As someone who struggles to write a one page essay, I find it fascinating the process writers go through to complete a book

@elbraddock7711

3 жыл бұрын

Loooool, I hate writing essays. One page takes me forever, but when I'm writing fiction I can write 20 pages in the same amount of time.😂

@netaricker2343

3 жыл бұрын

Don't worry lol, we authors also struggle with those essays XD

@marchiaglico4994

3 жыл бұрын

Hahaha. I hate writing essays but I've already written about 40k words so far in my novel. I don't know why. 😂

@sofijasofija2867

3 жыл бұрын

Im a writer and i struggle with essays. I guess it's all about wanting to write and being forced to write about sonething you don't nesessarily give a sh1t about. A lot of times when writing an essay, i struggle with the actual points and spend a lot of time trying to think of ways to end a paragraph and when writiting a story, it's all about a specific character ecperiencing something without any paragraph structure rules. Moral of the story ESSAYS are still HARD and BORING

@Skinniest_Kween

3 жыл бұрын

Creative writers often suck at essays. I should know.

I read this somewhere and I'll put it here: All first drafts are perfect because all they have to do is exist. Or something like that. It helped me greatly. I hope it will help someone as well.

The drafting misconception that bothers me the most is the idea that fast writing = bad writing. Or, conversely, that slow writing = better writing. We are all different. Our processes are different, and our skills are different. Writing speed has zero to do with writing quality.

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

That's a good one! Wish I'd thought of it for this video!

@j.rileyindependentproductions

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed so much!

@gypsymoth8977

4 жыл бұрын

Yes! This become obvious when you do consistent sprints of the SAME time block. Sometimes it's 500 words of well-aligned usable content, sometimes it's 1200 words that are doomed for the cutting room floor. There are just too many personal variables to assume that time has anything to do with quality. ✌

@rebbiejoanthony5362

4 жыл бұрын

My slow writing is usually my worst writing. If I'm writing slowly, it's because I'm uninspired and am having trouble finding the words, but trying to force it. Then I never keep it.

@jenellebelle9828

4 жыл бұрын

If I write too slow and methodically, I totally lose my writing flow.

I read writers' misconceptions about dating 😂😂😂 Drafting way more important. ❤️

@pseudonymousentity5334

4 жыл бұрын

Karin Lach 😂😂

Loved the statement 'the job of your first draft is to finish it.'

I was afraid of developmental edits until recently, when I was editing my first draft and realized I was bored of my own book lol. Gutted about 40K and writing new scenes that highlight the characters and the Promise of the Premise more, couldn't be happier!

@miezepups15

6 ай бұрын

Editing lost its scare factor for me once I realise that every mistake is fixable. Maybe you have to rewrite ten scenes to do it, but you can.

I keep telling myself that my first draft doesn't have to be perfect, but I obviously don't believe what I'm saying. In school, I NEVER had to outline and the only 'rough draft' revisions I had to make were simple mistakes like typos or a few word tenses. But these were 5-10 page papers - not novels! I just have to bite the bullet I suppose. Thanks for this encouragement, I definitely need it.

I had a passion project I worked on for more than a decade and I drafted and drafted and it still wasn't working out. Ultimately, I had to let it die. I'm truly in mourning for this story and perhaps one day I will have the strength to resurrect it and do a complete rewrite. But now I'm working on the first draft of a new story, and I'm loving it so far.

@oddeyes9413

4 жыл бұрын

I actually did that with my first novel for the series I'm writing. I decided it was time to reinvent the entire story from the ground up. It wasn't easy though.

@heianvampire

4 жыл бұрын

@@oddeyes9413 I think that's what will end up happening with mine. Good luck with your series, I'm sure it'll be great!

@oddeyes9413

4 жыл бұрын

@@heianvampire Thanks. Good luck to you as well.

@kmak4861

2 жыл бұрын

I don't know you but I felt the pain in that comment, I feel like life is too short for you to not being that story in to the world!

@heianvampire

2 жыл бұрын

@@kmak4861 thank you so much for that. I have taken parts of my original story that I felt were most worth sharing, and worked them into my new story. I'm very pleased with my current project and all who've read excerpts really like it!

THIS video was so good. And honestly it's so freeing to know that you can just write the thing and not stress about how perfect it is. Being surrounded by mostly self publishing writers there's just SO much pressure to be DONE RIGHT NOW and I just...honestly think that books need a bit more love than that to be publish ready so it's hard kind of pressing back against that mentality. The misconception I DEFINITELY see the most is that the draft just needs a grammar edit and then it's done and that one always has me like 😱

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

That one kills me too! I see it on Reddit a lot from newbie writers and you always have to ask them "what do you define as editing?"

