall process for writing memoirs: as a memoir ghostwriter, I do this for a living and love diving into people's stories with them.
Working Remotely in Galena, Illinois
We've been working on some exciting things lately, including the full redesign of This Here Blog. It's about time -- I've had the same Wordpress template since I was twelve, so we're past due for some changes around here. I'm working with Gertrude Pillena over at Design Kick, a super cool design firm based in Singapore.
Your Bio Sucks: How to Write a Better Bio for Your Website, LinkedIn, Resume, or Whatever
Okay, let me level with you in a way nobody in your life is doing right now: Your short bio/about me blurb? Y'know, that one paragraph or more you use to describe yourself on social media, dating profiles, websites, LinkedIn, whatever? It sucks. But you don't suck. You just suck at writing about yourself. It's okay, I'm here to help you.
So You Wanna Be a Great Writer, Artist, or Musician: How to "Honor the Work" as a Creative
If you've ever seen a video of the art prodigy ZhaoXiaoli, a Beijing-based painter who turns trash into her canvas and tools, it's pretty clear there's an incredible amount of creativity not only in her work, but in how she presents it.
Quarantine Nomads: How Freelancers Can Live and Work Remotely and Safely During COVID-19
I spent most of this year quarantined in Los Angeles, sitting at the dinner table with my cat and Zooming with friends over cocktails and societal outrage for five whole months. I've taken COVID pretty seriously, seeing friends only for the occasional masked hike or social distanced hang.
Nobody is Going to Make Your Thing: The Cavalry Isn't Coming and Other Hollywood Pep Talks
I get a lot of people who ask me how to get started in the industry, i.e. how to sell a script or something or get somebody to produce your idea or get a studio to buy your screenplay or make your podcast or whatever.
My Freelance Writing Workflow: Billing, Invoicing, Contracts and More (How to Manage Your Freelance Writing Business)
Like most freelance writers and people on the planet earth, I don't really enjoy things like contracts, billing, invoicing, and all that jazz. If it was up to me, I'd spend my days frolicking through the forest writing poetry on tree bark and learning how to whittle tiny figurines of pandas.
My Advice to 2020 and 2021 Film School Graduates: Navigating the Post-COVID Entertainment Industry and Building a New Path
I've written a lot on my blog about traditional entrypoints for the industry, from surviving being an agency assistant to networking authentically to the difference between support staff positions in the writers' room. Now, I'm modifying my advice, in part because I don't think the assistant route is a viable one for writers anymore.
How to Produce a Scripted Podcast
We're all about scripted podcasts here on the ol' blog nowadays! If you missed my post about how to write a scripted podcast, I'd recommend starting there. After all, there is no scripted podcast without a script!
How to Write a Scripted Podcast at the End of the World
We're living in extraordinary times, from the pandemic to the incredible revolution sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement. It's a reminder to all storytellers that we need to support the kinds of stories that reflect the reality we live in: that cop shows have glorified cops for far too long, that we haven't been questioning underlying structures of our world in the way that we need to in order to create dangerously and be good allies.
Remote Work Survival Guide: How to Work from Home and Not Lose Your Goddamn Mind
So, I heard you're working from home now! WELCOME to the league of pajama-wearing workers like myself. We've been doing this for awhile, come on in, the water's just fine. (So you can stop hoarding water bottles now, okay?)
10 Things To Do While Under Coronavirus Self-Quarantine for Writers and Creatives (Pandemic Survival Guide!)
In a matter of days, my writers' room began working from home, all my meetings and events got cancelled, and we had to put a pin in all of the in-person programming we had set up for Kingdom of Pavement. I started lining up freelance work for when my writers' room ends with the intention of just hanging out at home for a bit while this whole pandemic absorbs the entire city and also does the impossible: quell Los Angeles traffic. (Drag racing on Sunset Blvd, anyone?)
A Year of Writing: What I've Learned from Traveling, Writing for TV, Freelancing, & Ghostwriting Memoirs for People All Over the World
I'm on a rooftop bar in Paris, talking to an American who works in "security" in third world countries (read: definitely CIA) and an allegedly famous actor from Istanbul. The sun is setting, the actor is buying all of us shots, and we're toasting to meeting new people and getting out of our comfort zones in the golden glow of the evening.
How to Plan a Research Trip for Your Script or Novel
Want to make the most out of your research trip for your script or novel? Look no further! Here are my top tips to have inspired adventures.
4 Lessons Writers Can Learn from Yoga and Meditation
As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm in the middle of training for my yoga certification so I can teach yoga for writers. As someone who loves to experiment with ways to improve my writing and creative mind, yoga and meditation were always something I turned to in order to find space for my process. Now, I'm taking a deep dive, and it's been transformative.
