Ten Weird Writing Tips That Actually Work
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2024
- Here are ten unusual writing tips that I like to use. Let me know your fav, or share one of your own!
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"I won't tell you what names I use when I want to like a character less but there are a few in rotation" 😂
Hmm… I wOnDeR wHaT tHe NaMe Is?
I see you are looking to be a writer well you should learn for a master like myself I'm Edward wartson a professional writer so I will help you just think about the world and realize it's all a story and you can change the world well no I can change the world because It's my job as a history writer you cannot because you couldn't make a story but maybe you can with my help.
@@sock356 what a comment
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@@meatbleed definitely one of the comments ever
A list, because I like lists:
1.Temporarily change the name of a character with the name of someone you like or dislike to imagine them more complexly.
2.Cut the last thing you wrote as extra words often make it weaker.
3.Stop writing while you still have ideas to have a starting point for the next writing session.
4.Print your manuscript for proofreading, as having a physical copy makes it easier to spot mistakes.
5.Keep sentence-long summaries of your scenes as you write them.
6.Keep a list of topics, ideas--- to follow up later
7.Keep a list of problems for revisions, instead of stopping to fix them while drafting.
8.Sumarize problem parragraphs
9.Swap scenes with a writing partner
10.enter your character's brain.
I was actually told No. 3 by a writing tutor years ago. He expressed it as leaving a thread for you to pull in your next session.
No. 4: I can vouch for this one myself. I can't proofread from the screen to save myself 🙄. Reading it aloud helps too, but whether you would want to do that with a whole novel, I don't know...🤔.
Not a tip exactly, but I wish I had developed a regular writing routine when I was young. Much harder when you are older I think. 😕
Thank you!
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Thank you! I also like lists so you saved me some work
Just use something to read your draft out loud. You can literally HEAR your mistakes, rather than your eyes skipping over words. No need to waste ink or paper here folks.
My favorite writing hack is acting out the scenes, I know its super weird but I'm a D&D and LARPER so acting out the scenes to see if they flow well before I write them actually helps me work through plot problems I hadn't thought of while typing up the outline. If you are comfortable acting weird its actually super helpful.
Me too 😂
I wonder if my neighbors are worried…sometimes I’ll just be jumping around and sword fighting an invisible wall
That’s such a great idea!
That idea is perfect. I do that too
Once I grabbed a friend and pantomimed a scene of choking them on the floor and then being hit off with a bottle so I could better picture how the scene would play out 🤣
@@lunaraydue1340 omg!
The best tip I've ever heard is "don't tell anyone about what you're planning to write. Tell them once it's done".
Something about getting people's reactions before any of the work is done means you're far less likely to see the project through. It rings true as well, since all the people I know who often mention they're 'writing a book' have been working on the same thing for upwards of a decade with little to show for it.
There was a psychological study that pretty much reinforced the idea too.
Yeah, there was this one book I was writing a few years ago, when I first started writing, I told all my friends I was writing a book. I eventually had to stop working on it because the pressure that they all knew what I was writing weighed VERY heavily on my shoulders. It was definitely all psychological though, and since then I only tell people I wrote a book when it's done.
Especially your parents... I told my mother and she is asking every week if I finished bruuuuh
I've been outlining my graphic novel series for 3 years now in the background of just living life normally and developing myself as a person. Haven't told a soul. It's something I probably won't finish anytime soon; the subject matter is something I'm passionate about but is even more personal for other people; I know for a fact there are things I haven't got right yet, that I wouldn't want put out in their current state. I need to find the right version of this story and be very careful not to fuck it up just because I felt pressured to finish it by an arbitrary deadline.
I'm not in writer's block, it's been intensely rewarding but exhausting to work through this story and I get new ideas every day; I'm not holding off on actually producing it because I'm scared or unable, but because I know the story isn't matured yet and I want to do this one justice.
if you’re like me and feel the need to ramble about your plot points to get them straight in your head, try this: “it’s just for fun.” or “i’m just planning it, not writing it.” (don’t lie, obviously, but you can totally convince yourself it’s not gonna happen right up until you start writing it.) and then you tell no one you’ve actually started writing it until you’re finished. it’s also great because if it’s an Offical Project™ people will critique it but not offer any decisions because they don’t want to step on your toes. if it’s just for fun, they’ll mention cool ideas, and have lower standards when it comes to critiquing it.
Yep took me a while to realize it. But Andrew Huberman pretty much explains it.
My weird writing tips: 1. listen to music. A ton of music. Three hour How To Train Your Dragon ambience loop has got the creative juices flowing multiple times. Once, I listened to Hurt by Nine Inch Nails for four hours while I wrote a particularly sad scene. I can now sing it from memory.
2. have several documents open on my computer so I can work on another story or look up notes if current story isn't going well.
3. write a poem about how the character is feeling, an element of the world, or a cultural attitude of a made-up culture. Once, I even wrote a love poem from one character to another to cement their relationship in my mind. (My sister read it and pestered me to include it in my book, but I am less confident in my poetry skills than I am in my prose skills.) Poetry never fails to cut to the emotional heart of the subject, whereas prose can get mushy.
4. eat an apple at the beginning of my writing session. Apples are my favorite food, they're nutrisious, and the physical catharsis of chewing something helps my thought process. I also like to have a cold drink on hand to sip throughout.
5. If I need time to think or if the plot is stuck, I go for a walk in the park across the street. I get in twenty minutes of exercise so no one can accuse me of sitting on my butt all day, and pacing helps me think.
6. I often delete the first thing I said rather than the last. Especially in inner monologues, I work up to the point through several sentences, fleshing out the idea, then delete the often weak, unnecessary beginning sentences.
7. write unnecessary scenes in a separate document. These scenes may not even be included in the book. It could be the MC on their deathbed surrounded by grandchildren, it could be a scene of a group of friends playing volleyball or the MC's first date from the POV of the love interest. It helps me understand the character if I know their life outside what happens in the book. I know that the MC can cook nothing but eggs and oatmeal, I know that he will have six dogs who know him only as "Daddy", I know that his future wife will have a miscarriage at age 37, triggering the only real argument the two of them will ever have. It's small details like that which make the character feel like a living being who has a life beyond the story.
u should start a youtube channel
I like the way your mind works
Nice ✨✨
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5 surprisingly helps me a lot. I take walks when I write, it gets the creative energy flowing.