@danielwright7710

4 жыл бұрын

Seriously. I used to be one of those writers who was so in love with my writing. Handing out my rough draft like it's one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and when people complain about how confusing it was and how they couldn't follow what was going on, I'd scoff and say they aren't intellectually superior enough to comprehend the sheer majesty of my work! Bwa ha ha!

@jacindaellison3363

4 жыл бұрын

I used to think that, too. When I wrote my first draft-don't know if I will get back to it b/c I'm currently working on another project-I would only edit for better sentences, description, or dialogue.

I tend to edit as I write. As a pantser when I draft I tend to reread my story or at least pervious chapter and edit. I hate when people tell me to leave everything as is and just write straight thru. Who can do that? Is it a skill eventually acquired? I just can't write straight thru and notice something and not fix it. Sigh. I'm grateful to hear some authors go thru multiple edits.

@RachelBateman

4 жыл бұрын

I always write straight through on my first draft. I’d drive myself crazy if I kept going back to edit as I go. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to do it that way! We all figure out what works best for us. (Though, when people tell me they struggle to ever finish a first draft, I always recommend they try pushing forward without looking back until the end. Just to prove to themselves they can finish.)

@lindacobo1744

4 жыл бұрын

@@RachelBateman I wish I could work that way alas my brain can't function like that. Maybe one day I will change but for now its my current crazy process 😂

@JulianGreystoke

4 жыл бұрын

Oh yeah, my average it about 4 drafts

@keiths2902

4 жыл бұрын

I can’t write something that doesn’t feel like it’s /it/, so I totslly get that. I don’t commit to page what I haven’t combed through in my head and fit into the larger story first. It has to ALL make sense, or NONE of it does; and I can’t proceed until it makes sense/feels right/is good.

@Lilitha11

4 жыл бұрын

I think the key is to use a bit of moderation. If you edit as you go it takes longer, but you save yourself editing later on so it balances out some what. I think even reading the prior chapter as you are writing the next can be helpful. You don't want to be sitting down writing chapter 5, and going back to reread and editing stuff in chapter 1 though. As long as you are making forward progress each time you sit down and write, you are probably fine.

Oh damn I'm so used to watching your older videos I didn't even look at the date on this one until I saw that there were only 3 comments! My first draft is definitely shit, I'm constantly fighting the urge to go back and rewrite the first two chapters, but if I start doing that I stop progressing, so it's kinda motivating to finish. Because then I can FINALLY go back and write them better. And I kinda realized that my story has a big blank right in the middle where I have no idea what happens and I'm dreading getting to that point while trying to come up with stuff while writing towards it.

@julietfischer5056

4 жыл бұрын

I can get stuck that way, too. Then I can't get going for some reason. Here's a suggestion I picked up from various sources: index cards with scene synopses. 'Character A and Character B have a fight over (something)"; "Character A visits Side Character 1 to learn about (event)" and so on. Shift them around. Maybe a scene would work better if it were earlier or later in the story because it's more relevant there. Then this other scene makes more sense because it's a natural outgrowth of that scene and subsequent events. Or just write down these scenes. They'll be full of info dumps, and you may not use half of them, but they can help you get a grip on your characters, settings, and situations. I'm working on a fanfic right now that had me stalled for months until the simple thing appeared. Now I have to get the characters there. But I have a file of scenes that I wrote (BEFORE starting the story) that I couldn't use because the beginning of the story changed the context. Once I had that first scene, the rest of it fell into place until the writer's block. Or reread those first chapters to see if the action's in the wrong place. Tony Hillerman once wrote about starting one of his Navajo mysteries too early in the storyline. He scrapped the first chapter, rewrote the beginning, and used the discarded material in a federal agent's description of the antagonist's actions. 'The Cats of Ulthar' tells us up front that it's against the law to harm cats in that town, then tells the story of why the law exists. Most Sherlock Holmes stories begin with the victim of the crime coming to him for help, then we learn what happened and follow Holmes and Watson as they investigate.

I'm definitely a born editor, its one of the reasons I dlstarted outlining my stories this year. I absolutely despise drafting, and because it would take me months to conplete the first act (since I was creating the story as i went) I stopped writing.

