I always tell myself that the characters need me. They need me to tell their story, and only I know it. So I have to be the one to write about it.

@cartooneyed

4 жыл бұрын

Good idea. Thank you

@hineraable

4 жыл бұрын

That's, such an interesting way to put it.

@lookabove6097

3 жыл бұрын

wow.

I always consider my first 20 minutes of writing to be my “warm up” phase, so I love the idea of the novel stop!

I love the visualization of the "fuck this phase" being a lot like getting into a cold pool or bath. Once you just hang in there for a few minutes, you feel better and even start to feel comfortable.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Ooh that’s a good one! Someone on the insta live described it like surface tension which I think works too. Did you manage to catch it?

@jimwoodswrites

5 жыл бұрын

@@RachaelStephen Thanks! No, I didn't. Sounds great though! I'll look you up!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

It was on the Prep_tober Instagram account! And I think I may do another next Friday if you want to join :)

I break up my work by scenes. Each scene I complete gets me a reward or allows me to do something else. That may mean I can have a cookie or go for a walk. Other times it is now I can finish cleaning. Which if you know me, my house has to be clean or I feel like a failure. So I write a scene, I can organize one piece of my life. Then if I want to do more, I have to finish another scene.

Meta-metaphors! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Personally, I love the novel stop metaphor. I like the idea of active waiting or active patience.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

I can’t help myself 😂 yes, me too!

Editing the previous chapter gets me into writing mood.

I miss these kind of videos from you, they were very good.

I admit, for me it's not as colourful as your metaphors, which I quite like, in fact. I rather picture it as a shopping bag or an item I want to to buy at a store. Usually, my goal in writing is not set in time or word count, but in a chunk of the story - a certain piece of dialogue, an action, perhaps an entire scene where I long to achieve the hook at the end of the scene. This gives me a sense of looming achievement during writing. If, in the beginning, nothing really happens, I just let my fingers play on the keyboard until words start to form (this usually happens pretty soon). I know that I will have to cut out the first lines or paragraphs later on as rubbish, but the tactile stimulation of my fingers helps me get started. So, I'm happy if at the end I've bought / bagged the one item I'd set out to get. That's my picture. On good days, of course, I may go out to the store more than once. :-) On bad days, I find that the item I bought doesn't fit after all. Too bad. But it got me working.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Oh I like this! And it’s so true about just getting the fingers moving to shakes things loose. Warm up time is a real thing. When you finish the item do you say ‘it’s in the bag!’ ? 😂

@kiwikea2002

5 жыл бұрын

Yes! :-) (Until it's revision time or so ...)

I love the things that come out of your brain and that you share those lovely golden nuggets. Also I really appreciate that your content is so creative and original- I hate the “5 things to solve this problem” type of videos that are basically someone synthesizing a wikihow article and a couple other things.

"Sometimes they'll pop in for a single sentence - then f@#$ck off." 😂😂😂 - SO TRUE!

Wow, you’re such a huge help. You don’t even know...

I love the novel stops idea, and I might be stealing that to use during Nano. This probably sounds pathetic, but 20 mins still sounds intimidating to me, and I'd probably go for 15? 15 feels like the largest unit of a small amount of time, if you know what I mean!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Go for it! Go for ten even!

@hayleehaux2458

5 жыл бұрын

@@RachaelStephen i do 10 😂

@mayusteapot

5 жыл бұрын

I used to do a random number of minutes between 5 and 20 until I settled on 17. There used to be 20 minute breaks between classes on a writing course I took and it always took me about 1,5mins to get to an outside bench where I wrote. And then back after the break 😊it's my magic number now.

These writing metaphors are brilliant. Thank you for sharing! I'm very much enjoying your channel!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Aw thank you! Do you have any of your own you find helpful?

Love this!

great video, thank you!

These are brilliant ideas. I will always keep an eye open - two whenever I can - for your posts. Good stuff...

You're awesome. Fellow Scot here, fellow writer, and yeah, I know all about the fuck this phase lol Your videos help a lot. Thanks for posting them 👍

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

The fuck this phase is the real hero of this video. Just calling it that is helpful for me though, is it the same for you?

@Rise876

5 жыл бұрын

Same for me, yeah :) It's the perfect name for it.

Thank you for this pep talk. These last couple of months have been though and I haven't felt my best and your words really helped me to gain inspiration. I will try to push myself forward and do my best. Also, I tried your Plot Embryo method and it helped me so much! It was a refereshing way to look at my narrative. Thank you for your amazing course!