I think this is the best advice I've gotten about writing. My college English professor once told the class that when you don't know what to write, just put you thoughts down on the page. For example, you could write "I don't know what to write but I want to say __ and this is the direction I want to go." This has really helped me as I write a lot of argumentive research papers and I need to get my argument across clearly and effectively.
But, I think this could really help if you were writing a novel or poem as well.
Yeah, I had a poetry professor tell me the same! We would do writing sessions in class where we weren't allowed to have a still pen. It's a great exercise!
"writers just don't know how to shut up." TRUE!! I have used this tip so much and it almost always makes my prose (or any other writing for that matter) cleaner.
It is so true!!! One time I reached over my friend's keyboard and deleted the last paragraph of her story and she read it back and GASPED. If you've been staring at a story trying to figure out what's wrong with it, it's Almost Always that it needs a trim
Writing tips that aren't just the standard ones you hear everywhere. 😁
🙌🙌🙌🙌
@@HannahLeeKidderSeconded. Thank you for *original* content.
It’s so refreshing to hear something new. I get tired of the same boring advice
If thousands of trained and professional writers keep repeating the same 5 tips, it's you, not them. Maybe that's it, huh. All you need to understand. But instead you waste time watching some self-centred ytber who didn't publish shit besides some short stories. Could it be because her alternative and "original" tips suck? 🤔 I mean, if her tips are soooo great that a video needed to be made, surely she's a best-selling author with multilple hits, right?
It's sad. You start researching, hope to not waste time, and yet, apparently, most of the tips on the internet are some ridiculously bad fanfic circlejerks. Sigh.
"Original" in this case means "I don't want to learn the hard stuff, I don't understand what I am doing but somehow I still think that whatever I will come up with is just... better". 🤑🤢
Have some standarts...
@@lukasz96have you considered that everyone is unique, and what works for you might not work for them?
For example, I'm working on 3 projects at the same time while watching videos and thinking of ideas for my handful of other projects. I thrive in this chaos because it's how I function, but I know there are people who would never be able to function in such chaos, because that's them and how they are.
7.8 billion people on this planet, never expect everyone to agree on anything. Including whether or not professional advice helps them.
My favourite writing tip is using your story/ main plot as a plot for a tabletop roleplay, like DnD. Seeing other people's interactions with your characters or plot (or world, if it's fantasy) is an eye-opener for all angles of the story. Everything from pitfalls to solutions. Seeing your friend's reactions when their shenanigans make it into your book is also a lot of fun. 😅
That is a really cool idea! I have played RPGs from time to time, and it has brought out some spontaneous (and hilarious) moments.
The one time I tried to GM, my outline for the episode was more like a script than a regular plan for a session. It certainly gave me out into the different kinds of writing and how they function.
@@jacksonkerr2095 It is eye-opening, indeed. I always recommend people to try and write different things and different formats. Sometimes trying to imagine a scene in your book as a scene in a movie or on a stage can change your perspective completely.
Also writing in different styles, such as writing the outline of the story as if it were a fairytale or imagining it as a comic panel can be helpful, should one have fallen into a block of some sort.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was how the script of the DnD movie was written!
this isn't just helpful for writign, but also fun to do with friends when you're all bored in a room xD
MY FAVE WEIRD WRITING HACK. I love to brainstorm characters and plot by taking several sheets of printer paper, laying them out on the table, and putting a circle (which represents a character) in the middle of each page. One for my MC, and others are for supporting characters. I draw a relationship web on each page that shows each individual's CHARACTERISTICS, as well as the ACTIVITIES, BACK STORY, DIRTY SECRET and INTERACTIONS each character has with all the others. The whole story comes to life in the scribbles. P.S. I know all this is supposed to be possible with Scrivener, and other programs, but I can't visualize my story on the computer screen.
Sometime pen and paper just hit different!
I know I always go back to pen and paper! But the issue is I can't read my own handwriting haha
@@Onajourney519 I tried something similar with a new program that popped up on my MacBook in recent months, it's called Freeform. I can draw boxes, and add text, and insert photos. It's a cool way to make a mind map!
Tip 8 is it, my writing increased both in quality and quantity when I realised that what you write doesnt have to be "good" it just had to be writing - you can then just go back and fix it later, but also sometimes what you thought was rough and garbage sometimes actually turns out to be alright. It's better to get a draft down however bad it is and just fix it after the fact
My weird writing tip is (1) draft in a separate document from the manuscript and (2) draft in a weird font. I write in Google Docs for the moment, and it was really cumbersome to scroll down, reformat, and only THEN start writing every time. Writing in a different spot from my """final""" draft also helped turn off the Editor Brain (TM) so that I could actually finish my book, because when the scene is in a dumb font then it doesn't matter if the writing is dumb cuz it's going to look a little stupid anyway, and it turns out that's okay. I can go back and edit it to make it better later. Bonus: if the "final" entirety of the manuscript is in a different font, I won't skim over errors as much.
what a weird cool brain hack!
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oh my god as one with really bad "editor brain" this sound genius
comic sans enjoyer 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
I find using Text-To-Speech helpful for not only spotting typos, but catching text that may "Look" like it works but when read aloud don't sound right. making it an easy fix.
I also sit down and interview my characters like picturing meeting them in a coffee shop and sitting down and asking them about their life, history, and loves it makes them much more Dynamic because they will tell you things about their life you had No idea about
writing for reading and writing for talking are not constructed the same way.
@@timtrottproductions no, but it DOES help find typos and you may find that something may look good written, but when you read it out loud, or use a text-to- speech program, you discover the error in your prose.
consider it a useful tool, rather than just reading it out loud.😺
100% Text to speech has been immensely useful for me in the editing process.
