I feel like I'm past the first video of advice and that I know that I have to push myself and make time to write, so the talk about publishing and what happens after that was what I needed. You showed me the reality of what can happen, and even though it made me more nervous about publishing that I was before, I needed to hear this.
@PianoMan 2018 His career is one-in-a-million, period! Also, he started the Alex Cross series in a VERY different time, in terms of race relations, PC culture, and publishing. AFAIK, no one is upset with Patterson for writing Alex Cross--he's a great character and was very culturally defining for the time! (Kiss the Girls was one of my fave movies of the 90s, and Morgan Freeman was amazing in it) But the movement now in publishing, in the late 2010s, is to see if there are writers out there who want to write their own Alex Cross's, or the Alex Cross of a new genre, where the writer lived/breathed that existence their whole life. I do think the Alex Cross novels would have a very different feel if penned by a middle-aged Black man instead of white man. Imagine how interesting an Alexa Cross (hahaha) by a Black woman would be. The idea is not to remove books like Patterson's that had and still have meaning to culture, but to expand the roster of authors and opportunities we give to writers--open the door to some new people with new stories, and enrich our broader cultural canon. Patterson will always have a career, and so will the next James Patterson (white men will always find a place in the publishing industry!). But imagine if James Patterson decided to write the definitive Black Live Matter book? I think we'd all raise our eyebrows a bit, no? Alex Cross is a detective in a popular genre who happens to be Black, rather than a book series that centers around the Black identity. These are just some of the nuances I see :)
An advice my dad always says is, that the only thing that really matters is how you see your work, whether it’s in writing or something else. If you do your best and make yourself proud, other people’s opinions doesn’t matter.
Im lucky with my friends who are happy to just sit in the same room but they read or watch tv with headphones and i write or chill... its how we like to spend time together
I don't think that people are getting what she meant with advice #9. She never said that you can't write black characters if you're white, that you can't write women if you're a man, that you can't write a poor character if you're rich, etc. Of course you should add diversity in your books and of course you can explore many different points of view. This whole thing becomes problematic when writers convince themselves that they can portray realities they have no idea of. I will not talk about the struggle of a war veteran living with PTSD without having no idea of how it is to be at war, how it is to be a soldier, how it is to have PTSD, and so on, and especially I will not write a whole book about it! It would just end up being inaccurate, full of stereotypes and probably offensive to real veterans. I wouldn't want to be the one to spread misinformation in a society that's too often blind in front of many important issues.
Yes, exactly! I'm writing a story about WW2 myself. And me, being a 20-year old, obviously was never there. That's why I take so much time to research, to see what veterans themselves say about it, watch actual footage of the war. And even when I think I've got enough material and understanding, I know that I'll NEVER fully understand what it's like to be a soldier on the front line, a pilot fighting in the air, a sailor shooting cannons...
Thanks for saying this. I've seen this warning before and it always made me pause. The central character I'm writing now has four identity defining characteristics and I am none of those. But I have peripheral experience with some of them. I'm doing a ton of research and it's really not a story I ever thought I would write, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's a first novel, so it'll suck and no one will ever read it and be offended -- which is freeing.
"You can't love the IDEA of writing more than actually writing." This goes for any creative pursuit. When i was graduating highschool, all of my friends were like "Teach me to draw!" or "Teach me guitar!" or "Teach me to dance!" or "Teach me to fight!" "Well, i'll teach you, but you HAVE to practice. You have to practice until your hands ache and bleed. You have to dance until your bones are tired. You have to do hundreds of reps a day, EVERY DAY. Then i'll teach you the next thing." I'd teach them, and sure enough, they'd never practice. They were in love with the idea of being an artist, a musician, a dancer, a fighter, but didn't want to put in the work. You have to WANT to do these things to become them, and you have to become obsessed with them. These things occupy my brain ALL THE TIME, and not everyone has the resolve to make that stuff happen. You always inspire me to not only write, but FINISH something.
Also my experience. If I had a nickel for every time someone was like "Teach me Japanese!" or something else. Like bruh it ain't rocket science, just study and practice and dedication. Then again, pretty sure that even rocket scientists do those things too, not just right-brains like me
Great video! My harsh writing advice is... No one is going to care about your book as much as you do... Meaning, people who are close to you, who you think will lose their minds when you finish that book and want to beat down your door to be a beta reader will be the lowest form of enthusiastic that a person can be without being uninterested... Hell, I have siblings who haven’t read my novel. So my point is, get used to the idea that your friends and family aren’t going to be all that jazzed about your project; in actuality, it’s total strangers who will pick up your book and rave about it... and in a way, I think that’s even better 😊😁
Very true. Which kinda makes sense when you think about it. Your friends and family are not connected to you because of your writing, so they probably wouldn't have the same interests as you. Even if they're readers (which they might not be) they may not read the genre you write in. It's very rare that a member of your family will not only like reading, but like reading the exact kind of thing that you write. I mean, if I had a family member who liked jazz music, I would try to muster up some enthusiasm for their benefit, but at the end of the day listening to that sort of music would always feel more like a chore than a source of entertainment to me. And that's probably how my family feels about being forced to read huge-ass fantasy novels every other year, lol. :p
Nupur Chowdhury my point exactly! Plus everyone is busy with the dramas in their own lives and with trying to make their own dreams come true that they don’t have time for yours... It’s just the way human beings work; sometimes we’re self absorbed 😛😂😛
I feel like you can become a "natural writer" if you put enough time in. Almost everyone I know who writes elegantly and amazingly all started out writing cheesy fanfics and cliche tropes but after a few times doing that they grew and found a better story they care more about. One of the biggest myths of writing is that it's "easy." Because like anything else, if you want to create something worthwhile, you have to put A LOT of work into it.
I got some advice from an old manager about working with clients. Mind you I'm a hairstylist, but I think the lesson still applies to authors who want to be marketable to wide audiences, and publishers looking for new books: Your client doesn't honestly care about you. They care about themselves, and how you make them feel. The client will enjoy your work and imput, but at the end of it all, they just care about the end result and their personal experience. So find out what makes your audience happy and emotionaly stirs them up. Then use your personal talents to create your version of what you think they want. Clients rarely give hairstylists full creative freedom, and I imagine publishers rarely give authors full creative freedom. That comes with good quality consistency, practice, and time.
Hi Miss Donne, I just finished writing my first book, and your advice was basically what I lived off. These video's have helped my writing so much and am very appreciatve of the good kick up the ass that I just recieved from this. Thank you.
I see a lot of blowback in the comments about #9, but I am really glad you included it. It’s very important to understand that writing from the perspective of a minority needs immense amounts of research and sensitivity, especially when the author is not part of said minority. I think sometimes we get carried away with “anybody can write anything!!1!1!1” and misunderstand that art, like all things, has real-life implications and consequences. When you don’t do the work, you end up with something like Veronica Roth’s post-Divergent outing.
I think the point is more about, doing your research and being careful. Sure you can write characters of any race, gender, sexuality, etc. cuz people are people. But if you’re trying to depict a story specifically about the problems and experiences certain people face, you need to be sensitive of how you do it, and if you should. I don’t think she was saying “ONLY WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW’ like a lot of people are taking it. Just be conscious and sensitive with certain topics!
i love that you emphazised that publishing isnt fair. bc honestly, no industry is! thats just something we should all accept and learn to work with. also, some stuff is just more niche than other stuff, and as a writer you should be aware of that. you cant write something super obscure and then be shocked that nobody is picking it up. you can still find your audience! its just gonna be harder.
My friend gave me harsh advice that has always stuck with me and I love him for it, he told me that I shouldn't write because I want to write, I should write because I have a story to tell, and that has stuck with me for years
Love this. I always remember what Snape said, "Life isn't fair" but that doesn't mean you can't work your butt off and go after what you want. Thanks again Alexa!
Adore this! Your advice always strikes to the heart for me. I love that you always have that kindness to it even when you're being "mean," it makes it easier to swallow. I always come back to your videos when I need motivation. Even when it's something scary or difficult (hello deadlines, querying, and book events!), I always get excited about the idea of facing it on my own journey when I watch your videos! Rn I'm about to embark on rewriting a novel I thought was finished for 4 years. It'll be rough, but I'll hold onto your "harsh" tips to get through it =D Thank you, Alexa!
I personally suck at writing a traditional book but I love story telling and I found it way easier to draw comics, and I absolutely love it and I get a whole page with as much as 10 panels done every two or three days.
in reference to #9, if you can only write about things you relate to, you'd probably not write that much. writing is about exploring other ways of living. however, i do think that yes, writers (before they start off writing a new idea) should really consider that it will be a lot harder than writing from personal experience. this is just my opinion, but i really liked the video!
I love how you acknowledge that while it's important to stop it with the excuses ("b-b-but, I don't have the time!"), that it's not the same as saying, "you know what, I just need to take a bit of time for myself and come back to this later." Speaking for myself, I have a hard time finding that balance between the excuse of "not having time" or genuinely needing to step away from the fancy lightbox sitting on my desk and taking a breather, especially right now as a college student during finals week (gotta love finals, am I right?)! Awesome video, I'll definitely be keeping these in mind once I finally make it out of the fire and brimstone that is this week.