I have like "30 drafts" of my first novel before publication. But many of those weren't really draft drafts since it was just cleaning up the prose a bit. But each set of edits is a new document on the computer, so that's how I add them up. Great video! Cheers :)

Your last point is where I'm at now. I'm doing a final check on grammar, plot logic, but I realize this is it. I need to release my work , come what may. I enjoy your videos.

I love knowing that I don't have to die over first draft. Literally almost every time that do a new draft, I change some scenes and (try to) make them more impacting. This made me feel better about my writing process and life.

I'm a born drafter and it's annoying because I hate editing lol. I always have so many first drafts lined up waiting for their turn.

@purpleghost106

4 жыл бұрын

(not that you need my thoughts, but in case it benefits you I want to mention an idea) A hypothetical solution: Do you think it'd work to read the scene, then write it like you would a draft with an outline? (where the 'outline' is the scene's last form in the previous draft.) That way you don't have to 'edit', you're basically leaning on your bigger skill, but with more structure to your second version of 'drafting' so that it'd come out more polished.

@sarah-ms3qd

3 жыл бұрын

I'm the opposite lol. I'm over halfway done with a first draft right now and I'm already making lists of everything I want to edit in it. I have to stop myself from doing so now!

@nneoma1583

3 жыл бұрын

Lol same. I use Google docs, and on occasion, I go back and reread random stuff, and leave comments on stuff I need to fix, or I just fix it 😂 I also, as I’m writing and if I don’t like what I write, I leave a comment saying how much I hate it and need to fix it 😂 I’m more of an editor than a drafter.

Could you do a video on how to just make yourself sit down and write? I've always been kinda bad at forming a writing schedule but for the past few months it has been terrible and I just don't know how to make myself stop getting distracted long enough to continue writing

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

I do have a video on forming a writing habit that might help. But it's not a topic I've touched on recently, so I can work on a new video for it.

1:24 "And you put a little placeholder" Glad to know I'm not the only one who does that. Thanks for this pick-me-up, it really helps. :)

@MorganChaos

4 жыл бұрын

the first draft of the book i just wrote had Shipname, NotCeasarFlickerman, and Commander Noname, lol.

@mischarowe

4 жыл бұрын

@@MorganChaos Lol. Can definitely relate. :)

I really needed to hear this. I'm a drafter and editing is the stuff of my nightmares. I have a book that I drafted last year that I've been alternating trying to edit and procrastinating from even looking at for...a year. I've been so stressed!

@JulianGreystoke

4 жыл бұрын

I have the same problem. I hate editing but it's a necessary evil. 😭

Thank you so much for these eloquent and well thought out videos! (usually I'm silently watching, commenting makes me strangely nervous and english isn't my first language ) But I just wanted to tell you that your videos are appreciated around the world! I'm working on my first draft right now, it's really hard but your videos help and motivate tremendously!❤️You are very inspiring and smart and it reflects in your work. You will probably never see this but i hope you have a great day. Greetings from europa 👋

@therealfirelord3359

4 жыл бұрын

This is such a wholesome comment. Also, your english is better than some native speaker's.

Your channel (and this video!) have been such a big help to my writing process. You helped me realize that I am a total plotter and the reason I couldn't fight past writer's block was because I was trying to pants and that's not how I work. I do have the fear of having to completely rewrite a work, so I used to think that my first draft would have to be "good enough" and that was really holding me back. Truthfully, the best way for me to prevent block is to make a proper outline, and then just crap out whatever words come to me, then rework the scenes to have greater emotional impact. Now I'm no longer afraid of editing, and my writing speed is improving drastically! It's all just for fanfiction, but writing is a wonderful skill to develop no matter what it's for.

Hey Alexa, totally agree. This is by far your best video. Thank you. The first draft is the start of every book's journey, there's always room for improvement. ^_^

I find it hard to believe--let alone follow--the common writing advice to not edit as you draft. Who wants to end up with 80,000 words of shit? Maybe that works for a lot of writers, but as a former editor, this advice is tough to follow as I'm drafting my debut novel. Thank you for posting this video! This was very helpful.

Almost finished a first draft.

My first drafts tend to be pretty clean, but that's probably why it's so slow going and I pretty much never finish anything. I think it stems both from growing up thinking the first draft is the final draft and worry about so much burn-out that I won't have the energy to make it pretty.

Thank you for breaking down copy vs developmental edits! Also for me, getting the first draft down is a barrier, so if I can get my ideas down i have something to work with. I just can’t stand looking at a blank page!

I've done it. Had to burn an entire book when I realized that the heist of my cyberpunk heist book was the least interesting part. Ditched like 80% - 90% of that thing.

omg, the born editor/born drafter thing. i am absolutely a born drafter and i feel SEEN.