Rachael, you are my writing spirit animal. This was perfect. Thank you.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Aw that’s sweet! (Although unless you’re Native American I’d rather be your patronus)

@angiemcmann8407

5 жыл бұрын

Please be my patronus, @@RachaelStephen :)

You’ve talked about the good writer coming to the bus stop before- definitely one of my favourite prices of mind imagery :)

If I'm getting stuck, I'll set a timer and grab my voice recorder and audio journal. Changing the writing method while allowing some random tangents often gets the ideas started because it creates a new novelty feeling and gets my excitement going. I do still type and handwrite often - the recorder makes it easier to talk with my hands and let it flow. On the plus side, I can't see my word count and my inner editor gets temporarily out of the office as I go. I can also pace around my living space and stretch. Other times, I change up the writing program I use on the computer to help ease tension. If I'm not able to do that, I'll often change up the music I listen to instead.

So useful!!! I'm freaking out over nanowrimo already but this is so useful because I always get writers block

I love the My Neighbor Totoro pep talk! I think I'm going to print that image out and tape it to my wall :)

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

I should do that too!

@deannainoc

5 жыл бұрын

I made it my screen saver instead so I can see it before every writing session, even when I'm not home. Feeling very inspired now :)

I love the novel stop idea... and I love letting myself know that it's ok to write the crap. It's how to get to the good stuff after all! Thanks so much, love your videos :)

I love the novel stop metaphor!!! If I think of it that way, I'm usually sitting on the novel stop for a while, going over the schedule on the wall, planning my route, explaining it to myself and that helps me to get back into the novel. So I write what I call "metatext" which is basically me just explaining to myself what I need to write next and why or have a mini-brainstorm to figure out how the scene plays out. On some days it takes a looooong time, on others it's really easy to step of the platform and I hardly get any metatext written before I jump writing a scene. I watched a bit of the preptober insta live whatchamacallit this morning (I was at work at the time of the livecast and without a phone and am quite envious of ppl who could take part) and heard you have not read Steven Pressfield's War of Art. I'd say, drop everything and go read it now! Here's a link to my review of the book on my blog (I hope you aren't scared off by the hyperbole of the header) mayusteapot.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/maijus-teacup-1-10-2018-the-best-book-i-ever-read/ I'm not competitive, so I'm not sure if 4thewords were a perfect fit for me. I use an app called Forest, where each time you concentrate for a set period of time, you grow a tree. And if you stop concentrating, you kill the tree. It's much more incentive for me to keep writing. You get points for concentrating and you can purchase different kinds of trees and bushes with the points. And the longer you concentrate, the prettier the tree (bushes and flowers are for shorter periods of concentration and they're pretty too) and you can see the whole forest by day, week, month or year, that you've created just by working on your novel!!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Aw I’m glad! The meta text you describe sounds a lot like a warm up I used to do! Just ten min of freewriting about what I was about to work on (whether that was a scene or something else). It came up recently on the Discord too so I think I really need to try it again! Do you do it on your computer or on paper? And yes, I’ve used Forest! I also spoke about it in the Live.

@mayusteapot

5 жыл бұрын

@@RachaelStephen I write on my computer (it took a while to get used to that... about 10 years) so I do the warm-up on that as well. I normally brainstorm on paper bc it's slower but typing is so quick it makes me feel productive, which gives me a positive boost. Even though I'm writing drivel 😁 I haven't yet watched the whole live stream. The video kept buffering all the time so I'm waiting for Monday to go somewhere w good WiFi 😊 my forest for this year is quite impressive though I often use the app for a reverse reason. I always forget to take breaks when writing, which makes me feel sick later and by setting a timer I've stopped associating a productive writing session with a writing hangover later.

Thank you

Fantastic tips and suggestions. Thanks for sharing!

This was so helpful! Thank you!

Thank you. Putting the lid on my perfection monster is the only way I am going to hit the target for NaNo! Good to hear about some strategies to help. I've also popped some writing exercises in my folder so that I can use them to just get going.....like your 20 minute bus stop. This has worked for me in the past - meaning I have then gotten over the hurdle and then just hurtle into my novel writing scenes!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

‘Putting the kid on the perfectionism monster’ is such a good way to think of it! Have you seen the perfectionism video?

