I'm trying to write 'that book' for almost 5 years. I have other ideas, but they are stored for later. And I never even thought about writing something simple. Thank you.
There is a reason an opus alchemicum comes at the end of a career. Consider Paradise Lost. Also a "masterpiece" is strictly knew knowledge added after you complete your apprenticeship in order to show that you can make meaningful contributions to the field. Doesn't have to be a magnum opus to be that.
i..... needed this. sometimes you get so swept up by the dream, you end up forgetting the craft - the thing that makes you happy; the making that inspires dreaming... thank you for that.
I wrote 5 books to prepare for the big book I had in my head for 30 years. I'm glad I waited before doing the big book, but frankly, all of my books have some big book qualities. I started working on my tenth recently and this one will be a dozy. Every one builds craft upon what came before. Writing never gets easy but it gets better and better if you work at it.
This is actually really good advice. When I first started writing, I poured about two years into a book I wasn't able to finish, because I got so caught up in big problems I couldn't solve. Also didn't understand characters then. I've spent the last two years writing short fiction and it has made a world of difference in how I approach brain storming etc. I think I have so many more tools at my disposal to go back to that original story idea and actually make it work. Whoo!
Very good advice. What could also help with this, in case someone really wants to write in that wonderful world they created, is to write novellas in it. Set up the world, its lands, culture, and magic systems and write a small story in it. Not the big epic sage, but something small in the world that might be worldbuilding in the eventual sage. It is great practice, helps to flesh out the world and those stories can be used to make a name. Because people are more inclined to buy a novella from a small writer than a first of a 13-book series that might never be finished. But a epic sage following up the novellas, well that sounds good.
At the surface it's good advice, but I think the better advice is to just simplify your story. As in: don't put all your ideas into one thing. That's the main way to over complicate things. I get that creating short stories is easier, but short vs. long stories are two completely different ways of story telling, and forcing someone who is better with higher concepts to make a short story doesn't really work. Short stories aren't just short versions of long stories (ie. the tortoise and the hare wouldn't work if extended, and breaking bad wouldn't work if shortened.) Take Love Death and Robots for instance. The main problem with the show is that it has huge concepts with the potential for complex characters and worlds but it cuts them short (the episode Ice is the worst offender for this. It should've been a movie or miniseries). Of course, practicing with short stories is good if you just want to finish something, or see if you like then better than high concepts, but that shouldn't discourage you from starting with something long. You just need to simplify the concept (alien fantasy time travel thing sounds like too much, but who knows. Basically, even the longest stories have simple ideas, they just explore more themes.) Ultimately you should do what you're best at!!
I don't think he should change his original story idea at all. I think he should build the skills from writing whatever other stories are simpler and, once those skills are present, write the BIG BOOK he's always dreamed of writing. Most careers are structured this way: Stephen King, Sanderson, etc. Folks seldom publish their big idea first, when they do its literal decades of revision and perfectionism like Rothfuss. Even Rothfuss admits his trajectory is a terrible one for even him, one no one should try to emulate, one that hinders his process, and that easier paths exist.
Short stories and novels are definitely different (at least they should be!). I think starting with the high concept story when first starting to write novels could lead to years and years of frustration because it’s hard to get the “win” of finishing a novel and the skills probably aren’t there yet. So, starting with a simpler novel sized idea is a great way to learn how to finish a book, which helps in a ton of ways!
Brandon Sanderson's baby is The Stormlight Archive, he said he even wrote a short version of it as a Nanowrimo excercise. But as an author his first published novel was Elantris, then the Mistborn trilogy, then Warbreaker, and ONLY THEN he started publishing Stormlight Archive.
Having a roadmap is crazy important if you have several series worth of plots, settings and characters. I finally settled on just writing one of them for no other reason than it just feels right at this point in my life. Hopefully I can write them all.
@@LancelotSchaubert I struggled to write a novel past three chapters for like, 15 years. I always felt like I was ruining my beautiful best idea ever, or that it wasn’t actually that good when I wrote it down. Then, in 2020, I tried to get over that hurdle by intentionally picking an idea that I wasn’t as attached to and made my goal to just finish the book, no matter how bad it is. That really helped me, and I loosely finished the book at around 50k words. Since then, I’ve written two more manuscripts, one of which is now on its fourth draft. This method might not work for everyone, but it REALLY helped me! Thanks for asking!
@@ethansexton2590 This is exactly what it's supposed to encourage: "Yes, and..." iterative thinking. Not being so damn precious about everything. Having fun again, and again, and at every stage.