Would you ever consider doing a video on big picture drafting advice/suggestions? Based on common pit falls of people in the drafting phase? Some things I see are things like: 1) People who never finish drafts but keep jumping to the next thing. 2) People attached to one draft of something they've been working on for 5+ years that just constantly gets re-written. It's been in the "editing phase" for years. 3) People attached to a draft/idea for 5+ years that never gets written/finished. Usually has pages and pages of notes but maybe 15,000 words. 4) People trying to turn their engrossing fan-fic into an original story with some superficial swaps that haven't distanced themselves enough from the original fiction. 5) People drafting something where they have become overly attached to the characters and thus, tend to hate adding conflict to the story. I feel like you've touched on a lot of these topics in other videos but I'd love to hear it in one place, especially for how these drafts tend to fair in a traditonally published market (at least when it comes to querying).

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

That's a great idea!

You always post when I’m settling down for a chill. ❤️

Great video with great advice for new writers once again. Thank you

I've heard the first misconception a lot, and I'm really glad you included (and cleared up) the others as well - especially 2 & 7!

Some of the best writing advice I've heard in a while! Thank you so much, Alexa!

This is such a good video! I just got 'The Stars We Steal' from my preorder and after I finish my other book it's been bumped up to the next book on my TBR shelf!

I just recently found your channel and have been totally binge-watching your videos. Your advice is amazing, and it makes me so excited about writing!

Perfect timing for this! Tomorrow is the start of my writing retreat and I needed this push to finish my first draft. Thank you!

So helpful! About to get into the editing process and I'm super nervous! This helped a lot.

Hi Alexa. Thank you for this great video. I found your channel yesterday, and I'm subscribed. I'm on a break right now and using my time to write my first novel - it's such a great experience, except I can't remember to go eat or sleep. Thank you for the helpful advice and tips.

I love your videos! They always make me feel so motivated. You are so right! Finishing that first draft is the most important thing! Can't have other drafts if there isn't a first!:) (And now I really need to finish this first draft I'm working on!!!) Thank you for sharing your wonderful advice!:)

Omg this really actually helped me to understand what an actual draft/editing of a book really means thanks! I was always so confused.

As always your videos are informative and I love to see them. I especially want to thank you for telling us the difference between copy edits and developmental edits. That help me out a ton. Thanks again for sharing this video.

Making my way through your videos and ran across some early ones. Content was always wonderful and wow, have you upped your game in presentation. Adding the glamour aspect really adds to the effect. Power, baby!

Thank you so much for this video. I feel like as creatives we always think our work isn't good enough and feel the constant need to revise over and over again. I think one of the most common misconceptions about a published book is when we pick it up from the book store we assume that's what the writer queried when in reality any published book has been most likely edited/reviewed by multiple people - who are professionals - and changes were made. A writer never queries an agent or gets picked up by a publisher and they say oh this is perfect let's just publish it as is. Your videos vlogs really help writers understand the process and what really goes into getting a book published. So thank you 💜

You became my go to writing mentor...You have completed an Epic number of videos. Thanks! Time to dive back into writing.

Thanks for posting this, I really needed someone to tell me that letting go of perfection is okay. I am definitely in overworking territory, and I do feel a lot better when I let the draft rest for a while so I can look at with fresh eyes later. Thanks for posting!

I love your videos! Even after having finished 4 novels and 18 kids books, I still keep coming back because there’s always some nugget of wisdom that helps me continue on ❤️

The most liberating part of my new approach to drafting is being able to retroactively change things. I'll be writing say chapter ten and come up with something, a character trait, a plot thread, that should be introduced earlier and not stress. I just put a little note in my file that I'll consult once I'm in the editing stage. My first novel literally fell apart when I changed one thing about the protagonist's motivation when I was ~60% of the way through.

You are so brilliant and have helped me so much. Thank you 😊

This was soooooo useful! thank you!!

The 2nd one is pretty common. I don't think I've heard anyone say that before. It's kind of refreshing. Thanks!

Love the point about how the number of drafts doesn't necessarily reflect on whether it's a bad concept/good concept. The writer's level of experience can play into it, but the fact is that there are simply different difficulty levels depending on the project. Some books/scenes are inherently more complicated to bring to a readable/finished state than others, and all writers will have their own particular strengths and weaknesses (some might struggle with the romance bits, others the action, etc.), so I think it's helpful as the writer to be mentally prepared for that going in.

Jesus, i NEEDED tô learn about this topic so much!! Thank you!!!

