👉 Join my Writing Club - patreon.com/kierenwestwoodwriting 👉 Hire me to work on your story - kierenwestwood.com/editing 👉 My free newsletter - tinyurl.com/4z7mee38
Out of all the writer/author channels on YT, yours is my favorite. I love your short but insightful videos. Writing is such a 'lonely' career, and hearing your thoughts and advice really gives every aspiring writer positive reinforcement to keep going and pounding the keys. Thank you!
Thank you so much ☺️ that loneliness is really one of the big reasons I started the channel! I wanted to interact with other writers myself and help them do the same.
My two cents on experience and authenticity: The writers I like the most tend to be people who had extraordinary experiences before they became famous writers. Mark Twain, Lord Dunsany, Jack London, Joseph Conrad all were great writers, but if they had never written anything, they still would have lived fascinating lives. And since I wanted to be a writer since I was eight or so, it drove me to be more adventurous than I would have otherwise been. My bone to pick- and it's more common in television than anywhere else, though you get this in print as well- is writers who tell stories about professionals who have a lot of responsibility and have to make difficult decisions under pressure. But most writers don't understand that world at all, so you get silly cliches like people in emergency rooms yelling at each other. I was an EMT. I've worked in an emergency room. No one does that. When I was rookie, I was on a call and I ran to get something out of the ambulance, and the paramedic chewed me out for running. Unless something's literally about to explode, you don't run and even then, you run calmly... A lot of writers think to have drama you have to have supposedly competent professionals act like lunatics. Or they fail to recognize that often there is no good solution to a problem. No matter what you do, someone's going to be hurt. And that's the insight I would have to offer for anyone who wants to write about doctors, police officers, lawyers, starship captains, or anyone else who has to make life or death decisions.
Dunno if you take video requests or suggestions, if you don't feel free to ignore but would love to hear some of your tips on writing a blurb for a novel.
Thankyou for that backstory and history about Cuba. Something I knew nothing about. Knowing that now, I would have difficulty in reading his books now.
Kieren I’m going to inquire with you about developmental editing. For an urban fantasy novel that I wish to make as character driven and as emotional as something as serious as a struggling single mother or a bankrupt restaurateur etc. its a fantasy with magic but I want it to be truly dramatic. Once you said fantasy isn’t your thing, I thought this is a great mind to get on my story.
I'd love to work on your story! Feel free to send me the details using the form on the website anytime, or else email all the details directly to me if you'd prefer. I've worked on plenty of Fantasy stories, and even though I'm not 100% on all the tropes or conventions of the genre, I've had unanimously happy customers so far! There's no reason at all that a Fantasy story can't be as emotional and serious as a piece of literary fiction, it's all storytelling and all writing. A great story is a great story and that's how I look at it in editing.
He does focus on fantasy aspects at times but honestly his college lectures on you-tube have valuable information that is applicable to other genres. The fact he put this all here for free is almost a crime. I highly recommend even if fantasy isn’t your thing.
I wanted to introduce the idea of characters from photographs talking to my protagonist. She would see this as normal, they would just whisper things encouraging to her. Would this be magical realism?
Because of his intimate friendship with and support of Fidel Castro and the Communist party of Cuba "Gabo" was a man who I found repugnant. More than most gringos I am in a position to know how Castro crushed truth and the human spirit but did so in the name of truth and saving the human spirit. Garcia Marquez failed to see it, comprehend it or to condemn it. For this reason I, perhaps mistakenly, cannot bring myself to read his works. Life has taught me that there are benefits to comparmentalization but for over five decades I've had intimate and uninterrupted contact with those who suffered at the hands of the Orwellian, authoritarian cult of personality that Cuba became. If Cuba was corrupt before Communism it is more corrupt today than ever. For some years now I have lived in Colombia 683 miles from the border with Venezuela which has sent six million citizens into exile. It's not Cuba light, it's Cuba on steroids.
Apologies if I've offended with this one, that wasn't my intention (perhaps just my ignorance). Marquez was a writer someone requested I cover, and he had enough comments about the craft to make it worth covering. I certainly don't mean to make light of any of that.
If I may... and I don't proclaim to know a great depth about his relationship with Castro ... suggest you read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books. His respect for humanity and the value of life comes across in his writing.
👉 Join my Writing Club - patreon.com/kierenwestwoodwriting
👉 Hire me to work on your story - kierenwestwood.com/editing
👉 My free newsletter - tinyurl.com/4z7mee38
Out of all the writer/author channels on YT, yours is my favorite. I love your short but insightful videos. Writing is such a 'lonely' career, and hearing your thoughts and advice really gives every aspiring writer positive reinforcement to keep going and pounding the keys. Thank you!
