Will I Ever Finish This F#@king Book?
Aven Winslow
Romance writer and Jungian witch Aven Winslow is in the final stretch of writing their second romantasy novel. Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book? is a candid behind-the-scenes podcast about craft breakthroughs, perfectionism spirals, creative resistance, and the eerie ways fiction starts bleeding into real life.
Episodes
How Do You Know When Your Book is F@#king Done?
What if, hiding behind your perfectionism, is a very specific fear — and that’s what’s really keeping you from the finish line?In this season finale, I talk about hitting a wall near the end of Draft Six, having a truly excellent cry 😭 and accidentally creating the podcast you’re listening to right now.I break down the difference between a shiny object that pulls you away from the work and a useful container that helps you finish it — and reveal the very specific flavor of perfectionism that makes me terrified to release my book.Timestamps:00:52 — Hitting the Draft Six wall01:46 — In praise of a seriously excellent cry02:52 — The to-do list massacre03:31 — How this podcast accidentally happened10:59 — The cringy fear behind my perfectionism16:20 — Well? Did I finish the fucking book??Want to see how the book turned out, despite all my bitching and moaning? Hop on my mailing list at twinflames.life/freebies. 🪄 You’ll be the first to know when The Magician and the Labyrinth of Yesterdays releases!Full Episode Transcript
The Fake Podcast I Wrote Before I Knew I Was Making This One
What if the fix to your story problems is hiding in plain sight — and what if, somehow, the answer is CATGOD?In this episode, I talk about the book-within-my-book and why it was turning into a many-tentacled nightmare.I share how a 3 AM idea turned a series of lifeless epigraphs into something far more exciting...and why sometimes the answer is emphatically not "just try harder. "Timestamps:01:28 — All hail the almighty CATGOD03:10 — I love when my unconscious does all the work05:05 — Two imaginary nerds solve a real craft problem08:46 — Pinky swear: No Franken-stories stitched together from dead ideas09:35 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?Want to be the first to know when The Magician and the Labyrinth of Yesterdays releases? 👉 Join my mailing list at twinflames.life/freebies and hop to the front of the queue. (Autocorrect for the win. I misspelled “queue” eight different ways.)Full Episode Transcript
Break Glass in Emergency: Don’t Give Up on Your Book!
What if the fastest way to save your book is to do this one embarrassing thing?In this episode, I talk about the genius of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Id List and how it can make writing fun again (for you and your readers).I share how the fanfic-within-my-book became a roiling cauldron of lusty fun and why I spent weeks telling myself it wasn’t allowed. 🚫We’ll also get into the very important issue of ghost sex and why trusting what you want might just be the antivenom to giving up on your book.Timestamps:01:58 — Why I already know what happens in Book Seventeen03:15 — What is an Id List, and why is it rad?06:01 — The scene that got me all hot and bothered10:20 — What do I love before I wallpaper over it with ten disclaimers?15:19 — Why some people will hate your book16:35 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?Want to see my Id List in action? Hop on my mailing list at twinflames.life/freebies.You’ll be the first to know when The Magician and the Labyrinth of Yesterdays releases, in all its Id List glory.Full Episode Transcript
Are Your Scenes Secretly Boring Your Readers?
What if your scenes are dragging, not because nothing is happening, but because the real action is hiding somewhere you haven’t thought to look? 🔍In this episode, I tackle scenes that look like they should work — goal, conflict, stakes, banter, the whole shebang — but still feel like limp little rags on the page.I share the two books that turned my conception of storytelling upside down, a tool for resurrecting a shambling zombie scene 🧟 and how to use the magical art of bibliomancy to make your characters more compelling.Timestamps:00:43 — When scenes should work…but don’t02:10 — The two books that blew up my writing process07:35 — What this smutty novel taught me about character work13:02 — Why the hell wasn’t I doing this in my scenes before???17:06 — Does every single craft breakthrough belong in this book, or are you using revisions to procrastinate?18:14 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?Want to check out the short story where I toyed with stretching out the rubber band of romantic and sexual tension? 🔥 Read Falling Phoenix for free at twinflames.life/freebies.Full Episode Transcript
How Tacoma, WA Fixed My Book
What if finishing your book isn’t about having all the right answers? What if you need this magic ingredient instead? 🪄In this episode, I share how a trip to Tacoma, WA accidentally changed my entire revision process—and the $3 item that became my new favorite revision tool. I lovingly call out the part of my psyche that confuses “looking busy” with “actually doing shit,” and I break down the most useful change I made to my revision process (and why I’d resisted it for years). Timestamps:00:43 — Book Revisions: The Tacoma Edition!03:09 — The $3 thing that changed everything05:04 — What I really want when I read a romance07:55 — My new favorite revision method11:14 — Effective revisions vs. moving commas around12:16 — Permission to do what works for your brain13:55 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?Mentioned in this episode: All of My 2025 Writing Craft Lessons✍️ Want my annual deep-dive essays where I break down all the writing craft shit I learned while finishing each book? Hop on my mailing list at twinflames.life/freebies and you’ll never miss a single one.Full Episode Transcript
What If Your Revisions Are a Hot Mess?