I soo needed this. I just finished my first draft of an actual novel length project in December and I haven't read it or anything because I'm afraid of all the edits I know it need to do. I didn't let anything stop my progress. I didn't even give my love interest a last name, I just made a note in the doc every time it came up because I didn't want to stop.

Wow, I'm so glad I found this video. Everything that has been worrying me about my first draft has been mentioned as perfectly normal! God, this is like when I found out everyone has those weird eye floaties as well

Thank you, Alexa! This is the video I needed, and you addressed all my misconceptions and more. ♥️

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad you liked it! Such a great video idea 😀

Lol I write stand up comedy, but when you said that high draft count doesn’t mean the project isn’t good, that made my heart soar 💕 thank you!

My advisor in uni went through over ONE HUNDRED drafts/major edits of his first novel. He would rip it apart, put it back together, rewrite the frankenbook, and repeat until he was happy with it. He was also kinda a perfectionist, so it's understandable.

The most important thing for me when I’m writing my first draft is something you said in another video. You said that writing block doesn’t really exist and omg its so true! Sure, there’s days when I absolutely don’t want to write and feel like nothings coming out but even if it’s not that good as long as I can get it down on the page that’s all that matters. I’ll just fix it when I get to the second draft anyways!

I'm SO glad to come across this. I'm definitely a born drafter rather than a born editer and I never realised it until recently how I don't have fear writing a novel - if I know the hook, characters, and ending, I have faith it will come together - but it's moving from draft one to draft two onwards that I struggle with. And, like you said, it's that fear (particularly of the whole tearing the book down and rewriting it - we all have that one writer friend who talks about doing this!) I think is stopping me. How do we get over the fear?

Another excellent video. Thank you! Yeah, perfectionism. That was really helpful because it's something I forget the moment I go back into the file of a chapter I'm drafting. Also helpful?: No work is ever "final"--we could always make it better. Will probably watch this several more times...or move on to the next video on drafts!

I’ve been really scared by the idea of having to do a total scrap and re-write, I have always written first drafts with so many structural problems that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, I’m really hoping that doing a little more plotting ahead of time will make things different this time, because honestly nothing I’ve produced was worth the full re-write when there were other ideas to pursue.

Robert Frost spent 14 years to rewrite a poem - it started as 'In White' and ended up as 'Design.' Yup, never fully happy with the result!

@oddeyes9413

4 жыл бұрын

I don't think any writer is ever pleased with their work. Its always something you ultimately don't like.

here i am watching every video you have about drafts and revising to start editing

Thanks so much for all your helpful videos. I really appreciate your content :) And gosh, your make-up is gorgeous in this video!

I edit as I go with a major do-overs every January, so once I've written the last word of the last scene of the last chapter, I only need to go over the book once more to do a final edit and then once more to fix the new mistakes I introduced on that final edit, and then once more a year later to fix the stuff I couldn't see a year ago.

My biggest misconception (of my own fabrication) was thinking there were ‘rules’ to writing. Nothing kills the creative process more than when you think you’re doing it wrong. I also thought editing was prettying up your manuscript and using ‘smarter’ words (thank goodness I didn’t end up self publishing that first book)

my first drafts are either almost exactly what i want, or literally nothing but memes, tropes, and short hand, but get everything needed; basically an extended outline; Ideas first, fine tuning next, to see what you need to change, getting there by whatever works for each person!

Came for the advice, stayed for the eye shadow. Your best video so far imo.

I have always wanted to be an author since I was little and I grew up writing tons of drafts of stories. Sadly, I've come to the harsh reality that where I'm from doesn't really have a proper writing industry and locals generally don't support local authors who are very small in number.

Thanks for the info, Alexa. Very interesting! I’m a 16 y/o author who just got a book deal!!! 😃 I actually just posted a video about it, too.

I think the I think the biggest thing this channel has taught me is basically however you right that's natural for you and gets the book done is fine. I'm a bit of a slow writer, I have a full-time job, I write by hand, and I see all the stuff about nanowrimo style fast drafting and I'm a very impatient person and a very scatterbrained person so that appeals to me. However it just doesn't work for me and I almost changed my process entirely just to finish books fast. I wanted to just bare bones write what happens in the scene and move on but I couldn't do that I need to write out my scenes pretty much in full. The language is pretty, the sentences are nice but don't take too long to write. That's just naturally the way I write and the way I think about my stories. That means it takes me longer to get through scenes and I thought there was something wrong with me because of that that. I thought this was the reason I never finished anything, cuz it just took me too long but I think the reason I never finish anything is because I just don't stick with it long enough. I keep trying to mold my process away from what's natural to me. I can't just right bare bones what happens in the scene without anything pretty because it takes me out of the voice it takes me out of the character's head and it's not fun to write any more because I don't get to be in the moment. So thanks Alexa for basically giving me permission to just be myself sometimes I need that🧡

Thank you! Finally someone says the first draft is imperfect rather than sucks!