+1 on the 1-sentence summary, and here's a trick if you're using G-docs/Word/similar:
1. imbed that sentence at the top of the scene within the document
2. give that sentence a "heading" rather than "paragraph" formatting
3. (optional) make the imbedded heading text white or very light gray (so it isn't annoying)
4. add a Table of Contents at the top of your doc
Doing this keeps the summary synced with the manuscript, automatically provides hotlinks to let you navigate to the scene, and displays page count. NovelPad is better, especially if you're messy, but gdocs are free.
I don’t write my book in order. Ik weird right?
If I have a chapter that has something significant, like a death or plot twist, my brain gets the ideas and if I don’t write it out I will loose the idea before I get to that part in my book.
I have used this for my novel I am currently working on and I have been going strong 😊🎉
I often write the end towards the start of my project. This is because it keeps it fresh and gives me something to aim for.
I don't write in order, either. I tend to write the opening scene first but then I'll move on to other important plot points in the order that I think of them. I may have a bunch of ideas for how a scene should go but if I waited until I had written everything that comes before it, I'd forget my ideas before I had a chance to write them down.
I tend to write the beginning, then the end, then the middle. It makes sense to me because if I know where I'm starting and where I want to end, I can figure out how to make the journey from point A to point B.
Some writers write the ending, and then go back to the beginning and everything they write works towards that ending. I like your way of doing it!!
@@lesliewells1062 awww Ty ur too kind 😊
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Switching colors of the font is very helpful too. As a professional editor, I learned that trick. I use it in my own writing now. I have a color for rough draft, a color for paragraph by paragraph rewrites, and a color for first round of copy edits. Then after doing developmental edits I repeat the process. For me, not everyone but for me, color stands out more for me than font.
A fun one I've been getting a lot of miles out of recently is to write a scene as just dialogue, write the convos out as a kind of loosely-resembling-a-script format and then going back in and adding dialogue tags and details and other prose afterwards. Only when I know the convo itself is the core focus of the scene and needs to pack the most punch. It helps maintain the flow of the convo instead of distracting me from the interaction.
#10 is how I do most of my writing. Instead of writing the scenes in order, I write a scene that matches my current mood, situations occupying my mind, etc. It is both cathartic _and_ productive!
a good tip is to try put something i’ve experienced whether it’s an event or emotion in my novel because it makes it more personal and of course its easier to write about something you’ve experienced. Even if it’s something like love, loss, betrayal etc. I wrote a story where one of the side characters were in a really toxic friendship which was something i had just experienced and it was so easy to describe how they felt so useless and they put up with all the comments their toxic friend gave them and how they were there for their friend but the friend was never there for them. it turned out really well and it didn’t take much effort to try put myself in the characters shoes since it was something i had experienced firsthand. It was sort of just writing what i had felt at the time. So yeah i would definitely put something personal in my writing 💕💕
I hope for your better future and relationships 💪
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these tips are SOOOO GOOD hannah. i have one too! something that really humanizes characters i'm struggling with is imagining the kind of music they really like, or grew up with. this might be super specific to my personal experience (and my slightly unhealthy obsession with finding and organizing new music into genre playlists), but i find that the music we listen to says a lot about us, and listening to artists that my character would listen to is a really easy way for me to really sink into their psyche. i like making lil character mixtapes, so i can swap between several different ones based on who i'm focusing on or what part of the story i'm at.
it makes me happy to see you on youtube still after all these years
Oh, I do that too! I make playlists for certain characters, stories, or scenes that have a particular mood. Really helps me get in the mood.
This is an awesome idea thank you
im writing a story this month that was literally inspired by a song i listened to, and i actively listen to it while im writing the story
awesome i might use that. i can draw, but cant write for shit
I love that idea! And I started thinking, what about the movies and books and decor styles they would like. I love it!
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from Oakley Hall's The Art and Craft of Novel Writing. He basically says that to liven up the scene, finding a way to balance the action, description and "drama" are essential. This helps writers avoid being list-like with their details, or making dialog that turns into a speech, two things which can slow the reading to a crawl. It's best to give a little detail, offer some character sentiments or have them act in place of their dialog, with the action bringing into focus more details, and then show some consequences of their words or actions upon the scene. Basically making sure that the scene is dynamic by not being stuck in just one mode of storytelling, whether it's descriptive storytelling or verbal storytelling or narrative storytelling; always make sure that you're juggling bits and pieces of each in.
An example for those who might need one to understand:
Jake Towns walked back into the cabin from the soaking rain, shaking his boots upon the wirebrush doormat trying to scrape the mud from his soles.
"If this ain't the worst weather we've seen in a minute," he said, fluttering the tail of his longcoat to free it of water, "You'll be lucky to get out of town by next Tuesday. We don't get rains here often, but when we do they like to stick around for a week."
"It won't stop me," Jason Cargill said, the blade in his hand reflecting the light of the lamp, illuminating the wood shavings that fell to the floor from his whitling, "I've rode in worse conditions than this. This is piss, but it's not a flush."
Jake removed the gray newsboy cap from his shiny head and battered it against his knee, then tightened it in his grip to wring out the water.
"That so? I wouldn't do it, 'less I had to."
"Well, you don't have to."
"Neither do you," Jake started removing his outerwear, dumping them to the floor where their drippings had already started to produce a puddle.
"You don't know what I have to do."
As you can see, the dialogue is given room to breathe with action, the details come to life with characters interacting with them, the implications of the characters and their attitudes are discernable by the way they talk and their actions; Jake is coming in from rain trying to get dry while Jason is sat down whittling a piece of wood with a knife, showing Jason's bold confidence and Jake's wary lived (and evident) experience with the reality of bad weather; and lastly details are filled out not only by compiling them into a list of doormats, lamps, wood shavings, and puddles, but are gradually revealed as the scene calls them each into action. The doormat is there because Jake is rubbing his muddy soles on it, the lamp is caught in the glinting of the blade, the wood shavings are the product of his whittling, and the puddle is the result of Jake's wet clothes. Not only do they fill in the scenery of the cabin, but they're all given notable purpose as we come to them. All of it combines to tell a quick story of a man's determination to ride the next day regardless of the weather.