Thank you for the advice! You helped me get back into writing. I stopped for the longest time because I thoughts I lost interest. But you helped me realize that I only thought that because I was overthinking it, I thought that I couldn't say said 95% of the time. However, that's just one of the things you helped me with. Listening to your advice honestly helped me make my writing so much smoother! Thank you so much for helping me get back into writing!
“Voice is like pornography” literally had me choking on spit in my kitchen at midnight-thirty leaving me with an aching chest, but the follow up was so accurate that I don’t even mind.
Thanks for these videos! I appreciate the tough love on purpose. (just subscribed because of them) I feel like it's some of the most real, brave, and loving thing someone can do in the right time and context, even when it puts them in danger of criticism. The point on "You might not be the person to tell this story" really helped me step back and look at a few of my writing ideas that maybe I shouldn't use. I get so many story ideas and it's hard to just start writing something sometimes. A tough love bit of advice that I've received before is that the story I want it to be will most likely not end up being the same book I hold in my hands at the end of the writing process, that each time I have a vision of what I want the book to look like when it's finished, it just won't be quite like I want it to be. It might be better in some ways, and it'll probably be not as good in some ways, and that's okay. Another bit of advice was that I don't have to completely know the ins and outs of my story before writing the infamous rough draft. This one is really hard for me, but at the same time over-outlining can drain me too. It's hard to find a balance.
Thank you for making this video. I used to struggle with balancing my social life with my writing life because I sort of felt entitled to both without having to sacrifice at all. I wasn't taking my writing seriously even though I always said I did. I've found a more sustainable balance between socializing and writing now and I couldn't be happier. But it was a tough pill to swallow being told that I had to get my priorities in order. Haha. That sounds so obvious now, and looking back on it, I feel like a brat for the way I used to behave. I love this series and I can't wait to see what else you have in store!
As someone whose goal for this year is to stop talking about writing and write, this is all super valuable. I don't want to hear a single word of this, honestly, but thank you for putting it out there.
Lol bring on the motherly love. Sometimes we need the tough love, sometimes people need to hear things that pulls no punches and I agree, a LOT of people are in love with the idea of writing, but seem to not get much writing done. There's several ways to go about it and you should pursue a conscience that is at ease. I have 13 books out, NOWHERE near sustainable, but damn it, I love it. And in the end, that's what matters :)
Great video again! One harsh reality I've learned is that patience is a virtue. Whether waiting to write your story after you've brainstormed enough or waiting to hear back from a submission, it's worth. Impatience will kill your writing career.
I wholeheartedly agree with your second advice! I am not a fiction writer but writing is a huge part of academia, so I consider myself a writer. I was not a "natural" writer as a child. Frankly, I was pretty terrible. But I have improved so much in the past 5 years because I worked hard to get better. I prefer to think of writing as a craft rather than an art because I can't draw for beans and the craft-mindset encourages me to practice. Not all of us are gifted writers, but I believe that we can all be good writers with patience, practice, and openness to critical feedback.
Yes! Loved all of this. I think tough love is needed in the author community because it's a tough business and it isn't fair. Thank you for doing this video.
You good. After watching your video and listening to your clarification, writing isn't fair, and publishing isn't proper either. I love it. Had been waiting and searched some writers to say that; you said it all, young lady, thank you.
I envy people who find writing easy. I find writing so difficult, like I have the idea and I have everything mapped out but constructing sentence after sentence is so much work and almost every time I feel like everything I just wrote is pure, steaming garbage 😂
It's definitely a process, and it's the same in pretty much any medium of art for the most part--artists have to "draw a thousand bad drawings" before they get better (in general), violinists usually sound pretty bad when they're starting out, etc. Hang in there. Btw, Ira Glass has a good youtube video on the creative process that's encouraging.
I'm always the opposite. I find constructing sentence after sentence easy and satisfying, but I can never really develop ideas. I'm always stuck and never really like my ideas after a short while. That's why I've stuck to poetry the last couple of years, it means I can fulfill my desire to write without overstressing about ideas
hmm well, you could write the steaming garbage and edit it afterwards. Or rewrite it. It's easier to construct the sentences once you have an idea on what's happening in the story.
I don't necessarily think writing is easy (for me) but I have things that help. 1. I always write in the same place, in the same position 2. I use ambience (EX: if i'm writing fantasy I look up things like Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, or Alice in Wonderland soundtrack because they put me in the fantastical mood and it's easier for ideas to flow) 3. A thesaurus is your best friend 4. Use inspiration from film, other books, music, or anything in real life 5. Motivate yourself by thinking of the end result These work for me, don't know if they will for you, but yeah
to add to #8, and this is applicable to everything in life: don’t let criticism go to your heart, and don’t let praise go to your head! also this video is the perfect balance of harsh and helpful! thank you so much!
I recently started trying to write and I made the time .. during work. It’s great im getting paid to write during my down time. I’ve found a loophole !!!
I am naturally good at writing and I have some crazy but good stories in mind. I have a plan to start writing on my school computer when I get it. I have bad handwriting so I prefer a computer over paper and pencil.
"More Harsh Writing Advice" was great! Some don''t realise that the Truth only hurts if you've been hiding from it. From a clinical perspective, those who object are just blocking reality. So keep up these presentations. Many of us really appreciate your advice.
the first harsh writing advice always made me wanna write so bad, and was my go to "get to it" video when i was in a rut. im so excited to have more "Get Your Ass in Gear" material!
Thank you Alexa! The more time I spend in this industry, the more I realize that literally everything to do with writing and publishing is 1000 x harder/harsher than we expect it to be 😅
Just want to say thank you for posting these! I'm suffering from an eye injury (excessive/clumps of floaters) and I literally can't write without going crazy watching them float around on the screen as I type my stuff, so I have had to find something else to do in between writing on actual pencil and paper! So I managed to discover Writing TH-cam in this tough time and it's been fantastic! Thanks!
Definitely a lot of love is involved with your toughness! I so appreciate all your videos and how much you share and pass along the wisdom. Some of us need someone to tell it like it is!
Hey! Thank you so much for these kinds of videos, they really help out. I have wanted to write books since I was a kid, but the fear of not being good enough held me back. You have no idea how many drafts I have thrown to the trash because of this fear. Your videos have motivated me to start writing again, for real this time. For the first time in my life I have reached 10,000 words. While it might not be much, yet, I feel really proud. Thank you so much and keep up with the awesome videos and tough love
Mental health is definitely a hard thing to get by. I’ve been working on ideas and fundamentals for 2 years of a project because I couldn’t commit to an audience and family problems. Since I’m finally ready to get it done; I’m getting advise since it’s my testing weeks and I don’t have time to both get into a schedule and work. These videos are definitely encouraging and your voice distracts me from getting too stressed on my work and keeping a slow pace to where I can multitask studying, so thanks! :)
Thank you so much for your advice! It's very important to remind ourselves that things don't always go the way we planned them, or that the creative journey takes time, and is different for everyone. I love to write and that's the only thing I am sure of! So I will keep writing and maybe gather my courage and push things forward... when I feel ready ☺
I am really enjoying these videos. Truth isn't harsh, illusion and the realisation that illusion has taken the place of truth for so long, is harsh. Thank you!
The only one I have a 'problem' with is number 9, but merely because I don't think this should a 'don't do it' thing and should be more of a 'let's work at changing this'. If writers only ever wrote about who they are and what they've experienced- life wise, nationality or sexuality wise etc- then books would be very limited today. I can completely understand the 'backlash', say, a white male writing about a female POC might get, but I by no means think that writer should have not written that book, especially if it was a well written book. I think this mindset is something that needs to be changed, not obliged. If the book becomes problematic, then the criticism is just, but that should merely be a lesson to tell writers to DO THE DAMN RESEARCH. Talk to the kinds of people who have the experience you don't. But by no means do I think a writer should be censored because of their, race or sexuality.
It’s refreshing to hear you say these things. I’m finding the process to be “triggering” buried issues, which I think is a healthy thing. We can only work through things we can or will see. Thanks!
I love your harsh writing advices! I just love your channel entirely~ I can’t believe I had just come across you only earlier this morning 😭 You’re so inspiring!
Imma write what I want. Don’t even care what poeple Thing. Thought of being a writer yesterday and almost finishes chapter 1 today. JUST DO IT! DONT LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS
Thanks! This video actually was the motivation that I needed. I have been procrastinating with writing the last 2 days and was going to skip it again tonight until I saw this video, so now I’m going to get an hour of writing before I go to bed.
Thank you for making these videos! I just finished the first video and will be starting my book { Second draft ] after this one. Thank you for the great advise.
I don't see what the flack is over number 9. You worded that beautifully. You didn't actually say not to, like the comments state. You said, and I paraphrase, to be very careful about what and how you write sensitive subjects. I love your advice because I have been doing the research on writing and not doing the writing. THANK YOU! Now I'm getting off youtube and, well, writing....