@jackiemorrison2706

5 жыл бұрын

I'm a wee bit afraid to put any of my (grown up) kids onto my monster but I'll find the lid to put on :) :) :) - I'm away for a cuppa and sit down to your perfectionism video!!! ( you gave me such a vision lol) xxxx

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Aw that’s lovely to hear! Hope it’s helpful

Love the stop novel metaphor!

Thanks

Superb! ....and useful!

Thank you!

You mentioned that you've been working on your novel for four years, and I've read similar things online: The average novel takes four to ten years to write. I'm curious why this is. This is my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, so I honestly mean no disrespect, I'm just curious... why would it take four years? In my mind, it takes a month to plan a novel. At 2,000 words a day, maybe two months to write a novel. Then, maybe another month or two to edit? I'm just really curious about your process. Thanks!

@rachelpastors

5 жыл бұрын

A lot of authors use Nanowrimo as the first draft process. Afterwards, there is plenty more work to be done to "write" your book. There's editing, revising, more editing, proof reading, beta reading, more editing, etc, etc, until you feel you're done.

@sassy0518

5 жыл бұрын

I think primarily it's because most novelists are not full-time writers, so 2000 words a day is not realistic. Between the practical inability to write because of other obligations (work, parenting, social and relationship stuff) and the mental/emotional work that writing is, even great writers will sometimes have periods of time while they are "working on" a novel that they aren't actively writing. Plus editing can take a REALLY long time for a full length novel. Self editing is one thing. You can probably self-edit a book in about the same time it took to write it. BUT if you're publishing a novel that has not been in front of at least one professional EDITOR it will probably be crap. Plus you should also be getting a professional proof-reader, because proof-reading is NOT the same as editing. (Editing is content focused, do the words make sense, is the story cohesive, etc. Proofreading is grammar/spelling focused, are there typos, are you using commas correctly, is sentence structure correct, all the nit picky rules of the language you're writing in). So you add in the time for additional editors, including wait time while they get you in their schedule. THEN you pitch to a publisher, if you're trying to publish it traditionally. They will likely also have editing notes and areas to rewrite, etc.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Everything Heather Smith said, plus on top of that with your first few novels you’re not just writing, you’re learning HOW to write. My current one is taking this long because I’ve learned how to plot while writing it and had to rewrite to incorporate that knowledge and yknow... actually make it good. Hopefully as you write more books you get more practiced at it and get faster, (I’d like to get it down to 1-2yrs per book in future, if that) but there’s a fuckton of craft that goes into making a Good Book. I’m interested to see how you feel about the time it takes when you start to revise your own draft!

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Also 2k a day for a month still only ends up being 60k total which is closer to a novella than a novel. Average paperback is at least 90k, and many books are much longer.

@busyhero

5 жыл бұрын

@@sassy0518 Thanks for the detailed answer!

but the fuck it phase is like so relatable i mostly slack off because of those first-minutes-full-of-genuine-suffering, i'm simply afraid to suffer like that so i would avoid writing as long as i can

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Fair

Great video, great tips. New subscriber here.

For me, sometimes writing is pulling teeth, even if I'm doing a word sprint (I've done 15 min, 20 min, and even 30 min when I'm on a roll). In these cases I drop in something ridiculous like "peanut butter sandwich" or a pirate or ninja or scientist or just SOMETHING! It gets words written down and takes me down a path I know doesn't make sense and won't end up in my finished novel. It really helps me to use the Nanowrimo sprint clock. If I can get some people on Facebook or on Google Hangouts or Nanowrimo to sprint with me, we compare word count afterwards and cheer each other on. I have a rule for myself: If I'm sprinting and I run out of time before I run out of steam, I just keep going and don't stop till I've reached the end of my inspiration for the moment. I often write 350 to 400 words in 15 minutes, and at one time I've written 800 in 30 minutes and amazed myself for doing it! Just keep writing even if my mind is blank. And word sprints. And if others fall out before you do, just keep writing, and reset the clock on Nanowrimo for sprints.

Thank you so much for the tips, Rachael! Helpful and straight to the point, as always.

this thing is my struggle always.

I found for the words to be a little distracting in November. I don't know how it will be now that I don't have all that motivation I had during nano.

@TheSugarRay

5 жыл бұрын

Oh, I'm super non-competitive. That might be a factor.

Love this! My amazing writer self really tries my patience but you're right... She eventually turns 👆

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Preach 🙌 how do you know she’s arrived?

I remember you talking about a pen metaphor in some other video but I just can't seem to find it :'(

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

I think it might be HTBS 1: brainstorming!