My writing hack I just made for my shitty memory: When outlining (which I recommend everyone learn to do in some format or another), there are little nuances or details that are referenced like "They go to this hidden place and found so-and-so's spellbook." - if this is a newer concept for the novel, I may actually make a footnote (as I write my outlines in google docs before working in Novelpad (link in the description)) on the hidden place and the spell book. This helps in a few ways. 1) Making a footnote makes you think of the thing and thus you may remember it more. 2) Footnotes are non-intrusive. I can skim past that little number if I know what the reference is. 3) If I forgot, the reference is there, in detail, but away from the section itself so it's not clogging up the flow of the point. This may be excessive but that's what I need lol I also color code the names of every character in my outline. It's a great visual to see if a scene is too crowded or chaotic or if too many people are mentioned (info dumpy scenes).
I use the comments feature on Google docs much like you use footnotes. Also for anything I delete while rephrasing -- should I need to undo it later, or work part of it back in, it's right there, and it quiets the part of my brain that freaks out about losing things.
Good ideas. Thanks to you both!
I don’t write in order. It is a mess. I don’t recommend it, not even to myself, but when a scene “drops” on me I write it down as fast as I can like almost in real time. I buy medium point black ink pens so the ink comes out fast and doesn’t slow me down. When the writing turns a bit stale and intentional, I quit for the day. But now I’ve got plops all over and no real idea how to connect them. But I am happy bc it is put down on paper
My tip? Always always have a pen and a scrap of paper to write ALL your ideas, especially the stupid ones, ha ha. 9:04
My favorite hacks I do are 1. Walking, walking can make you calmer and make your mind more clear and run better. Sometimes I write while walking, or sometimes when I need an idea I’ll walk and then write those ideas down 2. listening to music that reminds you of the story and characters, just helps you get in the mood to write for that story, and 3. Making a snack or drink you only really make when you write, I do strawberry milk, and it kinda makes my mind think, yay it’s good to write and gets you also in the mood to write
Tips I have found helpful:
1) Find sounds that match the setting or songs that inspire a scene on repeat, keeps you focused and can write for much longer without losing focus
2) Writing prompts can sometimes help with world building. Some of my best breakthroughs happened while testing out a prompt and changing the tone from what I have been writing.
00:27 📚 Create complex characters by temporarily renaming them after real people you like/dislike to gain fresh perspective.
01:10 🖊️ Consider cutting the last section of your writing to maintain focus and strengthen your point.
01:39 🧠 Stop writing while you still have ideas to ensure a productive next session.
02:20 📖 Print your manuscript for proofreading to spot mistakes more easily.
02:47 📝 Keep sentence-long summaries of scenes to create an outline as you write.
03:28 💡 Maintain a list of topic ideas to passively generate content for short stories, poems, blogs, etc.
03:56 🗒️ Make a list of problems in your longer project for later revisions rather than interrupting your flow.
04:54 📝 Summarize paragraphs to maintain momentum, then fill in details later.
06:03 ✍️ Swap scenes with a writing partner to gain fresh perspective and ideas.
06:59 🧘♂️ Get in your character's head by writing about something you're personally going through.
That assertive yet monotone "don't leave" was fantastic 😂. Subscribed!
I've actually done the second tip a few times after you mentioned something similar previously and it really does work out sometimes to just....chop the last bit off. Authors do be Unleashing Words, and sometimes they gotta be reined in.
not sure if its that weird but one thats really surprised me is how changing my location can really impact my writing. i just spent a day sitting at the computer not getting anything substantial down but sitting on my kitchen counter with google docs pulled up i just wrote a ton more than i expected. just finding somewhere different to be (even better if it matches the vibe your writing) has done wonders for me
This hack seems weird to me, but I almost guarantee someone else does it, is to put your favourite music in and do something else- work out, go for a walk, cook something or have lunch, maybe drive or play a videogame.
At surface level that just sounds like blatant procrastination, but then like Hannah here has mentioned a few times you subconsciously work on these problems, and that helps me a lot. I can't count the number of times I just got up, went on a walk, and came back with golden ideas and a new drive. Thanks for the tips!
With number 4, I like to use the document audio feature to read it back to me. My eyes will miss the error but the audio playback will not. It will help find clunky parts that sound great in my head until I hear it.
I don't really write or read anything but, I watched this video and thought it was informative and straight to the point. Good job.
I like to have a document reserved for loose ends and half-baked scenes/ideas. So like if I write a scene that doesn’t end up fitting the mood or whatever but the writing or characterization or dialogue or whatever was super good, I’ll just ctrlX the whole thing into the loose ends doc so I can use it later if I want. I also put brainstorming, scenes from later parts of the story that haven’t connected yet, and occasionally chapter outlines in there. It works well for me, maybe it’d work for you too:)
Great tips in this video!♥️
I enjoy connecting my senses to my books. for instance, for my fantasy novel about a young girl taken in by a tavern owner, I listen to tavern noise. I turn the lights down and I have a lamp that flickers like a flame, and I even have a candle burning that smells like fresh baked cookies. for my novel about a girl learning to be a fairy, I listen to forests sounds, make sure I have lots of natural light, and light a candle that smells woodsy. now that I have trained myself like that, if I'm ever struggling trying to write, I just light the right candle or play the right sounds and bam! brain go vroom!
(Mainly for drafting a poem, but can be used for fiction.) I'll make a packet of poems by other writers that share something in common--image, form, syntax, etc.--and outline the approaches to how each poem develops based off of that. Then, I'll make myself an assignment from those outlines--e.g., "write a poem that is six stanzas long, use a made up word as a verb, an image of a swan must appear in either the third or sixth stanza, and must use the line 'suppose you do change your life. Now what?'"
Or, I'll make a cento from those packets.
Either way, keeps me reading and thinking about writing.
Good tips! It's always about how to sustain the 'keep going' phase until you have a 2nd or 3rd draft that can go out to betas, imo. I also have found a ton of use going into 'summary' mode for scenes I don't have as crystalized in my head. I think about it when I'm doing a Zero Draft as writing either 'narrative' or 'treatment' and just flipping between them as needed and making little notations for myself when I run into an issue. I've consistently found that your story will shape itself through that first draft no matter how much you try to outline and pre-plan, so it's critical to push through that to the end and these were great tips for that!