I’m basically redoing my first 10 chapters. I’m ok with it, and know it will come out better in the end.

Nice and useful post. From my point of view, definitely, any draft is necessary, but it hasn't to be an obsession. In my practice, I start writing in a notebook, the ideas, and planning as much as the story (first draft). Step by step I capture the written by hand on my computer (yes, sometimes I do write directly on the screen without the notebook), and on the way, I review, correct, and edit the captured (second draft). Once I have advanced a few parts I read at loud to hear, and sense the story and on the task, I do as many changes as the story needs (third draft). Once I finish the work I do the last reading at loud without annotations and after that I let the text (book, article, story, poem, whatever) rest for a while. During the pause I think remembering what I didn't feel good about when reading, sometimes (if possible) I share the draft or the part I am not sure to somebody to criticize my work and get feedback. Then I review and modify, edit and correct just the necessary and nothing else (fourth and last draft). Maybe if I had an agent and editor, they sure would change little more things before publishing, but since I do auto-publish, the last word is mine no matter what. Making mistakes, at last, is a valid way to write too.

The last misconception is something I am personally grappling with. Whenever I let my manuscript rest and come back to it, there are always things I feel I can tighten or improve. I even had a dream once of being invited to read my work and panicking internally about all the edits I can't make while I read. Finding that point to let go is difficult, particularly when I know that, if I'm lucky, my published manuscript is 'set in stone'. But I'm hoping to do that in the next month or so and query it to agents.

I'm writing my first novel (SO HARD!!!!!) and I have to confess #1 is so true for me! I"m learning to skip around and even write generic descriptions or dialogue just to keep going. You can always polish up in edits so you don't have to think of brilliant things in the first go. Trying to do so slows the process down too much.

People are wrong if they think re-writing means starting from the beginning. It's moving forward because the draft you wrote is an outline for the draft you're writing from scratch. I love re-writing and find it to be the most relaxing and confident part of the process.

Im almost done with first draft and the hardest thing is to NOT think about querying for like the next several months while I edit. Damn, as I writer I’m so needy!

I much prefer editing and rewriting to writing. It's not so easy to produce a scene, but I can easily make it better. I suspect I'll find I'm an over-editor, I have a tendency to over tweak things in other areas of my life.

loool i used to believe 3. my book got much better when I realized what I actually needed to flesh out secondary characters (ie giving them subplots, goals, motivations... lives of their own lol)

"Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist." - Jane Smiley

Something that helped me in drafting was that I had this idea in my head that I had to draft it all in one sitting. Not sure how it is possible to pump out that many words at one time. So I became a hybrid writer. I draw out all of my arcs for the book plot, series plot, the villain, hero, villain seconds, hero seconds, and then the filler gang. Then I design my chapters and chop them into 2 or 3 sections. Once I have the skeleton of the story, I can go pants the actual story in each chapter or even just a section. So after this organization it is now bite-size hurdles and I stay motivated. When I get into editing, those chapter and sections now become puzzle pieces that I can move around. My hardest part is realizing when I need to stop editing.

I am in the fanfic stage of my writing. Even with that my first project novel length I want to fix it and plan to re write it before trying my hand at original work, in November for NaNo

This video was very nice and supportive! Makes me feel a little better about my own writing. Kind of off topic, but I'm wondering if I had an advance reader copy of a book and want to reread the book, should I buy the completed one because any small issues could have been fixed? Or is it not really worth it? Thanks!

I needed this, thank you. Now I need to go cry while I finally edit my work. 😂

It would be amazing if you could do a video on historical fiction (and romance?) because not that many KZreadr authors talk about it.

@OcarinaSapphr-

4 жыл бұрын

Love_always_matters I *absolutely agree* - it feels like it’s a mystery subject a lot of the time. I would love to know about the variety in historical novels/ historical fiction/ historical fantasy, how agents & publishers feel about them- & how people go about writing them; one of my WiPs is set around, during & after the English Civil War, so mid-17th c- & my research has taken me to some very obscure places. Are there different rules to writing these types of novels? The internet has changed a lot of things, I feel; people are *going* to call you up on mistakes- now, more than ever, so I don’t really stop researching (I try not to let it take over my writing but I know it’s *so* important)- yet, there are authors out there _cough_ Philippa Gregory _cough_ who still publish what seem (to my personal history lover-minded view) garbage stories.