Starting with something you can actually write and finish is fantastic advice. Your first book is going to be hard enough no matter what you write. There is plenty of time to push yourself later.
I know exactly what story to write! I've been working on it all along but passing it off as a side story or just for my own entertainment. Thank you for sharing!
@@LancelotSchaubert Thanks for asking! It's a love story about a girl who despite her family & society's expectations does not actually want to be in love or get married. Being the descendant of formerly enslaved people and the eldest daughter of one of the most affluent Black families in town, she has to reconcile her desire for independency and "freedom" and her disdain with love/marriage as just another system keeping her from the life she truly wants. I don't typically see myself as a "romance writer" so I've been avoiding it, but honestly I have the most fun thinking through the female lead's thought process and putting her in situations with a certain suitor that swoops in and makes her question everything.
for the story I'm writing its gone through so much personal change. i started with one high concept story and slide down a slope for years wanting to implement new ideas every few months. its gotten to a point were i had to come to this conclusion by just deleting everything. recently I've restarted but instead of writing THAT story I've decided to take all the setup and world-building and make that the focus of writing short storys in the world and around THAT story. if i ever do write a novel or the like it likely won't even be THAT story because there's nothing more defeating then working on your ultimate master piece only to realize you don't have the skill and understanding to pull it off. Eden cluster is the name I've given my universe and even though its not publicated and i partly doubt I'll ever try. its certainly helped me understand writing better keeping within the world i love without pushing myself for the perfect story
This is the actual problem. The main one. You're trying to outrun your own pace of exponential learning. And it takes, on average if you're working your butt off, anywhere from 3 months to a year to get a draft done. By the time you finish that draft, you're asking a whole new set of questions. So ultimately you need at least a base level competence on certain things. The funniest thing about it is that the novel I referenced in the original post wasn't even my dream novel. It was incredibly complicated, but there's one even far, far worse that I still don't have the chops to write yet. And I know it. Which means right now I really need to finish revisions and write something that's more or less at my competence level. I might actually take the very rubric FC used and try something even simpler still. So I suppose in that way, FC taught me. Why not keep the universe and connect other stories to it? Nothing's wasted, just keep it in a boneyard file folder on your desktop.
This is really good advice. I have an idea for a huge space opera I came up with a couple of years ago, but thankfully I’ve had the insight to know that that kind of story is way too big for my current writing skills. So instead I wrote a fairly short 75,000-word novel set in a very quiet post apocalyptic rural Texas. The plot is simple and straightforward (with just enough complexity to keep it interesting and original). It is coming to Amazon in May 2025.
I have been thinking this for a while because I care about my current book so much that even my first draft has to be carved really carefully - 4 years later and I am only in chapter 20 in first draft. I never give up on it because I do love it but maybe, I just have to write something and finish it without caring too much and just having fun with setting myself free through words.
The high of finishing your first novel is perhaps the most motivating thing in the world. It’s an _earned_ dopamine high of long term delayed gratification.
for a moment I thought you meant BellHammer was a story about a group of carpenters that fight an oil company by using practical jokes somehow, took me a while to realize you meant the story itself has great practical jokes not that it is part of the premise 😂😂 that aside, really solid advice, thank you, I will definitely try writing something smaller now!
As someone who DOES have a huge space fantasy version of King Arthur... yeah, I am not starting with that. My current plan is to work on several stories before that. Currently got a Land Before Time style adventure with dinosaurs as characters (who don't talk), and maybe a children's fantasy
@@LancelotSchaubert so far, a junior cadet for the town guard and apprentice alchemist find an aged down princess and try to reverse her curse, while fighting off two evil wizards (who are a young married couple). They come across a group of pirates who’s captain is desperately looking for a purpose in life. The princess may change to a starchild, I’m still deciding. That’s like the one element I don’t have yet
I came up with an epic crime novel idea at the beginning of high school. I was too afraid to write it because I knew I wasn't ready in any way, so I wrote a science fantasy Tom Clancy rip off instead. I made it about 250 pages before I realized I was trying way too hard to force it. Fifteen years later I actually have real life experience to write short stories that make me proud. That original idea over time has inspired many other ideas, helping me form my ecology focused new weird fiction, and the characters and settings have coalesced into larger worlds/universes that feel naturally interconnected. I'm still not good enough to write that epic crime novel, but I'm closer than I ever thought I would get.