Remarkably good list.
The trick that I have used (don't remember where I first saw it) is to turn off your screen when writing. This prevents you from dropping into edit mode when you're writing, so it's easier to maintain momentum.
Also, when you go back to a piece written this way, while you will have lots of errors, you have a built-in excuse for them, so you're likely to have a lower emotional attachment to your 'deathless' prose and might find it easier to rip things apart when they need it.
Obviously, this works best if you're a touch typist. 8-)
Love these! Whenever I finish up for the day, whether that's finishing a scene or a chapter, I like to write the next sentence or 2 sentences of the next scene or chapter that way I have a jumping off point for the next session. It's SO MUCH LESS INTIMIDATING than staring at a blank page. I also do chapter numbers and titles, and I like to set up the chapter headings and title the chapter at the end of the session before I write it in the next one, because it feels like a little reward (I'm obsessed with titling things).
idk why this video is popping off but i'm scared, join my mailing list pls view.flodesk.com/pages/60a6adbc8c76bb525a084442
Yeah, this was the first result when I looked up writing, but it worked out, thanks for the tips!!
Because its extremely helpful!
First time seeing your channel but this video was really helpful. I hope that other people will find it also. You deserve a sub. And now you've gotten that sub.
I got recommended xD
I'm a new author on TH-cam, and this video just came up on my feed. I love it!!
These are some great tips!! One tip that I’ve used is to have a notebook or separate place to write ideas down. I use a notebook dedicated solely to ideas for my novel and I usually start the writing session by scribbling down some ideas and get the creative juices flowing.
Brain dump. ☺️
My favourite is writing like its a letter. Like ur telling another character what Character A did that day, eho they interacted with, did Characters A and B meet up with C? Character D know but E doesn’t, because A and B are mad at E. And then all the sudden i have a few chapters once i add a bit more context
Get a candle that matches the theme or mood of your book. Last year I was writing a story set in a forest, and I had a pine candle I burnt through entirely.
Also I don't know if it's weird, but if I'm having trouble getting in the head of a character, I just freewrite their thoughts in deep character perspective, so their literal thoughts as narration, no italics, reacting to the world and people around them. Usually it turns into a lot of them complaining about things lmao and it tells me what their mood is. Then I highlight it to delete later and get back into the scene with their mood firmly set in my mind.
Number 4 sounds really similar to how artists [especially digital] will flip their canvus in reverse to check for mistakes. For some reason, the brain likes to autocorrect stuff when it's been looking at something for too long, so changing it makes those mistakes pop out more. It's cool to see writers have a similar trick.
Keeping track of first draft problems (number 7) is soo helpful! I write in Google docs and I'll just comment on my own writing when I'm worried it'll pose a problem later.
I know this is interpreting the tip in a slightly different way, but even doing this for life problems too can help clear your mind for writing. If you are struggling to focus on writing because you're thinking about what you need to do later or you want to fact check something you just wrote, write it on a notepad so that it's out of your head and you know you can come back to it.
Hannah, I appreciate that you're straight to the point and informative all the way throughout your videos, which is something not every booktuber can say!! Don't worry about the length of your intros :)
my favorite tip is to write the ending first. stories have a beginning middle and end. it's quite natural for us to think up a beginning and a middle and then more middle and more middle and more middle and then dang how do we resolve all these middles? we can save ourselves much of this trouble by writing an ending (or a couple of alternate endings) first. i like this because it can apply to movies, tv shows, parental lectures, anything that any of us may have experienced with seemingly no end, or with a very odd or very wrong end. if you start by writing the end, you'll reduce your risk of everyone loving your show only to hate the ending. you might get better at giving lectures to your kids with a definite ending. you won't be a parent who lectures on and on for literally hours. you'll be mindful parent and you'll waste a lot less time and energy and breath. you'll make more money. your digestion will improve. you'll get better grades. your children will enjoy talking to you. write the ending first.
Thanks for some great tips! I started doing number 7 recently and it has helped to keep my momentum going with writing my novel.
I'll be writing and then I'll realise I'm referencing something that I haven't really written much about throughout the rest of the story, but is important, so instead of going back to fix it right then, I'll write a note to fix it in the first round of edits, and just continue my story.
I have lots of notes, and little questions to myself in a physical notebook (at the moment). Some are general, but a lot I will put the Scene number next to so I know where I need to look for that issue.
I also have a lot of placeholders(e.g. [name], [inn name] etc.) because I don't want to be spending 10 minutes trying to decide on a name for someone or something every time there's a new one.
Figuring out names is hard. I have a baby name book that is great and there are lots of lists on line
i’ve been struggling with finding youtubers who talk about writing in a short interesting way and i really love the way you speak about it. it’s almost like a short little class and i adore it
Tip 3 I learned from Hemingway. He did that. It's always good to know where you're starting the next day.
I like summarizing when getting stuck. I use brackets to indicate what i want then i can keep writing and not loose my flow. I use it when i can't think of the exact right word all the way to summarizing entire scenes. It looks like this...
Mary felt [word that means fear + revulsion + terrible curiosity] when Dylan saw her with Theresa.
Then I can go back through by searching [.
Be careful - don't get too ahead of yourself without going back to do something with the brackets or you'll wind up with too many for your AHDH brain to handle then you'll derail yourself for months stressing about how much work you have do to with it then ignore it for a year. *cough*
Side note, I find your content super helpful. Your into, pesentation, and mannerisms resonate with me and I learn things that crack my head open and let the stories dump out. Thanks!!! More please.
some things i swear by
- writing a poem, freeverse rhyming whatever, about the scene or description youre trying to capture to map it out almost like a summary, every time i do this whatever im writing comes far more naturally. its like both mapping out the scene and giving ideas on word choice.