@jasminef6810

4 жыл бұрын

OcarinaSapph1r3 -24 absolutely, like is it a dead genre? The only newer books I know of/ have read (mainly historical romance) have kind of sucked. Like they are really cliche and inaccurate. Are they not really in demand anymore? I’m writing a regency era story at the mo, and it’s just such a overdone era. But I just love it so much I had to write in it.

@OcarinaSapphr-

4 жыл бұрын

Love_always_matters They say write what you want to read... & I love me some historical fiction! But it’s disheartening to see mediocrity rewarded- there are far better historical novels deserving of adaptation than many of what I’ve seen (looking at you, Philippa Gregory)- & why is it the **same** stuff getting redone- & the same *type* of stuff? Don’t get me wrong- like, Shakespeare & Austen are eternal (the latter especially so... I’m actually descended from the Austen’s via one of Jane’s brothers, so her work has a special place in my heart), but maybe give something else a chance. How many times do we really need to see *another* ‘Little Women’, or ‘Wuthering Heights’? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the new one (though Jo in the trailer did not sit well with me, & I’m really tired of movies having the same actor play a child/ young teen, & then older teen/ adult, just because the older actor means bank- it feels stupid, frankly. It’s different with a series, I guess- up to a point). Rosalind Laker is my absolute fave *_ever_* historical fiction writer, & there are a couple of others I enjoy; I read the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of ‘The Venetian Mask’ when I was like 11/ 12, & fell in love with historical fiction. She brings some fascinating ‘shadow-worlds’, as I call them, to life: ‘The Sugar Pavilion’- with smuggling, sea-bathing at Brighton & early confection-making, around the time of the Revolution/ Napoleonic Wars - ‘The Jewelled Path’; with its’ Art Nouveau aesthetics, competing courtesans- both real & fictional, a young woman trying to forge a career for herself, & finding & losing love- jewel thieves, Russian nobles, ambitious dancers & Monte Carlo- I mean, it’s just a great read... I don’t know why, but I see Katie McGrath in a red wig, in the lead role of the latter, when I visualise the story in my head.

@jasminef6810

4 жыл бұрын

OcarinaSapph1r3 -24 I haven’t actually read loads and loads of historical novels, but two out of a series I have read (called the Bridgetons) by Julia Quinn, is getting adapted. God the first book was dire, almost everything about it was bad, that I can’t even write it all here. The second book was an improvement, but my only motivation for reading the whole series is someone I know is connected to the Netflix adaptation. Shame really, there are so many more books that deserve it than that one.

@OcarinaSapphr-

4 жыл бұрын

Love_always_matters Tell me about it- & it’s just as bad when they ‘reinvent’ or ‘reinterpret’ the classics. I don’t get why they often ignore the book/s in adaptations- they get the rights, & then don’t care, because they apparently don’t *need* to; but there’s **reasons** why stuff becomes popular (even crappy stuff, _sigh_ like 50 Shades... [I only watched Cinematic Excrement & Lost in Adaptation’s **fantastic** reviews of them]) I get the importance of balancing stuff like that, truly- but all the stuff you hear with authors disowning adaptations makes me sad. If they were done properly, authors wouldn’t be doing that, & fans & critics would be less likely to castigate the adaptation (some stuff is just poor in its’ original form, too- & an adaptation can only do so much to fix it... don’t @ me, but I prefer the movie-version of ‘Watchmen’s’ endplot, to the alien-thing of the author.) Like, this isn’t even a dream, because I don’t think I’ll ever reach Best Seller/ household name-status, but I’d like to imagine that if a novel or series of mine was ever adapted, I’d be able to describe it to people as supplementary to the book/s, rather than an entirely different entity, as almost everyone currently does - I _get_ the necessity, sometimes, in *some* areas, to refine & even cut- but it shouldn’t be arbitrary or personal preference; it should be what best suits the story, & its’ themes & atmosphere. You could try something *really* radical- & respect the audience. I get studios & bean counters want to have as wide an audience as possible, but things don’t appeal to everyone & that should be ok. Sorry for the rambling, lol.