I think that you're awesome. I been a writer for three decades. I worked in the graveyard that is newspaper. I took a break, but now I"m back. I appreciate the work and the energy that you put into these videos. I learned a lot from the Heather Ross Miller. That was then. Today you are teaching an old dog new ways to accomplish new tricks. Thank you. I hope your channel grows to a million subscribers.
I remember a few years ago my pen pal gave me the advice to just focus on one book instead of a million. And that helped me out. So I thank her for that :) (she didn't say it harsh like or anything like that)
Writing is easier for some people! Thats such valid advice thats true for every field including visual arts yet visual artists always deny it. So happy you're telling the truth 😭
I really appreciate all of your experience in the industry - and this is definitely an entertaining format for learning some of it! The idea of luck having a lot to do with publishing terrifies me to the core, but it's always a good reality to remember. Great ideas in this video!
I heard one important piece of harsh advice at a recent writers' conference I attended: Getting a publishing deal is not the end of the struggle. In fact it's the beginning of an arguably harder one. Your publisher is unlikely to plaster ads for your books on buses and billboards. They're unlikely to book you prime time TV interviews. If you want your book to sell, you - the author - need to get out there and sell it. Most publishers have tight budgets for marketing and ultimately they don't care as much about your book as you do. Most published books never earn back the advance and if the advance is big, that only makes it tougher. Sure, having an agent is a big help, but ultimately it's down to you to get your book in front of audiences' eyes. And that is hard work. P.S. I can't for the life of me remember exactly which author offeres this up, though I'd like to give proper credit, so I'll try to remember/work it out and make an edit accordingly.
I felt so attacked by number 1! xD Only on your first sentence, though. I've been trying to write whenever I can for the last few years, because I teach in the mornigs, afternoons and evenings, with odd windows between classes. I'm way more productive when I have 12h straight to write (I work better on inertia), but I'm getting used to these half to 2h windows I have between classes. Loved all your other advices!
So, i'm listening to this while writing... I have ended up typing what she has been saying and not writing my story... On accident, and i didn't even notice! I now have 1,000+ words that i have to throw away! This video helped me a lot. Hope you keep making these harsh writing advice videos.
The one that's sticking with me is that its just easier for some people. I am really hard on myself because I have this idea that if you're a writer, writing should just come so easy, flow like a river out of your brain and onto the google doc but it's almost never like that for me unless I'm struck by a lightning thought once in a blue moon. When it doesn't flow out of me, I get discouraged, maybe I'm not a good writer and whatever I write will always be shit but... your videos and other writing advice videos have showed me that it will take work and effort and time and energy and its going to suck and even though I'm not happy with that and, as someone with ADHD that makes it 20x times harder, I must still try if I want to write. Thank you Alexa! I hope you're still writing
Great vid', Alexa! Always like this tough love theme... On voice... Some of the BEST advice I ever got about writing was "cultivating your voice" as opposed to those folks who drone on about "finding" it or "learning" it... Because you don't learn or find voice... It's cultivated over time. It shifts and changes subtly with every work a writer does, and with regular intervals in studying any single writer, just like studying the phases or periods of an artist, it can be discerned... There are exercises, too... (for those interested)... I'll start by suggesting (quietly) "Forget about Twain, Hemmingway, even Lovecraft"... These are too close to a "contemporary professional", for one, and the subtleties and differences between their "writing voice" and a "common speaking voice" get too easily misunderstood... even where they're easily noticed. Start with Dr. Seuss... and mimic that. I know... I know. "Wait... MIMIC?!?!" That's right. Mimic Dr. Seuss. There have been some almost reasonable attempts, but I've yet to see a "truly good" one. Thereby, it's not so hard to tell a true blue, real deal, died in the wool, Dr. Seuss original work from a "neophyte knock off". On TH-cam, alone, there are several videos "If Dr. Seuss wrote..." and the worst crime among them is the MOST prolific. They seem to think that if you just "dumb down" the vocabulary and write everything with rhyme and rhythm (mostly) that it passes... BUT Dr. Seuss coined words... even prolifically eviscerated the basic English language with complete jibberish words in the middle of otherwise intelligent sentences. Almost NOBODY else even tries that. AND it simply is NOT Seussian. SO to start to understand (in practical application) what constitutes "Voice"... Mimic Dr. Seuss. He's focused on children, so it's not THAT complicated. (it shouldn't be)... BUT it IS far enough outside a normal person's usual mode of speech as well as much of anything else you'll ever read, that you will be able ON YOUR OWN to tell a reasonable facsimile, and a hopelessly cheap and cheesy "half assery". Next... Try something harder... SHAKESPEARE. More people manage to fob-off something Shakespearean, than do Seussian voice because it's a recognized form. It still takes time and effort and research to get into those ancient and venerable terms and nuances for Elizabethan Theatrical, versus anything modern or Broadway-esque... SO you should take your time, show patience with yourself... and absorb all those idiosyncrasies and nuances about just how Old Bill wrote his plays and sonnets. Get this trick right, and you're going to be onto something. For what it's worth, I have mimicked Dr. Seuss effectively... It's a bit of hum-buggery I reserve for particular linguistic-intensive types who manage to get on my last nerve... usually either grammar-nazi's, or certain English professors. Once I rewrote an entire twelve page thesis for COLLEGE in a Seussian form, complete with hand-drawn illustrations, and humiliated the English Professor who'd so over-marked my earlier version for subject matter he couldn't quite understand (a historic reference to advancing Alchemy into modern day Chemistry)... It ended up somehow circulated all over the English Department and... to my knowledge, may be a relic of past classes in some branch of the Language Department(s) to this day... (lolz) SO while I can certainly AGREE with you, that you can NOT teach voice... Nor does anyone really "learn" voice... It is a phenomenon that gets cultivated as you write and work toward it. What gets missed so often about it, is that actually almost everyone has voice... They just don't necessarily cultivate the needed "freshness" of voice that's going to sell... rather than sounding stale and simple or over-done. AND too many recent authors are writing "as if they're just talking" the story through... a feature that has saturated the industry, at least, since Twain, and probably since considerably earlier. ...so there's that. ;o)
This is all great advice. I've picked it up over the years of writing and it helps to know that the industry and life isn't fair. Yeah, bad books sell and good ones fail but what can you do. You can only do your part as a writer and from there, it's in someone else's hands. You've got to make peace with it.
#9 was hard to hear, and very true. It made me realize that I am probably writing about stuff I don't know anything about and it's not only super hard, but probably extremely inaccurate. I need to do more research, and then decide if that's my story to tell or not. Thank you. I needed this.
I think the best harsh writing advice I've seen recently (beyond the tips here) was from Brandon Sanderson. He wanted to as kindly as possible inform us that the American idea that you can be anything you want and be as successful as you want if you simply but the time and work in, is simply wrong. Some people will never have a book on New York Times top 10 Best Seller lists, no matter how much time and work they put into writing. His advice later goes on to illustrate, that if you want to be a writer, the most important thing is to define your goals, and match them with realistic expectations. If your goal is to write books that some people will enjoy and you will make no substantial money from that, the expectation is that is almost guaranteed if you put the time and effort in. If your goal is to make a significant but not full amount of money to support your lower middle class life, the expectation is that it could take anywhere from a few years to perhaps even a couple decades if you are unlucky. And yes, he further says, luck does have something to do with you getting published and/or making money from writing. It took Brandon Sanderson writing 13 Novels over 8 years of consistent submissions and rejections before he one novel published. If your goal is to make all of your income off of writing novels, the expectation is that it'll be a lot of hard work that you will likely have to spend years at, before you know if you can achieve that. The expectation, is that statistically people who put their full effort into writing books still can't make enough money just from that to support a full middle class family.
I like tip number 5. I googled you to read descriptions of the novel's you've written and they seem interesting, especially the stars we steal. They seem to have more of an inclination to a women reader but I appreciate the sci-fi genre quite a bit. The novel I have in the works now is science fiction and I'm having a great time writing out all these fantastic details about the aliens and the home planets the main character has to travel to. Whats sticking with me though is how I want to end the book. I have an idea in mind but no clue how it's going to flesh itself out but I assume that is part of the process, especially with someones first novel. To be honest, I'm a poet and have been spending my time tightening up my first collection and adding more pieces to my second collection but my novel is far from abandoned. I appreciate the tips and advice, they are really helpful. Subbed. Godbless
I call myself an aspiring author because I’ve started a few projects and I’ve finished one ! I’ve got one WIP that I really want to continue, I just need to actually get up and write (literally have no excuses, just lazy)
Mostly good advice, except for #9 and #10. For #9 I get what you were trying to say, but don't think writers should be scared of what they can or can't write. For #10 about author's voice or their style, I disagree entirely. It may seem like some people just have this mystical "IT" factor but those authors have written and worked their whole lives to develop their style. If you research their early beginnings almost all of them will say they learnt to write through reading others and imitation. People develop their own style the more they write and edit their work. If some people have more of a mysterious knack to writing well, its because they have read widely and write often.