- acting out scenes, gives me ideas for what to write into a particular scene (but if you're scatterbrained like i am, i suggest writing brief summaries and notes down about what you acted out as soon as you can)
- taking the messiest, silliest notes ever about ideas - make them funny, make them make you laugh, phrase them in odd ways. when i reread my weird notes it motivates me and cheers me up if im having a hard time writing
tip 3 is extremely useful, i use it in a way while reading, i pick an absolutely aweful place to stop in the middle of a sentence so that i actually want to keep reading when i go back to the book
i have a couple of weirdish tips (note i use google docs to write so these aren't going to be relevant for everyone):
1. put everything in different areas, so like one place for your outline, another for a thought dump, your draft, etc. because it makes it easier to find stuff (like you only have to scroll through three pages of your thought dump instead of like 100+ pages of that, your outline, edits, and your draft for one random background tidbit you need)
2. outline your draft before you revise! i like to read through my draft and comment my edits (like if a scene goes too long, i'll comment "have A leave at *moment* and end scene") then i'll outline again with my edits added in that way i don't have to go through 100+ comments and my previous draft when revising. Also, you can work out plot holes, arcs, etc. in the new outline instead of when you're trying to write
3. if you don't have a writer friend to swap scenes or ideas with, ask a friend you like and trust for help. i got stuck on reincorporating a sub plot because i made story changes that made introducing this sub plot hard, so i asked my friend if she was up with helping me and she gave me a bunch of ways to add it in and ideas for other issues and stuff for that story. honestly, i love talking with my friends (non-writers and writers) about my writing issues because they always hype up my ideas or suggest something that adds so much more to my story where i can't imagine it without that suggestion 🥰
3rd one is so fun! Friend who don't write but read a lot are really good editors!
these tips are legitimately such great tips, I've stumbled across/just started doing so many of them on my own and they've really revolutionized the flow of how I write and made it so much easier to actually get story structures out of me. so I highly recommend all those structure/verbiage ones at least, such as the story/scene summaries, keeping lists of problems and ideas, and so forth. they're really helpful! I can't wait to try out these other ones I haven't before, thanks!
One thing/tip I think about a lot because honestly I can be QUITE the people pleaser, is write the book you want to read. Because if you are writing for like a cash grab, or you just hate it, or you think that if you do “blah blah blah” nobody will read it, you aren’t going to feel as motivated to finish it. There’s less passion. Sometimes when I’ve been in a rut, feeling too constrained by my perceived expectations of the people around me or my personal expectations, just thinking “what do I want to read” can really help.
Favorite weird writing hacks:
1) I help put myself into the mood to write, kind of like a ritual, usually around 6:00pm or later (it has to be dark outside), I make a fresh pot of coffee and blast synthwave music in my headphones.
2) Playing games counts as research.
To me the thing that helped me the most was consistency. I had my daily objective to write 300 words almost every day for almost two years. Even if I was aware what I wrote wasn't the best and not what I had in mind, I continued writing, I would fix later what I didn't like.
Also, my main advice is to stick with one project and not start new ones. You have new ideas? Good, try to re-adapt them to the already existing project, add depth to your work.
I'm definitely not a successful writer. Heck, English is not even my first language, but I still managed to publish my book and even get a physical copy, and when you hold for the first time the thing you have worked so hard for in your hands, it doesn't matter if it will be successful or not, it doesn't matter if it's a masterpiece or a piece of crap, you'll still love that feeling.
One last thing: write because you love to write, not for success or money.
something I do a lot is write all the dialogue of the scene/chapter first bc it makes the conversations flow a lot better + I find I write a lot more in whatever timeframe I have compared to if I did dialogue-action-dialogue-action
Love 1 and 10. My hack is to "fool myself" into writing by telling myself I only have to write 15 minutes. I set an alarm and keep resetting it until I'm settled in. Never failed me!
Thank you for being so direct, helpful, and still aesthetically pleasing to watch. A lot of tips for writers just go off track and take waaay longer to convey information
One of my favorite things to do, going off point #10 is that I prepare a list of questions, the same questions, and ask each character to see how they answer. It can be something regular or serious, just being able to know things about them on a deeper level helps me know them better. Yeah, so like acting as them. I don't care if that's weird or not because they're my characters and I should know the most about them.
My most important advice: when taking advice, distinguish whether it is for process (how you do it) or for result (what it should end up being) . If you try to write your first draft as if it was meant for publishing you either block yourself with perfectionism, or you'll have an amateurish text at your hands because you'll be too married to your draft. E. g. "write natural dialog with subtext" is a result advice that would kill your process. There is a lot of great process advice in this video :)
Something that helps me when I'm stuck with a part is switching to pen and paper. On paper my creativity flows way better and I'm less focused on making it perfect. Most of the times I just write a few paragraphs to get me out of the mud, worst case I hand write everything. It's less efficient, but at least it's written
I haven't written fiction in ages, and back when I did it regularly it was mostly for my own amusement. Some of the tips you've given here were similar to things I do while writing academic papers and the like, but I had completely forgotten how much easier it is to proofread your text after printing. I've done a lot of that in the past, but nowadays I don't even own a printer. I guess you've just reminded me of a very good habit that I'm most definitely going to apply to my thesis. Nice to get to know your channel, btw, just subscribed. Take care, Hannah!
(Sorry for any mistakes, my native language is Portuguese)
@@thewritersalcove, you were very kind. I suppose that we - non-native speakers - tend to be more self-conscious (I for one am much more relaxed when talking in Portuguese)
Best tip, the situations can be unbelievable as long as the characters react like it happens to them, eg. freaking out if they get in a car accident/ feeling angry if they’re randomly betrayed etc.
I love to talk about my book, as if I were on an interview, after I published it. It helps to think, that you know everything, bc I don't plot. I mean I do, I just mostly don't follow it, and acting like I know whats gonna happen helps a lot.
I can ask myself questions that are important to the plot, and bc "it's an interview" I have to answer, and so I figure things out I haven't thought about befor.
(I hope you guys understand what I mean. My english is kinda giving up on me rigth now)
I do the same but it's mostly narcissistic because I like to imagine myself in an interview, the improvement of my story is a side effect
The sentence-long summaries really do help. I’m starting to include table of contents, and instead of just including the title, I include 1-3 sentences summarizing the main action without giving away spoilers.
Great video. Love your relaxing and conversational style.
I like to write out the internal conflict of my characters before starting a scene.
