The breakdowns you’re doing of your discovery writing process continue to be such a gift! I’ve recently started seeing if I can trust my own intuition more by going into a draft without an actual outline, and it’s really been so much fun to see how things can evolve way past anything I would have imagined, so thank you!
Currently struggling with the last arc of my book, and watching this series is boosting my confidence and inspiration. Thank you so much for being raw and open about your process. It’s so empowering for fellow discovery writers!
It's such a relief and a very nice lesson indeed that you managed to get through the struggle and are now enjoying yourself again! Honestly my NaNo experience was both the best writing time in my life, ending up with 35k (had no prior wc goal either) and loving it but also a disaster? I should stop denying it led me to a very bad burnout and pretty much ruined my school semester but hey that's fine :') ----I just wanted to write like a kid again without a care in the worldddd.
Haha omg I'm glad you had such a great nano, but sorry to hear about the burnout! I totally get that though, wanting to just writing at full speed without any second things like a kid again is the DREAM
Sharing your writing playlist was *chef's kiss* - I feel like I know exactly what Salt Birds looks like, what the vibe is etc. The music gives it such distinct ✨shape ✨
So glad the book clicked for you finally, what an amazing feeling! It's kind of funny, the other day I happened to randomly watch one of your vlogs from back when you started writing Holding A Ghost, and although the exact issues you were having weren't the same as with this one, it was interesting to see that you went through a similar process of "Oh god this isn't working oh no I think I hate it this isn't what I expected what am I going to do ahhhhhh" lol. Highkey relatable. The creative process just never cuts us any slack huh 😂
I woke up at 8pm yesterday and stayed up to 10am writing and now im repeating that. This is perfect timing for you to have posted! (even if it was 10 hours ago!)
Just wanted to say, thank you for uploading these writing vlogs! Seeing another writer break down their process helps me work through mine LOL. Glad to see your book is coming along, can't wait to see how it turns out!
Thank you so much for saying "Hello there, everyone"! I always prefer such inclusive word choices over the gendered "Hi guys, it's Shaelin" :) Also, thank you for not confusing serotonin with dopamine! You spoke so well in this video!
My nanowrimo, word count or otherwise, was rough (as expected) but I had more days of focus than not. Today, I started writing without thinking, and it’s already starting to turn into some of my best work, on a sentence level. That’s been my White Whale, and I’m achieving it. The methodology is something only we writers can understand, but it’s what I’ve honestly been going for, for YEARS, and now the shame I myself have attached to it, is finally going away. It’s finally working.
So glad for you Shaelin!! 😄🥂 Reaching that breakthrough means when the draft is finished, you have three full-length literary works meeting the bar you set for yourself. I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to achieve the rule of three on that scale (and I'll continue not knowing for another 8-10 years).
NaNo went super well for me! I also only had a challenge to write every day and it pushed me to write a lot of stuff that I don’t think would have gotten written otherwise! I ended the month with 4 new essays and short stories well under way and 4 new poems out on submission
i do this hybrid between discovery writing and extreme planning. I'll write a very detailed outline of every single beat, thought, and punchline in the whole book, in point form. Essentially a condensed version of the whole book minus the prose and descriptions. Then ultimately I'll hate it, and restructure it over and over again in various different ways until I've solved all the problems with its internal logic, flow, pacing, tension etc. But this process still, strangely enough, involves quite a lot of unexpected discoveries. I know it sounds very unspontaneous, but it isn't. I still include a great deal of inspiration from dreams, and off the cuff ideas. Right up until I'm ready to sit down and do my final draft with prose and everything. I find I'm wasting my time writing any other way.
@@ShaelinWrites this method takes me roughly 6-8 weeks to write my first outline. 6-8 additional weeks to revise and perfect that outline. Then another 6 weeks to do my first good draft. Then several weeks of line editing and proofreading after that.
This video gave me motivation to write today. ❤️ By the way, when you talked about your characters emailing each other it reminded me of Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. I don’t know if that can be a comp for you.
HTBAHB by Glass Animals is one of my favorite albums ever!! Every song is phenomenal! Also have you read Skim by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki? Queer teen graphic novel with messy relationships, mostly a toxic friendship which I am a sucker for. Not quite a literary comp but it's one of my favorites and I feel like it could fit in that genre
Hey Shaelin, currently writing my first book, its going well, i was introduced to your channel by someone on instagram and I’m glad i found you! You give some great tips and i love hearing your insight!