As for 10 it's the same thing with drawing, some of the best artists started out by copying others work. Their is no 'IT' factor. One of my fav qutoes is, "Talent is effort often gone unnoticed by others"
You shouldn’t be scared to write what you want to write, but you better do it well. If I wrote a book on the holocaust and didn’t do my due diligence in researching it, or got things way wrong, I’ll be took to task, and for good reason.
#9 is such a good observation. i somewhat recently came to a profound realization, which is that, the thing i had been avoiding for so many years (myself; i had been avoiding myself... writing about myself, my experiences as a person with a disability), that IS the story i've been trying to write for ALL these years (nigh on 15...) i've needed to frame the thing i WANT to tell, in a way that it's fictionalizing a version of myself, which is the thing i NEED to tell. so, no: per your first installment of harsh advice, no one cares about my life, per se. not for a memoir.. but they might care if i frame it in a specific way, in a "fictional" setting.
I really take issue with advices 9 and 10. For 9, you should never, ever, ever, tell a writer that they shouldn't tell a specific story based on superfluous things such as race, gender , sex, etc. Every person can and should tell whatever story they want to tell because at the end of the day it's the story they want to tell. This is a dangerous road to go down when we start telling writer you can't or shouldn't write someone else's story. It's never someone else's story if you're writing it. My stories have characters of all races, genders, sexualities, etc because that's how I want them to be. If you're telling a human element story (a story that any human being can relate to) then none of that other stuff matters. And as for #10. Voice, or as most writers call it: style, is nothing something you either have or don't have. It's something you slowly build over time. If you're telling the stories that speak to you and you're crafting every single word meticulously then it will shine through in your writing. But at the same time, it's not something that can be forced. But, it is something that every writer, given time and serious practice of the craft, can develop. The greatest writers didn't start out with a style all their own. Heck, many start out imitating others. But, over time they find their own because style is all about you and your truths.
Regarding #9. I think she is saying that based on the backlash so many authors are receiving, white authors specifically, when they write about minorities. I am so troubled by the divisiveness, mob mentality, where every little thing is picked apart, and they literally tear authors into pieces. However, can a white woman really tell the story of an Asian, Indian or black woman? I mean the struggles, the emotions...... that will be hard for them to do even with all the research in the world. I don't know the answer to that but I do agree with you, that is a dangerous territory, if we have to police what people can write.
@@cynthiau4751 I can understand that. But, why should we let that stop us. In my book, my main two characters are a late 20s black woman and a teenage white girl. I'm not a woman, nor am I white. But, I can still write them as characters because the story is about so much more than just that. Yes, people may say my characters don't "act" woman enough and they may be right. But, what I refuse to let them say is that they aren't strong characters in their own right. And as long as I'm not purposefully perpetrating stereotypes or anything of the ilk, I think that's good enough. I think that's the mentality we have to go in with as writers. Nothing we do will ever be perfect and not doing something out of fear of backlash defeats the purpose of art from the jump.
I am a black female writer who writes black characters, mixed characters, Hispanic/Latino characters, muslim & christian characters, etc. despite not being all of those myself. It is extremely crucial not to censor writing. SOCIETY needs to reflect on the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful with or without political correctness. If a white woman wants to write about a black muslim girl in a third world country, so be it! Let that author's views, prejudices, and social commentary shine through! This is the purpose of writing, of art. Expression!
Yay! Fiddler on the Roof! I love that musical :) I think that's what she was getting at when she said, "soul search." I've heard this question in other places, too. WHY do you want to write this story? What research are you doing to make it authentic? For example, in my WIP there's a woman who survives an abusive relationship. In an early draft the abuse was physical and my readers reacted very negatively to that. As I thought through the draft I knew that it was important to the character's journey to have a toxic relationship, but that I was using physical abuse as a cheap plot trick. I could have researched physical abuse and made the story more nuanced as-is, but that wasn't necessary to the plot, so I went closer to my own experience and made the relationship only mentally/emotionally toxic. I guess my opinion is "Don't use other people's stories [or your own, for that matter] as a cheap plot trick. Make it mean something."
Thank you! There is no such thing as "the wrong person to write the idea." Imagine having an amazing book that magically becomes terrible because the "wrong person" wrote it.
Hi Alexa, great advice as always. I'd actually expand what you've said to include every profession in the entertainment industry. In truth, if it was that easy to get paid to be an actor or singer or sports star, then everyone would be doing it. If it was that easy to write successfully, then everyone would be doing it. It's hard because the competition is fierce and writing a great novel that is appealing to a wide audience just isn't that easy in the first place. If anything, I think you can be harsher with your writing advice :) Anyone scared off by it probably isn't cut out to be a writer in the first place. There, now you've done it, you've got me being harsh too. ;) Looking forward to your next video...
I don’t write “novels” per se, but I do write. I’m a solo writer and artist, and I’m working on my own anime ^^ I feel like it sounds cringey to say that, but I like it, so I won’t stop
I really like your Harsh Writing Advice! I am a Single Father (Afro American) raising a lovely Daughter living in Germany. I am also writing a Book, however I am writing it in the German Language. It is a struggle for me at times being a Single Father and the German Language is a challenge in itself. However, I make it work! Your Video´s are a insperation to me.....Thanks and keep up the good Harsh Writing Advice!
Your voice sounds exactly like my sister-in-law's, and I adore her, she's the big sister I never had. So this tough love is very sisterly advice. Thank you so much!
The harsh reality is that 90% of all books are terrible, even the ones that win prizes. Especially the ones that win prizes. Part of the problem is is that every book has to be researched and cross-referenced and field-tested and beta reader approved before it ever sees the light of day. Out of Africa would never even be published today because Karen blixen would be labeled as a racist. we are never going to see another red badge of courage. Jack Kerouac didn't research his book on the road in the library. There is no true observational wrii these days. The last modern book that I actually read when it came out was Angela's ashes by Frank McCourt, a truly great book that was worthy of its stature. I haven't been excited to read a book and I can't tell you how long. And publishing awards and the national book award is professional nepotism. I think it was flannery O'Connor who was asked if writing programs discourage writers and she said not enough of them. No truer words have ever been spoken. Lincoln on the bardo is pure trash. but I bet you couldn't find it in the 500 or 600 pages that he wrote about Lincoln anything that wasn't completely and thoroughly researched which is the point. If I wanted a history lesson I'd go to Wikipedia. But maybe I'm off subject
someone once told me not to give a damn about publishing our wether your book will be popular or not. He told me if you really want to write that book, than you are doing it for yourself. Not for anyone else. Then you are writing because you need it, because you really want it or any other important reason you have. Then youre book is truly worth to be writing. This person was right. Im still writing, but I am writing it for myself now and now I am really writing it the way I like it. And if my book is ready, I will try to get it published. But it is no longer my main goal. I am feeling free now. It helped me. (I guess I just needed to hear this. I will be eternally gratefull to the person who told me this, even tho I kinda hate him now lol).
I’ve always had one of her books on my shelf (The Stars We Steal) but I’ve only noticed it’s her book only when I started watching her channel. I’m speechless
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you so much for watching! What's some tough love/harsh writing advice that YOU needed to hear at some point that really helped you out?
The best advice for me was that everyone's first draft sucks no matter what. But that shouldn't discourage you to get over it.
Dane One Same. Someone told me to, “Allow myself to write garbage.”
I feel like I'm past the first video of advice and that I know that I have to push myself and make time to write, so the talk about publishing and what happens after that was what I needed. You showed me the reality of what can happen, and even though it made me more nervous about publishing that I was before, I needed to hear this.
@PianoMan 2018 His career is one-in-a-million, period! Also, he started the Alex Cross series in a VERY different time, in terms of race relations, PC culture, and publishing. AFAIK, no one is upset with Patterson for writing Alex Cross--he's a great character and was very culturally defining for the time! (Kiss the Girls was one of my fave movies of the 90s, and Morgan Freeman was amazing in it) But the movement now in publishing, in the late 2010s, is to see if there are writers out there who want to write their own Alex Cross's, or the Alex Cross of a new genre, where the writer lived/breathed that existence their whole life. I do think the Alex Cross novels would have a very different feel if penned by a middle-aged Black man instead of white man. Imagine how interesting an Alexa Cross (hahaha) by a Black woman would be. The idea is not to remove books like Patterson's that had and still have meaning to culture, but to expand the roster of authors and opportunities we give to writers--open the door to some new people with new stories, and enrich our broader cultural canon. Patterson will always have a career, and so will the next James Patterson (white men will always find a place in the publishing industry!). But imagine if James Patterson decided to write the definitive Black Live Matter book? I think we'd all raise our eyebrows a bit, no? Alex Cross is a detective in a popular genre who happens to be Black, rather than a book series that centers around the Black identity. These are just some of the nuances I see :)
An advice my dad always says is, that the only thing that really matters is how you see your work, whether it’s in writing or something else. If you do your best and make yourself proud, other people’s opinions doesn’t matter.
"MAKE THE TIME"
Me: **shoves homework in the trash**
😂😂
Me: *shoves my entire job in the trash*
*shoves my wife and kids in the trash*
Me: **throws earth into garbage can**
Same 😂 😂
“Don’t make time for your friends” this advice helps me write more AND save money lol
Im lucky with my friends who are happy to just sit in the same room but they read or watch tv with headphones and i write or chill... its how we like to spend time together
Me during first video of harsh advice: You're right! I need to just focus on the writing and not make excus--Oh hey, a Part 2!