“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. “And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your while life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose. Don’t write love poems; avoid those forms that are too facile and ordinary: they are the hardest to work with, and it takes great, fully ripened power to create something individual where good, even glorious, traditions exist in abundance. “So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. “And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds-wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it. “So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take the destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside. For the creator must be a world for himself and must find everything in himself and in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted. “But after this descent into yourself and into your solitude, perhaps you will have to renounce becoming a poet (if, as I have said, one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn’t write at all). Nevertheless, even then, this self-searching that I as of you will not have been for nothing. Your life will still find its own paths from there, and that they may be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I can say. What else can I tell you? It seems to me that everything has its proper emphasis; and finally I want to add just one more bit of advice: to keep growing, silently and earnestly, through your while development; you couldn’t disturb it any more violently than by looking outside and waiting for outside answers to question that only your innermost feeling, in your quietest hour, can perhaps answer.” - Rilke
“Read what you love to inspire you. Not what’s popular”. Apparently it’s good to examine what you love, whether good or bad and try understanding what you like about it and writing something like it.
@@Drawperfectcircles Love this! Reminds me of a Ray Bradbury quote in his book Zen in the Art of Writing: "If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don’t even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is-excited."
Not a writer (but could become😈) but I had "that exact book" idea with me for years. Wanted to create this epic saga comicbook, with cosmos, mystery, monster fights, magic ect. Every few years i sit down and write down new ideas for it, but mainly try to understand what my plot is even about. Recently I started working on it yet again and what I discovered is upsetting. It seems like, I made up characters, their awesome powers, friendship and hardships but thats all I ever focused on. I have little bits of story or where it needs to go but generally my plot is very empty. My 2 first acts are literally "The characters wandered the magic realms jumping from one to another through mysterious portals; get new member; repeat" but i realize, thats its not a story even, just a direction for it. Although, I was thinking at least for now, when I am stuck and dont know what to do with this empty husk of a story, I could take a different approach with it. I do have short stories withing this giant saga that are actually well thought off. And I could just write them and make little comics of them for now. Still thought. Even after writing dow a huuuge analyze of all my plot holes and trying to give them all sorts of questions to sort them out i am completely lost where to even begin with this project. But I guess if the answer is really to "do something else" for now, I ll try that and we'll see if it does help after all. P.S. this vid's comment section is very helpful! Honestly I was familiar with this advice. I'm guilty, i even heard it few times before but its that kind of advice that you honestly should get to have on repeat before it either sinks in or you start applying it. Thing is I know i should start making short simple comics before i make the big one...but the urge to get closer to your dream is itchy. Anyway, this video popped up in the most right time, I started writing short plots and storyboarding ideas starting this fall. I should take this as call to make a short story.
This is interesting. I have been stuck on a book for 6 years. 6. YEARS. And I have frequently wondered if I am just starting too big. The problem I have with trying to redirect is that at this point I almost feel like I don’t know how to think about anything else when it comes to writing. It’s almost as though Ive trained my brain to think of writing and this book as synonymous with each other. I’ve had a couple ideas here and there but they were either ones that I knew would have to be just as big, or they were for genres that I don’t enjoy reading, so… why would I write them?
Wow I was writing my first novel, which has a lot of the elements you mentioned. And I have been thinking about it for years. I am 30,000 words in with lots of momentum, and I was feeling so good about it. Until I watched this video. Now I am completely discouraged. 😟
Don't be discouraged. Timing and momentum are very important, and not many people talk about it. In many cases, you can't control when ideas come to you, and you need to make the most of them when they do. For example, I found that, if I write down just the ideas for scenes rather the scenes themselves, I can't make them work as well when I come back to them. Even though you might want to adhere to this advice, you will find yourself unable to focus on the smaller, "less challenging" project, because the ideas for your first novel will itch you, so you will become frustrated and do a lousy job with both. So, keep up the good work, because 30,000 words is fantastic. I'm in the same boat, btw. Been working on mine for the past 6 years, and I've relished every moment of it. I'm not in a hurry to have something published just for the sake of having my name on a book I don't particularly care about; I'd rather take my time and write something I love and am proud of.
Eh. Just finish that draft, then once you're done with it, start a first draft IMMEDIATELY of something simpler. Get a draft of a novel done - any novel - that'll help. But just sit on this one longer.