I wouldn't say they're queer books, but I will forever recommend Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan tetralogy (or the first two novels from it) for wild and messy and tragic and intense and at times horrifying, oftentimes lovely teenage characters and relationships with each other and the adults in their lives. It isn't contemporary, starts in 1950s Naples in 'My Brilliant Friend', and then follows the characters from early childhood to retirement over the course of those four books. You CAN definitely read queer dynamics into the two protagonists' mutual envy and intense idolization, and there is a queer story in one of the side characters too, but the novels are not 'queer stories' in that sense. They're not very happy either, but genuinely they changed the way I view writing, reading, character arcs, and the way I look at my own family history lmao. Big recommendation.
I also wrote about 20,000 words. I also broke the 10,000 words I had on Nov 1 into beats and that was no small effort since I had never done it before. Now I have to shuffle and edit and add. But I got myself into the mushy middle. Hopefully I can write myself out. Congrats and happy holidays.
Have you read Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney? It has a pretty messy queer romance plot, and lots of emails between main characters. There is a bit of a problematic family dynamic as a B story if I remember correctly. I love watching these vlogs! So valuable to see how successful writers break through their struggles!
Hi! Not sure if you take suggestions for future videos/questions to be answered/explained, but I was wondering if characters in short stories ALSO need to have wants/needs/fears/etc Or what's up with that? There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of space to mention all that in a short story. I'm a bit new to the whole 'writing' thing so apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this ^.^
Hi! Usually in a short story, you need to identify something very key about the character, rather than doing broader character development where you get into every detail. A core desire or fear is often an important part of that, but it does depend on the story.
I imagine that real writers (and you are all real writers on Shaelin's channel) often go to bed weary of their book, weary of literature. Maybe we are born anew every day as Bob Dylan said (and think of the pressure & expectation & and ridiculous fame Dylan had to live with). Emily Dickinson in spite of genius never published in her lifetime (read her wonderful biography *Lives Like Loaded Guns* by Lyndall Gordon). Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887-1950) lived in a single room in Moscow, wrote most days without hope, now published by New York Review Books.
lol, i cant read "Roan" as "Row-An" i keep reading it as "Row-n" (because in the horse circle roan is a color of a horse (a base color like red or black with white hairs that make them look like salt and pepper)
Shaelin do you still take asks anywhere like you used ton Tumblr? I have a rly specific question about one of your writing tips but I don't wanna assume that you're taking questions in case you aren't
I just want to ask you that, in order to be a good writer what is that one thing one must have? Also, do you think writing is something we receive as a natural talent or it is something one can get better at if he/she practices it enough? How to know what kind of content is suitable for your writing that can bring the target audience?
To answer your questions: 1. there is no one quality you need to be a good writer. Writing is a complex art and pulls for many different skillsets, but also, different writers shine for different reasons. 2. I believe some people of course have natural talent for writing, but it is also absolutely something that can be taught as well. 3. Write what you want to write, and then use that to determine your target audience, rather than determining your target audience, and then using that to figure out what to write about.
I remember the excitement of Oranges when it appeared, a new and very singular voice. A writer who had absorbed Virginia Woolf. I am rereading Jeanette Winterson's early essays *Art Objects* and her novel *Art and Lies - A Piece for Three Voices and a Bawd*
Ohh okay I much prefer adult so that makes me even more excited! It can be hard to tell because sometimes people tag books with young protagonists as YA on goodreads so I wasn't sure
I just purchased a copy of Marilou is Everywhere a few hours ago (I hadn't noticed your comment) and read the last page. *I move my hands over what needs done, and I get empty, I get gone. I'm a throat. It's a song.* Perfect.