I don't think that people are getting what she meant with advice #9.
She never said that you can't write black characters if you're white, that you can't write women if you're a man, that you can't write a poor character if you're rich, etc. Of course you should add diversity in your books and of course you can explore many different points of view.
This whole thing becomes problematic when writers convince themselves that they can portray realities they have no idea of. I will not talk about the struggle of a war veteran living with PTSD without having no idea of how it is to be at war, how it is to be a soldier, how it is to have PTSD, and so on, and especially I will not write a whole book about it! It would just end up being inaccurate, full of stereotypes and probably offensive to real veterans. I wouldn't want to be the one to spread misinformation in a society that's too often blind in front of many important issues.
Yes, exactly! I'm writing a story about WW2 myself. And me, being a 20-year old, obviously was never there. That's why I take so much time to research, to see what veterans themselves say about it, watch actual footage of the war.
And even when I think I've got enough material and understanding, I know that I'll NEVER fully understand what it's like to be a soldier on the front line, a pilot fighting in the air, a sailor shooting cannons...
I think you can write whatever you want if it’s for practice but publishing is different
Thanks for saying this. I've seen this warning before and it always made me pause. The central character I'm writing now has four identity defining characteristics and I am none of those. But I have peripheral experience with some of them. I'm doing a ton of research and it's really not a story I ever thought I would write, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's a first novel, so it'll suck and no one will ever read it and be offended -- which is freeing.
or they can do hard research, it;s as simple as that
Don’t know you don’t care Yeh or else you got nothing to write about besides your own autobiography
"You can't love the IDEA of writing more than actually writing."
This goes for any creative pursuit. When i was graduating highschool, all of my friends were like "Teach me to draw!" or "Teach me guitar!" or "Teach me to dance!" or "Teach me to fight!"
"Well, i'll teach you, but you HAVE to practice. You have to practice until your hands ache and bleed. You have to dance until your bones are tired. You have to do hundreds of reps a day, EVERY DAY. Then i'll teach you the next thing." I'd teach them, and sure enough, they'd never practice. They were in love with the idea of being an artist, a musician, a dancer, a fighter, but didn't want to put in the work. You have to WANT to do these things to become them, and you have to become obsessed with them. These things occupy my brain ALL THE TIME, and not everyone has the resolve to make that stuff happen.
You always inspire me to not only write, but FINISH something.
_Everyone_ needs to read this.
Very accurate
Also my experience. If I had a nickel for every time someone was like "Teach me Japanese!" or something else. Like bruh it ain't rocket science, just study and practice and dedication. Then again, pretty sure that even rocket scientists do those things too, not just right-brains like me
Great video! My harsh writing advice is... No one is going to care about your book as much as you do... Meaning, people who are close to you, who you think will lose their minds when you finish that book and want to beat down your door to be a beta reader will be the lowest form of enthusiastic that a person can be without being uninterested... Hell, I have siblings who haven’t read my novel. So my point is, get used to the idea that your friends and family aren’t going to be all that jazzed about your project; in actuality, it’s total strangers who will pick up your book and rave about it... and in a way, I think that’s even better 😊😁
Very true. Which kinda makes sense when you think about it. Your friends and family are not connected to you because of your writing, so they probably wouldn't have the same interests as you. Even if they're readers (which they might not be) they may not read the genre you write in. It's very rare that a member of your family will not only like reading, but like reading the exact kind of thing that you write. I mean, if I had a family member who liked jazz music, I would try to muster up some enthusiasm for their benefit, but at the end of the day listening to that sort of music would always feel more like a chore than a source of entertainment to me. And that's probably how my family feels about being forced to read huge-ass fantasy novels every other year, lol. :p
Nupur Chowdhury my point exactly! Plus everyone is busy with the dramas in their own lives and with trying to make their own dreams come true that they don’t have time for yours... It’s just the way human beings work; sometimes we’re self absorbed 😛😂😛
That was in a harsh advice for new writers video she did
Eric Breen Really? I didn’t see that... great minds... Am I right? 😛
@@suleimanocheni5119 Yeah for sure. She hits on it throughout the video even, it's pretty funny
I feel like you can become a "natural writer" if you put enough time in. Almost everyone I know who writes elegantly and amazingly all started out writing cheesy fanfics and cliche tropes but after a few times doing that they grew and found a better story they care more about. One of the biggest myths of writing is that it's "easy." Because like anything else, if you want to create something worthwhile, you have to put A LOT of work into it.
I got some advice from an old manager about working with clients. Mind you I'm a hairstylist, but I think the lesson still applies to authors who want to be marketable to wide audiences, and publishers looking for new books:
Your client doesn't honestly care about you. They care about themselves, and how you make them feel. The client will enjoy your work and imput, but at the end of it all, they just care about the end result and their personal experience. So find out what makes your audience happy and emotionaly stirs them up. Then use your personal talents to create your version of what you think they want.
Clients rarely give hairstylists full creative freedom, and I imagine publishers rarely give authors full creative freedom. That comes with good quality consistency, practice, and time.
Hi Miss Donne,
I just finished writing my first book, and your advice was basically what I lived off. These video's have helped my writing so much and am very appreciatve of the good kick up the ass that I just recieved from this. Thank you.
"Hi, I'm talking to you Alexa Donne with your youtube channel!"
Am I the only one who had to look up who Alexa Donne was?
I feel really stupid now.
Look how many likes you got.
Me too I’m so dumb lmao
Who is she doe?
I see a lot of blowback in the comments about #9, but I am really glad you included it. It’s very important to understand that writing from the perspective of a minority needs immense amounts of research and sensitivity, especially when the author is not part of said minority. I think sometimes we get carried away with “anybody can write anything!!1!1!1” and misunderstand that art, like all things, has real-life implications and consequences. When you don’t do the work, you end up with something like Veronica Roth’s post-Divergent outing.
Exactly!
So women definitely should not write about men then. Women are the majority, men are the minority. Look it up.
You can write anything for practice but publishing is different
I think the point is more about, doing your research and being careful. Sure you can write characters of any race, gender, sexuality, etc. cuz people are people. But if you’re trying to depict a story specifically about the problems and experiences certain people face, you need to be sensitive of how you do it, and if you should. I don’t think she was saying “ONLY WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW’ like a lot of people are taking it. Just be conscious and sensitive with certain topics!
John Whitten Way to miss the point, Johnny boy
I’ll be honest. There were some things in this video I didn’t want to hear but that I totally needed to hear. Thanks for this!
i love that you emphazised that publishing isnt fair. bc honestly, no industry is! thats just something we should all accept and learn to work with.
also, some stuff is just more niche than other stuff, and as a writer you should be aware of that. you cant write something super obscure and then be shocked that nobody is picking it up. you can still find your audience! its just gonna be harder.
My friend gave me harsh advice that has always stuck with me and I love him for it, he told me that I shouldn't write because I want to write, I should write because I have a story to tell, and that has stuck with me for years
Point seven is a good one. The idea of being a writer is easier than being one.
Love this. I always remember what Snape said, "Life isn't fair" but that doesn't mean you can't work your butt off and go after what you want. Thanks again Alexa!
“Well it may have escaped your notice but LIFE. ISNT. FAIR.”
Adore this! Your advice always strikes to the heart for me. I love that you always have that kindness to it even when you're being "mean," it makes it easier to swallow. I always come back to your videos when I need motivation. Even when it's something scary or difficult (hello deadlines, querying, and book events!), I always get excited about the idea of facing it on my own journey when I watch your videos! Rn I'm about to embark on rewriting a novel I thought was finished for 4 years. It'll be rough, but I'll hold onto your "harsh" tips to get through it =D Thank you, Alexa!
I personally suck at writing a traditional book but I love story telling and I found it way easier to draw comics, and I absolutely love it and I get a whole page with as much as 10 panels done every two or three days.
Your profile looks similar to CandyEvie
you don't have children: you have fictional characters.
Damn straight! xD
in reference to #9, if you can only write about things you relate to, you'd probably not write that much. writing is about exploring other ways of living. however, i do think that yes, writers (before they start off writing a new idea) should really consider that it will be a lot harder than writing from personal experience. this is just my opinion, but i really liked the video!
What I have learned is if something is easy then something is bound to go wrong so when I struggle I know I'm doing things right
I love how you acknowledge that while it's important to stop it with the excuses ("b-b-but, I don't have the time!"), that it's not the same as saying, "you know what, I just need to take a bit of time for myself and come back to this later." Speaking for myself, I have a hard time finding that balance between the excuse of "not having time" or genuinely needing to step away from the fancy lightbox sitting on my desk and taking a breather, especially right now as a college student during finals week (gotta love finals, am I right?)! Awesome video, I'll definitely be keeping these in mind once I finally make it out of the fire and brimstone that is this week.