Method Writing: Exercises to Experience the Stories You're Writing
I love collecting weird hobbies and experiences, and often joke that I'm a "method writer." It's only partially a joke: I've been known to seek out adventures in the same flavor of what I'm writing. (See: this deep cut from my archives where I shot guns and learned about them six years ago for a novel I was writing. Baby Amy was -- and still is -- a die hard method writer.)
How I Made My First $10k as a Freelance Writer on Upwork
I just passed my $10,000 milestone on Upwork, time to pop the champagne and share some tips for those of you also looking to jump into the freelance writing world! As I mentioned in my previous post (Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer) I do freelance writing full-time when I'm in-between writers' rooms.
Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer
Hello friends! I'm back from doing some travel (San Fran for work, Tahoe for play) and also just moved into a new apartment with my best friend who also happens to cook the best Italian food you've ever tasted.
Writers' Life: How Your Examined Life Informs The Stories You Tell
Just like you are what you eat, you write what you live. While I believe that write what you know is a narrow way to approach the vast expanse of stories you could be telling, I do believe that our own experiences create a prism through which we see the world and write about it.
How to Write a Series Bible for Your TV Show
It's the top of the New Year and I hope you're as ready for this year as I am! Every year after Christmas I let my OCD tendencies take over and deep clean my apartment and get my projects in order by making a project calendar. I also get started on new scripts, so I thought I'd write this post about how to write a killer series bible for your TV show. Let's write stacks on stacks of final drafts this year guys, OK?
5 Best Writing Articles of 2017 from AmySuto.com
In 2017 I worked on two different TV shows, wrote lots of pages, and took far too many artsy photos of my cat. I also wrote some blog posts. If you missed them, here are some of my best articles about writing from 2017:
How to Work with a Writing Partner (and not murder each other!)
So if you're starting in a television writers' room or are about to embark on writing a script with a writing partner, here are some things you should keep in mind so that you get along with other creatives and homicide stays on the page:
3 Tips for Getting Organized and Motivated after a Setback (Writing in Hollywood)
We can't control a lot of aspects of writing in television, but what we can control is our own mindset and how we approach our work. By investing in a sense of humor, a positive perspective, and some organizational habits, we can re-route ourselves and get back on track no matter the setback. So, here are six ways I reset myself and my goals after a setback:
Writing the Half-Hour TV Drama
I hate the phrase "dramedy."Every half-hour TV show that isn't quite a comedy has been given that title. NURSE JACKIE? WEEDS? TRANSPARENT? GIRLS? Dramedies, despite the fact that the spine of these shows are unequivocally dramatic.
Assistant Life: Surviving Vs. Thriving, Strategies to Keep Writing
I've been writing a lot recently about creatives in the industry and posting images of aesthetically pleasing and meticulously organized writing spaces (aka: my therapy) so this blog post is continuing the trend.At holiday parties this past month, I've been meeting other writers who are holding down jobs in the industry, from showrunner's assistants to writer's PA's to researchers.
Writer's Life: Finding Creativity & Maslow's Hierarchy
I work Hollywood hours. Up at 5am or 6am to write (depending on the project I'm working on), out the door by 8am, at my agency by 8:30am, and back home by 8pm if I'm lucky (if I have networking drinks, make that 10pm.)
3 Steps to Successful Worldbuilding (How to Prewrite)
It's an absolute crime how pre-writing is so overlooked in the writing world. Have you read Stephen King's On Writing? That was one of my favorite writing books as a kid and I took his advice as gospel. One of the tenets of his book was that too much outlining and prewriting killed the story, which made me instantly afraid of killing my story before I could discover it through the actual process of writing.
Hello! 👋 I’m Amy Suto. I’m a bestselling author, creator of the bestselling Substack Make Writing Your Job, and a 7-figure freelance memoir ghostwriter. Subscribe to my newsletter and writing job board to learn how to make writing your job!
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MY NEW BOOK: WRITE FOR MONEY & POWER
The anti-starving-artist's guide to becoming a seven-figure writer.
NEW SERIAL: LET ME BE YOUR GHOST
My serialized billionaire romance — a ghostwriter with secrets, a CEO with more. Read chapter one free →
MY ROMANTASY NOVEL: THE ASH TRIALS
The deadliest game is remembering who you are.
MY DETECTIVE NOVEL: THE NOMAD DETECTIVE
Crime crosses borders, but so does this detective.
MY HOW-TO BOOK: SIX-FIGURE FREELANCE WRITER
Work smarter, not harder — without the burnout.
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