Thank you so much ☺️ that loneliness is really one of the big reasons I started the channel! I wanted to interact with other writers myself and help them do the same.
My two cents on experience and authenticity: The writers I like the most tend to be people who had extraordinary experiences before they became famous writers. Mark Twain, Lord Dunsany, Jack London, Joseph Conrad all were great writers, but if they had never written anything, they still would have lived fascinating lives. And since I wanted to be a writer since I was eight or so, it drove me to be more adventurous than I would have otherwise been.
My bone to pick- and it's more common in television than anywhere else, though you get this in print as well- is writers who tell stories about professionals who have a lot of responsibility and have to make difficult decisions under pressure. But most writers don't understand that world at all, so you get silly cliches like people in emergency rooms yelling at each other. I was an EMT. I've worked in an emergency room. No one does that. When I was rookie, I was on a call and I ran to get something out of the ambulance, and the paramedic chewed me out for running. Unless something's literally about to explode, you don't run and even then, you run calmly...
A lot of writers think to have drama you have to have supposedly competent professionals act like lunatics. Or they fail to recognize that often there is no good solution to a problem. No matter what you do, someone's going to be hurt. And that's the insight I would have to offer for anyone who wants to write about doctors, police officers, lawyers, starship captains, or anyone else who has to make life or death decisions.
Absolutely. Also, Charles Bukowski.
Dunno if you take video requests or suggestions, if you don't feel free to ignore but would love to hear some of your tips on writing a blurb for a novel.
I agree with you about not throwing all the tricks in and also about not having to write what you! And that last one is completely true!
Thank you so much for a great channel. Informative practical and inspiring. Best writing channel I have seen 😊
Thankyou for that backstory and history about Cuba. Something I knew nothing about. Knowing that now, I would have difficulty in reading his books now.
Another great video, thank you!
Thank you! Appreciate you being here :)
Kieren I’m going to inquire with you about developmental editing. For an urban fantasy novel that I wish to make as character driven and as emotional as something as serious as a struggling single mother or a bankrupt restaurateur etc. its a fantasy with magic but I want it to be truly dramatic. Once you said fantasy isn’t your thing, I thought this is a great mind to get on my story.
I'd love to work on your story! Feel free to send me the details using the form on the website anytime, or else email all the details directly to me if you'd prefer.
I've worked on plenty of Fantasy stories, and even though I'm not 100% on all the tropes or conventions of the genre, I've had unanimously happy customers so far!
There's no reason at all that a Fantasy story can't be as emotional and serious as a piece of literary fiction, it's all storytelling and all writing. A great story is a great story and that's how I look at it in editing.
A author with solid writing advice is Brandon Sanderson.
So I hear! I have yet to check out his stuff. I'm not big on Fantasy, but assume his advice isn't genre-specific?
He does focus on fantasy aspects at times but honestly his college lectures on you-tube have valuable information that is applicable to other genres. The fact he put this all here for free is almost a crime.
I highly recommend even if fantasy isn’t your thing.
I wanted to introduce the idea of characters from photographs talking to my protagonist. She would see this as normal, they would just whisper things encouraging to her. Would this be magical realism?
That sounds like magical realism to me yeah!
Because of his intimate friendship with and support of Fidel Castro and the Communist party of Cuba "Gabo" was a man who I found repugnant. More than most gringos I am in a position to know how Castro crushed truth and the human spirit but did so in the name of truth and saving the human spirit. Garcia Marquez failed to see it, comprehend it or to condemn it. For this reason I, perhaps mistakenly, cannot bring myself to read his works. Life has taught me that there are benefits to comparmentalization but for over five decades I've had intimate and uninterrupted contact with those who suffered at the hands of the Orwellian, authoritarian cult of personality that Cuba became. If Cuba was corrupt before Communism it is more corrupt today than ever.
For some years now I have lived in Colombia 683 miles from the border with Venezuela which has sent six million citizens into exile. It's not Cuba light, it's Cuba on steroids.
Apologies if I've offended with this one, that wasn't my intention (perhaps just my ignorance). Marquez was a writer someone requested I cover, and he had enough comments about the craft to make it worth covering. I certainly don't mean to make light of any of that.
If I may... and I don't proclaim to know a great depth about his relationship with Castro ... suggest you read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books. His respect for humanity and the value of life comes across in his writing.