I wouldn’t feel discouraged, writing is a slow process as we all know. I’ve been working on my first novel for a year now and I have only 23k words. Everyone’s writing process is different and that’s okay. You don’t have to try to push this book out within the next 2 years. I was close to almost giving up the story and junking it completely when I had the first chapter but I didn’t because I knew there’s a story there somewhere despite it being a rough draft. But that’s exactly what it is, a ROUGH draft. So don’t be too hard on yourself, if you’re having trouble getting words down. Try writing a short story, it doesn’t have to be thousands of words. Then come back the your novel, I promise you you’ll get ideas. Realistically the story you have might not be bad as what you think. I’m writing a gothic romance (not dark romance) that follows a lot of those elements, it’s not about who wrote this first or anything. It’s how you execute the story.
Start with writing a letter to a friend telling a real life event. Then write similar letters until you have a collection, and then you can start thinking about something bigger. Comments online work, too.
I am not going to follow this advice. I'm 100,000 words into my epic fantasy novel, and it's a very flawed first draft with a lot of problems. It's slow going and can be discouraging at times, but I don't care that it's hard. Because it's the only story I'm passionate about writing right now. I'm in no rush to publish it. I'm writing it out of love. And I'm learning by writing it, so I don't see any of it as wasted time. It will be the first novel draft I finish, because I've promised myself and my characters that it will be. In the meantime, when I need to feel the satisfaction of finishing something, I write a poem or a short story.
I mean strictly speaking, I didn't follow the advice either. I think if you're learning, if you're iterative, if you're willing to try something else when you fail. I think all of those indicate what you need long term: play, resilience, creativity, life learning, curiosity, etc.
Its a good advice for those who procrastinates dreaming of making a saga, but never really getting to it (like me). Everyone is different, that is right. But man am i happy for you! Your comment is inspiring, good luck with your work and keep it up, thats amazing!
@@Splat654 And you as well. Hang in there. Remember the things that lead to success are perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness (a scrupulous regard to the dictates of conscience, careful, diligence taking the task seriously), optimism (and by that, I actually mean hope in the fundamental reality of life and being in the teeth of death), and self-control. And success isn't about money, fame, power, honor, pleasure. It's about truth, beauty, and goodness. Practice those and the writing will take care of itself because ultimately you'll be a good human and good writers, fundamentally, are first good humans.
Yes, this can be good advice, but on the other hand, sometimes the only reason someone is writing at all is to write that epic. Sure, they may not make it, give up half way, or have it sit there for a decade. However, the process of trying and failing is just as important as succeeding. I think it really depends on the person as to what they should do.
Trying, failing, iteration, motivation, creativity. If you have the kind of masochistic drive to finish it, then do. Few do, though. They give up, but they’re giving up because they went into the gym and tried to max benchpress 450 pounds. Very few humans can walk in off the street and do that. And maybe no one. But also few people can have the drive to walk off the street and set up camp inside the gym with a tent, refusing to leave until they can.
I am a writer with over 20 years of experience including 12 years of professionally writing. I've never publish any book and I decided to Write That Book or rather something bigger than that. So thanks for that advice, but no thanks.
Well, this advice seems to be for people without 20 years of writing experience. I'm sure you have the stamina and attention to detail to accomplish your goal just fine
@@joshbarnes2313 Yeah, although I am currently in a chapter that I don't like and it is second version of that chapter. It stopped my progress, because I can't skip it. Third version should work, but when I lost my momentum, so... funny thing that when you have time to write something like this you don't have enough experience, but when you have enough experience your time is very limited compare to time you have when you are in your 20s.
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I'm trying to write 'that book' for almost 5 years. I have other ideas, but they are stored for later. And I never even thought about writing something simple. Thank you.
You got this.
I cal this the Patrick Rothfuss effect. If you get too hung up on writing your magnum opus as your debut, you'll never finish it.
There is a reason an opus alchemicum comes at the end of a career. Consider Paradise Lost. Also a "masterpiece" is strictly knew knowledge added after you complete your apprenticeship in order to show that you can make meaningful contributions to the field. Doesn't have to be a magnum opus to be that.
i..... needed this. sometimes you get so swept up by the dream, you end up forgetting the craft - the thing that makes you happy; the making that inspires dreaming... thank you for that.
Wonderfully said!
I cannot believe this was your first video, it was so well put together with a great bit of advice at the core
Thank you!
Didn’t he do incredibly well?
I wrote 5 books to prepare for the big book I had in my head for 30 years. I'm glad I waited before doing the big book, but frankly, all of my books have some big book qualities. I started working on my tenth recently and this one will be a dozy. Every one builds craft upon what came before. Writing never gets easy but it gets better and better if you work at it.