What if that feeling of revision overwhelm is hiding your creativity kryptonite—and staring it straight in the face is what finally makes you invincible? (🐐 Or at least slightly less likely to delete your entire manuscript and take up goat herding.)In this episode, I tackle the craft problem of making my haunting subplot actually feel haunted, with special guest The Haunting of Hill House. 👻 I unpack why “make the haunting better” is a useless task and how to not suck at revisions. We’ll also meet the Fuck It, Let’s Quit part of my psyche and explore how the busted stove from my childhood is the key to figuring out seemingly unfigureoutable shit.Timestamps:00:53 — My haunting subplot was decidedly unhaunted02:03 — Shirley Jackson to the rescue!07:14 — How I turned a messy subplot into a checklist12:35 — The busted stove story16:34 — Why “make it better” is not a real task18:34 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?✍️ Want my annual deep-dive essays where I break down all the writing craft shit I learned while finishing each book? Hop on my mailing list at twinflames.life/freebies and you’ll never miss a single one. Full Episode Transcript
How to Start When You Don’t Know How to Start
What if the reason you can’t start isn’t that you don’t know enough or haven’t planned enough, but because starting would make the thing real?In this episode, I tackle the Ouroboros Problem 🐍 — how do you begin a book when the beginning depends on the ending, and the ending depends on the beginning?I break down why first chapters and blurbs are particularly thorny, then propose two simple questions for de-thorning them. 👉 We’ll also get into persnickety perfectionism, the fantasy of the unblemished book, and something I almost edited out of this episode—no joke—three separate times.Timestamps:00:39 — The Ouroboros Problem02:17 — Grandpa Joe has something to tell you11:46 — If you ever tell yourself this…get very curious15:02 — What do I (secretly) get from staying stuck?18:35 — The anxiety loop I didn’t want to tell you about23:21 — A spell for releasing your art 24:16 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book?📖 Did you know that you can start reading my first book, The Fool and the Threads of Time, for free at twinflames.life/freebies? It’s true!Full Episode Transcript
What If the Weird Idea Is the Right One?
What if that idea you’ve been dismissing as totally bonkers is the one that will change your life?In this first episode of ✨Will I Ever Finish This Fucking Book? ✨ join me, Aven Winslow, romance author and Jungian Witch, as I invoke the central question of the season 👉 can I drag my second romantasy novel out of my mind, off my hard drive, and into readers’ hands without losing the magic that made me write this story in the first place?This episode begins with the strange origin story of the Twin Flames series... And then? It's time to meet the Four Hallows, of course! We'll use them to crack open the creative process: what’s going wrong on the page, what craft tools might help, which of my (many) fears and neuroses are getting stirred up underneath, and the real-life change the work demands of me.Timestamps:00:00 — What if the weird idea is the right one?00:36 — The problem with being almost finished03:09 — “Hey, you should write a romance”06:24 — The hotel room that started it all07:59 — What the H-E-double-hockey-stick are the Four Hallows?09:09 — Fire, Air, Water, and Earth + the creative process14:19 — Next week on Will I Ever Finish this Fucking Book?🎨 Which of the Four Hallows is YOUR creative superpower? You can totally take a quiz and find out at twinflames.life/freebies.Full Episode Transcript