@@ShaelinWrites the ace thing, I suppose. an orientation that definitely interested me when I learned of its existence, a sort of fascination with it. constantly studying it & the terms, & trying to understand it in the context of how Eastern spiritualism usually discusses the fire of 'desire' that burns naturally in all living things. & how desire affects our lives in the long-term with ideas like the Four Noble Truths. but anyways, Hearing you tell us that that is what you are, well, you're certainly very good-looking. so I guess at first, my gut reacts a bit strange, since you are so beautiful. my monkey mind, being self-centered & self-interested first, sees it as... a treasure far far away, out of reach✨ that's all. obviously it has nothing to do with you, you're living perfectly fine. its just my mind, wanting what it wants.
*What was the project called again?* could be the title of a story. Perhaps a story set in the old unlamented Soviet Union (not that I'm a fan of hyper-capitalism and austerity economics). I am rereading *Hope Against Hope* Nadezhda Mandelstam* (1970) a haunted memoir, and Osip Mandelstam's translated poems.
নিজের বইয়ের প্রেমে পড়া ভালো। আপনার নতুন প্রজেক্ট টি সফল হউক। এত্ত দীর্ঘ সময় ধরে ভিডিও দেখতে কেউই আগ্রহী নয়,,তাই পরামর্শ থাকবে, সর্বোচ্চ ১০মিনিটের মধ্যে কনটেন্ট তৈরি করবেন।
Just imagining a fantasy world ruled by a tyrant where the people are exhausted and severely oppressed. Just as they are about to start a revolution, they look at the tyrant's face and say in a squeaky voice, "But you're cute so it's fiiiiiiiiiine! All things forgiven when you've got that little face." Chorus of: Awws follow in the distance. 😆
Tolstoy's diaries show how displeased he was with his style and approach to writing in early drafts of Anna Karenina, quoting him as stating, "I loathe what I have written. The galleys of Anna Karenina for the April issue of Russkij Vestnik now lie on my table, and I really don't have the heart to correct them. Everything in them is so rotten, and the whole thing should be rewritten-all that has been printed too-scrapped, and melted down, thrown away, renounced (1876, JI 62: 265)".[7]
Tolstoy at the end of his life said all his books were so much piffle. He did not leave us with a farewell like Shakespeare's Tempest. Shakespeare was a problem for Tolstoy. Perhaps he saw too much of himself in Lear or did not want to be swept away by the language. We have the best Tolstoy translations so we can appreciate his clarity, his clear-cut images, his acuity in describing Anna's state of mind. Adam Thorpe, English novelist and poet, has translated Madame Bovary for Penguin Classics, living with Flaurbert's prose for years. Thorpe resides in France about which he has written a book *Notes from the Cevennes*. I liked his other book *Silbury Hill*.
I'm trying not to take it personally that you're only interested in books on queer relationships. In my head I keep saying "It's ok. She's looking for comps for her book"... but I also kind of hate that you're writing off such a huge part of the literary world. Personally, I'm not gay but growing up I enjoyed a lot of music created by gay women. It just felt "right" to me. They got me. I liked their vibe, their strength and their weakness. But I didn't feel like their songs were only about the gay experience. It was about being "real" in an environment that was stifling it. It spoke to me. They were primarily Israeli artists like "The Witches" and "Polyanna Frank"... I guess I could compare them a little to PJ Harvey but maybe more cynical and less dramatic. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I've never had "the queer experience" - how different could it be from just growing up a little alienated by your environment... Until you find your people and your place in the world.
This comment feels very ignorant so I’m going to try and explain. First, I read plenty of books that aren’t queer - if you watch my recent reads videos or check my goodreads you’ll see that. So I’m not “writing off” this part of literature at all because I don’t exclusively read queer books. I read a very diverse range of literature. As well yes, the reason I specifically said I wanted queer book recs in this video is because I am looking for comps to my own book, a queer book. That was pretty clear. Finally, you, a straight person, saying you enjoy music by gay women therefore I should be able to relate to non-queer work and not specifically seek out queer books is really missing the point. First because I was never saying I can’t relate to non-queer media, obviously I can, and I’m not looking for queer books because it’s all I can relate to or because I refuse to read anything else. If you’re straight, you grow up with the vast majority of media being about your experience. I grew up with queer books, shows, movies, etc. being the rare rare rare exception. There is more representation now but you still have to look hard to find it, especially in certain genres, which is why I asked for recommendations. When your experience is so underrepresented, seeing it represented in a book is a rare but deep joy that I don’t think you can understand if you are used to your experience being the dominant one across all media, to the point you probably don’t even think about that. It’s easy to say you can relate to anything when your experience is constantly reflected in media - on the other hand for a long time, I didn’t even have any books that reflected my experience at all. So yeah, now that there are more, I’m hungry to read them. The queer experience is actually much more complicated than you are making it out to be, and I don’t think you should be speaking to that and oversimplifying it so much if it’s not your experience. How would you know? There is nothing wrong with me actively seeking out books I can relate to on a personal level; that is not me saying “I refuse to read anything else” or “I can’t relate to a narrative about straight people.” In fact, with queer books being so few while I was growing up, I’d say I am perfectly capable of relating to books about straight people because for my entire teenage years those were almost exclusively the only books available to me. I had no narratives about people like me, so yeah, I can relate to straight narratives, growing up I can no choice because there were maybe two or three books about gay women for me to read, and endless books featuring straight romances. I just think it’s quite ignorant as a straight person to take a queer person saying they want to read books about their own experiences and make it about yourself and somehow take that personally.