I am teeeeeerrible for editing as I write, because I’m embarrassed to pass it off to friends and critique partners with it looking like an absolute mess. I’ve started marking certain phrases and paragraphs in different colours so I know back to work on them later, and leaving margin notes for myself... but almost to also tell people “I KNOW! I know this is bad, it’s not there yet”. But good God does it take me a long time to write. I need to learn to let go.

@imygurl08

4 жыл бұрын

What I try to do is write the rough draft straight through and then do one round of developmental edits before passing off to beta readers. That way I actually get a draft out and still get to turn in something that isn't too messy.

Working on 2nd draft rn and

Heinlein allegedly only ever did cosmetic editing before sending out to an editor--obviously the exception to the rule!

I'm definitely a born editor. I find it extremely difficult to turn that switch off so I can just write.

First I have to say I really enjoy your videos! I'm from europe and we don't have a good booktube. Funny thing is, my first drafts are very good and in no means garbage. I have a hard time to unserstand, when someone talks about a lot of editing and rounds of beta readers. Not even the Agents suggested a lot of editing, just some little things. Got my first contract with a main publisher some weeks ago and sold a five book series. Worked six weeks on each books and that was it. Can't belive I got away this lucky. Now of course the publisher will do some editing with me, but I guess it's one of this unreal storys you hear sometimes. But I take it, haha. Love your content!

@HDloly

4 жыл бұрын

Congratulations! Did you have previous writing experience or this book was your first time ever?

@HuehnerWonderLand

4 жыл бұрын

@@HDloly thank you so much! I published three SP books - but I'm not a marketing person so it they did okay but not great. Guess going with a publishing house is a better fit for me.

@rosalieoosterlaken2949

4 жыл бұрын

wait wait wait wait, you wrote a book in only six weeks?

@HuehnerWonderLand

4 жыл бұрын

@@rosalieoosterlaken2949 it's always six weeks for me - at least before Corona. Now there is Homeschooling going on, so I'm not writing a lot at the moment :(

This video was pretty much me!!!

i feel like this is directed at me lol, thank you for the great advice.

This is a very dumb question, but by chance could you do a video where you show what a basic 1st draft, 2nd draft, etc. looks like? I' m hoping to start writing a series.... and I am extremely nervous to start.

@AlexaDonne

4 жыл бұрын

Can you clarify what you mean? Looks like in what way?

@thetoughunicorn7616

4 жыл бұрын

I believe he/she means how rough (or readable) the first draft is supposed to be? I also had a hard time imagining what it's supposed to look like :/

@pbarteau8698

4 жыл бұрын

I would also really love a video about that- I have gotten good at finishing first drafts but I find revisions intimidating. I got very good at revising/editing short pieces and schoolwork, but large drafts feel different and it's difficult to know how to prioritize what to address. Like, is going with my gut on the little things that bug me a good way to start, or is it better to address large structural things first even if it's harder to think about and easier to get stuck on, and is it fine/necessary to do both at once, or will that lead a bad place? I think what I want is a video about how you /decide/ what to work on from one draft to the next.

@teganmartin8751

4 жыл бұрын

I wouldn’t be worried about what a first, second, third draft looks like, because it is going to look different for every single person. There are so many factors to consider including level of ability, the genre, the complexity of the storyline, the style of prose, etc. that will influence how polished one draft is from the next. My first drafts tend to be fairly polished, because I’m a perfectionist and get caught up in tweaking it as a go - but it also takes me a million years to finish something as a result. It also means more focus on developmental edits rather than line edits. But that is just me. Like Alexa said, each project is going to be a bit different from the next, so I wouldn’t compare too closely. :)

@pbarteau8698

4 жыл бұрын

@@teganmartin8751 Sure every project is going to look different even for the same person, but I would still like to see a video about it and find it helpful. I'm not worried or comparing myself to someone who writes a very different kind of fiction, so just worry about yourself.

I haven’t been this early since I was born prematurely

I am definitely a drafter and this video has been quite informative. Perfect first draft? Ha! Nope.

This was a good Show!! A lot of things I can look into but I have a question if it's okay to ask. How can a writer write a story if mutiple a going through their head. I'm just wanting to know if you've experiences it through yourself or someone else.

The first draft is to get the story down. That can tell you if your story will work as you envision it. Then subsequent drafts polish and revise until the story is as good as you can get it.

I just try to write it all out.I might use a characters name to much,use said,asked and other words a lot and words things wrong or with too much or little words actually needed but I just need to get the words on the page and worry about everything that might need fixing later or else I would never get past the first page.

Lol, last time something I wrote where my 2nd draft was my best is my 101 essay of George Orwell's shooting an elephant. 🤣