For instance recent:
Happy to be alive - freaked out by close touch with death
Upset adult isn’t concerned about brothers injuries - understands the bigger picture
Thankful brother is alive - upset the injury wasn’t prevented.
Having her thoughts in mind helps put more tension into the scene.
I recently learned the thing you said here about just asking what the scene needs or what the character is trying to do and just writing it down as notes makes such a difference, and then half the time the notes turn into the scene anyway!
I don't know if this qualifies as weird, but I recently started writing conversations between my characters. I may use these scenes in the final draft, or I may just keep them for personal reference. The conversations are always about elements of the story and have proved useful in exploring how the various characters feel about what is going on and what reactions they will have. I have also discovered characters that I would not have thought of, which allows me to fill in plot holes and find different paths for the plot. Another useful thing from these exercises is I develop background for places. The local coffee shop or bar become more real in my mind when I include a few more details and I can add those details to other scenes if they are useful.
That's an actually new, to me, list of tips! Very helpful, thank you. This is the first video from you I came across and really enjoy how down-to-earth it seems. I'm following and checking out more of your stuff.
I actually just recently found that cutting the last thing I wrote while working on a chapter can be effective at times. Whenever I get stuck with writing a long dialogue where it seems to run for like forever, I backspace all the way to the point where the conversation is still solid. And then I realize it can actually work to redo the whole conversation over and make it more concise and brief, but packing a punch.
Two things I do are:
listen to a lot of music, especially lyric-less music because sometimes I find it hard to focus with lyrics- lyric-less fades into the background better. It helps me get in whatever atmosphere or feeling I want, and I make playlists for each character to help get in their headspace/feeling/themes
The other thing I do to flesh out characters is I have a list of random situations, mostly mundane, and then I write a short blurb on how that character would act/react in those situations. It helps a lot with figuring out how characters differ from each other and how they work/think
I watched the first recommended video - felt like it wasn't even a 'real' writer talking. I thought I was a douche until I came here. Completely different vibe. Thanks for sharing your tips.
Great video, Hannah! I liked the tip about consistent idea generation a lot. I find it too tempting to put lots of time and thought into an idea right away when instead it would do much better if I let it sit for a while first
I love that this found me right now as I'm coming to the end of my novel and thinking about the editing process. Thank you for the tips!!! I really appreciate you mentioning some of these, because I don't hear other people talking about them, like the quick "this character sympathises with this character here..." which I actually do XD
I like this. It fits with things I've discovered, but seeing it oranized like this helps.
For #4, just changing the window size of my editor so the lines of text re-wrap is fairly effective. For #7, I used to put notes in square brackets right inside the text. I've stopped doing that, but I will have to consider trying it again. Fior #10, I sometimes put my character in a mundane scene, like sitting in a park watching people, or drving down the road, then have him describe what he sees. It works because that scene is not going to go into the story. It doesn't have to do anything, it doesn't have to move the plot or involve any conflict. It's just letting the character brainstorm himself. And sometimes, his observations of other people leads to new, useful characters emerging.
I'm hitting a lull towards the end of writing my thesis and #3 and 7 are so helpful!!!
Love the hack of cutting out the last sentence or paragraph. I already hack of the first paragraph of almost all my posts and that has really helped. So excited to try this.
Hi Hannah, this was without a doubt the most creative tip video i have seen in a long time! Love you just get to it! You are “deleting the last sentences” while you even are talking 😂 Thanks! SUBSCRIBED!
These are actually very useful! Thank you!
I have such a hard time finding writing advice that actually works for me. This feels like something that actually fits with my brain.
I just listened it while getting ready to college and it's SO GOOD. I'm more an ilustrator than a writer and I must say that your tips shed some light in my art block... thank u xD
one writing hack that works for me is doodling. i like to doodle my main characters in situations which give me ideas for how the story is going to go. that way i won’t just spend minutes or hours just staring at a blank page. as long as i’m doing something to fill in the page, the words come naturally. i also have specific playlists to get in the zone and get inspired. great video btw, i love reading about everyone’s writing tricks!
Print to PDF works, too. Or just use a Text to Speech Program. But, so far it's been solid advice, some I've even used. And there you said it. You're going to go pro one day. You have real advice, not the common platitudes.
Yes... sentence long summaries as plot maps. Works wonders.
Yeah, when I was writing the Elf in Manhattan and The Riddle in the Sea, I definitely had notes in my books concerning the direction I was going. Still have all of that. I actually have a folder, that contains all my edits and their pagination for all of my books that I found on my latest revision. That's how meticulous I keep my notes.
That's another skill. Sometimes when writing my longest books, I'd go periods of a couple of weeks not writing, and to get back into the flow, I had to read the entire manuscript before I wrote even one new sentence.
I've never summarized a problem paragraph, but I've definitely mapped conversations. It's fun when your subconscious goes off script, but having that blueprint is a secret weapon, which helps organize your themes. I normally go once through the whole story in my head, and write down plot points, and then when I get to writing the actual work, I expand upon it. Sometimes I even use the same plot maps for other materials, and will write the same story twice, only with different twists. Or, I just pull the blueprint from Bullfinch or whatever source I'm using; like Hercules can be a fruitful plot if you want to write something tight, or a Bible story. I wrote Utopia off of the story of Jezebel and Elijah, and spliced it with a few others. Or Joan of Arc, I spliced Cyrus the Great and Joan of Arc; which surprisingly worked beautifuly.
I really liked your last tip - to imagine the character living out a problem in your own life and how they would do that. Awesome XD
For characters i personify actions that people had done to me in the past, for instance multiple times i have been treated badly by boys or completely ignored no mater how hard i tried really created good characters for me and even the best characters i like them to have flaws that i see in my friends every day, being annoyingly good and right all the time. I struggle to continue to write my villains from a protagonists perspective my main villain i had him echo the same line ‘don’t blow it’ reflecting the constant pressure i have faced and that the very act of ‘blowing it’ still terrifies me to this day and i find this phrase more powerful than any villain.
about keeping a list of problems: for me this approach has one more benefit: when i've written more and know more about the story, i sometimes see a better way of fixing the problem than before. i hate when characters act like fools for the sake of some contrived problem, so i always question their actions, and if i feel that the reason for them to do something is a but weak, i point that out for myself. for example, if i have a "why couldn't he do this instead of that?", later it often clicks with something and explains it better, something that i didn't have in my mind before.