@@ShaelinWrites I recognize the validity of what you wrote. I agree with you. You’re looking for comps for your writing - that's completely reasonable. And even just for fun - you're allowed to have your preferences... That wasn't what I meant in my first comment. Let me preface what I want to write, with saying that I very much enjoy your content. I love your insights into the principals of writing and the glimpses you give us into your process. So please see this as a friendly discussion and not a confrontation. I admire what you do. I have written only one book and it isn’t published (I’m too scared of sending it to a publisher). Anyways, the original concept I wanted to explore was a father who must choose between his two children. If he doesn’t choose there is a strong possibility that both will die. How could he choose? How could he live with his decision? Because of my background and family history, I set it during the Holocaust. But I feel like that was a byproduct of the world that I wanted to set my story in. A world that would force the father to make this impossible choice. If I were Sudanese, I could have probably set it during the civil war. If I were African American, maybe on a slave ship. I am who I am. I’m a descendant of Hungarian Jews that survived the Holocaust, so that is what I wrote about. But there’s a universality to people who are trying to escape inevitable death and that’s really what I wrote about. Ironically the idea that started it all, the part about the father’s choice, ended up was a very small part of the book. I ended up writing about a woman whose mother tried to kill her as a girl. How would that affect her psyche? Would she ever be able to get close to anyone? What if she unexpectedly became pregnant? The reason why her mother did what she did turned out to be related to her story from the Holocaust. So, in the end the novel is really about fathers and daughters, and daughters and mothers. How do children survive when their parents sinned against them? And what if the children were wrong and they actually didn’t sin? I got carried away here. My point was that the books that influenced me most when writing my novel were not books on the Holocaust specifically but books on frayed relationships between parents and children. That being said, I can relate to you wanting to find books on queer adolescence (in general and not just for your book). Please keep recommending interesting reads to us! I would love to read the ones that catch your eye (although I always have too much that I want to read and not enough time).
The enemies to lovers we needed 🖤
Falling in love with your project is the best feeling. Even more than finishing a project, in my opinion.
So true!
Yesss I totally agree!!
The breakdowns you’re doing of your discovery writing process continue to be such a gift! I’ve recently started seeing if I can trust my own intuition more by going into a draft without an actual outline, and it’s really been so much fun to see how things can evolve way past anything I would have imagined, so thank you!
so happy it's helping!
I love these phases as a new writer when I'm just loving what I'm doing. Leaning into the characters always helps me too. Congrats on the progress!
Currently struggling with the last arc of my book, and watching this series is boosting my confidence and inspiration. Thank you so much for being raw and open about your process. It’s so empowering for fellow discovery writers!
It's such a relief and a very nice lesson indeed that you managed to get through the struggle and are now enjoying yourself again! Honestly my NaNo experience was both the best writing time in my life, ending up with 35k (had no prior wc goal either) and loving it but also a disaster? I should stop denying it led me to a very bad burnout and pretty much ruined my school semester but hey that's fine :') ----I just wanted to write like a kid again without a care in the worldddd.