@@rachelthompson9324 love this approach. You just gave me an idea for a video!
This is actually really good advice. When I first started writing, I poured about two years into a book I wasn't able to finish, because I got so caught up in big problems I couldn't solve. Also didn't understand characters then. I've spent the last two years writing short fiction and it has made a world of difference in how I approach brain storming etc. I think I have so many more tools at my disposal to go back to that original story idea and actually make it work. Whoo!
This is super encouraging. Thank you for sharing!
Very good advice.
What could also help with this, in case someone really wants to write in that wonderful world they created, is to write novellas in it. Set up the world, its lands, culture, and magic systems and write a small story in it. Not the big epic sage, but something small in the world that might be worldbuilding in the eventual sage.
It is great practice, helps to flesh out the world and those stories can be used to make a name. Because people are more inclined to buy a novella from a small writer than a first of a 13-book series that might never be finished. But a epic sage following up the novellas, well that sounds good.
Or even short stories. I've sold several from my dream project and it helps me play.
At the surface it's good advice, but I think the better advice is to just simplify your story. As in: don't put all your ideas into one thing. That's the main way to over complicate things. I get that creating short stories is easier, but short vs. long stories are two completely different ways of story telling, and forcing someone who is better with higher concepts to make a short story doesn't really work. Short stories aren't just short versions of long stories (ie. the tortoise and the hare wouldn't work if extended, and breaking bad wouldn't work if shortened.)
Take Love Death and Robots for instance. The main problem with the show is that it has huge concepts with the potential for complex characters and worlds but it cuts them short (the episode Ice is the worst offender for this. It should've been a movie or miniseries).
Of course, practicing with short stories is good if you just want to finish something, or see if you like then better than high concepts, but that shouldn't discourage you from starting with something long. You just need to simplify the concept (alien fantasy time travel thing sounds like too much, but who knows. Basically, even the longest stories have simple ideas, they just explore more themes.)
Ultimately you should do what you're best at!!
I don't think he should change his original story idea at all. I think he should build the skills from writing whatever other stories are simpler and, once those skills are present, write the BIG BOOK he's always dreamed of writing. Most careers are structured this way: Stephen King, Sanderson, etc. Folks seldom publish their big idea first, when they do its literal decades of revision and perfectionism like Rothfuss. Even Rothfuss admits his trajectory is a terrible one for even him, one no one should try to emulate, one that hinders his process, and that easier paths exist.
Short stories and novels are definitely different (at least they should be!).
I think starting with the high concept story when first starting to write novels could lead to years and years of frustration because it’s hard to get the “win” of finishing a novel and the skills probably aren’t there yet.
So, starting with a simpler novel sized idea is a great way to learn how to finish a book, which helps in a ton of ways!
Brandon Sanderson's baby is The Stormlight Archive, he said he even wrote a short version of it as a Nanowrimo excercise. But as an author his first published novel was Elantris, then the Mistborn trilogy, then Warbreaker, and ONLY THEN he started publishing Stormlight Archive.
Having a roadmap is crazy important if you have several series worth of plots, settings and characters. I finally settled on just writing one of them for no other reason than it just feels right at this point in my life. Hopefully I can write them all.
Dang, our writing journey to writing that first book is SCARILY similar! Thanks for making this!
What was yours?
@@LancelotSchaubert I struggled to write a novel past three chapters for like, 15 years. I always felt like I was ruining my beautiful best idea ever, or that it wasn’t actually that good when I wrote it down. Then, in 2020, I tried to get over that hurdle by intentionally picking an idea that I wasn’t as attached to and made my goal to just finish the book, no matter how bad it is. That really helped me, and I loosely finished the book at around 50k words. Since then, I’ve written two more manuscripts, one of which is now on its fourth draft.
This method might not work for everyone, but it REALLY helped me! Thanks for asking!
@@ethansexton2590 This is exactly what it's supposed to encourage: "Yes, and..." iterative thinking. Not being so damn precious about everything. Having fun again, and again, and at every stage.
Starting with something you can actually write and finish is fantastic advice. Your first book is going to be hard enough no matter what you write. There is plenty of time to push yourself later.
I want to be a writer. Finished a novel. Best advice.
I know exactly what story to write! I've been working on it all along but passing it off as a side story or just for my own entertainment. Thank you for sharing!
what’s it about?