Thank you for the advice! You helped me get back into writing. I stopped for the longest time because I thoughts I lost interest. But you helped me realize that I only thought that because I was overthinking it, I thought that I couldn't say said 95% of the time. However, that's just one of the things you helped me with. Listening to your advice honestly helped me make my writing so much smoother! Thank you so much for helping me get back into writing!
“Voice is like pornography” literally had me choking on spit in my kitchen at midnight-thirty leaving me with an aching chest, but the follow up was so accurate that I don’t even mind.
Same! That was WHOA but well said
Oof
are you documenting my life ?? lol
I love the cold splash of reality in your tone, Alexa. Thanks for saying what each aspiring and/or struggling and/or hesitant writer needs to hear.
Thanks for these videos! I appreciate the tough love on purpose. (just subscribed because of them) I feel like it's some of the most real, brave, and loving thing someone can do in the right time and context, even when it puts them in danger of criticism.
The point on "You might not be the person to tell this story" really helped me step back and look at a few of my writing ideas that maybe I shouldn't use. I get so many story ideas and it's hard to just start writing something sometimes.
A tough love bit of advice that I've received before is that the story I want it to be will most likely not end up being the same book I hold in my hands at the end of the writing process, that each time I have a vision of what I want the book to look like when it's finished, it just won't be quite like I want it to be. It might be better in some ways, and it'll probably be not as good in some ways, and that's okay.
Another bit of advice was that I don't have to completely know the ins and outs of my story before writing the infamous rough draft. This one is really hard for me, but at the same time over-outlining can drain me too. It's hard to find a balance.
Thank you for making this video. I used to struggle with balancing my social life with my writing life because I sort of felt entitled to both without having to sacrifice at all. I wasn't taking my writing seriously even though I always said I did. I've found a more sustainable balance between socializing and writing now and I couldn't be happier. But it was a tough pill to swallow being told that I had to get my priorities in order. Haha. That sounds so obvious now, and looking back on it, I feel like a brat for the way I used to behave. I love this series and I can't wait to see what else you have in store!
As someone whose goal for this year is to stop talking about writing and write, this is all super valuable. I don't want to hear a single word of this, honestly, but thank you for putting it out there.
Lol bring on the motherly love. Sometimes we need the tough love, sometimes people need to hear things that pulls no punches and I agree, a LOT of people are in love with the idea of writing, but seem to not get much writing done. There's several ways to go about it and you should pursue a conscience that is at ease. I have 13 books out, NOWHERE near sustainable, but damn it, I love it. And in the end, that's what matters :)
I’ve only recently found your channel and I love these so much. Your videos always inspire me to work harder ✨
Thank you for another kick in my butt I wrote another 250 words today
Great video again! One harsh reality I've learned is that patience is a virtue. Whether waiting to write your story after you've brainstormed enough or waiting to hear back from a submission, it's worth. Impatience will kill your writing career.
I always get an ad that says, “everyone hates writing,” on videos about writing.
“There are going to be days where you hate everything.”
Well hey I’m already halfway there, I’m off to a great start!! 😂
You're amazing! I absolutely love how empowering and straightforward you are in this! Refreshed and inspired to WRITE!
I wholeheartedly agree with your second advice! I am not a fiction writer but writing is a huge part of academia, so I consider myself a writer. I was not a "natural" writer as a child. Frankly, I was pretty terrible. But I have improved so much in the past 5 years because I worked hard to get better. I prefer to think of writing as a craft rather than an art because I can't draw for beans and the craft-mindset encourages me to practice. Not all of us are gifted writers, but I believe that we can all be good writers with patience, practice, and openness to critical feedback.
Yes! Loved all of this. I think tough love is needed in the author community because it's a tough business and it isn't fair. Thank you for doing this video.
You good. After watching your video and listening to your clarification, writing isn't fair, and publishing isn't proper either. I love it. Had been waiting and searched some writers to say that; you said it all, young lady, thank you.
Actually this video like an immunity shot to writers. Good stuff. It make you feel dizzy but when you over it - you'll be stronger.
I envy people who find writing easy. I find writing so difficult, like I have the idea and I have everything mapped out but constructing sentence after sentence is so much work and almost every time I feel like everything I just wrote is pure, steaming garbage 😂
It's definitely a process, and it's the same in pretty much any medium of art for the most part--artists have to "draw a thousand bad drawings" before they get better (in general), violinists usually sound pretty bad when they're starting out, etc.
Hang in there. Btw, Ira Glass has a good youtube video on the creative process that's encouraging.
I'm always the opposite. I find constructing sentence after sentence easy and satisfying, but I can never really develop ideas. I'm always stuck and never really like my ideas after a short while. That's why I've stuck to poetry the last couple of years, it means I can fulfill my desire to write without overstressing about ideas
hmm well, you could write the steaming garbage and edit it afterwards. Or rewrite it. It's easier to construct the sentences once you have an idea on what's happening in the story.
This advice is from Stephen King: Read a lot and write a lot.
I recommend reading his memoir "On Writing."
I don't necessarily think writing is easy (for me) but I have things that help.
1. I always write in the same place, in the same position
2. I use ambience (EX: if i'm writing fantasy I look up things like Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, or Alice in Wonderland soundtrack because they put me in the fantastical mood and it's easier for ideas to flow)
3. A thesaurus is your best friend
4. Use inspiration from film, other books, music, or anything in real life
5. Motivate yourself by thinking of the end result
These work for me, don't know if they will for you, but yeah
Number 7 hit close to home. SIT DOWN AND DO THE WORK!! - THANKS
to add to #8, and this is applicable to everything in life: don’t let criticism go to your heart, and don’t let praise go to your head! also this video is the perfect balance of harsh and helpful! thank you so much!
I recently started trying to write and I made the time .. during work. It’s great im getting paid to write during my down time. I’ve found a loophole !!!
I am naturally good at writing and I have some crazy but good stories in mind. I have a plan to start writing on my school computer when I get it. I have bad handwriting so I prefer a computer over paper and pencil.
The side-projects thing is what I need to hear the most.
You have crushed me 😭 back to my job at Wendy’s 😢
I worked at Jack in the Box, and just got an offer of representation. Keep at it!
I teach preschool. We all have to keep that day job we’re not passionate about while we keep pushing on to get that book out there.
"More Harsh Writing Advice" was great! Some don''t realise that the Truth only hurts if you've been hiding from it. From a clinical perspective, those who object are just blocking reality. So keep up these presentations. Many of us really appreciate your advice.
the first harsh writing advice always made me wanna write so bad, and was my go to "get to it" video when i was in a rut. im so excited to have more "Get Your Ass in Gear" material!
This really gave me the push I needed and confirmed the facts that I didn't exactly want to believe at first. Thanks.
Thank you Alexa! The more time I spend in this industry, the more I realize that literally everything to do with writing and publishing is 1000 x harder/harsher than we expect it to be 😅
Just want to say thank you for posting these! I'm suffering from an eye injury (excessive/clumps of floaters) and I literally can't write without going crazy watching them float around on the screen as I type my stuff, so I have had to find something else to do in between writing on actual pencil and paper! So I managed to discover Writing TH-cam in this tough time and it's been fantastic! Thanks!
Definitely a lot of love is involved with your toughness! I so appreciate all your videos and how much you share and pass along the wisdom. Some of us need someone to tell it like it is!
Hey! Thank you so much for these kinds of videos, they really help out. I have wanted to write books since I was a kid, but the fear of not being good enough held me back. You have no idea how many drafts I have thrown to the trash because of this fear. Your videos have motivated me to start writing again, for real this time. For the first time in my life I have reached 10,000 words. While it might not be much, yet, I feel really proud. Thank you so much and keep up with the awesome videos and tough love
Mental health is definitely a hard thing to get by. I’ve been working on ideas and fundamentals for 2 years of a project because I couldn’t commit to an audience and family problems.
Since I’m finally ready to get it done; I’m getting advise since it’s my testing weeks and I don’t have time to both get into a schedule and work.
These videos are definitely encouraging and your voice distracts me from getting too stressed on my work and keeping a slow pace to where I can multitask studying, so thanks! :)
Thank you so much for your advice! It's very important to remind ourselves that things don't always go the way we planned them, or that the creative journey takes time, and is different for everyone. I love to write and that's the only thing I am sure of! So I will keep writing and maybe gather my courage and push things forward... when I feel ready ☺
I am really enjoying these videos. Truth isn't harsh, illusion and the realisation that illusion has taken the place of truth for so long, is harsh. Thank you!
The only one I have a 'problem' with is number 9, but merely because I don't think this should a 'don't do it' thing and should be more of a 'let's work at changing this'. If writers only ever wrote about who they are and what they've experienced- life wise, nationality or sexuality wise etc- then books would be very limited today. I can completely understand the 'backlash', say, a white male writing about a female POC might get, but I by no means think that writer should have not written that book, especially if it was a well written book. I think this mindset is something that needs to be changed, not obliged. If the book becomes problematic, then the criticism is just, but that should merely be a lesson to tell writers to DO THE DAMN RESEARCH. Talk to the kinds of people who have the experience you don't. But by no means do I think a writer should be censored because of their, race or sexuality.
One more that applies to any creative medium:
Ideas by themselves are worthless. It's the work you put in that matters.