Haha omg I'm glad you had such a great nano, but sorry to hear about the burnout! I totally get that though, wanting to just writing at full speed without any second things like a kid again is the DREAM
Sharing your writing playlist was *chef's kiss* - I feel like I know exactly what Salt Birds looks like, what the vibe is etc. The music gives it such distinct ✨shape ✨
Lovely to see you fall in love with this project! :)
So glad the book clicked for you finally, what an amazing feeling! It's kind of funny, the other day I happened to randomly watch one of your vlogs from back when you started writing Holding A Ghost, and although the exact issues you were having weren't the same as with this one, it was interesting to see that you went through a similar process of "Oh god this isn't working oh no I think I hate it this isn't what I expected what am I going to do ahhhhhh" lol. Highkey relatable. The creative process just never cuts us any slack huh 😂
Congratulations! I’m so glad you figured out your book! Thank you for sharing how you discovery write and some of your TBR. 💜
I love listening to instrumental music that "feels" like my story while I write.
So happy to see you & Salt Birds thriving!
I woke up at 8pm yesterday and stayed up to 10am writing and now im repeating that. This is perfect timing for you to have posted! (even if it was 10 hours ago!)
Just wanted to say, thank you for uploading these writing vlogs! Seeing another writer break down their process helps me work through mine LOL. Glad to see your book is coming along, can't wait to see how it turns out!
Thank you so much for saying "Hello there, everyone"!
I always prefer such inclusive word choices over the gendered "Hi guys, it's Shaelin" :)
Also, thank you for not confusing serotonin with dopamine! You spoke so well in this video!
My nanowrimo, word count or otherwise, was rough (as expected) but I had more days of focus than not. Today, I started writing without thinking, and it’s already starting to turn into some of my best work, on a sentence level.
That’s been my White Whale, and I’m achieving it. The methodology is something only we writers can understand, but it’s what I’ve honestly been going for, for YEARS, and now the shame I myself have attached to it, is finally going away.
It’s finally working.
So glad for you Shaelin!! 😄🥂 Reaching that breakthrough means when the draft is finished, you have three full-length literary works meeting the bar you set for yourself. I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to achieve the rule of three on that scale (and I'll continue not knowing for another 8-10 years).
This was SO motivating - will be returning to this vlog when I need hope writing all through 2023! So excited for you Shaelin
🌠
NaNo went super well for me! I also only had a challenge to write every day and it pushed me to write a lot of stuff that I don’t think would have gotten written otherwise! I ended the month with 4 new essays and short stories well under way and 4 new poems out on submission
i do this hybrid between discovery writing and extreme planning. I'll write a very detailed outline of every single beat, thought, and punchline in the whole book, in point form. Essentially a condensed version of the whole book minus the prose and descriptions. Then ultimately I'll hate it, and restructure it over and over again in various different ways until I've solved all the problems with its internal logic, flow, pacing, tension etc. But this process still, strangely enough, involves quite a lot of unexpected discoveries. I know it sounds very unspontaneous, but it isn't. I still include a great deal of inspiration from dreams, and off the cuff ideas. Right up until I'm ready to sit down and do my final draft with prose and everything. I find I'm wasting my time writing any other way.
This is so interesting! Thanks for sharing your process!
@@ShaelinWrites this method takes me roughly 6-8 weeks to write my first outline. 6-8 additional weeks to revise and perfect that outline. Then another 6 weeks to do my first good draft. Then several weeks of line editing and proofreading after that.
I'm so glad for you, because you've been struggling with it so much.
Omg actually seeing the format what you do for each book the numbering. I might actually do that for mine.
This video gave me motivation to write today. ❤️
By the way, when you talked about your characters emailing each other it reminded me of Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. I don’t know if that can be a comp for you.
HTBAHB by Glass Animals is one of my favorite albums ever!! Every song is phenomenal! Also have you read Skim by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki? Queer teen graphic novel with messy relationships, mostly a toxic friendship which I am a sucker for. Not quite a literary comp but it's one of my favorites and I feel like it could fit in that genre
Hey Shaelin, currently writing my first book, its going well, i was introduced to your channel by someone on instagram and I’m glad i found you! You give some great tips and i love hearing your insight!