@@LancelotSchaubert Thanks for asking! It's a love story about a girl who despite her family & society's expectations does not actually want to be in love or get married. Being the descendant of formerly enslaved people and the eldest daughter of one of the most affluent Black families in town, she has to reconcile her desire for independency and "freedom" and her disdain with love/marriage as just another system keeping her from the life she truly wants.
I don't typically see myself as a "romance writer" so I've been avoiding it, but honestly I have the most fun thinking through the female lead's thought process and putting her in situations with a certain suitor that swoops in and makes her question everything.
for the story I'm writing its gone through so much personal change. i started with one high concept story and slide down a slope for years wanting to implement new ideas every few months. its gotten to a point were i had to come to this conclusion by just deleting everything. recently I've restarted but instead of writing THAT story I've decided to take all the setup and world-building and make that the focus of writing short storys in the world and around THAT story. if i ever do write a novel or the like it likely won't even be THAT story because there's nothing more defeating then working on your ultimate master piece only to realize you don't have the skill and understanding to pull it off. Eden cluster is the name I've given my universe and even though its not publicated and i partly doubt I'll ever try. its certainly helped me understand writing better keeping within the world i love without pushing myself for the perfect story
This is the actual problem. The main one. You're trying to outrun your own pace of exponential learning. And it takes, on average if you're working your butt off, anywhere from 3 months to a year to get a draft done. By the time you finish that draft, you're asking a whole new set of questions.
So ultimately you need at least a base level competence on certain things. The funniest thing about it is that the novel I referenced in the original post wasn't even my dream novel. It was incredibly complicated, but there's one even far, far worse that I still don't have the chops to write yet. And I know it.
Which means right now I really need to finish revisions and write something that's more or less at my competence level. I might actually take the very rubric FC used and try something even simpler still. So I suppose in that way, FC taught me.
Why not keep the universe and connect other stories to it? Nothing's wasted, just keep it in a boneyard file folder on your desktop.
This is really good advice. I have an idea for a huge space opera I came up with a couple of years ago, but thankfully I’ve had the insight to know that that kind of story is way too big for my current writing skills. So instead I wrote a fairly short 75,000-word novel set in a very quiet post apocalyptic rural Texas. The plot is simple and straightforward (with just enough complexity to keep it interesting and original). It is coming to Amazon in May 2025.
What’s the apocalypse about?
I have been thinking this for a while because I care about my current book so much that even my first draft has to be carved really carefully - 4 years later and I am only in chapter 20 in first draft. I never give up on it because I do love it but maybe, I just have to write something and finish it without caring too much and just having fun with setting myself free through words.
The high of finishing your first novel is perhaps the most motivating thing in the world. It’s an _earned_ dopamine high of long term delayed gratification.
I wasn't prepared to receive advice so tailored to my situation
Haha. Often with the internet I say, “I feel personally attacked.”
Very helpful content!
I have to trick my mind too. I don't even call it a book. I say i'm writing a story. It seems less daunting. Thanks!
for a moment I thought you meant BellHammer was a story about a group of carpenters that fight an oil company by using practical jokes somehow, took me a while to realize you meant the story itself has great practical jokes not that it is part of the premise 😂😂
that aside, really solid advice, thank you, I will definitely try writing something smaller now!
You were right the first time - the carpenters DO fight the oil company with jokes!!
As someone who DOES have a huge space fantasy version of King Arthur... yeah, I am not starting with that. My current plan is to work on several stories before that. Currently got a Land Before Time style adventure with dinosaurs as characters (who don't talk), and maybe a children's fantasy
This all sounds awesome!
what’s the children’s fantasy about?
@@LancelotSchaubert so far, a junior cadet for the town guard and apprentice alchemist find an aged down princess and try to reverse her curse, while fighting off two evil wizards (who are a young married couple). They come across a group of pirates who’s captain is desperately looking for a purpose in life.
The princess may change to a starchild, I’m still deciding. That’s like the one element I don’t have yet
@@LancelotSchaubert actually, I say children, and they could read it, but I’m also trying to make it more comedic
@@FlyingFocs ¿por que no los dos?
I came up with an epic crime novel idea at the beginning of high school. I was too afraid to write it because I knew I wasn't ready in any way, so I wrote a science fantasy Tom Clancy rip off instead. I made it about 250 pages before I realized I was trying way too hard to force it. Fifteen years later I actually have real life experience to write short stories that make me proud. That original idea over time has inspired many other ideas, helping me form my ecology focused new weird fiction, and the characters and settings have coalesced into larger worlds/universes that feel naturally interconnected. I'm still not good enough to write that epic crime novel, but I'm closer than I ever thought I would get.