Definitely going to be putting that tip about changing your characters' names to someone you know into practice. I think it's also a very good way to ensure your characters don't all end up with the same personalities.
I don't think this one is WEIRD, but it can be revolutionary if you've ever only worked with word-count goals. If you struggle to hit word-counts, try writing for a certain amount of time everyday. I find I get more done that way, personally, and it might be better for people with faster pacing in their prose (or people who are like. writing comics or poetry, etc.)
My second one is a little weirder. I like writing with Google Docs because I like to use the comments feature to leave notes or tone indicators (I'm a comic writer, so a lot of my storytelling would come through visuals, not words) as I write the scenes.
I like to make sure there is an escape from the immersion if it gets too intense for some people, as writing has triggers for some.
This is the best writing tips video after Brandon Sanderson's lectures. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I love to read my book aloud. Makes it so much easier to catch awkward wording or typos.
this is probably the most helpful and enjoyable "tips for writing" video I've seen so far.
I used to be here for just the Twilight Rewrite, but through whatever series of life events I'm now pursuing writing and really appreciate these tips. I love that you include some really unique things.
A weird tip I can give is that, when you can't come up with an idea for a new book or novel, go to a random word generator and pick it to give you 3 words and then make those 3 words the main concept or part of your story. Idk why but it's very fun and always works for me 😅
3, 5, and 7 are genuinely fantastic tips I had not thought of! Thank you 🎉
i actually really like to open what i am writing in something that has built in text to speech function and then hit play. this is such a good way for me to catch things that i feel i can't pick up on just from just reading it.
I have a tip! could be of use.
Sometimes I have great ideas for my story but they're too advanced for the moment. For example, I'm at chapter 3 trying to figure out how to write it, but suddenly I know exactly how to write chapter 5. It's like I'm being overflowed with ideas that "can't" be written yet because I'm far behind. So what I do is write that advanced chapter and make sure that all the ideas fill the pages.
Once that's done, suddenly I know what needs to be done for me to get from chapter 4 to 5, and 3 is just the prep for that transition between two sections of the book. Knowing already what will happen helps me go through chapters, since I know what must be set in the present for the future to happen.
It might be a little bit messy but it helps me to maintain my course of creativity and come with new ideas, I hope it comes handy for somebody.
but for real, try novelpad, i think ur gonna love it: novelpad.co/?via=hlk10wt
novelpad is so good ! i love how when you're actually writing it's not to cluttered on the browser. it's just a teeny tiny column on the side
ok
One thing that I find works for me as an amateur writer is finding music that suits the scene I'm working on. I think music in the background is a common tip, but for me it can't be just any old music. If I'm listening to something sci-fi themed but working on a sort of medieval fantasy story, I'm going to get stuck. However, if I put on a medieval themed playlist, I generally find writing process to be smoother. I don't necessarily know why it works for me, to be honest, but I'm such an auditory based person that it helps.
Also, put your draft in a tts. Having it read to me helps me find mistakes a bit easier than if I just read through it on my own.
This vid is really different from the stuff that you can usually see in these kinda advice compilations, great work!
1:34 Looking at it in a different format sounds like it would make a lot of sense. I'm an artist getting into writing, and I like comparing tips and stuff, so that's really interesting to think about, because usually while I'm drawing something digitally, I flip the canvas and stuff and I export it when I'm done so I can look at it in my images and I can see all the mistakes better. If you look at something for a long time then you get used to it and it'll start to look normal, so looking at it in a new format that you're not used to will make it easier to spot things you wouldnt've before.
I'm not sure I use tricks, but I do have some things I always keep in mind.
1. Contrast. I learned this through music, funnily. In music, a fun song is a song with good contrast and structure, meaning the different sections are very distinguishable from each other in way way or another-or more.
2. Just like contrast, I also learned about something I'd call Axis Points or Anchors. These are plot points or concepts that are prevalent, and they appear throughout the story (or all the stories if there are several). This serves, in a way, to "ground" the story itself and the reader by, in a way, remembering them what everything is about. That way you can just go into massive sidequestings and still it will make sense and stay within logic. This Axis Points (or multiple) can be things as simple as objects, a character, a situation that repeats itself or reminds itself during the story. Basically, it helps you avoid drifting off too far from the main plot, while letting you explore the furthest and most remote reaches of your world.
3. Hyperbolical characters. I just exaggerate characters. And no, I do not create overly complex, realistic characters. Why are we reading fiction if not to leap into a fantastic non-realistic reality? Characters or worlds themselves do not need to be realistic or overly complex. Just make them fun. How to make them fun? Take one, or maybe two things, and make them extremely noticeable. This could be a color. An element. A trait. Basically make them one-directional, in a sense. Is your character an angry fire-bender? Make them ALL ABOUT BEING ANGRY AND FIRE-BENDING. It's fun because this exaggeration creates contrast(1) with the rest of the cast and the world itself.
4. Tropes. I do use tropes; many of them. Don't believe those "writing teacher youtubers" or something. They aren't actually that great either at writing or at teaching, for the most part (some of them are). They're just content creators, which means that quantity>quality. Truth is, tropes are not bad. They're never bad. What matters is how you use the trope. Your book isn't going to be bad just because you have a chosen one or an evil demon king. Just execute it in a way that makes it good, and it will be good!
5. Finally, for last. I abuse periods. Yes, it's really nice when you know and properly use stuff like - and ; but more often than not, a full stop is the safe way to go. I would even dare say full stops are ALWAYS proper. Even if you can arguably use commas, or dashes, or whatever, a full stop will also do the job and be fine. Now, I ask you, what do you think it's better, one single big concept layed out in a single long sentence with many commas, or the same big concept divided into several sentences separated by full stops? The full stop will always, ALWAYS help with readability. And yes, I mostly followed this rule while writing this piece. And yes, I intentionally didn't follow it on my last question. Was it harder to follow compared to the rest of the text?
Cheers.