I wouldn't say they're queer books, but I will forever recommend Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan tetralogy (or the first two novels from it) for wild and messy and tragic and intense and at times horrifying, oftentimes lovely teenage characters and relationships with each other and the adults in their lives. It isn't contemporary, starts in 1950s Naples in 'My Brilliant Friend', and then follows the characters from early childhood to retirement over the course of those four books. You CAN definitely read queer dynamics into the two protagonists' mutual envy and intense idolization, and there is a queer story in one of the side characters too, but the novels are not 'queer stories' in that sense. They're not very happy either, but genuinely they changed the way I view writing, reading, character arcs, and the way I look at my own family history lmao. Big recommendation.
I also wrote about 20,000 words. I also broke the 10,000 words I had on Nov 1 into beats and that was no small effort since I had never done it before. Now I have to shuffle and edit and add. But I got myself into the mushy middle. Hopefully I can write myself out. Congrats and happy holidays.
Have you read Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney? It has a pretty messy queer romance plot, and lots of emails between main characters. There is a bit of a problematic family dynamic as a B story if I remember correctly.
I love watching these vlogs! So valuable to see how successful writers break through their struggles!
Yessss thank you for finally reading boy parts
Hi! Not sure if you take suggestions for future videos/questions to be answered/explained, but I was wondering if characters in short stories ALSO need to have wants/needs/fears/etc
Or what's up with that? There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of space to mention all that in a short story. I'm a bit new to the whole 'writing' thing so apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this ^.^
Hi! Usually in a short story, you need to identify something very key about the character, rather than doing broader character development where you get into every detail. A core desire or fear is often an important part of that, but it does depend on the story.
Great video! How do you look for books to inspire the writing of your own projects? xx
I imagine that real writers (and you are all real writers on Shaelin's channel) often go to bed weary of their book, weary of literature.
Maybe we are born anew every day as Bob Dylan said (and think of the pressure & expectation & and ridiculous fame Dylan had to live with).
Emily Dickinson in spite of genius never published in her lifetime (read her wonderful biography *Lives Like Loaded Guns* by Lyndall Gordon).
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (1887-1950) lived in a single room in Moscow, wrote most days without hope, now published by New York Review Books.
I got 50K words that I DON'T dread revising, unlike a lot of my previous NaNo projects that I just finished and shoved into a drawer because ugh.
lol, i cant read "Roan" as "Row-An" i keep reading it as "Row-n" (because in the horse circle roan is a color of a horse (a base color like red or black with white hairs that make them look like salt and pepper)
Shaelin do you still take asks anywhere like you used ton Tumblr? I have a rly specific question about one of your writing tips but I don't wanna assume that you're taking questions in case you aren't
I've deactivated my tumblr bc answering asks was just too time consuming, but feel free to DM me on twitter or instagram!
Congrats!
I just want to ask you that, in order to be a good writer what is that one thing one must have? Also, do you think writing is something we receive as a natural talent or it is something one can get better at if he/she practices it enough? How to know what kind of content is suitable for your writing that can bring the target audience?
To answer your questions:
1. there is no one quality you need to be a good writer. Writing is a complex art and pulls for many different skillsets, but also, different writers shine for different reasons.
2. I believe some people of course have natural talent for writing, but it is also absolutely something that can be taught as well.
3. Write what you want to write, and then use that to determine your target audience, rather than determining your target audience, and then using that to figure out what to write about.
@@ShaelinWrites thank you so much for reaching out. And thank you for writing your answer to my questions. I have subscribed to your channel.
Animal by Lisa Taddeo? Or Milk Fed by Melissa Broder? Probably not a perfect fit for comp titles but may have some similar vibes?
I've read Animal,, but Milk Fed has been on my tbr for ages and this is a good reminder to pick it up!!
1:57 ooo why does it sound like u have beef with Raymond lmao 😂 “and this other character called RAYMONDDD!”
haha I'm not sure, I don't have beef with him!
Have you ever read _Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?_
Not yet but it's on my TBR!
I remember the excitement of Oranges when it appeared, a new and very singular voice. A writer who had absorbed Virginia Woolf.
I am rereading Jeanette Winterson's early essays *Art Objects* and her novel *Art and Lies - A Piece for Three Voices and a Bawd*
Really appreciate 😍 you
I liked _Marilou is Everywhere._ Such a strange story. The main character was so interesting. I wouldn't call it YA at all.