What are these books about?
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
“You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer.
“And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your while life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose. Don’t write love poems; avoid those forms that are too facile and ordinary: they are the hardest to work with, and it takes great, fully ripened power to create something individual where good, even glorious, traditions exist in abundance.
“So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place.
“And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds-wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.
“So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take the destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside. For the creator must be a world for himself and must find everything in himself and in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted.
“But after this descent into yourself and into your solitude, perhaps you will have to renounce becoming a poet (if, as I have said, one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn’t write at all). Nevertheless, even then, this self-searching that I as of you will not have been for nothing. Your life will still find its own paths from there, and that they may be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I can say. What else can I tell you? It seems to me that everything has its proper emphasis; and finally I want to add just one more bit of advice: to keep growing, silently and earnestly, through your while development; you couldn’t disturb it any more violently than by looking outside and waiting for outside answers to question that only your innermost feeling, in your quietest hour, can perhaps answer.”
- Rilke
“Read what you love to inspire you. Not what’s popular”. Apparently it’s good to examine what you love, whether good or bad and try understanding what you like about it and writing something like it.
@@Drawperfectcircles Love this! Reminds me of a Ray Bradbury quote in his book Zen in the Art of Writing: "If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don’t even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is-excited."
@@LancelotSchaubert So good. Worth reading over and over and often. Also, thanks again for letting me use that photo of you in the video!
The best way to criticize a story, is to write one of your own
Love this advice. It was smart. 😂
Not a writer (but could become😈) but I had "that exact book" idea with me for years. Wanted to create this epic saga comicbook, with cosmos, mystery, monster fights, magic ect. Every few years i sit down and write down new ideas for it, but mainly try to understand what my plot is even about. Recently I started working on it yet again and what I discovered is upsetting. It seems like, I made up characters, their awesome powers, friendship and hardships but thats all I ever focused on. I have little bits of story or where it needs to go but generally my plot is very empty. My 2 first acts are literally "The characters wandered the magic realms jumping from one to another through mysterious portals; get new member; repeat"
but i realize, thats its not a story even, just a direction for it. Although, I was thinking at least for now, when I am stuck and dont know what to do with this empty husk of a story, I could take a different approach with it. I do have short stories withing this giant saga that are actually well thought off. And I could just write them and make little comics of them for now. Still thought. Even after writing dow a huuuge analyze of all my plot holes and trying to give them all sorts of questions to sort them out i am completely lost where to even begin with this project. But I guess if the answer is really to "do something else" for now, I ll try that and we'll see if it does help after all.
P.S. this vid's comment section is very helpful! Honestly I was familiar with this advice. I'm guilty, i even heard it few times before but its that kind of advice that you honestly should get to have on repeat before it either sinks in or you start applying it. Thing is I know i should start making short simple comics before i make the big one...but the urge to get closer to your dream is itchy. Anyway, this video popped up in the most right time, I started writing short plots and storyboarding ideas starting this fall. I should take this as call to make a short story.
Great advice, thanks
Great video man!
I appreciate it!
This is interesting.
I have been stuck on a book for 6 years. 6. YEARS. And I have frequently wondered if I am just starting too big.
The problem I have with trying to redirect is that at this point I almost feel like I don’t know how to think about anything else when it comes to writing. It’s almost as though Ive trained my brain to think of writing and this book as synonymous with each other.
I’ve had a couple ideas here and there but they were either ones that I knew would have to be just as big, or they were for genres that I don’t enjoy reading, so… why would I write them?
My first book was my magnus opus. I havent writen the second 😂
Wow I was writing my first novel, which has a lot of the elements you mentioned. And I have been thinking about it for years. I am 30,000 words in with lots of momentum, and I was feeling so good about it. Until I watched this video. Now I am completely discouraged. 😟
Don't be discouraged. Timing and momentum are very important, and not many people talk about it. In many cases, you can't control when ideas come to you, and you need to make the most of them when they do. For example, I found that, if I write down just the ideas for scenes rather the scenes themselves, I can't make them work as well when I come back to them. Even though you might want to adhere to this advice, you will find yourself unable to focus on the smaller, "less challenging" project, because the ideas for your first novel will itch you, so you will become frustrated and do a lousy job with both.