@lorenagomez7435

5 жыл бұрын

Omg thank you very much! I never really coment things on youtube but you are really amazing. Watching your videos makes me feel so motivated and inspired

my method to keep writing is using the checkpoint method... I made a video about that once... basically you set a chepoint in your story and you just wrote until you meet it. Once you reached that one, you set a new one and so on... I dont focus on wordcount because y passed my first 3 word count goals and i'l like 1500 words away from passing the 4th... also, another way to just keep writing is to delete the last sentence you wrote, and reread the last couple of paragraphs... And, also finish a writing sesion with a sentence at half, a conversation with no end... you know, brains want to complete shit, so once you take again your WIP the brain will automatically want to finish the incomplete thing

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Yes these are all really good! I think scene / plot based writing goals are really helpful, and the ‘stopping in the middle’ is another good one! Do you mean if you use wordcount goals then you tend to overwrite?

@xChikyx

5 жыл бұрын

@@RachaelStephen my original word count was 100K... I'm at 175K already and i'm probably going to get to 200K hahahah

Sei bellissima 💓💓💓

Aren't those similes? Because you say 'like' and compare them rather than just use another term meaning what you wanted to mean. Simi-metaphors.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Yes! A similie is just a type of metaphor though. All similies are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similies.

@maf7742

5 жыл бұрын

@@RachaelStephen Ahh, I see. Didn't know that. Fair enough.

I am inspired

Anyone else having trouble making an account with 4thewords? :(

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Oh no! That’s annoying. Definitely get in touch with 4thewords support, they’re good people and can hopefully get you sorted!

@RJBynon

5 жыл бұрын

Same here, make an account then it doesn’t recognise my username/password, so i click forgot my password but even that wont work because the “send email” button is broken... Looks like an interesting way of doing things. Kinda questioning why I a 25 year old man am seeking boss battles to motivate me for my writing goals though :p

I have serious issues with my fuck this phase.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

SAME. Why I made this video. Do you think being able to call it the Fuck This Phase will help?

i didn't get any of this

Love, D.VA

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Winky face!

I think we shoud all agree, that there is actually like zero availible hacks in writing - you should just put your ass in front of a preferable writing device and start your fecking work or you slack off for another miserable day of being write-sober. There is no other way and while metaphors are sweet writing is more like a laundry - you either do it or you stink.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

I think it’s a bit of both. The tips and hacks can never REPLACE grit, but hopefully they make it easier sometimes. But yes, there is no getting around the fact that sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and fucking do it. What do you think?

@irishargrave5850

5 жыл бұрын

i get your point. sometimes hacks work! but they actually more like buffs in rpg, they help you slightly while you always have to do the most part of a job yourself, by clenching thouse buttcheaks and get to JUST DO IT MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE As for me, the best way to start is to gain inspiration from any kind of stuff. to watch a great movie, to listen to inspiring music, go for a refresment walk, etc also when i'm stuck i usually take a pause to read a book (to get in the right mood, swim into someone's fluids) or when it's too hard to find a first line, i go to the random first line generator and hit the feck out of "generate" button till the right one is found. though if nothing worked (i am a lazy bun)... there is really no other way then just do it. push myself to struggle through first minutes of awkward shitty text... like they say - write first, edit last. ugh sorry for being a chatterbox x) iris out!

Perfectionism is killing my novel.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

Have you seen my video on perfectionism? 😉

@xensonar9652

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah. It's strong advice and the logical part of me sees the sense in everything you say.

@RachaelStephen

5 жыл бұрын

But that doesn’t make it easy to instantly believe it, right? 😂

@CareyReeve

5 жыл бұрын

I don't know what stage you're at, but if you're still drafting, it might help to remind yourself that these words are placeholders. When you're drafting, you can't even be sure that a scene will survive the cuts during revisions, and the more "in love" you are with your beautiful words, the harder it'll be to cut them even if it's obviously necessary. Go ahead and write some garbage sentences with gross cliches and nasty repetition to warm up. During Nano last year, I actually laughed out loud at how horrible some of my sentences were, but they worked like a bridge to get to the next bit. The next bit was so good that it was worth leaving the crap sentences there so that I could continue to move forward. Thus, writing garbage is also the crash cart that will get your novel's heart beating steadily again! :-)

@xensonar9652

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it's hard to break the habit of a lifetime. Giving up perfectionism is harder than stopping smoking.