Ohh okay I much prefer adult so that makes me even more excited! It can be hard to tell because sometimes people tag books with young protagonists as YA on goodreads so I wasn't sure
I just purchased a copy of Marilou is Everywhere a few hours ago (I hadn't noticed your comment) and read the last page.
*I move my hands over what needs done, and I get empty, I get gone. I'm a throat. It's a song.* Perfect.
unbelievably attractive. still shock at that one video from way back when
what video are you referring to & why was it shocking?
@@ShaelinWrites the ace thing, I suppose. an orientation that definitely interested me when I learned of its existence, a sort of fascination with it. constantly studying it & the terms, & trying to understand it in the context of how Eastern spiritualism usually discusses the fire of 'desire' that burns naturally in all living things. & how desire affects our lives in the long-term with ideas like the Four Noble Truths.
but anyways, Hearing you tell us that that is what you are, well, you're certainly very good-looking. so I guess at first, my gut reacts a bit strange, since you are so beautiful. my monkey mind, being self-centered & self-interested first, sees it as... a treasure far far away, out of reach✨ that's all. obviously it has nothing to do with you, you're living perfectly fine. its just my mind, wanting what it wants.
What was the project called again?
*What was the project called again?* could be the title of a story.
Perhaps a story set in the old unlamented Soviet Union (not that I'm a fan of hyper-capitalism and austerity economics).
I am rereading *Hope Against Hope* Nadezhda Mandelstam* (1970) a haunted memoir, and Osip Mandelstam's translated poems.
The working title is Salt Birds!
নিজের বইয়ের প্রেমে পড়া ভালো।
আপনার নতুন প্রজেক্ট টি সফল হউক।
এত্ত দীর্ঘ সময় ধরে ভিডিও দেখতে কেউই আগ্রহী নয়,,তাই পরামর্শ থাকবে, সর্বোচ্চ ১০মিনিটের মধ্যে কনটেন্ট তৈরি করবেন।
Just imagining a fantasy world ruled by a tyrant where the people are exhausted and severely oppressed. Just as they are about to start a revolution, they look at the tyrant's face and say in a squeaky voice, "But you're cute so it's fiiiiiiiiiine! All things forgiven when you've got that little face." Chorus of: Awws follow in the distance. 😆
I want to buy your book 📙 so I can read it
I’m gonna arbitrarily like everything, cause they wrote to me once, and never again. #notatroll.
I got 12,000 words and I wrote everyday
Tolstoy's diaries show how displeased he was with his style and approach to writing in early drafts of Anna Karenina, quoting him as stating, "I loathe what I have written. The galleys of Anna Karenina for the April issue of Russkij Vestnik now lie on my table, and I really don't have the heart to correct them. Everything in them is so rotten, and the whole thing should be rewritten-all that has been printed too-scrapped, and melted down, thrown away, renounced (1876, JI 62: 265)".[7]
It’s reassuring to know that this angst is all part of the writing process. Hang in there with your work!
Tolstoy at the end of his life said all his books were so much piffle. He did not leave us with a farewell like Shakespeare's Tempest.
Shakespeare was a problem for Tolstoy. Perhaps he saw too much of himself in Lear or did not want to be swept away by the language.
We have the best Tolstoy translations so we can appreciate his clarity, his clear-cut images, his acuity in describing Anna's state of mind.
Adam Thorpe, English novelist and poet, has translated Madame Bovary for Penguin Classics, living with Flaurbert's prose for years.
Thorpe resides in France about which he has written a book *Notes from the Cevennes*. I liked his other book *Silbury Hill*.
the most shocking thing about this book so far is that it takes place during the digital age
honestly, i'm as shocked as you!
I'm trying not to take it personally that you're only interested in books on queer relationships. In my head I keep saying "It's ok. She's looking for comps for her book"... but I also kind of hate that you're writing off such a huge part of the literary world. Personally, I'm not gay but growing up I enjoyed a lot of music created by gay women. It just felt "right" to me. They got me. I liked their vibe, their strength and their weakness. But I didn't feel like their songs were only about the gay experience. It was about being "real" in an environment that was stifling it. It spoke to me. They were primarily Israeli artists like "The Witches" and "Polyanna Frank"... I guess I could compare them a little to PJ Harvey but maybe more cynical and less dramatic. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I've never had "the queer experience" - how different could it be from just growing up a little alienated by your environment... Until you find your people and your place in the world.