It’s refreshing to hear you say these things. I’m finding the process to be “triggering” buried issues, which I think is a healthy thing. We can only work through things we can or will see. Thanks!
I love your harsh writing advices! I just love your channel entirely~ I can’t believe I had just come across you only earlier this morning 😭 You’re so inspiring!
Imma write what I want. Don’t even care what poeple Thing. Thought of being a writer yesterday and almost finishes chapter 1 today.
JUST DO IT! DONT LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS
Thanks! This video actually was the motivation that I needed. I have been procrastinating with writing the last 2 days and was going to skip it again tonight until I saw this video, so now I’m going to get an hour of writing before I go to bed.
Thank you for making these videos! I just finished the first video and will be starting my book { Second draft ] after this one. Thank you for the great advise.
I don't see what the flack is over number 9. You worded that beautifully. You didn't actually say not to, like the comments state. You said, and I paraphrase, to be very careful about what and how you write sensitive subjects.
I love your advice because I have been doing the research on writing and not doing the writing.
THANK YOU! Now I'm getting off youtube and, well, writing....
I think that you're awesome. I been a writer for three decades. I worked in the graveyard that is newspaper. I took a break, but now I"m back. I appreciate the work and the energy that you put into these videos. I learned a lot from the Heather Ross Miller. That was then. Today you are teaching an old dog new ways to accomplish new tricks. Thank you. I hope your channel grows to a million subscribers.
I remember a few years ago my pen pal gave me the advice to just focus on one book instead of a million. And that helped me out. So I thank her for that :)
(she didn't say it harsh like or anything like that)
Writing is easier for some people! Thats such valid advice thats true for every field including visual arts yet visual artists always deny it. So happy you're telling the truth 😭
I really appreciate all of your experience in the industry - and this is definitely an entertaining format for learning some of it! The idea of luck having a lot to do with publishing terrifies me to the core, but it's always a good reality to remember. Great ideas in this video!
I heard one important piece of harsh advice at a recent writers' conference I attended: Getting a publishing deal is not the end of the struggle. In fact it's the beginning of an arguably harder one. Your publisher is unlikely to plaster ads for your books on buses and billboards. They're unlikely to book you prime time TV interviews. If you want your book to sell, you - the author - need to get out there and sell it. Most publishers have tight budgets for marketing and ultimately they don't care as much about your book as you do. Most published books never earn back the advance and if the advance is big, that only makes it tougher. Sure, having an agent is a big help, but ultimately it's down to you to get your book in front of audiences' eyes. And that is hard work.
P.S. I can't for the life of me remember exactly which author offeres this up, though I'd like to give proper credit, so I'll try to remember/work it out and make an edit accordingly.
I felt so attacked by number 1! xD Only on your first sentence, though.
I've been trying to write whenever I can for the last few years, because I teach in the mornigs, afternoons and evenings, with odd windows between classes. I'm way more productive when I have 12h straight to write (I work better on inertia), but I'm getting used to these half to 2h windows I have between classes.
Loved all your other advices!
So, i'm listening to this while writing... I have ended up typing what she has been saying and not writing my story... On accident, and i didn't even notice! I now have 1,000+ words that i have to throw away!
This video helped me a lot. Hope you keep making these harsh writing advice videos.
The one that's sticking with me is that its just easier for some people. I am really hard on myself because I have this idea that if you're a writer, writing should just come so easy, flow like a river out of your brain and onto the google doc but it's almost never like that for me unless I'm struck by a lightning thought once in a blue moon. When it doesn't flow out of me, I get discouraged, maybe I'm not a good writer and whatever I write will always be shit but... your videos and other writing advice videos have showed me that it will take work and effort and time and energy and its going to suck and even though I'm not happy with that and, as someone with ADHD that makes it 20x times harder, I must still try if I want to write. Thank you Alexa! I hope you're still writing
Your other one came up yesterday, and I really needed to hear your tough love 💕
I wish more TH-camrs were like this. This is actually useful advice and I'm glad people like you exist!
I have watched a few of your videos at this point and I have decided that I love you. You tell me what I need to hear. Thank you.
Great vid', Alexa! Always like this tough love theme...
On voice... Some of the BEST advice I ever got about writing was "cultivating your voice" as opposed to those folks who drone on about "finding" it or "learning" it... Because you don't learn or find voice... It's cultivated over time. It shifts and changes subtly with every work a writer does, and with regular intervals in studying any single writer, just like studying the phases or periods of an artist, it can be discerned...
There are exercises, too... (for those interested)...
I'll start by suggesting (quietly) "Forget about Twain, Hemmingway, even Lovecraft"... These are too close to a "contemporary professional", for one, and the subtleties and differences between their "writing voice" and a "common speaking voice" get too easily misunderstood... even where they're easily noticed.
Start with Dr. Seuss... and mimic that.
I know... I know. "Wait... MIMIC?!?!"
That's right. Mimic Dr. Seuss. There have been some almost reasonable attempts, but I've yet to see a "truly good" one. Thereby, it's not so hard to tell a true blue, real deal, died in the wool, Dr. Seuss original work from a "neophyte knock off". On TH-cam, alone, there are several videos "If Dr. Seuss wrote..." and the worst crime among them is the MOST prolific. They seem to think that if you just "dumb down" the vocabulary and write everything with rhyme and rhythm (mostly) that it passes...
BUT Dr. Seuss coined words... even prolifically eviscerated the basic English language with complete jibberish words in the middle of otherwise intelligent sentences. Almost NOBODY else even tries that. AND it simply is NOT Seussian.
SO to start to understand (in practical application) what constitutes "Voice"... Mimic Dr. Seuss. He's focused on children, so it's not THAT complicated. (it shouldn't be)... BUT it IS far enough outside a normal person's usual mode of speech as well as much of anything else you'll ever read, that you will be able ON YOUR OWN to tell a reasonable facsimile, and a hopelessly cheap and cheesy "half assery".
Next... Try something harder... SHAKESPEARE.
More people manage to fob-off something Shakespearean, than do Seussian voice because it's a recognized form. It still takes time and effort and research to get into those ancient and venerable terms and nuances for Elizabethan Theatrical, versus anything modern or Broadway-esque... SO you should take your time, show patience with yourself... and absorb all those idiosyncrasies and nuances about just how Old Bill wrote his plays and sonnets. Get this trick right, and you're going to be onto something.
For what it's worth, I have mimicked Dr. Seuss effectively... It's a bit of hum-buggery I reserve for particular linguistic-intensive types who manage to get on my last nerve... usually either grammar-nazi's, or certain English professors.
Once I rewrote an entire twelve page thesis for COLLEGE in a Seussian form, complete with hand-drawn illustrations, and humiliated the English Professor who'd so over-marked my earlier version for subject matter he couldn't quite understand (a historic reference to advancing Alchemy into modern day Chemistry)... It ended up somehow circulated all over the English Department and... to my knowledge, may be a relic of past classes in some branch of the Language Department(s) to this day... (lolz)
SO while I can certainly AGREE with you, that you can NOT teach voice... Nor does anyone really "learn" voice... It is a phenomenon that gets cultivated as you write and work toward it. What gets missed so often about it, is that actually almost everyone has voice... They just don't necessarily cultivate the needed "freshness" of voice that's going to sell... rather than sounding stale and simple or over-done.
AND too many recent authors are writing "as if they're just talking" the story through... a feature that has saturated the industry, at least, since Twain, and probably since considerably earlier. ...so there's that. ;o)
This is all great advice. I've picked it up over the years of writing and it helps to know that the industry and life isn't fair. Yeah, bad books sell and good ones fail but what can you do. You can only do your part as a writer and from there, it's in someone else's hands. You've got to make peace with it.
Thank you for #6! I’ve seen some out there who need to see this. I gave up their channel because I was tired of hearing about their “side hustle”
#9 was hard to hear, and very true. It made me realize that I am probably writing about stuff I don't know anything about and it's not only super hard, but probably extremely inaccurate. I need to do more research, and then decide if that's my story to tell or not.
Thank you. I needed this.
I think the best harsh writing advice I've seen recently (beyond the tips here) was from Brandon Sanderson. He wanted to as kindly as possible inform us that the American idea that you can be anything you want and be as successful as you want if you simply but the time and work in, is simply wrong.
Some people will never have a book on New York Times top 10 Best Seller lists, no matter how much time and work they put into writing.
His advice later goes on to illustrate, that if you want to be a writer, the most important thing is to define your goals, and match them with realistic expectations.
If your goal is to write books that some people will enjoy and you will make no substantial money from that, the expectation is that is almost guaranteed if you put the time and effort in.
If your goal is to make a significant but not full amount of money to support your lower middle class life, the expectation is that it could take anywhere from a few years to perhaps even a couple decades if you are unlucky. And yes, he further says, luck does have something to do with you getting published and/or making money from writing.
It took Brandon Sanderson writing 13 Novels over 8 years of consistent submissions and rejections before he one novel published.