So, keep up the good work, because 30,000 words is fantastic. I'm in the same boat, btw. Been working on mine for the past 6 years, and I've relished every moment of it. I'm not in a hurry to have something published just for the sake of having my name on a book I don't particularly care about; I'd rather take my time and write something I love and am proud of.
30K words is amazing! I mean this sincerely, keep it up, I genuinely hope you prove me wrong!
Eh. Just finish that draft, then once you're done with it, start a first draft IMMEDIATELY of something simpler. Get a draft of a novel done - any novel - that'll help. But just sit on this one longer.
I wouldn’t feel discouraged, writing is a slow process as we all know. I’ve been working on my first novel for a year now and I have only 23k words. Everyone’s writing process is different and that’s okay. You don’t have to try to push this book out within the next 2 years. I was close to almost giving up the story and junking it completely when I had the first chapter but I didn’t because I knew there’s a story there somewhere despite it being a rough draft. But that’s exactly what it is, a ROUGH draft. So don’t be too hard on yourself, if you’re having trouble getting words down. Try writing a short story, it doesn’t have to be thousands of words. Then come back the your novel, I promise you you’ll get ideas. Realistically the story you have might not be bad as what you think. I’m writing a gothic romance (not dark romance) that follows a lot of those elements, it’s not about who wrote this first or anything. It’s how you execute the story.
Start with writing a letter to a friend telling a real life event. Then write similar letters until you have a collection, and then you can start thinking about something bigger. Comments online work, too.
Never judge a video by it's title.
Yeah W video bro
I am not going to follow this advice. I'm 100,000 words into my epic fantasy novel, and it's a very flawed first draft with a lot of problems. It's slow going and can be discouraging at times, but I don't care that it's hard. Because it's the only story I'm passionate about writing right now. I'm in no rush to publish it. I'm writing it out of love. And I'm learning by writing it, so I don't see any of it as wasted time. It will be the first novel draft I finish, because I've promised myself and my characters that it will be. In the meantime, when I need to feel the satisfaction of finishing something, I write a poem or a short story.
I mean strictly speaking, I didn't follow the advice either. I think if you're learning, if you're iterative, if you're willing to try something else when you fail. I think all of those indicate what you need long term: play, resilience, creativity, life learning, curiosity, etc.
Its a good advice for those who procrastinates dreaming of making a saga, but never really getting to it (like me). Everyone is different, that is right. But man am i happy for you! Your comment is inspiring, good luck with your work and keep it up, thats amazing!
@@Splat654 And you as well. Hang in there. Remember the things that lead to success are perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness (a scrupulous regard to the dictates of conscience, careful, diligence taking the task seriously), optimism (and by that, I actually mean hope in the fundamental reality of life and being in the teeth of death), and self-control.
And success isn't about money, fame, power, honor, pleasure. It's about truth, beauty, and goodness.
Practice those and the writing will take care of itself because ultimately you'll be a good human and good writers, fundamentally, are first good humans.
Yes, this can be good advice, but on the other hand, sometimes the only reason someone is writing at all is to write that epic. Sure, they may not make it, give up half way, or have it sit there for a decade. However, the process of trying and failing is just as important as succeeding. I think it really depends on the person as to what they should do.
Trying, failing, iteration, motivation, creativity. If you have the kind of masochistic drive to finish it, then do. Few do, though. They give up, but they’re giving up because they went into the gym and tried to max benchpress 450 pounds. Very few humans can walk in off the street and do that. And maybe no one.
But also few people can have the drive to walk off the street and set up camp inside the gym with a tent, refusing to leave until they can.
I am a writer with over 20 years of experience including 12 years of professionally writing. I've never publish any book and I decided to Write That Book or rather something bigger than that. So thanks for that advice, but no thanks.
Well, this advice seems to be for people without 20 years of writing experience. I'm sure you have the stamina and attention to detail to accomplish your goal just fine
@@joshbarnes2313 Yeah, although I am currently in a chapter that I don't like and it is second version of that chapter. It stopped my progress, because I can't skip it. Third version should work, but when I lost my momentum, so... funny thing that when you have time to write something like this you don't have enough experience, but when you have enough experience your time is very limited compare to time you have when you are in your 20s.
Cool! What are your novels?
@@LancelotSchaubert I wouldn't call them novels. I am currently writing something that you could call a novel.
I suppose I'm merely trying to understand the "thanks but no thanks" correlates to "20 years of experience."