This comment feels very ignorant so I’m going to try and explain. First, I read plenty of books that aren’t queer - if you watch my recent reads videos or check my goodreads you’ll see that. So I’m not “writing off” this part of literature at all because I don’t exclusively read queer books. I read a very diverse range of literature.
As well yes, the reason I specifically said I wanted queer book recs in this video is because I am looking for comps to my own book, a queer book. That was pretty clear.
Finally, you, a straight person, saying you enjoy music by gay women therefore I should be able to relate to non-queer work and not specifically seek out queer books is really missing the point. First because I was never saying I can’t relate to non-queer media, obviously I can, and I’m not looking for queer books because it’s all I can relate to or because I refuse to read anything else. If you’re straight, you grow up with the vast majority of media being about your experience. I grew up with queer books, shows, movies, etc. being the rare rare rare exception. There is more representation now but you still have to look hard to find it, especially in certain genres, which is why I asked for recommendations. When your experience is so underrepresented, seeing it represented in a book is a rare but deep joy that I don’t think you can understand if you are used to your experience being the dominant one across all media, to the point you probably don’t even think about that. It’s easy to say you can relate to anything when your experience is constantly reflected in media - on the other hand for a long time, I didn’t even have any books that reflected my experience at all. So yeah, now that there are more, I’m hungry to read them. The queer experience is actually much more complicated than you are making it out to be, and I don’t think you should be speaking to that and oversimplifying it so much if it’s not your experience. How would you know?
There is nothing wrong with me actively seeking out books I can relate to on a personal level; that is not me saying “I refuse to read anything else” or “I can’t relate to a narrative about straight people.” In fact, with queer books being so few while I was growing up, I’d say I am perfectly capable of relating to books about straight people because for my entire teenage years those were almost exclusively the only books available to me. I had no narratives about people like me, so yeah, I can relate to straight narratives, growing up I can no choice because there were maybe two or three books about gay women for me to read, and endless books featuring straight romances. I just think it’s quite ignorant as a straight person to take a queer person saying they want to read books about their own experiences and make it about yourself and somehow take that personally.
@@ShaelinWrites I recognize the validity of what you wrote. I agree with you. You’re looking for comps for your writing - that's completely reasonable. And even just for fun - you're allowed to have your preferences... That wasn't what I meant in my first comment.
Let me preface what I want to write, with saying that I very much enjoy your content. I love your insights into the principals of writing and the glimpses you give us into your process. So please see this as a friendly discussion and not a confrontation. I admire what you do.
I have written only one book and it isn’t published (I’m too scared of sending it to a publisher). Anyways, the original concept I wanted to explore was a father who must choose between his two children. If he doesn’t choose there is a strong possibility that both will die. How could he choose? How could he live with his decision? Because of my background and family history, I set it during the Holocaust. But I feel like that was a byproduct of the world that I wanted to set my story in. A world that would force the father to make this impossible choice. If I were Sudanese, I could have probably set it during the civil war. If I were African American, maybe on a slave ship. I am who I am. I’m a descendant of Hungarian Jews that survived the Holocaust, so that is what I wrote about. But there’s a universality to people who are trying to escape inevitable death and that’s really what I wrote about.
Ironically the idea that started it all, the part about the father’s choice, ended up was a very small part of the book. I ended up writing about a woman whose mother tried to kill her as a girl. How would that affect her psyche? Would she ever be able to get close to anyone? What if she unexpectedly became pregnant? The reason why her mother did what she did turned out to be related to her story from the Holocaust. So, in the end the novel is really about fathers and daughters, and daughters and mothers. How do children survive when their parents sinned against them? And what if the children were wrong and they actually didn’t sin?
I got carried away here. My point was that the books that influenced me most when writing my novel were not books on the Holocaust specifically but books on frayed relationships between parents and children.
That being said, I can relate to you wanting to find books on queer adolescence (in general and not just for your book). Please keep recommending interesting reads to us! I would love to read the ones that catch your eye (although I always have too much that I want to read and not enough time).
there's another kind a writer a diarist