If your goal is to make all of your income off of writing novels, the expectation is that it'll be a lot of hard work that you will likely have to spend years at, before you know if you can achieve that. The expectation, is that statistically people who put their full effort into writing books still can't make enough money just from that to support a full middle class family.
I like listening to you! My daily practice is anemic compared to what it should be. I need to rejigger my priorities. Thank you.
I like tip number 5.
I googled you to read descriptions of the novel's you've written and they seem interesting, especially the stars we steal. They seem to have more of an inclination to a women reader but I appreciate the sci-fi genre quite a bit. The novel I have in the works now is science fiction and I'm having a great time writing out all these fantastic details about the aliens and the home planets the main character has to travel to. Whats sticking with me though is how I want to end the book. I have an idea in mind but no clue how it's going to flesh itself out but I assume that is part of the process, especially with someones first novel.
To be honest, I'm a poet and have been spending my time tightening up my first collection and adding more pieces to my second collection but my novel is far from abandoned. I appreciate the tips and advice, they are really helpful. Subbed.
Godbless
I call myself an aspiring author because I’ve started a few projects and I’ve finished one ! I’ve got one WIP that I really want to continue, I just need to actually get up and write (literally have no excuses, just lazy)
Mostly good advice, except for #9 and #10. For #9 I get what you were trying to say, but don't think writers should be scared of what they can or can't write. For #10 about author's voice or their style, I disagree entirely. It may seem like some people just have this mystical "IT" factor but those authors have written and worked their whole lives to develop their style. If you research their early beginnings almost all of them will say they learnt to write through reading others and imitation. People develop their own style the more they write and edit their work. If some people have more of a mysterious knack to writing well, its because they have read widely and write often.
As for 10 it's the same thing with drawing, some of the best artists started out by copying others work. Their is no 'IT' factor. One of my fav qutoes is, "Talent is effort often gone unnoticed by others"
You shouldn’t be scared to write what you want to write, but you better do it well. If I wrote a book on the holocaust and didn’t do my due diligence in researching it, or got things way wrong, I’ll be took to task, and for good reason.
#9 is such a good observation. i somewhat recently came to a profound realization, which is that, the thing i had been avoiding for so many years (myself; i had been avoiding myself... writing about myself, my experiences as a person with a disability), that IS the story i've been trying to write for ALL these years (nigh on 15...)
i've needed to frame the thing i WANT to tell, in a way that it's fictionalizing a version of myself, which is the thing i NEED to tell.
so, no: per your first installment of harsh advice, no one cares about my life, per se. not for a memoir.. but they might care if i frame it in a specific way, in a "fictional" setting.
it would be the best for you to make a podcast, alexa. i learned a lot from this. thank you so much!
Used this for comic advice when I wasn't feeling up to drawing, this helped me keep going!
I really take issue with advices 9 and 10. For 9, you should never, ever, ever, tell a writer that they shouldn't tell a specific story based on superfluous things such as race, gender , sex, etc. Every person can and should tell whatever story they want to tell because at the end of the day it's the story they want to tell. This is a dangerous road to go down when we start telling writer you can't or shouldn't write someone else's story. It's never someone else's story if you're writing it. My stories have characters of all races, genders, sexualities, etc because that's how I want them to be. If you're telling a human element story (a story that any human being can relate to) then none of that other stuff matters.
And as for #10. Voice, or as most writers call it: style, is nothing something you either have or don't have. It's something you slowly build over time. If you're telling the stories that speak to you and you're crafting every single word meticulously then it will shine through in your writing. But at the same time, it's not something that can be forced. But, it is something that every writer, given time and serious practice of the craft, can develop. The greatest writers didn't start out with a style all their own. Heck, many start out imitating others. But, over time they find their own because style is all about you and your truths.
Regarding #9. I think she is saying that based on the backlash so many authors are receiving, white authors specifically, when they write about minorities. I am so troubled by the divisiveness, mob mentality, where every little thing is picked apart, and they literally tear authors into pieces. However, can a white woman really tell the story of an Asian, Indian or black woman? I mean the struggles, the emotions...... that will be hard for them to do even with all the research in the world. I don't know the answer to that but I do agree with you, that is a dangerous territory, if we have to police what people can write.
@@cynthiau4751 I can understand that. But, why should we let that stop us. In my book, my main two characters are a late 20s black woman and a teenage white girl. I'm not a woman, nor am I white. But, I can still write them as characters because the story is about so much more than just that. Yes, people may say my characters don't "act" woman enough and they may be right. But, what I refuse to let them say is that they aren't strong characters in their own right. And as long as I'm not purposefully perpetrating stereotypes or anything of the ilk, I think that's good enough. I think that's the mentality we have to go in with as writers. Nothing we do will ever be perfect and not doing something out of fear of backlash defeats the purpose of art from the jump.
I am a black female writer who writes black characters, mixed characters, Hispanic/Latino characters, muslim & christian characters, etc. despite not being all of those myself. It is extremely crucial not to censor writing. SOCIETY needs to reflect on the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful with or without political correctness. If a white woman wants to write about a black muslim girl in a third world country, so be it! Let that author's views, prejudices, and social commentary shine through! This is the purpose of writing, of art. Expression!
Yay! Fiddler on the Roof! I love that musical :)
I think that's what she was getting at when she said, "soul search." I've heard this question in other places, too. WHY do you want to write this story? What research are you doing to make it authentic? For example, in my WIP there's a woman who survives an abusive relationship. In an early draft the abuse was physical and my readers reacted very negatively to that. As I thought through the draft I knew that it was important to the character's journey to have a toxic relationship, but that I was using physical abuse as a cheap plot trick. I could have researched physical abuse and made the story more nuanced as-is, but that wasn't necessary to the plot, so I went closer to my own experience and made the relationship only mentally/emotionally toxic. I guess my opinion is "Don't use other people's stories [or your own, for that matter] as a cheap plot trick. Make it mean something."
Thank you! There is no such thing as "the wrong person to write the idea." Imagine having an amazing book that magically becomes terrible because the "wrong person" wrote it.
Hi Alexa, great advice as always. I'd actually expand what you've said to include every profession in the entertainment industry. In truth, if it was that easy to get paid to be an actor or singer or sports star, then everyone would be doing it. If it was that easy to write successfully, then everyone would be doing it. It's hard because the competition is fierce and writing a great novel that is appealing to a wide audience just isn't that easy in the first place. If anything, I think you can be harsher with your writing advice :) Anyone scared off by it probably isn't cut out to be a writer in the first place. There, now you've done it, you've got me being harsh too. ;) Looking forward to your next video...
Love watching your vids so I can get some genuine good advice through my thick skull
I really appreciate your candor and this tough love segment! Great video!
I don’t write “novels” per se, but I do write. I’m a solo writer and artist, and I’m working on my own anime ^^
I feel like it sounds cringey to say that, but I like it, so I won’t stop
I really like your Harsh Writing Advice! I am a Single Father (Afro American) raising a lovely Daughter living in Germany. I am also writing a Book, however I am writing it in the German Language. It is a struggle for me at times being a Single Father and the German Language is a challenge in itself. However, I make it work! Your Video´s are a insperation to me.....Thanks and keep up the good Harsh Writing Advice!
Your voice sounds exactly like my sister-in-law's, and I adore her, she's the big sister I never had. So this tough love is very sisterly advice. Thank you so much!
Love your advice! After watching this I'm gonna get my ass in gear and write more often.
Hell yeah! I’m loving these premiere settings!
The harsh reality is that 90% of all books are terrible, even the ones that win prizes. Especially the ones that win prizes.
Part of the problem is is that every book has to be researched and cross-referenced and field-tested and beta reader approved before it ever sees the light of day.
Out of Africa would never even be published today because Karen blixen would be labeled as a racist.
we are never going to see another red badge of courage.
Jack Kerouac didn't research his book on the road in the library.
There is no true observational wrii these days.
The last modern book that I actually read when it came out was Angela's ashes by Frank McCourt, a truly great book that was worthy of its stature.
I haven't been excited to read a book and I can't tell you how long.
And publishing awards and the national book award is professional nepotism.
I think it was flannery O'Connor who was asked if writing programs discourage writers and she said not enough of them. No truer words have ever been spoken.
Lincoln on the bardo is pure trash. but I bet you couldn't find it in the 500 or 600 pages that he wrote about Lincoln anything that wasn't completely and thoroughly researched which is the point. If I wanted a history lesson I'd go to Wikipedia.
But maybe I'm off subject
someone once told me not to give a damn about publishing our wether your book will be popular or not. He told me if you really want to write that book, than you are doing it for yourself. Not for anyone else. Then you are writing because you need it, because you really want it or any other important reason you have. Then youre book is truly worth to be writing. This person was right. Im still writing, but I am writing it for myself now and now I am really writing it the way I like it. And if my book is ready, I will try to get it published. But it is no longer my main goal. I am feeling free now. It helped me. (I guess I just needed to hear this. I will be eternally gratefull to the person who told me this, even tho I kinda hate him now lol).
Her self-awareness is incredible! Great video BTW.
I’ve always had one of her books on my shelf (The Stars We Steal) but I’ve only noticed it’s her book only when I started watching her channel. I’m speechless